Warning issued over poor living conditions at planned affordable housing next to ‘very noisy’ motorway

People living in planned affordable housing next to the M4 would reside in poor quality conditions due to the sight and noise from the motorway, it has been warned. Housing Association LiveWest Homes Ltd is behind the proposal for 30 homes on farmland between Old Gloucester Road, the B4057 and the motorway on the edge of Stoke Gifford.

The group submitted a planning application for the homes - 14 would be affordable rented properties and 16 shared ownership - to South Gloucestershire Council back in July. It said the homes were needed and matched the intentions laid out in the South Gloucestershire Local Plan 2006-2027, which states that new neighbourhoods on the north fringe of Bristol will provide homes closer to work for employees.

In an attempt to mitigate any concerns over the loss of wildlife, the housing association had reduced the number of proposed homes from 44 to 30, and said half of the site would be used for woodland and wildlife habitat. On its location next to the motorway, the group said a line of trees would be retained, and added to, to create a buffer for the residents.

However, a landscape architect at South Gloucestershire Council has written a strongly worded letter to the council’s planning department over concerns she has for residents and wildlife. She said that the line of trees offering a ‘buffer’ would not stop noise coming from the motorway, which she said was ‘very noisy’.

Rachel Fry wrote: “The layout will provide a poor quality environment for residents due to the visual impact of the motorway and the high levels of noise affecting the external environment of this principally family housing, where regular use of the gardens would be expected. Whilst tree planting may reduce the visual impact of the motorway in the long term there will be no substantive reduction in the noise of the traffic from the vegetation.”

She also said that the narrowness of the site meant that ambitions for large parts of the land supporting wildlife were unrealistic due to the proximity with family housing, which would lead to dog walking and play.

Also opposing the planning application is Winterbourne Parish Council. Deputy clerk Sarah Lucy said: “The comments of the Parish Council are objection. Concern was raised over the noise levels on the site and the lack of pedestrian provision along a fast stretch of a narrow country lane.”

In its application, LiveWest Homes Ltd’s agent said the proposed housing development and public open space would be in keeping with the land uses given approved developments to the west of the site. The homes would be a mix of one, two and three-bed flats and houses. The smallest flat, a one-bed, would measure just 50 sqm in size.

Latest figures show that in South Gloucestershire there are 4,000 applications for social housing, including 110 in the Stoke Gifford. A supporting document to the planning application said: “The proposed development would clearly make an important contribution to the delivery of affordable housing. The delivery of 30 affordable homes is considered to be a substantial public benefit of the scheme to which significant weight should be attached.”

To view or comment on the planning application, click here and use reference number P22/04211/F