www.southglosfoe.org.uk

Vine Cottage, Kington Lane, Thornbury, Bristol, BS35 1NA

01454-313048 coordinator@southglosfoe.org.uk

PRESS RELEASE

Photo and film opportunity

Embargoed until Tuesday 6 June

26 May 2006

Friends of the Earth groups from the Bristol area will be protesting about the proposed growth of Bristol on Tuesday 6 June at 12:30pm on College Green in Bristol. Protestors from Bristol and South Gloucestershire will be ‘building’ a model housing estate on College Green. This action will be a protest against the regional plans to build 92,500 dwellings in the Bristol and Bath area in the next twenty years.

The South West Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) will define where and how much development will take place up to 2026. The draft RSS [1] will be put forward for public consultation in the next few weeks. It is proposing to build 92,500 in the former Avon area, now called the West of England, equivalent to 40% of the City of Bristol. This is much faster growth than in the last ten years when 33,000 dwellings were built. [2]

Friends of the Earth say that this scale of growth is not needed and not acceptable. Their report “How much growth for Bristol?” [3] says, “The Bristol economy suffers from overheating rather than lack of growth, and the main local problems, such as traffic congestion and high housing prices, are a direct result. The scale of this development can be appreciated by comparing it with Bradley Stoke (about 8,000 dwellings), or the City of Bristol (about 170,000 dwellings).”

Friends of the Earth say that every available space in Bristol will be at risk of being built on. Nowhere will be safe. In addition over 30,000 houses will be built in open country around Bristol, Bath and Weston, mostly in the green belt.

Notes

[1] The draft Regional Spatial Strategy can be found at

www.southwest-ra.gov.uk/swra/ourwork/RSS/RSS_final_draft_version_doc.shtml

[2] West of England Sub-regional Housing Study, DTZ Pieda Consulting, May 2004

[3] The response of local groups of Friends of the Earth to the RSS can be found at http://www.southglosfoe.org.uk/housing/GrowthBristol.html

For further information please contact Denise Thompson on 01454-313048 or Alan Pinder on 01454-416778.