Homes near Redland retirement village rejected on appeal

The entrance into The Vincent retirement home car park from Redland Hill

Plans for 60 homes branded a "disaster waiting to happen" have been rejected on appeal.

Elizabeth Blackwell Properties submitted proposals for two five-story blocks near the Vincent retirement complex in Redland, Bristol.

The proposals meant that residents' vehicles would have to enter through the retirement village car park.

The Planning Inspectorate has concluded the size of the buildings would cause significant harm to nearby residents.

The inspectorate dismissed a bid by developers to overturn a decision by Bristol city councillors in October 2021 to refuse permission for the flats.

The council's decision then came despite officers recommending approval and warning that the council would have a "very slim chance" of successfully defending an appeal, which the applicants then submitted.

Home Gardens and other buildings would have been demolished to make way for the homes and office space

But the Planning Inspectorate has now thrown that out, concluding that the buildings on land called Home Gardens, near the junction of Blackboy Hill and Redland Hill, would be overbearing on two nearby cottages on St Vincents Hill.

It did not agree that the development would have an unacceptable impact on residents at The Vincent, either during construction or long term, and awarded partial costs against the council on these grounds.

In their report, the planning inspector said one of the two proposed blocks would be "of significant bulk and height, looming above the boundaries" of numbers seven and nine St Vincents Hill and would "tower over the skyline and create a foreboding sense of enclosure which would be harmful to occupiers both within and outside of the properties."

The report said the developers argued that the scale and design of the scheme reflected the buildings in the wider area and that the council's planning and transport teams had deemed the plans acceptable.

The inspector said: "I find that the proposed development, by nature of its scale and proximity to the occupiers of properties on St Vincents Hill, would result in a significant level of harm to the living conditions of those occupiers."