Bristol campaign groups united against building thousands of new homes
Dundry Residents Action Group (DRAG) has teamed up with fellow campaign group Bedminster Down and Uplands Society to hold the meeting tonight.
The meeting has been organised by the campaign groups to highlight plans by developers LandTrust to build 9,500 new homes on hundreds of acres of green-belt land between the A38 at Dundry near the Barrow Tanks right down to the A370 Long Ashton bypass.
The proposed new development, expected to cost around £2.5 billion, would be called Ashton Park. Campaigners say they are angry that plans have been put forward when the blueprint for the South West Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) has not been agreed.
The RSS was launched last year in response to a Government directive which said thousands of new homes need to be built across the South West to cope with the growing population.
The strategy, led by the Regional Assembly, identified the swathe of green belt land on the slopes of Dundry and Ashton Vale as a potential area for growth.
A consultation on the RSS got underway last year, with more than 35,000 responses received.
But a final decision on the RSS has now been postponed because of a legal case involving the east of England version of the document.
The meeting, at Bedminster Down Comprehensive School main hall, will open at 6pm when planning consultant John Baker, of Baker Associates, will give a presentation about the plans.
A public session, chaired by Bristol City Council Conservative Party leader, Richard Eddy, will be held between 7-9pm for people to ask questions and raise their concerns about the proposed development.
DRAG spokeswoman, Debbie Nicholls, said: "The purpose of the meeting is to make people aware of what is happening within the area
"A lot of people are still ignorant to the fact that a planning application has gone in for 9,500 homes in the Ashton Vale.
"This meeting will give people an opportunity to find out more about the proposals, voice their objections and raise questions about the development."
Several thousand leaflets have been distributed across the area encouraging local residents to attend the meeting.
DRAG is also planning to launch a letter writing campaign against the plans and plan to hand deliver the letters to bosses at both North Somerset and Bristol City councils. It is understood that the Government is also planning to carry out a sustainability study on the RSS after it received 35,000 letters of objection to the document. Mrs Nicholls added: "We will fight to the very end to protect our green belt.
"Once it has gone, it is gone forever and we all need to join forces to drive this message home to developers and the Government."
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