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www.bradleystokejournal.co.uk
t: 01454 300 400
January 2017
Almondsbury
Bradley Stoke
Almondsbury helibase planning application: Decision made, quashed and then remade
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PLANS for a new helicopter base in Almondsbury, on a green belt site just across the M5 motorway from north Bradley Stoke, were originally submitted to South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) in April 2015. The proposed new helibase is intended to serve the needs of the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity and the National Police Air Service, whose helicopters are currently based at Filton Airfield. BAE Systems, which owned the airfield at the time of the original planning application, and had plans to redevelop it with 2,675 residential dwellings, said it was necessary to relocate the helicopter base because leaving it at the airfield would lead to “the loss of approximately 400 residential dwellings and a significant proportion of affordable housing”. It was also claimed that the emergency services’ current base would become unsuitable due to demolition and construction activity in the vicinity of helicopter operations over many years. Outline planning permission for the airfield redevelopment has since been granted and the site sold to YTL Utilities (UK), part of the international conglomerate that owns Wessex Water. An SGC committee approved the helibase plans in July 2015, but a resident of Almondsbury threatened to issue proceedings to judicially review the decision, citing a failure to properly consider environmental impacts and questioning whether the “very special circumstances” required for development in the green belt had been justified when there was an option to retain the base at its current site. The decision to grant planning permission was subsequently quashed, meaning
that SGC officers were forced to re-examine the application and bring it back to councillors for re-determination. Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC) originally declined to declare an opinion on the application, but when the case was reopened, it objected, citing concerns over the accuracy of noise reports and asking for alternative sites to be revisited. SGC’s Development Control (West) Committee was eventually ask to reconsider the application on 11th August 2016. At this meeting, councillors accepted the view of officers that the “very special circumstances” that justified development in the green belt could be summarised as: • No suitable, available alternative sites; • Retention of the facility on the Filton site poses potential risks and could curtail the operation of the facility; • Reduction in the ability of the Filton site to deliver homes (including affordable homes) and possible employment development if the facility were retained on the Filton site; • The need for emergency services and the public benefit of regional importance which the timely and safe retention of the facility on the application site would protect. In granting permission, councillors added a condition that requires a community liaison forum to be set up, whose members will include a representative from BSTC. ● YTL have indicated that they intend to increase the number of residential dwellings to be constructed on the former Filton Airfield site to around 3,600. A revised planning application is expected to be submitted soon.
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