RESIDENTS living near South Gloucestershire Council’s Yate offices have said they are concerned they may soon be living in a “compound” following the approval of additional car parking spaces.

The plans to increase the parking capacity at the council’s offices on Badminton Road will provide a total of 70 additional parking spaces, 39 for staff, eight for disabled users, seven for operational vehicles and 16 for visitors.

Members of the council’s development control (east) committee voted unanimously in favour of the proposals during their meeting on Thursday, February 8.

But residents in nearby streets such as Stover Road have criticised the move, saying that they feel like they are living in a “council compound”, adding that the plans also mean the demolition of an allotment and a chicken run leased to them by the council.

Stover Close resident Kathy Shanks said that those living near the site have already “suffered significant disruption” to the front of their properties since the council offices were built in 2009, and that as the site is on a steep gradient, it would involve extensive engineering and landscaping works to render it usable.

“This has been due to large increases in traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, with the attendant problems caused by noise, pollution and parking restrictions.

With the proposals going ahead, she claimed the residents would virtually be living in a “council compound", adding that there was an ecological concern as residents have photographic evidence of badgers and otters had been living on the site.

She said: “How can the Council even contemplate spending those sorts of sums for the benefit of its own employees when we are told that budgets are stretched to the limit, with cuts in social care and welfare provision?”

A South Gloucestershire Council spokesman said that the work is part of their overall accommodation plan, which they say would save the council £425,000 a year.

He said: “The report provided to members of the committee includes assessments of all aspects of the application, including encouraging alternative methods of environmentally friendly transport options.

“Alternative land for neighbouring residents’ informal agricultural uses is being made available, and the report states that the travel plan submitted in support of the application would fulfil that purpose and that its implementation should be a condition of approval.

“The committee unanimously agreed to grant consent subject to the conditions set out within the report. In addition, officers were granted delegated authority to impose a condition requiring the submission of a lighting scheme.”