Bower Ashton Residents Association

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Peter

Planning Application 09/03208/P - 9th Sept 2009 New supermarket at Ashton Gate Stadium I run a small local business from my home and regularly use Winterstoke and Ashton Road for business and other uses and I wish to object to the proposed development on a number of grounds. Traffic A new supermarket in this location would of course draw in to the old stadium area a significant amount of extra traffic. Winterstoke Road in particular is already busy far beyond the highly congested 'rush hours' in the morning and evening. The proposal as it stands would plainly extend these congested times and I as a regular user of the Brunel Way - Winterstoke Road junction I do object to simply adding a major draw of traffic and the associated pollution here. May I also note that current traffic is likely to be down from pre-recession days, post recession traffic is likely to be worse than current conditions. Local Needs Our area is well served by the Aldi, Lidl, Sainsbury, Asda and two Tesco metro stores. I do not feel any need for another supermarket here, worse I do think it will have a major effect on chemists, petrol filling stations, hardware stores, butchers and many, many local suppliers plus anyone travelling in this area. Also its likely to leave two gaping holes in West Street and North Street when the Tesco Metro's go, this is not good for local stores. Some talk of a 25% 'effect' has been mentioned if that figure was supplied by Tesco it may be self serving of course and I do question it. Prestige Events and Economics This applications has been linked to BCFC's stadium move, with World Cup events in the new stadium and premier league football in Bristol mentioned! I am concerned that these claims may over influence a planning decision, perhaps the planners should ask how much BCFC's chairman will spend on players to acheive this? Surely its facts not BCFC's hopes that should apply. Is a World Cup event likely and if there is will it be one, two maybe three relatively minor events? Couldn't this be done in the current stadium with improvements?

Planning Application Number 09/02242/P - 28th July 2009 BCFC New stadium plans Potential for flooding in Ashton Vale My main concern with the proposed new stadium plan is the increased risk of flooding for the existing Ashton Vale residents close to Colliters Brook. Drawing-82571.pdf shows the flood area (2), in this plan the flood area has a large earth bank on one side, a new residential area (4) and roadway on the western side and Colliters Brook with the existing Ashton Value housing on the final side. I haven't found any elevation details for the roadway and section 4, if these show section 4 and the roadway leading to it as higher than the houses on the Colliters Brooke side. That basically leaves the existing Ashton Vale housing beside Colliters Brook as the sole exit if the Brook gets overloaded or if a downstream culvert gets blocked. I do request access to the planned elevations for section 4 and the roadway leading to it to check this. I also note that in section 5 (still Drawing-82571.pdf) the brook appears to be culverted, if so this increases the length of the existing culvert and may again increase the risk of blockage. Without any other exit for water from the flood area, this new development in this location increases the risk of flooding for the existing Ashton Vale housing if:- There is a failure or partial failure of the water diversion scheme upstream from the development. The downstream culverting is blocked or partial blocked. With the current open field to the North of housing on Collitors Brook should the upstream flood diversion scheme fail or the downstream culvert be blocked, there are other escape routes for the water, with excess water escaping across the open fields, simple sandbagging for Ashton Vale residents would also be far more effective with the open fields too. …................................................................................. For coping with the normal and occasional abnormal weather conditions its not possible for me to comment on the capacity of the flood area directly, with Collitors Brook so close to existing housing in both distance and elevation I would urge any planners to take a very cautious approach, there is very little margin of error here in the enclosed flood area. My last point on the potential for flooding is to also consider mid to long term consequences, even cautious government websites now warn of more extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels, surely both affecting tidal drainage plans like this. Some quotes from government websites below Quote from www.defra.gov.uk home page 27th July 2009 "Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge facing the world today. Rising global temperatures will bring changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather. The effects will be felt in the UK; internationally there may be severe problems for people in regions that are particularly vulnerable." Quote from http://www.direct.gov.uk/ home page 27th July 2009 "Since 1900, the average temperature on the planet has increased by 0.74 degrees Celsius and the UK's sea level has risen by about 10 centimetres. Further global rises are expected, as well as more extreme weather events like flooding and drought." Stadiums effect on nearby publicly owned facilities I am not sure if this is a planning matter or not but if not it should be. Ashton Court will be hugely effected during even minor games let alone during popular games. Its free parking will be an enormous attraction to BCFC's fans and to away fans and at one of the estates busiest times. In daylight games (mainly Saturday's) during before and after home team games large portions of the estate car parks will become secondary car parks if the stadium goes ahead here and I do object to the loss of these facilities for normal visitors to Ashton Court. It would be madness if BCFC home team games and major events in Ashton Court could occur on the same day and I would object to this and request that some form of planning conditions are put in place to stop this occurring. Traffic At the council house briefing I noted that no changes were proposed to the external roads leading to the new stadium. In my opinion the A370/Ashton Road junction (Eastbound) into Bristol is very likely to get congested when games end. The new junction design while it may be safer slows traffic. If any traffic analysis of this junction is done it should also include most of the capacity of the Ashton Court car park on Ashton Road.

Clanage Road Crossing 7th July 2009 Thank you for your circular letter of 29 6 09 outlining the above proposal. As a long standing resident of Bower Ashton I welcome your proposal for a crossing at the location in question. This would alleviate the existing danger of frequent crossing of Clanage Road at this particularly dangerous bend for both foot traffic and cyclists which has considerably increased with the expansion of the UWE at Bower Ashton. Additionally it would tie in with the proposed cycle route along Kennel Lodge Road and through the meadow adjacent to the UWE to join in with the Ashton Road at Long Ashton.

2008 Comments.

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