The LANCE Trust's objection to the Taylor Wimpey "Woodspring" development
Updated: 42 minutes ago
The LANCE Trust's role in the Yanley Working Party document; our objection to Taylor Wimpey's application; and how you can leave your own comment.
Quick link to the NS Planning Portal: 26/P/1629/OU2 (Application reference)
In August, 157 documents were downloaded on the North Somerset Planning Portal. These formed the basis of an Outline Planning Application by Taylor Wimpey for 3,500 homes plus other buildings on a site of 168 hectares within the Green Belt south of Bristol. The site sprawls across the current Woodspring Golf Courses, Barrow Gurney, Yanley and Dundry.
Prior to this, a small group of local residents - senior professionals in planning - were invited by North Somerset Council to form the Yanley Working Party (YWP). One Trustee from the LANCE Trust was also invited to join the group.
On the 13th October, the YWP uploaded its objection to the current application. The YWP regard the current application as unacceptable, premature and an attempt to circumvent the current Local Planning process. The development, if approved, will take 20+ years to complete (say 2028-2050) and we all know how the world around is changing fast particularly with reference to the adverse impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss.
The YWP have identified numerous problems with the current outline application that cover several areas including environmental matters. We all know that if approved, this application will fundamentally change the character, nature and environment of Long Ashton, Barrow Gurney and Dundry, we would urge people to put an hour aside to study the document carefully.
The document is divided into sections that include a consultation & design review, a landscape-led approach to the masterplan; sustainable development approach to masterplan and environmental matters. Taken altogether, they provide a comprehensive assessment that reveals a lack of ambition and vision – elements that are desperately needed to meet the challenges of the next decade.
You can dip in and out but, if you’re really short of time, please read the Executive Summary on page 5 of the document above, and please register your views as a comment on the planning portal here.
Although the initial deadline has passed, the YWP has been assured by NSC’s Planning Policy Manager that all comments after this date will be counted and included.
Aside from the role the Trust played in the Yanley Working Party, we have submitted our own objection to the application. Feel free to copy any text from it into your own comment on the planning portal:
This OBJECTION against Planning Application 26/P/1629/OU2 is lodged on behalf of the LANCE Trust (Long Ashton Nature, Community & Environment Trust) that, since its registration as a charity on 1 June 2023), has engaged with approx 1,000 people (residents of Long Ashton or elsewhere) working as volunteers with the Trust's ongoing projects, through wildflower plant sales, talks to neighbouring parishes, and conversations with general supporters. The importance of Green Belt retention coupled with the challenges of mitigating biodiversity loss and the adverse impacts of climate change concern all these people.
The Trust has already participated in the Submission to NSC by the Yanley Working Party and does not intend to repeat all the information in Section 7 Environmental Matters here. However, it's worth emphasising here that the underlying reason for the Trust's objection is summed up by Ed Milliband (the Foreign Secretary who in September 2026, addressed the UN General Assembly saying ""Climate change and nature loss have never been issues for climate and environment ministers alone," he said. "They are defining challenges for our citizens, our economies, our foreign policy and our national security." Anyone who has watched or read the bullet points from the National Emergency Briefing film shown in Bristol, Long Ashton, Barrow Gurney and across the country would agree with this statement.
Although no expert can predict how quickly tipping points will be reached, the adverse impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss are already felt in this country and the rest of the world with warnings that 2027 will be a 'monster El-Nino'. Therefore society (including large-volume house-builders) should pull together now in an attempt to stop and, hopefully, reverse the predicted impacts of the twin crises whether or not there is any legal framework in place. A large development on a time-scale such as this should, from the start, recognise that mitigation measures to reduce the impacts of climate change and reverse the current decline in biodiversity within the UK should be at the heart of the development from the start; not an afterthought to tick a box or two. Unfortunately, the Trust cannot see any such commitment from Taylor Wimpey with ref Planning Application 26/P/1629/OU2.
It is also important to note that the whole site was re-assessed by Arup in 2025 as part of their Strategic Green Belt Assessment and was retained as Green Belt (moderate). NSC's decision to releasing this land from Green Belt as a Strategic Site for development represents a huge loss for local residents and those further afield. It also creates a missed opportunity identified by Prof Sir Dieter Helm (economist and former Government advisor) who labelled existing Green Belt as "an asset that can and should be improved" and "instead of urban sprawl, imagine a Green Belt with lots of natural capital, a much more environmentally benign agriculture, much greater public access, woodlands location next to people ... providing the lungs of the cities ... "(it is) a key asset that the previous generation left to us, and which we have a responsibility to pass onto the next generation." Therefore the loss of such a large area of Green Belt adjacent to South Bristol is significant and should be addressed with strong mitigation effects; something that Planning Application 26/P/1629/OU2 does not address.
The Trust also notes that consultation with local residents within both South Bristol and the parishes most affected by the various adverse impacts of the proposed development (c. 45,000 people) has been seriously limited whilst local groups with considerable expertise such as Avon Wildlife Trust, Forest of Avon, Bristol Avon Rivers Trust, the LANCE Trust and others haven't been consulted at all.
