A stretch of land which includes a car park, an old Mecca Bingo site and a building that was used by Pure Gym, could be converted into 340 new homes if plans are approved. The developers behind the Brook Dye Works development in St Werburghs have not yet submitted a planning application but are holding community consultations next week.
Galliard Homes plan to build on a large patch of brownfield land along Barrow Road and Tenbury street in St Philips. The current proposal includes a mixture of two and three-storey town houses alongside one building comprising 16 floors and another 10-storeys high.
The developers say that the proposal for new high rise buildings in the area is in line with the council’s ambition for Lawrence Hill ‘which can include taller buildings’. Alongside housing there are plans for ‘new gardens and play spaces’ by Hemmings Way.
READ MORE: List of Bristol City Council-owned sites set for more than 3,100 new homes
Pure Gym, which occupied the former Bingo Hall up until the summer of 2022 relocated to a site in Eastville to make way for the development, and the car park area is now fenced off with security cameras in place. The housing development is set to include a mixture of market and affordable housing which will be in line with the current government policy of 20 per cent.
It means the proposed development should include 68 homes which are classed as affordable, and 272 new homes in the area where the prices will be set according to their current market value. The classification of affordable housing has not yet been specified so it is unclear at this stage how many of those 68 homes would be available to those who are currently on the housing waiting list in Bristol.
The former factory in St Werburghs was developed by Galliard Homes into 112 homes with two-bedroom properties being sold in 2021 for almost £300,000. The development included 24 affordable homes following the purchase of these properties from Bristol City Council.
In a statement on the website dedicated to the proposed development, Galliard Homes speak of the need to build more houses to address the current housing shortage. Galliard Homes state on its website: “Bristol has an acute housing need with over 18,000 people on the affordable housing waiting list.
“The city is also constrained spatially by the need to protect green field sites. Our proposals will help to address these issues by providing new market and affordable homes on brownfield land, whilst also providing new public open space and improving pedestrian and cycling routes.
“This also responds to the Council’s ambition for the Lawrence Hill area to be regenerated through the provision of new residential development, which can include taller buildings.” The plans for new housing are currently in consultation with the community.
One in-person ‘exhibition’ will be held on Wednesday, February 22 at The Bristol Methodist Centre, Lincoln Street, BS5 0BJ from 3.30pm to 7pm with a question and answer session taking place at 6pm. There will also be an online event on Thursday, February 23 at 6.30pm.
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