Legal challenge to Bristol Zoo Gardens housing development set to be heard in court

SBGA’s judicial review challenge will be heard on Wednesday 7 May at Bristol Civic Justice Centre in a hearing due to last two days.

The claim will challenge the Bristol City Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a housing development on the site of Bristol Zoo Gardens in June 2024.  

SBGA, which is represented by law firm Leigh Day, says that the development would lead to a loss of open space, and that the environmental impacts on biodiversity and carbon emissions were assessed using flawed and outdated criteria. 

The grounds of claim are: 

• The planning application unlawfully relied on out-of-date metrics to measure the development’s net effect on biodiversity, which resulted in it calculating a net positive. Subsequent calculations made using the updated metrics found a net loss in biodiversity from the development.  
• The planning application unlawfully adopted out-of-date criteria to measure carbon dioxide emissions, which was inconsistent with criteria used to measure the carbon impact of other local developments.  
• The planning application unlawfully failed to determine whether the development would lead to a reduction in the amount of open space, with planning policy stating that open space should generally not be built on unless equivalent or more is provided by the development.

The plans for the development were proposed by British Zoological Society after the zoo closed in 2022. The plans are for 196 homes, 20 per cent of which will be ‘affordable’, with a free-access park open during the day.  

SGBA says that the development will do little to solve Bristol’s housing crisis, and raise concerns that there are no plans in place to support and maintain a public park. 

A spokesperson for Save Bristol Gardens Alliance said: 

“We’re really pleased to have been working with Leigh Day and look forward to the start of legal arguments tomorrow. 

“Behind this judicial review is a truly dreadful planning decision which was pushed through in the face of enormous public opposition. The proposed development of massive, truly ugly, flats together with a road and car parking would destroy a historic site and lay waste to its environmentally important tree and plant collections.

“The assertions of Bristol Zoological Society and Bristol City Council that the development would provide free public access to what is left of the Gardens do not stand up to scrutiny. Neither does their claim that the small amount of so-called ‘affordable' housing will be within the financial reach of those in need.  Any developer can apply to have these expensive inconveniences set aside after 5 years and undoubtedly will. We believe the gardens will become a private housing development. 

“In their haste to sell this civic jewel with planning permission for housing, we believe that the Zoological Society and Council made several errors of fact and of law.  The judicial review will examine three of these.  

“If we are successful and the planning permission is set aside, we look forward to working with all parties, including the Zoological Society, to create a better and beautiful alternative that would benefit all Bristol’s communities for the next 200 years.” 

Leigh Day solicitor Rowan Smith, who represents SGBA, said:

“Our client is arguing that the metrics used to calculate the carbon emissions and impact on biodiversity from the project were outdated and, as a result, unlawful. These arguments will now be heard in court after a judge agreed that the three grounds presented in SGBA’s argument are strong enough to go to a judicial review hearing.”