As a result, Planning Application 26/P/1629 fails to recognise the opportunity recognised by the Wildlife Trust's as vital ie the "improved connectivity of wildlife habitats - both within developments and linking to the wider landscape and ecological networks beyond". This missed opportunity is emphasised by looking at the examples of good practice where the Wildlife Trusts have been involved from the start include Trumpington Meadows on the southern fringe of Cambridge, Kidbrooke Village in London & Gaydon Lighthorne in Warwickshire.
If any development goes ahead on this site, the Trust would like to underline another recommendation from the Wildlife Trusts: "(any) development should generate additional funding and resources, for example Section 106 agreements and conservation covenants, to allow an overall increase in the abundance and diversity of wildlife by habitat creation and restoration, and an improvement of soil and river catchment health."
Unfortunately, Planning Application 26/P/1629/OU2 shows a generic Wimpey-style development imposed on a large section of Green Belt that is currently of high value to local residents within South Bristol and the parishes beyond, offering quantifiable cooling services, mopping up air pollution, reducing air pollution and offering high quality landscape for recreation, watching wildlife and much else.
Although the Planning Application 26/P/1629/OU2 has been submitted and registered before the Examination in Public of NSC Local Plan 2041, it's worth noting under SP7 that "release of Green Belt land for development .... should compensate for the loss of the 'green resources' by introducing innovative design for green spaces & wildlife habitats". The Trust would argue that Planning Application 26/P/1629/OU2 does not address this issue.
SP11 states that "new development should maintain and enhance the green and blue infrastructure network as set out in the Green Infrastructure Strategy" and it should "respect the landscape types and character areas identified in the North Somerset Landscape Character Assessment". Instead, the current application shows that Taylor Wimpey has no intention of retaining the existing gradients across the landscape. It should also "support the establishment and delivery of North Somerset Nature Parks to protect and enhance internationally important bat habitats, foraging opportunities and connectivity through the landscape, and mitigate the impacts of development". Again the Trust would argue that Planning Application 26/P/1629/OU2 does not address these issues.
The latter statement regarding bats, in particular, concerns Tim Woods, Natural Environment Officer for NSC so the Trust also upholds the holding objection issued by him as well as the objection lodged by the Environment Agency that states "We object to the proposed development as submitted, due to the lack of assessment of the potential to harm the natural environment, and therefore recommend that planning permission is refused."
DP36 states that "The provision of BNG should support delivery of recommended measures for habitat creation and enhancement identified in the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) for West of England, and associated mapping/toolkit. BNG requirements must be met in addition to, and not in place of, legal protections for species. Proposals should demonstrate how BNG measures complement and support habitat needs of protected and priority species." Since the Illustrative Masterplan for Planning Application 26/P/1629/OU2 does not identify the LNRS on-site or adjacent, the Trust is concerned that these issues are not addressed.
It is also worth recognising that the Environment Agency, NSC and the ecologists working for Taylor Wimpey have not received the information that elvers have been recorded in Colliter's Brook a couple of hundred metres downstream from the development boundary. Initially discovered in June 2026 and more recently in late September, this species was photographed and recorded by trained volunteers of the LANCE Trust working in partnership with Bristol Avon Rivers Trust on the Riverfly Project. European eels are designated as a highly protected species (along with bats & white clawed crayfish) so it's important that the relevant bodies such as NSC, the Environment Agency and the ecologists working for Taylor Wimpey are aware of the presence of this priority species in line with policy SP 11 that states new development should "Conserve, restore and enhance priority habitats, ecological networks and the protection and recovery of priority species."
Bearing this in mind, the Trust would like the restoration of watercourses in line with the Local Nature Recovery Network Areas (LNRAs) to be a top priority if any further planning application is submitted including the removal of the Yanley Lane culvert which will have imposed an unwelcome barrier on many species, including eels.
As the Environment Agency's objection lodged on 7 October 2026 states "Watercourses are important linear features of the landscape, wildlife corridors and should be maintained as continuous corridors to maximise their benefits to society. In addition, official guidance from the Environment Agency states the range of impacts that culverting has, including (but not limited to) the following "adverse impacts on protected species".
Culverting damages habitats, interrupts wildlife corridors and disrupts river habitat continuity. Paragraph 41 of The Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 states that wildlife corridor networks should be protected from development and where possible, strengthened by or integrated within it."
This is underlined by the Bristol Avon River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) The RBMP states that the water environment should be protected and enhanced to prevent deterioration and promote the recovery of water bodies while official guidance from the Environment Agency regarding culverting states the range of impacts that culverting has, including (but not limited to) the following: adverse effects on protected species.
In conclusion, the Trust objects to the application in its present form and if there is a future planning application, the masterplan should respond demonstrably to the site's topography, watercourses and riparian corridors, relevant Local Nature Recovery Strategy priorities, protected and priority species, existing habitat networks and opportunities for landscape-scale nature recovery. Finally, to ensure words are put into practice, Taylor Wimpey, NSC & local groups such as the Yanley Working Party, Avon Wildlife Trust, the Environment Agency, Bristol Avon Rivers Trust, the LANCE Trust and others should work together in advance to ensure an ambitious development that puts nature at the heart of this development creating a truly sustainable development that will not add to the problems outlined at the start of this document but, instead, will attempt to protect us all.
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