Fight begins over plan to build on part of Castle Park

by Rupert Janisch

The opening shots have been fired in a public inquiry which will decide whether developers can build on part of Castle Park.

Taking place in the Old Council House in Corn Street, the inquiry is a legal battle between developers and campaigners who want to save the park's green space.

Redcliffe resident Mary Bannerman is leading the fight to stop Bristol City Council and its chosen developer, Deeley Freed, in their tracks.

They want to knock down the disused Lloyds Bank and Norwich Union buildings to develop the Wine Street into shops and offices.

But protestors say the scheme would also see an unacceptable amount of green space sacrificed and sold off by the city council, which owns the land.

Plans were drawn up after the city council had identified an area of Castle Park - at the old Bank of England building - to be developed.

Ms Bannerman has applied to give the park official Town Green status, which could see development of any green space banned.

A win for the campaigners would put a major dent in the hopes of the developers and could mean the entire site – including the derelict buildings – could stay as it is for several years.

Ms Bannerman said: "We want Castle Park to have the total protection that other Town Greens have.

"We feel that any decent architect can design a building for the size of the plot that they are given and there's no reason why they can't redevelop those buildings more or less how they are."

The legal battle at the inquiry revolves around the way the park has been used for the past 20 years.

The first day of the hearing yesterday saw Ms Bannerman's lawyer calling up evidence from people who have arranged meetings, marches and demonstrations in the park over the past two decades.

Daniel Bennett, representing Ms Bannerman, said: "Since 1978 the inhabitants of Bristol have had free and open use of this parkland for all sorts of informal recreation.

"That has continued, uninterrupted, since then and, according to the law of Town Greens, once you have exercised those rights for 20 years then they can not be taken away."

The city council and Deeley Freed are trying to show that most people who use the park are not local to the area, meaning the park is not an integral part of the residential community.

They also say that the landowners, Bristol City Council, are effectively giving people permission to use the land for their recreational purposes.

Leslie Blohm, representing the city council, said: "This is land that is held by the local authority as a public open space and it's a park for everyone, not just the inhabitants of Bristol.

"The city council has spent an enormous amount of money on it over the years and anyone who has used it has used it as a park and not as a town or village green.

"The council is opposing this application in the interests of all of the inhabitants of the city."

Vivian Chapman QC, the independent inspector in the dispute, will listen to all the arguments this week and make a decision in the new year.

Deeley Freed has altered its design for the St Mary le Port end of 13-acre Castle Park since opposition to the 2006 plans, which protesters said would cover too much green space.

In the company's latest plans, the amount of public open space to be covered has been reduced from 12 per cent (one-and-a-half acres) to less than five per cent (just over half an acre).

The revised plans involve preserving the green verge along the Floating Harbour and the cherry blossom tree-lined diagonal path.

Plans also feature a food court, with shop units let to small independent retailers, a reinstated St Mary le Port Street to provide a link to St Nicholas Market, a narrowed High Street and Wine Street with new shopfronts along them and a colonnaded footpath along Wine Street.