Statement to Full Council Meeting, 11/09/2007

The following statement was made to the full council meeting on 11 September 2007 by a member of HorfieldROSE:

I am making this statement on behalf of Horfield Residents Opposed to Stadium Expansion , known as Horfield ROSE, a community group with over 600 signed up members.

As residents in the area who will be most affected, we wish to record our disquiet concerning the lack of information, consultation and communication from either this Council or the developers, Bristol Rovers Football Club. We even wrote to the Police Authority on aspects of safety and access, and have not received a reply.

We understand that the S106 agreements are scheduled to be signed on September 17th.
To date, despite repeated requests for information on the progress of these negotiations, we have been given little or no information.

Four of the conditions are of particular concern to those living near the ground.

The first is clause 38 of the planning agreement, which stated that a noise assessment should be carried out on the impact of the perimeter road prior to the start of development. This road will be in use 24/7 to service the proposed enabling development, with delivery lorries and other vehicles servicing the hotel, restaurant, conference facilities and student accommodation. This was not discussed at the planning meeting of 17th January, and will cause great and continual distress and disruption to those living nearby. So far, the noise assessment has not been carried out, as far as we are aware.

The second is a S106 condition that the developers should provide Park and Ride facilities. With the final signing less than a week away, no site has been identified and no scheme setup. It is unclear to residents whether this is likely to happen.

The third, concerns the Residents Parking Zone (RPZ), probably one of the most contentious issues, given the appalling and frequently illegal parking in a large area around the ground and the inability of residents to be able to come and go from their own homes during match days.

Mr. Cadman informed me by e-mail that £100,000 is to be set aside for the establishment of a Residents’ Parking Zone (RPZ) and that any consultation (promised in the agreement) would take place AFTER the signing. This makes the consultation little more than a PR exercise, since any proposed enlargement of the RPZ, which is far too small at present, may not have enough funding.

Furthermore, the mechanisms of a consultation, which should surely have been set up by now, are nowhere to be seen, and once again people are left in the dark. We have the situation in which roads less than 300m, 3 minutes walk, away are not included in the original RPZ, and residents have had no opportunity to voice their views.

Fourth and finally, the developers agreed to a Stadium Monitoring Group, to oversee all aspects of the stadium’s impact on the community and in particular, anti-social behaviour. Without wishing to digress on this subject, and comment at length on the ludicrous assumption that a Monitoring Group could control what riot police cannot, again, there has been NO attempt by the developers or this Council’s officers to consult with residents about the constitution or possible modus operandi of the monitoring group.

However, the lack of communication, consultation and information from this City Council also leaves us with a very real fear that the S106 conditions will not be met IN FULL, and that the developers will be allowed either to ‘water down’ the agreements or not deliver.

We therefore call upon the elected Members to ensure that officers enforce the S106 agreements upon the developers in full, and that any moneys handed over are used within the immediate local area to mitigate the effects of this ill-conceived development on the local community. This Council’s SPD4 guidance on S106s clearly states that planning gain must benefit the area to which the development relates.