Moving caravan park close to river would be ‘putting lives at risk’

The caravan park at Baltic Wharf had been set to move to a nearby site with their current location due to see homes built on it by Bristol City Council’s own housing company.

Their move to the former Avon & Somerset police dog and horse training centre on Clanage Road had been given permission by the council.

This decision was ‘called in’ by the government due to fears over flooding with a government inspector then also giving permission for the Caravan Club relocating from Spike Island to the land close to Ashton Court.

But now the minister of state for housing, Stuart Andrew, has kyboshed the move, citing that lives would be put at risk if dozens of caravans were located on the site and it flooded.

Andrew’s decision to refuse planning permission throws the future of the caravan site into disarray, with planning already submitted for Goram Homes’ scheme to build more than 150 new homes at Baltic Wharf next to the Cottage pub.

The Caravan Club has been operating their Baltic Wharf campsite for several years on a renewable, short term lease while Bristol City Council plan to redevelop the prime dockside site – photo: Bristol Tree Forum

Andrew, the MP for the Yorkshire constituency of Pudsey, Horsforth & Aireborough said in his report that “despite the importance attached to the protection of such interests as designated heritage assets and the Green Belt, there can be no more important material consideration than one which protects life”.

“If the application scheme would not be safe, then planning permission should be refused.”

The proposed flood warning & evacuation plan (FWEP) for the proposed new caravan site just yards from the River Avon was key in Andrew’s decision to overturn the government’s own inspector, Christina Downes.

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Read more: Plans revealed for £55m housing development on Bristol’s Floating Harbour

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Andrew said: “The imposition of a condition to limit the duration of the permission to 40 years or impose a personal permission would not address the objections.

“The risk that the development would face is unacceptable now as well as in the future. It is not considered that a FWEP to be an appropriate means of protecting the development from flood risk, even if the permission is limited to the Applicant.

“The Council’s officers’ judgment in the Committee report that permission ought to be refused was the right judgment in this case.

“It is less than clear how or why the Council’s officers in the Civil Protection Unit and LLFA (lead local flood authorities) changed their mind about the acceptability of the proposal, so far as the risk of sea flooding was proposed.

“The LLFA are not the expert body on sea flooding. The Civil Protection Unit does not contain flood risk experts.

Avon & Somerset police’s former dog and horse training centre has been unused for more than five years – photo: Martin Booth

“The risk of failure of a FWEP alone cannot be quantified. But there is no requirement for it to be quantified. Ultimately it is a judgement call based on the evidence.

“On the evidence here, the risk of failure of the FWEP would be unacceptable having regard to the probability of the occurrence of unacceptably hazardous flooding, which may be a flood less severe than the design flood.

“The consequences of such failure would be very severe in a hazardous flooding event. The development would not be safe for its lifetime.

“The Applicant accepted that planning permission should not be granted for an unsafe development notwithstanding the scheme benefits.

“Putting lives at risk for the sake of achieving whatever benefits are prayed in aid should not be countenanced.”

The proposed caravan site on Clanage Road is just within the Bristol City Council border – photo: Martin Booth

Main photo: Google

Read more: ‘Plans for growth in Bristol seem disconnected from a flood risk strategy’

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