This gallery shows images of the stadium as it has evolved over the last three years.
This is an early image from the October 2005 designs. This shows the south western corner of the stadium. Despite appearing to be located in the middle of some parkland, this corner of the stadium is very close to the houses on both Strathmore Rd (just off the left of this image) and Downend Road (just of the bottom of the image). Rather than open grass land, the area in the foreground is actually the narrow fenced gardens of victorian terraced houses. Even the road surface of Alton Rd (between the houses in the lower right) appears to be grass covered.
The above how the plan stood in December 2006 when the development control committee should have originally voted on the planning permission. Note that the higher angle of this image hides the height of the structure.
There are two things of particular note in this image. First is the hotel tower in the top centre of the image. This was eight stories high and was the tallest part of the plan.
The other thing to note are the two step roofs in the lower middle and right hand edges of the image either side of the blue roof. These are student flat blocks and originally the outer part was the same height as the higher inner part when the plans were first submitted in October 2006. However because the houses to the south are also down hill in relation to the stadium and a six storey structure so close to the boundary caused a severe and completely unacceptable loss of light to the houses to the south.
Days before the January Development Control Committee meeting a new set of plans were released. The hotel tower in the centre top of the image was reduced to six storeys making it the same height as the student accommodation on that side of the building.
The student blocks at the lower centre and right centre of the image have been changed from two steps to a single lower height. Correspondence in the planning file suggests that the planning officer was intending to recommend the plans for refusal and that this alteration was a desperate concession to get the plans recommended for approval by the planning officers report.
It is interesting to note that even though two height reductions were made the number of student flats and hotel rooms remained unchanged due to more efficient layout and use of the space within the structure. Again this seems to demonstrate that had Rovers made no effort to consider the amenity of the neighboring properties and only did so when their plans were in jeopardy.
This is an image from the latest plans submitted in Janurary 2008. Here you can see the hotel tower in the centre top has once again grown in height to stand taller than the surrounding student flats. Note also that the entire north east corner has also been raised by an additional floor so that it is not just the hotel but that whole corner that has increased in height. You can also see that the extra height is becoming overbaring to the houses on Filton Avenue seen slightly to the left and above that corner of the stadium.
It is also worth noting many of the other changes in this design. There is a height increase in the north west corner (centre left edge). There are also increase to the size of the floors in that corner but these cannot be seen from this angle.
The student blocks in the bottom centre and right centre of the image have once again become two level structures. IN other words the concession that got them permission has now been taken back. The taller step is once again as high as it was in the unacceptable plans from December 2006. However the structure at that height has been moved back very slightly which means they technically pass the daylight calculations. The lower part is also moved back further but this does not change the daylight calculations and the south stand still protrudes at or beyond the old position.
In the above diagram, the dotted line shows where the previous south walls would have stood and the solid line shows where the newly proposed walls would stand. The diagonal line shows a 25 degree angle from the rear window of a house on Downend Road. The structure is not permitted to go over the diagnal.
This is the plan as it stood in October 2005 shown from the North East corner. Again boundary fences are ignored giving the image a park land feeling.
This shows the plans from December 2006. Here the hotel tower which was a wholey new addition from the original plans stands two stroreys higher than the rest of the structure. There is also more structure in the corner that was open in the Oct 06 plans whcih is also mainly part of the hotel.
This is the same view for the January 2007 plans which reduced the height of the hotel tower to match the rest of the structure. Note that there are four rows of windows on this front section of the building.
Here are the latest revisions submitted in January 2008. There are now six rows of windows on the front of the building, one coming from the additional floor added to both the hotel tower and the other parts of this corner. The other extra row comes from alterations at a lower level (the first floor). The plans have always been quite coy with height level figures, so it is hard to tell if the first floor is actually slightly lower than previously or whether the extra windows simply reflect the change of use of the lowest level to basic hotel rooms.
In the centre right you can see that the north west corner has been extended outwards and on several floors.
This gallery shows that there are significant and material changes to the plans which have an impact on neighbouring properties.