Labour<\/a> Councillor Katja Hornchen said: \u201cWe have this to-ing and fro-ing with the ICB where they absolutely ignored us for years and now they are suddenly getting interested in helping with planning, and realising that there are a lot of new buildings and something needs to be done. It\u2019s the number two reason for people not wanting developments in their area.<\/p>\n\u201cThe first one is traffic. The second one is healthcare, because they\u2019re already waiting for doctor appointments and can\u2019t get them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The questions came after residents opposed three recent developments, all of which received permission on Wednesday. Each development was criticised by local residents, partly due to parking but also due to a shortage of doctors and adequate healthcare services in the area.<\/p>\n
Jim Cliffe, planning obligations manager at the council, said: \u201cThe ICB has in recent months and years started to quite regularly seek a contribution for health provision, and we\u2019re not unsympathetic to them. But the difficulty at the moment that we have is that the ICB acknowledges that in this area they have no plans to expand capacity in their existing surgeries.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they have no plan in place to provide a new surgery anywhere. So they\u2019re making an ask for money without really any idea as to what they\u2019re going to do with it. If, for example, they had an allocated site and said \u2018this is in our capital programme to be built between 2028 and 2030\u2019 to serve these communities, it would be a much stronger case for seeking an obligation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut they\u2019re not really in that place at the moment. Our concern is that there\u2019s potential for failing the regulatory tests and they\u2019re asking for substantial sums. But if we were to make a contribution for a few hundred thousands pounds, and as a result of that we get less affordable housing, and they\u2019re unavailable to spend that few hundred thousand pounds, and the developer then asks for it back after five or eight years, we\u2019re in a bit of a lose-lose situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, discussions are taking place between council bosses and the Integrated Care Board about setting up a yearly pot of money. This would be what\u2019s known as strategic community infrastructure levy, where a portion of cash from developers is pooled for infrastructure benefiting the wider city, instead of just the immediate area where new buildings are built.<\/p>\n
More details are expected to be revealed soon, with a report going to the council\u2019s strategy and resources policy committee. Until this is resolved, thousands more people will move into neighbourhoods where existing residents already struggle to book a doctor\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n
Mr Cliffe added: \u201cThey could call on it, as and when they have schemes that they wish to deliver. We\u2019re collecting CIL all the time, and it\u2019s there to provide infrastructure for the growth of the city. That\u2019s probably the most likely approach that we\u2019ll end up with. But at the moment we don\u2019t feel we\u2019re in a strong position in the absence of a clear plan on their part as to what they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A common reason people oppose building new homes is a lack of healthcare services(Image: Goram Homes) Bristol City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[3893,105,4348,528,211,12717,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-650183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-bristol-city-council","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-labour-party","12":"tag-nhs","13":"tag-planning","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115768434247608995","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_TCB151025BalticWharfBRI.jpg\")
(Image: Goram Homes)<\/p>\n