Who Are We? 

We are the Dovercourt Road Residents Group - an open group of local residents who have come together to address concerns with the planned housing development of 150 new homes on the Dovercourt Depot site.  We recently sent out our first leaflet and, soon after, a summary of what we have been doing since. Please get in touch for copies of these if you wish to see them.

Dovercourt Depot Site Planning Application Concerns

We support the need for more affordable housing in our community and will not object to considerate development.  However, we are concerned, having experience with other recent local developments, such as Bonnington Walk, that local residents’ concerns and wishes have been overridden and ignored by the council.  New housing is being rushed through to meet targets and we want to make sure that our voices are heard before it is too late.  This Autumn the access to the Dovercourt Depot Site will be decided during the first planning application - we need to act now.  

What is the plan?

After taking advice, we believe that the most impactful approach would be to instruct professional representation on behalf of current local residents.  We have approached Rackham Planners, a specialist planning company who can voice our concerns, citing relevant planning laws and guidelines to strengthen our case with regards to overdevelopment, lack of community facilities, access concerns, traffic and important to all of us - the loss of green space and trees.  

Main concerns:

- Proposed wide emergency access road (built to withstand a fire engine) to run straight through Dovercourt Road Green Open space.  This will destroy trees, affect wildlife and make our park area unsafe.  

- Insufficient access to a large development which will create an increase in volume of traffic on both Downend Road and Dovercourt Road.  A single access point for the 200+ additional cars from the new site will exit on to Dovercourt Road.  This is in addition to the 180+ cards from the new Bonnington Walk development (currently in construction) that will at times, use Dovercourt Road to access Muller Road.

- Increased pollution from traffic caused by bottleneck as Downend Road meets Muller Road.  

- Privacy issues with houses backing onto the site

- No additional facilities for existing residents despite there already being local capacity issues e.g school places, parking, cafes, local shops, GP surgery etc 

Bristol City Councils Consultation boards can be viewed here:

Consultation consultation: Dovercourt Road (bristol.gov.uk)

Why are we doing this?

We believe Bristol City Council is trying to rush through plans that will produce the biggest financial profit without addressing the local social and affordable housing need, or taking due consideration of current local residents.

We do not believe the council are considering alternative solutions suggested by many residents that would mitigate concerns and significantly reduce the negative impact of the development on current residents and neighbours.

· We propose that the emergency access road to be built via Petherbridge Way (adjacent to Aldi) to create a new entrance for the depot development. This will keep the traffic off smaller residential streets, avoids destroying our Dovercourt Road Green Open space and could help preserve more of the wildlife corridor.

· We want the council to consider making the Depot access lane on Dovercourt Road the emergency access point only, so as not to create a rat run, and using Petherbridge Way for the main access, potentially providing a bus route through the new development

How can I help? 

We need your help to raise the funds required to instruct professional representation to have our voices heard.  

The initial representation will cost £1900, this will include an independent traffic survey and detailed responses to the current plans by the council.  

After the initial representation document, there will be challenges along the way where we will have to instruct Rackham Planners to represent us further, so we are hoping to raise a total of £3000 in order to give our case the best chance of being heard by the Council.

Let’s work together as a neighbourhood to make our voices heard!

We cannot guarantee that the Council will listen to all of our concerns, but this 3-month window is our only opportunity to attempt to change current plans.

Any additional funds raised/not used will go towards a local charity, or to improving the Dovercourt Green Open Space.

Working together we can make a difference. 

Donate now and share the project page on social media! 

Thanks for your help. 

Dovercourt Road Residents Group  

dovercourtresidentsgroup@gmail.com