Your say / Western Harbour
‘Dockside heritage should not be butchered for Western Harbour development’
At first glance, the current Western Harbour draft masterplan looks like a vast improvement on the previous administration’s preferred, but otherwise generally dreaded ‘Eastern Option’ from a few years back.
But it still warrants a closer inspection.
The residential streets of Avon Crescent and Ashton Avenue were cynically left within the Western Harbour redline boundary, although they are on the periphery of the development area. All for a few extra square metres of development.
is needed now More than ever
Rather than use the existing two-way Brunel Lock Road as the spine road for new development, and to link to the existing Metrobus road, the proposal is to knock down the Avon Crescent retaining wall, level the ground, and to build a new two-way relief road at the north end of Avon Crescent, and to rebuild the Metrobus road at the southern end of a narrowed Avon Crescent.
Avon Crescent was built by the City Docks Company around 1831, long before Underfall Yard’s 1888 improvements.
This unusual inverted crescent, built where the river was dammed to create the Floating Harbour, should not be butchered for new development.
The street, substation and Underfall Yard are all part of our maritime heritage.
A view of what Avon Crescent could look like if the Western Harbour development goes ahead – image: Bristol City Council
Its masterplanners say that the Western Harbour will be “an attractive place that celebrates its heritage and existing communities”.
Well not like this, it won’t!
The new two-way road will isolate Underfall Yard with a new busier two-way spine road that will require two zebra crossings.
It will require demolition of someone’s home, and the demolition of a corner of the Underfall Yard electricity substation.
It is unclear if the existing Avon Crescent Metrobus walk/cycle route will survive in any form. It will certainly be encroached on by the proposed new road.
It is only a few years since the more than £230m Metrobus project built the ‘bombproof’ Metrobus road opposite Avon Crescent and the new floodwall.
The current proposal to demolish these and to rebuild the Metrobus road is nuts and unsustainable.
There is a very simple solution to this proposed community and heritage damage, and risk to safety, which is to use what already exists.
Make Brunel Lock Road two-way again, with a spur to the existing Metrobus road.
This would keep motor traffic away from the cluster of heritage buildings around Underfall Yard and southbound motor traffic away from the A Bond warehouse, and make for a safer and calmer environment in which to enjoy them.
It would also avoid segregating the existing community from the new Western Harbour community, with a new busier spine road.
The sacrificing of community, heritage and safety for even more unnecessary destruction and carbon production, for just a few extra up-market water-facing homes, is a bad outcome for the city in both the short and long term.
It only became clear to me quite what is proposed – and it is still not crystal clear – when I was passed the Metrobus slides below, which are missing from the online survey.
They are still missing. Would it be unfair to ask if this was entirely accidental? I am told that this is not the final version but they ought to be included in the survey for clarity.
I fear that the survey will close before these slides are included, and many people will already have responded with limited information.
I hope that there are no further missing slides which are illustrative but not being exhibited.
The Metrobus-only road next to the A Bond warehouse is planned to be “realigned” in order to create more space for homes – image: Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands
There is only one chance to meet the masterplanners in person at Underfall Yard on March 1.
Please go and ask some searching questions because the online survey is very fuzzy.
There are also other serious questions to be asked such as the nature of the ‘river walk’. I suspect that this means great chunks of concrete and steel affixed to our early 19th century entrance locks.
When does concrete become a ‘linear park’?
Please do not just glance at the plan, think it’s not as bad as the original Eastern Option and not give it another thought.
There are some serious questions that need asking.
The Metrobus-only road could be realigned to allow for housing next to the A Bond warehouse – photo: Martin Booth
The latest plans for the area will feature up to 1,200 new homes – photo: Martin Booth
This is an opinion piece by Martin Rands, a resident of Avon Crescent
Main photo: Martin Booth
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