Join our campaign!
How you can support us
* Sign our e-petition and ask your friends and family to sign too
* Write to Bob Rutherford at Bristol City Council [email protected] and Mayor George Fergusson [email protected] expressing your concerns
* Submit wildlife sightings and photos to http://www.brerc.org.uk/, grid reference ST6075.
* Join and like our Facebook page 'Save South Purdown' for campaign updates and to post your messages of support
* Join us on Twitter FOSP_Bristol #savesouthpurdown
What's it all about?
Bristol City Council’s Education department want to build three grass playing pitches for nearby Fairfield High School on part of South Purdown. In the process a beautiful flower meadow, valuable wildlife corridor and public access to an important open space will be lost. A large poplar tree could be one of the casualties of the development.
The Friends of South Purdown group was formed on 24 April 2006 to protect the area from damaging development and to safeguard its use by the whole local community for sports and other leisure activities. Plans for the playing pitches have been objected to by both the Council’s own Parks department, the Friends of South Purdown group and many local residents.
Why support our campaign?
Waste of public money
The costs of building the new grass pitches is around £500,000 of public money plus on going maintenance and insurance costs. The proposed new pitches do not include any changing facilities. Other sports pitches are available within a mile or two of Fairfield High School. These include existing playing fields at Muller Road Recreational Ground (1.1 miles), Stoke Park primary school (1.1 miles) and a proposed new £9 million sports complex (1.6 miles). Several people at the public consultation meeting on 30 June 2015 said the school's existing sports facilities were often empty. In times of great economic austerity this money could be better spent on other essential services.
Loss of wildlife
The live planning application was granted based on an ecological survey that is now 10 years old. South Purdown is home to a number of protected animals, birds and insects and we are recording these on the BRERC site. Building the new sports pitches will require much levelling and extensive ground works to remove the existing meadow turf, causing irrevocable destruction to wildlife and their habitat. Fencing around the new pitches will greatly restrict the movement of protected animals such as hedgehogs that roam for around 2 miles a night for food.
Promoting health and well being
Natural open spaces are perfect for a range of sports including football, rounders, cricket and cross-country - all of the sports that Fairfield High School say they need the new sports pitches for. The UK is heading towards an obesity epidemic. Building the new sports pitches will close off access to an open space that is currently being used by the local community for informal sports including the Town and Country Harriers who train and run their 10 k race on South Purdown.
Studies in the US and Japan have shown that being close to nature can benefit people with anxiety and depression and anxiety as it lowers blood pressure, the pulse rate, and levels of the hormone cortisol, which is released in response to stress. Brain scans showed reduced activity in an area of the brain linked to risk of mental illness in participants who took a 90-minute walk among oaks, birds and squirrels.
Risk to health and safety
In the case of a sports injury or medical emergency, ambulances will need a key to open gates and bollards to the site and will struggle to drive up the steep hill in poor weather. One resident found an injured person in Stoke Park at Christmas 2014 and said it took several hours for the ambulance to arrive. In very cold weather it doesn't take long for someone to become hypothermic. Teachers are unlikely to be insured to carry injured students off the sports pitches. Any serious injuries will require an air ambulance, if one is available.
A bridge that was in the original plans has been removed and this is a concern as students will need to cross Muller Road which is a very busy road. At least two local residents said cars had jumped the traffic lights when they were at the crossing.
Preserving access to natural open space for the whole community
South Purdown has been a public open space since it was sold to Bristol City Council in 1938. It has been used by local people for a wide range of sports and recreation for over seventy years. The use of well established footpaths and rights of way will be restricted as the site will be fenced off and an important open space will be lost if development work goes ahead.
The Bristol Parks and Green Space Strategy (February 2008) says that:
* Natural green space is the most highly valued type of open space
* Lockleaze and Horfield are considerably under-served for this type of space and the majority of residents are outside the distance standard for access to green space.
Planning policy statement 9 (PPS9) Biodiversity & Geological Conservation aims are to:
Conserve, enhance and restore the diversity of England's wildlife by sustaining and where possible improving the quality and extent of natural habitats and the populations of naturally occurring species that they support.
Bristol City Council’s previous planning documents (1990, 1997 and 2003) have all recognised South Purdown as an important open space.
In 1990 the Planning and Traffic Committee produced a Policy for the Preservation and Enhancement of Stoke Park Purdown which stated:
“The value of the landscape has long been recognised by the City Council whose prime objective has been to maintain its integrity as a major open space.”
The policy goes on to say:
“In March 1987, Avon County Council as Education Authority, decided not to proceed with a proposal involving the acquisition from the Health Authority of land forming part of Purdown and the carrying out on the site of substantial regrading and enhancement work so as to provide an extension to the playing fields of Lockleaze School…. The scheme…. would have required changes to the contours of the site at variance with the natural land form…”
In view of these previous commitments by the Council to preserve South Purdown as an open space, it is disappointing they are now about to break their promise by permitting the bulldozing of this wonderful and valuable area.
