South Gloucestershire Council leaders will consider a development blueprint to tackle the challenges facing the district for the next two decades - including the need to build an extra 30,800 homes. The report, called South Gloucestershire Core Strategy: Issues and Options for Consultation will be published for consultation so residents can give their views and help shape the district's future (link below.)
http://thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=145365&command=displayContent&sourceNode=145191&contentPK=20275432&folderPk=83726&pNodeId=144922It has been prepared following the publication in January of the Regional Spatial Strategy Panel Report. This recommends to the Government that South Gloucestershire should find the land for 30,800 new homes by 2026.
The council is opposed to the number of homes and wants people to have their say on the impact such a massive house-building programme would have and the increase in the district's population of 252,000.
Brian Allinson, Cabinet member for planning, transportation and strategic environment, said:
"The Regional Spatial Strategy has identified four new 'areas of search' to accommodate longer term development for up to 16,000 new dwellings, in the Cribbs and Filton area, south of Emersons Green and east of Kingswood, Harry Stoke and the M32 area, and north of Yate and Chipping Sodbury.
"It is the purpose of the core strategy to determine the exact location, size and mix of development in these areas of South Gloucestershire, taking account of key environmental and physical constraints, the required new infrastructure and the objectives and aspirations of the various communities for where they live."
Peter Jackson, director of planning, transportation and strategic environment, said the consultation would also ask about other important planning issues.
He said:
"These include how we could improve the quality of life for people who live in our existing communities, how we should tackle traffic congestion, where we should provide new jobs and how we could protect and improve our local environment."
If the consultation document gets the go-ahead at the Cabinet meeting on April 7, the six-week consultation process should begin by early May.
