A scheme to redevelop the former Hilltop Service Station in Kingswood High Street has been withdrawn after being criticised as a “gross overdevelopment”.
Tradex Developments Ltd applied to South Gloucestershire Council to clear the site and put up a mixed use building containing two ground-floor commercial units and nine two-bed apartments on three floors above. Each apartment would have an external terrace and there would be a communal rooftop terrace.
A new access off Poplar Terrace and 13 car parking spaces plus weather-tight cycle storage were proposed.
But concerns were raised by local residents about the impact on traffic and parking as well as overlooking.
One commented: “Is this the way we should expect the ‘regeneration’ of Kingswood – ‘Love our High Street’ – by encouraging the private property developers’ market to strike again with another combination of commercial and residential dwellings – bordering a long established community of family life?”
How it would have looked
Concern about the creation of a “dark corridor” on the eastern entrance to Bristol was also raised: “Another tall building will reduce the open feel of the street.”
The council’s conservation officer was critical of the scheme and the impact on the neighbouring locally listed former shoe factory which now houses a Sainsbury’s Local.
And council planning officers said what was being proposed was “a gross overdevelopment of the site, which will result in significant harm to the residential amenity of neighbouring occupiers (to the rear) in terms of overbearing impact and loss of privacy from overlooking”.
The developers have now withdrawn the scheme and it is understood they have gone back to the drawing board.
