SPC submits ‘OBJECT’ response to proposed development south of Manor Road, Saltford (26/01700/OUT)

At its meeting on 2 June 2026, Saltford Parish Council considered planning application 26/01700/OUT – Parcel 8966, Manor Road, Saltford.

The application, submitted by Crest Nicholson Operations Ltd and the landowner, seeks outline planning permission (with all matters reserved except access) for residential development of up to around 90 residences south of Manor Road, including a new vehicular access from Manor Road, footways and cycleways, open space provision, landscaping, drainage infrastructure and associated works.

Following consideration of the application at its June meeting, Saltford Parish Council resolved to OBJECT to this proposal for development on Saltford’s Green Belt, and it has submitted its response to B&NES Council.

As SPC’s response runs to several pages, it was agreed that the full text would be published on the Parish Council website rather than reproduced in the meeting minutes. A downloadable copy of SPC’s full response can be found here and copied in full below.

Summary of Saltford Parish Council’s Objection

The Parish Council’s response raises concerns about a number of planning issues, including:

• 🔹 Development of Green Belt land and the applicant’s classification of the site as “Grey Belt”;
• 🔹 The impact on the openness, landscape setting and rural character of Saltford;
• 🔹 Effects on biodiversity, wildlife habitats and mature trees and hedgerows;
• 🔹 Housing need and the suitability of the site for further residential growth;
• 🔹 Highway safety, school access, parking pressures and traffic congestion;
• 🔹 Flood risk and surface water management;
• 🔹 The loss of land currently used for therapeutic activities; and
• 🔹 The potential presence of significant archaeological remains.

The response also expressed serious concerns regarding the potential impact of the development on wildlife and biodiversity and strongly requested that B&NES Council require a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to be undertaken and consulted upon before any planning decision is made.

Green Belt and Previous Planning Decisions

The Parish Council’s response notes that a previous proposal for housing development on the same site was refused by B&NES Council and subsequently dismissed on appeal by the Secretary of State in 2014.

The response highlights that the Secretary of State concluded at that time that the proposal constituted inappropriate development in the Green Belt and would result in harm to Green Belt openness and encroachment into the countryside.

The Council also argues that the site should not be regarded as Grey Belt land and that significant weight should be given to the site’s Green Belt status and landscape value.

Emerging Local Plan

The response notes that the site is not identified for development within B&NES Council’s emerging Local Plan process and raises concerns that determining a major housing proposal on the site ahead of completion of the Local Plan could undermine the plan-led approach to deciding where future development should take place.

The Parish Council argues that decisions on potential Green Belt release should be considered through the Local Plan process, where alternative sites and wider infrastructure implications can be assessed comprehensively.

Landscape, Wildlife and Biodiversity

Saltford Parish Council’s response highlights the importance of the site within the landscape setting of Saltford and refers to evidence previously submitted to B&NES Council regarding the area’s landscape value.

Particular concern is expressed regarding the relationship of the site to Longwood woodland, wildlife corridors, mature trees and hedgerows along Manor Road, and the potential impact on protected and notable species.

The Council has requested that a full Environmental Impact Assessment be undertaken before any planning decision is reached.

Housing and Infrastructure

The response questions the need for additional housing on this Green Belt site and notes Saltford’s significant growth over recent decades.

Concerns are also raised regarding the cumulative impact of development on local infrastructure, including transport networks, school access, health services and community facilities.

Transport and Highway Safety

The Parish Council’s response identifies concerns regarding:

• 🔹 Additional traffic using Manor Road and surrounding residential streets;
• 🔹 Highway safety near Saltford Primary School and Happy Days Pre-School;
• 🔹 Impacts on walking and cycling routes;
• 🔹 Existing congestion on the A4 corridor between Bristol, Keynsham, Saltford and Bath; and
• 🔹 The cumulative effect of recent and proposed developments on local transport infrastructure.

Other Matters

The response also raises concerns relating to:

• 🔹 Surface water flooding and long-term flood management arrangements;
• 🔹 The continued use of the land for therapeutic activities involving animals;
• 🔹 The potential presence of archaeological features and heritage assets; and
• 🔹 The need for appropriate archaeological investigation before any development proceeds.

Supporting Evidence

The Parish Council’s objection is supported by previously submitted evidence documents:

• 🔹 ‘The Saltford Area of Great Landscape Value – Planning Policy and Character Appraisal by Saltford Parish Council (March 2024) + Annex (Photographic Record)’
• 🔹 ‘Landscape and Heritage Sensitivity Assessment of Saltford South of the A4’ (June 2024)

As with all Saltford Parish Council planning consultation responses, a copy of the submission has also been provided to Saltford’s B&NES Ward Councillors for their information.

——————

NOTE:

B&NES Council is the Planning (and decision-making) Authority. Saltford Parish Council is a statutory consultee. For more information about SPC’s role in the planning process, please view our page here.

More information about the Local Plan proposals for Saltford can be found on SPC’s ‘Protecting Saltford’s Green Belt‘ page.