* Sign our e-petition and ask your friends and family to sign too
* Write to Bob Rutherford at Bristol City Council [email protected] and Mayor George Fergusson [email protected] expressing your concerns
* Submit wildlife sightings and photos to http://www.brerc.org.uk/, grid reference ST6075.
* Join and like our Facebook page 'Save South Purdown' for campaign updates and to post your messages of support
* Join us on Twitter FOSP_Bristol #savesouthpurdown
What's it all about?
Bristol City Council’s Education department want to build three grass playing pitches for nearby Fairfield High School on part of South Purdown. In the process a beautiful flower meadow, valuable wildlife corridor and public access to an important open space will be lost. A large poplar tree could be one of the casualties of the development.
The Friends of South Purdown group was formed on 24 April 2006 to protect the area from damaging development and to safeguard its use by the whole local community for sports and other leisure activities. Plans for the playing pitches have been objected to by both the Council’s own Parks department, the Friends of South Purdown group and many local residents.
Why support our campaign?
Waste of public money
The costs of building the new grass pitches is around £500,000 of public money plus on going maintenance and insurance costs. The proposed new pitches do not include any changing facilities. Other sports pitches are available within a mile or two of Fairfield High School. These include existing playing fields at Muller Road Recreational Ground (1.1 miles), Stoke Park primary school (1.1 miles) and a proposed new £9 million sports complex (1.6 miles). Several people at the public consultation meeting on 30 June 2015 said the school's existing sports facilities were often empty. In times of great economic austerity this money could be better spent on other essential services.
Loss of wildlife
The live planning application was granted based on an ecological survey that is now 10 years old. South Purdown is home to a number of protected animals, birds and insects and we are recording these on the BRERC site. Building the new sports pitches will require much levelling and extensive ground works to remove the existing meadow turf, causing irrevocable destruction to wildlife and their habitat. Fencing around the new pitches will greatly restrict the movement of protected animals such as hedgehogs that roam for around 2 miles a night for food.
Promoting health and well being
Natural open spaces are perfect for a range of sports including football, rounders, cricket and cross-country - all of the sports that Fairfield High School say they need the new sports pitches for. The UK is heading towards an obesity epidemic. Building the new sports pitches will close off access to an open space that is currently being used by the local community for informal sports including the Town and Country Harriers who train and run their 10 k race on South Purdown.
Studies in the US and Japan have shown that being close to nature can benefit people with anxiety and depression and anxiety as it lowers blood pressure, the pulse rate, and levels of the hormone cortisol, which is released in response to stress. Brain scans showed reduced activity in an area of the brain linked to risk of mental illness in participants who took a 90-minute walk among oaks, birds and squirrels.
Risk to health and safety
In the case of a sports injury or medical emergency, ambulances will need a key to open gates and bollards to the site and will struggle to drive up the steep hill in poor weather. One resident found an injured person in Stoke Park at Christmas 2014 and said it took several hours for the ambulance to arrive. In very cold weather it doesn't take long for someone to become hypothermic. Teachers are unlikely to be insured to carry injured students off the sports pitches. Any serious injuries will require an air ambulance, if one is available.
A bridge that was in the original plans has been removed and this is a concern as students will need to cross Muller Road which is a very busy road. At least two local residents said cars had jumped the traffic lights when they were at the crossing.
Preserving access to natural open space for the whole community
South Purdown has been a public open space since it was sold to Bristol City Council in 1938. It has been used by local people for a wide range of sports and recreation for over seventy years. The use of well established footpaths and rights of way will be restricted as the site will be fenced off and an important open space will be lost if development work goes ahead.
The Bristol Parks and Green Space Strategy (February 2008) says that:
* Natural green space is the most highly valued type of open space
* Lockleaze and Horfield are considerably under-served for this type of space and the majority of residents are outside the distance standard for access to green space.
Planning policy statement 9 (PPS9) Biodiversity & Geological Conservation aims are to:
Conserve, enhance and restore the diversity of England's wildlife by sustaining and where possible improving the quality and extent of natural habitats and the populations of naturally occurring species that they support.
Bristol City Council’s previous planning documents (1990, 1997 and 2003) have all recognised South Purdown as an important open space.
In 1990 the Planning and Traffic Committee produced a Policy for the Preservation and Enhancement of Stoke Park Purdown which stated:
“The value of the landscape has long been recognised by the City Council whose prime objective has been to maintain its integrity as a major open space.”
The policy goes on to say:
“In March 1987, Avon County Council as Education Authority, decided not to proceed with a proposal involving the acquisition from the Health Authority of land forming part of Purdown and the carrying out on the site of substantial regrading and enhancement work so as to provide an extension to the playing fields of Lockleaze School…. The scheme…. would have required changes to the contours of the site at variance with the natural land form…”
In view of these previous commitments by the Council to preserve South Purdown as an open space, it is disappointing they are now about to break their promise by permitting the bulldozing of this wonderful and valuable area.