MORE than 1,000 new homes are to be built near Cribbs Causeway after South Gloucestershire Council granted outline planning permission for the development.

Persimmon Homes and Ashfield Land won approval for the first of three major housing developments set to make up the Cribbs/Patchway New Neighbourhood in South Gloucestershire.

The scheme will see the construction of up to 1,100 homes on the133-acre site at Fishpool Hill near Cribbs Causeway.

A new local centre, primary school, leisure and community facilities and transport infrastructure will also be built.

Cllr Dave Hockey, chairman of the council's development control (west) committee which approved the plans last Thursday (March 27) said: “This is a landmark decision and a significant step forward for the Cribbs/Patchway New Neighbourhood.

“In time this scheme will form part of a major new self-contained community within South Gloucestershire providing many of the new homes, jobs and infrastructure we will need in the coming years.”

He added: “Committee members are grateful to all those who responded to the council’s consultation on this scheme and have carefully considered all comments received as part of the decision-making process.

"One outcome of this is that councillors have agreed that an extra planning condition should be added to the Fishpool Hill development requiring Persimmon Homes to set up a residents’ liaison group before the start of construction, to allow any problems relating to the development to be discussed.”

The plans were unanimously approved but Dave Redgewell, transport consultant and lobbyist, told councillors the development would lead to car dependency.

“You are in danger of not providing adequate public transport to this site like Bradley Stoke,” he told the committee.

“This is one of the most gridlocked areas of greater Bristol and at the moment this proposal iiiiis weak and needs sorting out.

“The first priority should be a Section 106 agreement for public transport. It is not for the tax payers of South Gloucestershire or the Mayor of Bristol to pay for night buses to run into the centre for these residents.”

The Fishpool Hill development is one of three major schemes which will make up the new neighbourhood of approximately 5,700 homes, 123 acres of employment land, new open spaces, schools and community facilities over the next 15 years.

The two other major schemes within the development - one to the north of the A4018 Cribbs Causeway, and the other on the site of the former airfield at Filton - are expected to be considered by the committee in the coming months.