Bristol Port’s battle with the council and local residents has gone to the Government
Part of the vast vehicle storage area at Royal Portbury Docks, part of the Bristol Port Company. The BPC want to expand into the three fields to the south west of this area, at the top of this picture(Image: Google Earth)
A six year battle by bosses at the Bristol Port Company to be allowed to expand one of the UK’s biggest car parks into the Green Belt of North Somerset is coming to a climax in the next few weeks – with a Government planning inspector set to decide on the row.
The Bristol Port Company wants to redraw the map of North Somerset and turn Green Belt land to the south west of the vast Royal Portbury Docks car parks into an extension to its vehicle storage area.
North Somerset Council’s planners have already said no, telling port bosses that they had failed to show the ‘exceptional circumstances’ needed to justify tarmacking over green belt land.
But the Bristol Port Company has now appealed, and a Government planning inspector has been tasked with deciding on North Somerset’s new Local Plan – including the future of the land there.
Meanwhile, one local resident has started an online petition calling on the Government to say ‘no’ to the Bristol Port Company – which has been signed by more than a 1,500 people in a matter of days, as the debate over the future of the land there goes viral.
Local residents and environmentalists say that the area the Port bosses have been eyeing up since 2019 is a vital ‘buffer zone’ between the vast car park and nearby nature reserves and people’s homes, and the land itself is rich in wildlife.
The vast storage area at Royal Portbury Docks covers more than 400 acres, and can store tens of thousands of cars. Across Portbury and Avonmouth, port bosses say that they have the capacity to store 110,000 vehicles at any one time, and business is booming.
In March this year, Bristol Port Company said the port handled a total of 65,534 vehicles – the highest figure since the year 2000, and in April, four car carriers docked simultaneously at Portbury, which ‘underlined the scale and intensity of current operations’.
It’s not the first time Bristol Port Company has tried to expand into the countryside outside of its existing footprint at Royal Portbury Docks.
Back in 2020, the BPC started the ball rolling with North Somerset Council planners, asking them what the scope of an environmental impact assessment would be if they put in a planning application.
Theben is exporting cars to the USA from Royal Portbury Docks
That sparked a big campaign locally against such a move, and the BPC withdrew their application, and instead concentrated on the next time the Local Plan would be redrawn.
That has been taking place over the last couple of years, with councillors redrawing the Green Belt around Bristol to allow for more development – like the Woodspring new town planned on the southern edge of South Bristol.
The Local Plan sets the development boundaries in North Somerset up until 2039, and so BPC made a submission asking for the Green Belt line to be moved so that three fields that form part of Shipway Farm in the hamlet of Sheepway, right next to the docks, could be developed.
What Bristol Port Company said
The Bristol Port Company told planners – and have now told the Government – that the failure to allow for change to the Green Belt at Portbury was a ‘serious deficiency’ in North Somerset’s plan.
Port bosses said they needed to expand the car park to help secure the port’s economic future.
“For Bristol Port, and Royal Portbury Docks specifically, to continue to play a significant role in the local, regional and national economy, it is essential that… the Local Plan… fully supports this strategically important transport infrastructure asset and employment site by providing a positive policy framework that is designed to meet RPD’s needs over the plan period and fully realise the economic benefits of the Port for North Somerset and beyond,” the Bristol Port Company said.
“Central to Bristol Port’s development needs over the period of the Local Plan is a requirement to bring forward land at RPD to accommodate additional facilities for transit storage, which are a fundamental need for all ports.
The cars awaiting export at Bristol Port
“BPC has identified land known as ‘Shipway Farm’, which is located immediately to the west of Royal Portbury Dock, as being the most appropriate option to meet this requirement.
“Shipway Farm is located within the Green Belt and it is essential, therefore, that this land is released from the Green Belt in order to ensure that the Local Plan provides a positive policy framework to guide development related to the Port,” they added.
Bristol Port Company has looked for alternatives. In May, the port said it had completed the transformation of two plots within the Portbury Docks site – at a cost of £4.5 million – which added an extra 5,600 parking spaces for vehicles.
North Somerset Council refuse
The council turned down the Port’s request to move the Green Belt line so that they could increase the size of the vast car park, with council planners telling port bosses they hadn’t done enough to show why that land was so badly needed, and why the port couldn’t increase its car park storage area within the land it already had.
“No evidence of a full analysis of options for accommodating the need for additional transit storage facilities – either within the existing port site, on land not in the Green Belt, nor land adjacent to the port within the Green Belt has been provided to the council as this work has not been completed,” the council said.
“We would expect to see a masterplan for future development of the port, setting out alternative options for the provision of transit storage facilities and why they have been dismissed,” the council added.
What locals say
Local resident Annabelle Perez started a petition calling for the land to be protected. She said it was a vital buffer zone between local residents and the Portbury Docks, and provided an important habitat for wildlife.
“This area is a rare wildlife corridor between Portishead, the estuary, the Port and the motorway,” she said.
“Without it, animals cannot move freely, and the nature reserve might greatly suffer from it.
“In addition, the Greenbelt parcel prevents Portishead from merging with the large built-up area of Bristol and the sprawl of built up areas, and assists in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment,” she added.
Expanding the car park would bring development closer to the Portbury Wharf Nature Reserve, which Annabelle said relies on Shipway Farm as its ‘essential buffer’, and bringing the car storage area closer to homes would mean 24-hour lights would have even more impact on people who live there and on wildlife – especially bats.
What next?
Both North Somerset Council and Bristol Port Company are in the process of submitting all their arguments to the Government Planning Inspectorate – who are ruling on the whole North Somerset Local Plan, but with specific rulings where there are localised disputes.
A decision is expected in the coming weeks.