8 Southdown Road
Westbury on Trym
Bristol
BS9 3NN
10 December 2024
Westbury on Trym
Bristol
BS9 3NN
10 December 2024
Dear Sir/Madam
Appeal Ref: APP/Z0116/W/24/3354526
1-3 High Street, Westbury-on- Trym, BRISTOL, BS9 3DR
1-3 High Street, Westbury-on- Trym, BRISTOL, BS9 3DR
The Westbury on Trym Society is a local amenity society which was founded in 1972 to help look after the amenities, landscape and heritage of this 1300 year old village. The Society had a major involvement with the council’s heritage officers in the preparation of the Westbury on Trym Conservation Area Character Appraisal, adopted in 2015.
The Society considered the application when submitted, but had not responded by the time the application was refused by the council.
The Society agrees with the council’s reasons for refusal. This is an area of high pedestrian movement with a zebra crossing opposite the entrance and bedroom one of flat 1. Two other bedrooms and a living room are proposed on the street frontage which has significant pedestrian and vehicular activity immediately in front of these windows. Unlike a business use, where the visibility of the use can be very important, a residential occupier will want privacy and will want to reduce noise. This will inevitably lead to curtains or shutters being drawn to provide privacy in the flat. This will create a dead frontage in the street to the detriment of the character of the conservation area.
As part of a survey of pedestrian crossings in the vicinity, undertaken by members of the Society and others in December 2023, in part to seek to justify a pedestrian crossing at the end of Stoke Lane immediately to the south-west of the site, we have a good indication of pedestrian flows in the vicinity.
Between 11.00 and 12.00 on Tuesday 5th December, 208 pedestrians crossed the end of Stoke Lane which links 1-3 High Street with Canford Lane beyond. On Saturday 9th December 2023 the figure for the4 same period was 259.
Corresponding figures for pedestrians using the crossing opposite 1-3 High Street were 252 and 284.
We also consider that access to the site for the purposes of moving furniture and other goods into and out of a ground floor flat is going to be very difficult given the location of the front door and the busy junction and crossing, where there is no parking or safe place for a vehicle to load or unload. The upper floor flats would be accessed from the corner of Stoke Lane, so at least would have some space between the door and the street.
Accordingly we support the council’s refusal of the prior approval application.
Yours faithfully
Andrew Renshaw
For the Westbury on Trym Society
The Society considered the application when submitted, but had not responded by the time the application was refused by the council.
The Society agrees with the council’s reasons for refusal. This is an area of high pedestrian movement with a zebra crossing opposite the entrance and bedroom one of flat 1. Two other bedrooms and a living room are proposed on the street frontage which has significant pedestrian and vehicular activity immediately in front of these windows. Unlike a business use, where the visibility of the use can be very important, a residential occupier will want privacy and will want to reduce noise. This will inevitably lead to curtains or shutters being drawn to provide privacy in the flat. This will create a dead frontage in the street to the detriment of the character of the conservation area.
As part of a survey of pedestrian crossings in the vicinity, undertaken by members of the Society and others in December 2023, in part to seek to justify a pedestrian crossing at the end of Stoke Lane immediately to the south-west of the site, we have a good indication of pedestrian flows in the vicinity.
Between 11.00 and 12.00 on Tuesday 5th December, 208 pedestrians crossed the end of Stoke Lane which links 1-3 High Street with Canford Lane beyond. On Saturday 9th December 2023 the figure for the4 same period was 259.
Corresponding figures for pedestrians using the crossing opposite 1-3 High Street were 252 and 284.
We also consider that access to the site for the purposes of moving furniture and other goods into and out of a ground floor flat is going to be very difficult given the location of the front door and the busy junction and crossing, where there is no parking or safe place for a vehicle to load or unload. The upper floor flats would be accessed from the corner of Stoke Lane, so at least would have some space between the door and the street.
Accordingly we support the council’s refusal of the prior approval application.
Yours faithfully
Andrew Renshaw
For the Westbury on Trym Society
