Planning Issues

Portbury Wharf

Gordano Valley - the noose tightens

The Trust realised many years ago that the Gordano Valley, one of the richest wildlife areas in the County, with the M5 thrusting its way along its southern ridge, the new Royal Portbury Dock busily developing at its mouth, and Portishead rapidly expanding to house growing numbers of commuters, was under very serious threat. Now that threat has become very real and the Trust is working hard to prevent the loss of the vital wildlife corridor between the valley and the Severn Estuary.

The importance of the valley is highlighted by the number of nature reserves it contains including one of only two National Nature Reserves in the Avon area. The Trust has managed several reserves in the valley for many years particularly Weston Big Wood and Walton Common, both SSSIs. In the last five years, with Lottery money, we have acquired two substantial wetland reserves at Clapton Moor and Weston Moor and with Weston Big Wood and Tickenham Hill we now own nearly 500 acres of land in and around the Gordano Valley.

In 1986 we initiated the Gordano Valley project and Simon Barker joined us for two years to map out the wildlife riches of the valley and promote the need for careful planning of the inevitable developments that would be taking place. Phil Tolerton took over from Simon in 1989 and continued to work with landowners, parish councils, and the District Council to protect and safeguard the area. Relationships were built with the Dock, then managed by Bristol City Council, and steps were taken to influence Local and Structure plans to try and safeguard the integrity of the valley's valuable ecosystems. In particular we continually emphasised the need to maintain a wildlife corridor from the Severn Estuary into the valley's heart. The value of this corridor has been repeatedly upheld through the planning system and is stated explicitly in the 1995 Woodspring Local Plan.

As members who live in or visit the area will know, a new luxury harbourside development is underway in Portishead extending the town across Portishead Dock and into the coastal zone between Portishead and Portbury Dock. Two separate developments are already well advanced and a further application, from the Portishead Quays Consortium, proposes to extend the harbourside development over 280 acres of land known as the Portishead Ashlands east of Portishead dock. These developments will result in 2500 houses being built over the next five to ten years bringing some 5000 people to live close to the wildlife rich mudflats, saltmarsh, and low lying wetlands of Portbury Wharf.

While all this is happening or being planned on the western part of the Wharf, the Bristol Port Company have now submitted an application to develop a further 60 acres of car storage west of the existing dock area which, if allowed, threatens to narrow still further the wildlife corridor which connects the Gordano Valley to the sea.

Most of the housing development is taking place on old industrial land and is therefore in principle a sensible recycling of land. North Somerset Council are likely to give consent to the housing application provided extensive mitigation measures can be agreed with the developers which would protect and enhance the remaining low lying wetlands at Portbury Wharf and safeguard the important coastal habitats of the estuary. These measures would also protect the area from the activities of the 5000 new human residents (and their pets) and provide alternative footpaths and recreational facilities away from the sensitive coastal habitats.

Inevitably however there will be a loss of scrub and grassland habitat that favours birds such as skylarks and owls, as well as badgers and hares, which have good populations on Portbury Wharf.

The Trust has consistently maintained that while we welcome the development of wetland habitat at Portbury Wharf we do not believe that this is sufficient to compensate for the loss of habitat due to these new developments and that further mitigation is needed to compensate for loss of scrub and grassland. We also totally oppose any further loss of the wildlife corridor between the coast and the valley. We would like to see all the remaining land north of the old Portishead-Bristol railway line and lying between the East Portishead development and Royal Portbury Dock protected and managed for wildlife.