Bristol and Bath new homes plan 'needs radical changes'

The new homes are planned for 12 sites across Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, and Bath and North East Somerset

Plans to build up to 105,000 homes will not go ahead without "radical changes", government inspectors have said.

Four local authorities in west of England now have to take their Joint Spatial Plan back to the drawing board.

Inspectors also said it was unlikely they would find the proposals legal, based on concerns about the way the 12 planned locations were chosen.

The councils said they would consider the findings before submitting a response to the Planning Inspectorate.

The inspectors said it was unlikely they would find the plan "legally sound"

Inspectors Malcolm Rivett and Steven Lee concluded they had "significant concerns" about the plans by Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, and Bath and North East Somerset councils, the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed.

An "enormous amount of work" is needed in what will be a "virtual rewriting" of the plan, they added.

They also halted the public examination stage of the proposal for the chosen sites in Thornbury, Charfield, Buckover, Yate, Coalpit Heath, Brislington, north Keynsham, Whitchurch, Nailsea, Backwell, Churchill and Banwell.

They said it was unlikely they would find the plan "legally sound" because they could not be certain the sites had been determined on a "robust, consistent and objective" basis and were "not convinced" the councils had considered "reasonable alternatives".