Castle Park – Still Green, but still under threat

Saturday, 26 September 2009

Bristol City Council and developers still want to build on our green space in Castle Park.

As you probably know, nearly three years ago developers (with the acquiescence of Bristol City Council) sought to develop the part of Castle Park known as St Mary le Port. Bristol Green Party website carried full details at the time, and the Green Party continues to fully support the actions of Castle Park Users Group.

Castle Park Users Group forced the developers to rethink their drastic plans to build on Castle Park. Even so, they still wanted to build on a sizeable area of green space around St Mary le Port.

In order to try to stop this, Castle Park Users Group submitted an application to the city council to register all of Castle Park as a Town Green under the new Commons Act 2006. This forced the council to delay consideration of any planning application to build from the developers, and also forced the city council to hold a public inquiry. Castle Park Users Group and many other people gave evidence at the inquiry as to why development of the green space would be against the interests of the people of Bristol. The inquiry inspector (a barrister) effectively invented new law to say that the application should be refused.

Following this, the city council have recently rejected the application to register it as a Town Green, so Castle Park can now be built on if they choose to allow it (and all the signs are that they will allow building in the Park). Castle Park Users Group think this is wrong and are seeking a Judicial Review.

A Judicial Review means that the city council’s decision will be tested in the courts. Legal advice has been obtained which suggests that the city council’s decision is wrong in law. If we are right, the council will have to grant Town Green status for Castle Park, which means no existing green space in Castle Park can ever be built on. In other words, victory! As this would be new law, victory would also have a significant effect on other applications to declare green spaces Town Greens in order to protect them from development, both in Bristol and in other parts of the country which are waiting to see the outcome of the situation regarding Castle Park, so the stakes are very high.

The Judicial Review will cost money. We need this as soon as possible and certainly by the end of October if we are to fight the case and not let the developers (and the city council) get away with it.  We are therefore asking you to buy bonds now to help pay for the Judicial Review.

If we win our case and our costs, we will refund to you the value of your bond if you claim it back from us after the final legal decision. If not, we will treat it as a donation to the campaign.

Please help us to win our case. If we do win, not only will it save Castle Park from development, it will also have implications for other green spaces in Bristol.  Please download the form here.  Print it out, fill it in and return it, with your cheque, to: Jean Tuff, Castle Park Users Group, 31 Hengrove Road, Bristol BS4 2PR.  A bond will then be sent to you by post. Or of course you can make a straight donation of any amount.

(One note of caution, we expect that the city council may ‘voluntarily’ declare Castle Park a town green in order to try to pre-empt any Judicial Review and its associated costs. The problem is that such a declaration could cover any area which they chose. In other words, they could (and almost certainly would) exclude at least the St Mary le Port area from any such Town Green declaration, so it still would not be protected).

The area of St Mary le Port is the area at the west end of Castle Park, near Bristol Bridge. The city council wants the disused old buildings there refurbished or redeveloped (which includes the old Bank of England building). This of itself would be fair enough. The catch is that the developers won’t do anything until the city council agrees to sell them some more of the Park – an area which is currently green space. It is the area most heavily used by park users, and includes the area around the tree-lined avenue which people use as a pleasant green space to walk through linking Broadmead to Bristol Bridge, as well as the green space between the old church and the river. It is an area where many office workers and others like to sit and eat their lunch when the weather is nice. Development would also destroy the lovely open aspect looking over the park from Bristol Bridge.

There is more information online at: http://www.castlepark.org.uk/