HorfieldROSE Delivers Formal Complaint to Council

HorfieldROSE delivered a formal complaint to Bristol City Council on Monday 19 March 2007. The following is the cover letter which accompanied that document.

Dear Sir,

The Memorial Stadium Filton Avenue Bristol BS7 0AQ
Application Number 06/03850/F registered 15th September 2006

Regeneration of existing stadium to provide a new 18,000 seated (18,500 capacity) stadium and ancillary accommodation, hotel (84 rooms), 105 student flats (546 rooms), restaurant, convenience store, conference facilities, offices, associated car, coach and cycle parking, landscaping and associated works.

Complaint :

“Bristol City Council has failed to maintain adherence to the Councils’ Code of Conduct for Development Control matters (Constitution, part 5, section D, Code of Conduct for Councillors and Officers dealing with Development Control and other Appropriate Planning Matters) throughout the history of the above application, from the pre-application stage through to the Development Control (North) Committee meetings of the 17th January and 14th February 2007.

Further, Bristol City Council has also failed to adhere to other Codes of Conduct, Policy Guidance Notes, Guidance Notes, Local Policies, etc. in the consultation stages for the above regeneration proposals, again from the pre-application stage through to, and including, the Officers Report presented to Development Control (North) Committee of the 17th January.

Finally, Bristol City Council has failed to maintain a complete and accurate record of all events relating to the above application.”


To add detail to the above complaint, a full schedule of individual ‘complaints’ has been attached to this letter for consideration of Bristol City Council.


The Schedule has been broken down into sections as follows :

Section Reference Complaint Numbers
Section One – The Environment. Complaints 1 to 4 inclusive
Section Two – Noise, Disturbance and loss of Daylight. Complaints 5 to 8 inclusive
Section Three – Park and Ride Scheme. Complaint 9
Section Four – Consultations between Bristol City Council, Bristol Rovers, and the Developers. Complaints 10 to 15 inclusive
Section Five – Consultations with the Community. Complaints 16 to 19 inclusive
Section Six – Consultation Process and the Residents Parking Zone. Complaints 20 to 25 inclusive
Section Seven – The Enabling Development. Complaints 26 to 29 inclusive
Section Eight – The S106 Agreement. Complaint 30
Section Nine – Provisions for Disabled Access. Complaints 31 to 34 inclusive
Section Ten – Substitutions for the Development Control Meeting 17th January 2007. Complaints 35 to 39 inclusive
Section Eleven – The Development Control Meeting 17th January 2007. Complaints 40 to 43 inclusive
Section Twelve – The Development Control Meeting of the 14th February. Complaint 44

Each Section is further sub-divided by columns with the above headings :

Column 1 - Planning Application Report, Bristol City Council Letter or Report to Committee.
Column 2 - Statute, Guidance Note, Code of Conduct, or other.
Column 3 - Complaints

The schedule has a number of Appendices attached, these appendices containing photocopies of documents as supplied by Bristol City Council upon request over the past few weeks. These Appendices are referred to from the Schedule and are used to support a complaint being made.

Bristol City Councils’ complaints procedure has been read and understood. However, a recent letter from Bryan Cadman (see appendix B) suggested a stage 3 review should now be requested.
I therefore do so request we move forward with the stage 3 complaints procedure and that this letter, together with the attached schedule, be passed to the Chief Executive for his consideration.

The Complaints procedure is clear as to the timescales involved with ‘a complaint’, but I also recognize that this complaints document is extensive and will take some time to review and respond to. If a variation in the response time is desired then please let me know your proposal. Any reasonable adjustment in the 21 working day response period would be acceptable, though I stress the response period must be agreed between us as soon as possible, and preferably within 5 working days of your receipt of this letter.

On behalf of HorfieldROSE