Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and explained the emergency evacuation procedure.

Councillors, officers and other attendees introduced themselves.

To note any declarations of interest from the Councillors.  They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Please note that the Register of Interests is available at https://www.bristol.gov.uk/councillors/members-interests-gifts-and-hospitality-register

Any declarations of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

Cllr J Clark advised that she had been the ward councillor for the former Hengrove ward between 2003 -11.

Members of the sub-committee confirmed that there been no whipping from the respective political groups in relation to this meeting.

Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum.  The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda.  Public Forum items should be emailed to democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk and please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:-

Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by 5 pm on 21 March 2017.

Petitions and Statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting.  For this meeting this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12.00 noon on 24 March 2017.

The Sub-Committee received and noted statements from the following:

1.  Mr N & Mrs K Maynard

2.  Mark Fear

3.  Avril Parker

4.  Mr & Mrs Prytherch

5.  Mrs Jo Cox

6.  Jane Hewer

7.  Rita Youseph

8.  Mrs L A Morrison

9.   Nigel Stoneman

10. Stephen Hall

11. Andy Hunt

12. Kelly Webster

13. Andrew Gamlin

14. Philip Tonkin

15. Angus McCoy

16. Ruth Andrews

17. Philip Smith

18. David Barr

19. Raymond Youseph

20. Daniel Fear (statement advising details of a current on-line petition entitled “Save Whitchurch airport (Hengrove)”.

Those in attendance presented their statements.

Please note, consideration of this item will take place in open session. However, should the need arise to discuss the Cabinet report’s exempt Appendix, the Sub-Committee may need to pass a resolution to go into exempt session.

In accordance with the prescribed procedure, the sub-committee reviewed the call-in of this decision as follows:

1. Explanation of procedure:

The Chair explained the procedure to be followed at the meeting.  The purpose of this meeting was to specifically review and assess the reasons why this key decision had been called-in, and then to determine one of the 3 options available to the sub-committee, as follows:
a. to take no further action; or

b. to refer the matter back to the Cabinet, identifying specific issues for the Cabinet to consider before a final decision was taken.

c. to refer the matter to the Full Council for a wider debate, on the basis that Full Council could decide to take no further action or to refer specific issues/recommendations for the Cabinet to consider before a final decision was taken.

2. Presentation of case by councillors who called-in the decision:

With reference to the call-in form included with the agenda papers, those councillors who had called-in the decision presented their case, as follows:

It was noted that there was a typographical error in the call-in form as follows: in the fourth sentence of the section headed “Clarity of aims and desired outcomes”, the figure “29 hectares” should read “20 hectares.”

The callers-in then highlighted the following main points and expressed views as follows:

Cllr Morris:

a. Having chaired a neighbourhood partnership meeting attended by 150-200 residents in September 2016, he was aware of local concerns about these proposals.  Concerns had been raised in relation to environmental impact from the scale of the development proposed, and the loss of community facilities including local rugby pitches.

b. In his view, the Council had not effectively engaged residents in advance of the 7 March decision and the Cabinet report had not adequately reflected the strength of feeling from local residents on these issues.

Cllr Jones:

a. He acknowledged and supported the need for housing development but not to this extent.  At the September 2016 neighbourhood partnership meeting, the view had been expressed that whilst there should be some housing development at Hengrove Park, this should not be at the expense of losing large areas of local park and open space.

b. In his view, there had been insufficient information made available in the local area to advise people in advance about the decision taken at the 7 March Cabinet meeting.

Cllr Clough:

a. She expressed concern over the proposed scale of housing development.

b. She had further concerns that the park as currently proposed would not offer sufficiently suitable and accessible local facilities.

Cllr Hopkins:

a. The proposed development at Hengrove Park affected and had implications for not only the immediate wards affected, but also wider areas of south Bristol.

b. The Bristol Local Plan / Site Allocations agreed by Full Council in July 2014 had envisaged a large 30 hectare park / open space at Hengrove Park; the 7 March Cabinet report referred to creating a range of parkland / open space totalling 20  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.