A HAVEN for heritage arts and crafts in Clevedon has been saved from plans that could have seen it swamped by warehouses and a new motorway exit, in new council plans.
North Somerset Council is putting a new version of its proposed local plan — the document that sets out where new developments in the district should go for the next 15 years — out to public consultation.
The plan had previously allocated all of the land around Clevedon Craft Centre, a group of studios for art and heritage crafts based around a farmyard, as a site for warehouses and distribution centres and a new motorway exit from Junction 20.
After local outcry, Mark Canniford, North Somerset Council’s cabinet member for spatial planning, placemaking, said he would look again at the plans.
Now, the proposed warehouses and motorway exit have been dropped as one of a number of changes made to the latest version of the local plan which the council will be putting back out to consultation in September.
Other major changes include removing the allocation for housing of the Downside site in Portishead, including a site for a new secondary school in Yatton not Wolvershill, creating additional housing at the Parklands development, and including references to support more public art after councillors passed a motion for more public art in May.
The plan will also take another field out of the green belt at Bristol Airport, but with “compensatory green belt improvements”.
The old local plan showed the craft centre ompletely surrounded by the allocation for employment sites such as distribution centres and warehouses. (Image: North Somerset Council)
Council leader Mike Bell told a meeting of the council executive on Wednesday, July 17: “This latest version shows again that the council is genuinely listening and changing the plan in response to the feedback that we get.
“But I think it is important to recognise that this is an almost impossible task for every local authority around the country because we really are trying to make something fit into an environment where it just doesn’t fit and we don’t have complete control and freedom in terms of our plan making policy.”
The council had been told it needed to include 20,000 new homes across the next 15 years in the plan, but councillors battled to get the number down to 14,985. As the period the plan will cover has now changed from 2024-39 to 2025-40, that number has now been changed to 15,275.
Once it has gone through public consultation, the local plan will need to be signed off by the government before it comes into effect.
Mr Canniford said: “Hopefully we will be able to proceed with the numbers we are currently working to.”
But planning rules could soon change once again as the new Labour government in Westminster plans a major shake-up of planning rules.
Mr Bell said: “We are going to be on our third different [National Planning Policy Framework] in a year by the sounds of it, which is not an environment for stable plan making and policy making and we really tried to go the extra mile in terms of that consultation and engagement piece breaking everything down over a long period of time.”
It is already the second time the council has reached this stage with a version of the local plan this year, a process Mr Canniford compared to snakes and ladders.
He said: “We seem to make good strides forward then slip on a snake all the way down again and we have to start a whole part of the process again.”
But Thomas Daw (Wrington, Green), whose ward includes Bristol Airport, questioned the proposal that would take more land at the airport out of the greenbelt.
He said: “I was given the report that showed the pros and cons and I was told they weighed each other out, but from mine, my residents, and parish’s point of view, this is not the case to us.”
Mr Canniford said: “We have weighed this up. We do believe there is a benefit by doing this, partly because it […] clears up the issues around the permitted development rights they already currently have but also it gives us the opportunity to strengthen the exterior of the airport and the opportunities around the green belt improvements.”
The consultation will run for a minimum of six weeks and is planned to begin in September. Mr Canniford said: “I do ask that residents, businesses again go to the consultation and fill it in again.
“I do understand that is frustrating. I do understand it can be a bit annoying but it builds the evidence for the case. […] It is important that you put it in on this Reg 19 version and not just assume your previous comments have been taken into account.”
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