Large industrial park proposed for Green Belt land on edge of Bristol

Plans have emerged for a large commercial business park on the site of a former garden centre on the outskirts of Bristol - which has been at the centre of a planning dispute over development on Green Belt land.

Wyevale Bristol Ltd has submitted a planning application to demolish the old Wyevale Garden Centre, which closed in 2019, and replace it with a business park with 61 buildings for commercial, industrial and storage operations.

A car park with 47 spaces would also form part of the development on the site off the A4 Bath Road between Hicks Gate at Keynsham and Brislington.

The proposal comes after an initial idea was unveiled by the same group for a three-storey office block and industrial park called Hickgate Green last year. The latest plans show the units would be ‘commerical two-storey’ in size.

The land, although Green Belt, does sit within an area which is included in Bristol’s draft new Local Plan - a document being drawn up which will set the rules and policies on where development should go in the region.

That inclusion has been used by the site owners to appeal against planning enforcement on turning part of the site into a builder’s yard and scaffold storage area. The company says the impact to the Green Belt is irrelevant due to likely development at the site in the future.

Today, the former garden centre buildings are used by an aquatics shop and a gym. The car park is used for car and van sales.

Next to the garden centre site is the Bath Road Allotments, then a large area of land owned by Bellway Homes which the developer wants to build 555 new homes on, with 170 to 220 which would be ‘affordable’.

One objection to Wyevale Bristol Ltd’s proposal has already come in. A user of the allotment site wrote: “If this gets approved it will be downward spiral for the environment, wildlife and us.”

Bristol City Council will make a decision on the planning application in the coming months.