PLANS for a 2,675-home development on the former site of Filton Airfield have been approved.

The site, which would also include a wealth of employment land and infrastructure, including three schools, a rail station, doctors' surgery, supermarket and care home, was put before South Gloucestershire Council’s development control committee, with the majority voting in support of the plans, with only one objecting and one abstention.

The proposals, which were put forward by developers YTL Developments UK Ltd, were originally given planning permission in 2015, but with some changes being made to the outline plans, the revised plans returned to the committee, who met this morning at Turnberrie’s Community Centre in Thornbury.

Speaking in support of the plans, the application’s agent Simon Fitton said that a great deal of work had taken place over the past two years between YTL, local stakeholders and officers at South Gloucestershire Council, of which he said was “a great emphasis on the heritage” of the site.

YTL chief operations officer Barra Mac Ruiri said that they would be focusing on developing the whole site and not “parcelling it off”, adding that they would approach any problems that could arise in the project’s delivery with consideration.

The changes which have been put forward include a new layout for the development, as well as reducing a 30-storey tower to being 10 stories tall.

While technically speaking as an objector, Dave Redgewell from the South West Transport Network said that he agreed with the developments in principle, “the devil would be in the detail”.

He said that the report on transport with the application so far was “very light” and he hoped more work would be done.

“We have seen the headaches of Bradley Stoke and the Patchway new neighbourhood,” he said, “and we need South Gloucestershire to step up to the plate this time.

“It is important to look at how this town links to the city of Bristol, it is not a standalone town in South Gloucestershire.”

Also speaking to the committee, Bristol councillor Chris Windows called on councillors to defer the decision, saying that vital traffic modelling data had not yet been released, and that it would not seem right to make a decision until they had the full facts.

Supporting the call for deferring the decision, Cllr Ken Dando motioned for the action saying it would be the “sensible” decision with so many more vehicles potentially using the A38 stretch leading into Bristol.

Cllr Pat Hockey said, following the motion that deferring would “not take us anywhere except into more problems”, citing the number of developments already building near the A38 in Thornbury.

Cllr Eve Orpen called for a regional traffic plan tying together all the prospective developments, saying that each development looks at the effects of their own but does not factor in others.

“It is just not feasible,” she said. “Right now you can gridlock the whole of the north fringe of Bristol in the space of an hour.”

After Cllr Dando’s motion was seconded, it failed with only two votes in support. A motion was then put forward to follow council officers’ recommendations and accept the proposals which proved successful.