This week’s list of notable planning applications received by the city council
Cotham School begin work to install a new fence around their playing fields at Stoke Lodge in Bristol, on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 23 and 24, 2025(Image: Bristol Post / Paul Gillis)
Cameras on large poles could be installed in disputed playing fields according to new plans recently submitted. Each week Bristol City Council receives dozens of planning applications seeking permission for a whole range of developments.
Over the past seven days, those applications also included dozens of flats on a car park and fixing a church clock tower. Here’s this week’s round-up of notable planning applications submitted to the council.
Every week dozens are validated by the local authority and we have selected some of the more interesting proposals. All planning applications submitted to the council have to be validated and are available for inspection by the public. Anyone is also allowed to submit comments about the applications — whether in support or objection.
The majority of applications are decided by planning officers at the council under delegated powers. However, some will go before elected councillors who sit on planning committees. No dates have been set for when the planning applications below will be determined. They can be viewed by going to the planning portal on Bristol City Council’s website.
Cameras on disputed playing fields
A high school is applying for planning permission to install eight cameras on poles in disputed playing fields. Cotham School is hoping to start using Stoke Lodge playing fields for sports lessons again, after a longstanding row about access for the local community. Each of the poles would be six metres tall.
In planning documents, the school states that the cameras are needed to keep pupils and staff safe and deter vandals. There used to be a fence around the fields, but this was vandalised and so the school stopped holding classes there. The school has now put the fence back up.
Temporary CCTV cameras have been installed on the fields too. Three years ago local residents discovered that the school had installed covert cameras to monitor the fence and the fields. The school believes the new cameras would make any future vandalism easier to report to the police, and without these then “ongoing crime and damage will be most likely”.
Dozens of flats on car park
Developers are planning to build 59 apartments on a car park in Brislington. The flats would be built on Stockwood Road, behind the Orchard House office block that was recently converted into housing. The plans include two blocks, both five storeys tall. 30 per cent of the flats would be affordable. Another application for an additional seven apartments could be submitted soon.
There are housing plans for the surrounding area too, including building a six-storey block of flats adjacent to Orchard House, and the former offices of the Department for Work and Pensions and the old driving test centre which will also get redeveloped. There would be 43 car parking spaces for future residents.
Flat above a shoe shop
Storage space above a shoe shop could be converted into a flat. The popular SoleLution shop, on Boyce Avenue in Clifton Village, shut down earlier this year and remains empty. Developers are planning to convert the storage space on the first floor into an apartment, but keep the ground floor as a shop. It’s unclear which business would take on the retail unit in future.
Repairing church clock tower
A church clock tower could soon be repaired. Arley Chapel, on Cheltenham Road, is Grade-II listed and is a prominent landmark. Built in 1855, the church is now home to a Polish Roman Catholic congregation. The clock tower is in poor condition and has been supported by scaffolding for around 15 years. Wall ties might also be corroded and gutters are leaking.
The repairs include stabilising the bell frame structure and fixing the clock mechanism components, raking out and repointing mortar joints, and removing and replacing internal steel bars. Decayed structural timbers in the clock mechanism room would also be replaced, and the temporary scaffolding supporting the clock tower would be removed.