Wapping Wharf -- Whopping Fiddle!

The Society has two representatives on the Spike Island Futures Group -- Audrey Lennox, who last year took the lead in galvanising local residents and other worried Bristolians into forming this action group, and more recently also Alan Elkan.
 
Various Stakeholder meetings have been attended, and these and embryo schemes commented on. But still several major issues remain unresolved, leaving the Group angry and frustrated that more control is not being exercised by the planning authority. Late last year, as you might have noticed, an Outline Planning application was finally lodged.
 
Articles in the Evening Post on 25 September and 1 October highlighted two major flaws found by the Spike Island Futures Group (SIFG) in developer Umberslade's scheme for the redevelopment of Wapping Wharf (which had been submitted for planning permission at the time).

Some modifications removed objectionable aspects of the earlier scheme, but the amenity group is angry that, on close inspection, it turns out that the heights of some of the blocks have actually increased, and will doubtless increase even further when plant-rooms are added.

The need to maintain the view impact of Bristol Cathedral was the cause for enormous concern during the trials and tribulations of the Canons Marsh campaign. Likewise The Industrial Museum and the cranes create a stunning skyline which would be totally dominated by

the Umberslade scheme, but this has not been appreciated in any planning brief, or been the subject of any reconsideration in design alterations.
 
What's more, the scheme is not a reasonable layout, but rather a cynical exercise in site-cramming to maximise profits. Umberslade is consistent in sticking with its original aim, to put more than 500 dwellings on the site. This density is far too high compared with other nearby Harbourside housing developments. It means that Wapping Wharf will have 156 dwellings per hectare (dph), compared with Capricorn Quay (68 dph), Poole's Wharf (73 dph) and The Point (97 dph).
 
The Council's own Local Agenda21 Land Use Group (chaired by the tireless Jerry Hicks) published last year a landmark handbook, widely applauded throughout Britain, called "Towards Good practice in Sustainable Urban Land Use”. This designated 156 dph in the "very much overdeveloped" category!
 
Everything stems from the density of a site, so this has to be tempered within justifiable limits.
 
The battle will continue, you may rest assured.

Watch the local press!

Audrey Lennox
Chairman & Spike Island Futures Group
Tel: 0117 950 0664



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