Your say / Brislington Meadows
‘Brislington Meadows is an utterly irreplaceable green space’
I love Brislington Meadows. Every day, I walk my dog there, meeting people from all over Brislington, many of whom have used these meadows their whole lives.
Many people who walk on the meadows, like me, are desperate to stop 260 flats and houses being built on this utterly irreplaceable green space.
Brislington Meadows is a special place for the Brislington community; it is a Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI), with rare and ancient grassland that changes with the seasons and historic hedgerows that contain twittering birds.
It’s a place where you can see the whole city, find space to think, breathe and feel a deep sense of peace surrounded by nature.
It’s a place where you can meet people and hear about their lives – how they watched cows graze on the meadows years ago, or played hide and seek with their kids when the grass grew tall, or saw a deer for the first time.
On Sunday morning at 10.30am, a group of local residents who have come together as the Save Brislington Meadows group, invite the wider Bristol community to join us in experiencing what the meadows has to offer, on a family friendly walk.
We’re walking together this weekend to celebrate the meadows and highlight the heartbreak losing them will cause to Brislington, should the proposed development go ahead.
Protesters are stepping up their campaign to save Brislington Meadows – photo: Martin Booth
There are plenty of reasons the development should be reconsidered.
You can see this for yourself, with more than 200 objections raised on the council’s planning portal from a wide range of organisations and individuals.
Articles here on Bristol24/7 and other local and national sites also document the long history of objections to building on Brislington Meadows.
Loss of bats, badgers, hedges and birds; risks of increased flooding; concerns about accessibility; excess pollution from traffic and building work; loss of footpaths: local people and experts have flagged these concerns time and time again, and have simply not been listened to.
Bristol City Council have a chance in the coming weeks to reshape this development, to take on board the objections and expertise raised from local people.
Our walk on Sunday is to show that we have not given up on Brislington Meadows and that the council should not give up either on preserving this special place for many generations to come.
This is an opinion piece by Lucy Bell-Reeves from Save Brislington Meadows. Join the Meadows walk setting off from Victory Park Playground at 10.30am on Sunday
During his re-election campaign in 2021, Marvin Rees said Brislington Meadows was too ecologically precious to be built on. He later said that Homes England’s plans to develop the site were “disappointing” but that he could not rule on planning applications as mayor – photo: Martin Booth
Main photo: Martin Booth
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