——————

The full objection response submitted by Saltford Parish Council can be viewed as follows:

OBJECT

CONTENTS OF THIS OBJECTION RESPONSE

• • Introduction
• • Green Belt & the correct use & interpretation of the grey belt policy definition
• • Protecting the landscape setting & wildlife (& EIA request)
• • Housing need & Saltford’s historic growth
• • Transport including safety, access & traffic congestion
• • Other matters including flood risk management & sensitive archaeology
• • Attached ANNEXES to this response (and PDF copy of this response)

INTRODUCTION

Saltford Parish Council strongly objects to the planning application and reminds BaNES Council that in December 2012 Crest Nicholson applied for planning permission for a housing development on this parcel of land that was also then, as now, not in the Local Plan, that application attracted over 400 objections from residents and the Parish Council. BaNES Council rightly and justly refused planning permission. After the application went to appeal in August 2013, the Secretary of State agreed with BaNES Council and the many objections made by the local community and their elected representatives against the development and refused planning permission on 4th March 2014.

The Secretary of State, on examining the evidence given at the Appeal Inquiry in August 2013 and the Inspector’s report itself, concluded that the appeal proposals were inappropriate development in the Green Belt. The proposed development was in the Secretary of State’s opinion harmful to the Green Belt’s openness and harmful to the Green Belt’s purpose of preventing encroachment into the countryside that, represented considerable harm, to which he attributed substantial weight.

To give permission for this proposed development for the same parcel of land, that is not in the draft Local Plan Options Menu from BaNES Council following lengthy consultation discussions with SPC, would ignore the concerns and wishes of the local community and the community’s elected representatives. To take advantage of the Government’s raised national housing target and develop this parcel of Green Belt land that is so highly valued by the community, particularly when the Government has strongly articulated a brownfield first approach to development in the context of the latest NPPF (December 2024 as amended February 2025), would override the overwhelming wishes and concerns of the local community.

Due to the fact that this parcel of land was NOT included in the Options Menu from BaNES Council for the draft Local Plan 2025-2043, BaNES Council should take into account its own landscape value and protection reasons for the exclusion of the land from the Options Menu.

BaNES Council should also examine the reasons given for the determination to refuse planning permission made by the Secretary of State in 2014, and the many other relevant policy considerations including

• • access to the Bath Road A4 through residential roads that are already used as park and ride commuter parking for the Bristol-Bath bus services,
•  • existing high and growing levels of peak time traffic congestion in and through Saltford and,
• • whether this land should or should not be considered as Grey Belt, as claimed by the applicant. SPC disputes that definition (see next section ‘Green Belt & the correct use & interpretation of the grey belt policy definition‘).

The application represents a speculative application on land currently designated as Green Belt at a time when the Council is actively progressing its emerging Local Plan, which is considering the appropriate scale, distribution and location of future development across the authority area. This process includes the strategic assessment of whether any Green Belt release is justified through exceptional circumstances and, if so, which sites are the most sustainable and suitable to accommodate future growth.

The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that Green Belt boundaries should only be altered through the preparation or updating of plans. The comprehensive review of Green Belt land is therefore properly a matter for the Local Plan process rather than ad hoc determination through speculative applications.

Granting permission for this proposal at this stage would risk prejudicing the plan-making process by effectively predetermining decisions about:

• • the release of Green Belt land;
• • the spatial strategy for future growth;
• • the sequencing and distribution of development;
• • cumulative impacts on settlements and infrastructure; and
• • the comparative assessment of alternative sites through the Council’s evidence base and sustainability appraisal.

The proposal would therefore undermine the plan-led system and could weaken public confidence in the ongoing Local Plan examination and consultation process.

In addition, the development constitutes inappropriate development within the Green Belt. By definition, inappropriate development is harmful and should not be approved except in very special circumstances. No such circumstances have been demonstrated that clearly outweigh the substantial harm arising from:

• • loss of openness;
• • encroachment into the countryside;
• • erosion of Green Belt purposes; and
• • conflict with the Council’s emerging strategic planning framework.

Considerable weight should therefore be attached to the harm to the Green Belt and to the importance of allowing the emerging Local Plan process to proceed without prejudice from speculative development proposals.

GREEN BELT & THE CORRECT USE & INTERPRETATION OF THE GREY BELT POLICY DEFINITION

It may be convenient for a developer or landowner(s) to take it upon themselves to describe particular Green Belt parcels of land as Grey Belt by using a subjective interpretation of the National Planning Policy Framework. However, Saltford Parish Council agrees with the Prime Minister’s stated policy (September 2024) for the Grey Belt that the Government’s introduction of a Grey Belt definition was not intended for green field sites in the Green Belt. The Prime Minister made it clear that the Government’s planning policy intention is to allow development of disused petrol stations, abandoned car parks and low value scrubland.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister accepted in the House of Commons (7.1.2026) that the Government’s housing target can be met without destroying farmland and countryside by reusing empty homes and brownfield land, and said the Government will not plough through farmland, but make sensible proposals to build houses.

Grey Belt is defined in the NPPF as land in the Green Belt comprising previously developed land and/or any other land that, in either case, does not strongly contribute to any of 3 specific Green Belt purposes, namely (a), (b), or (d) – i.e. (a) to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas, (b) to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another, and (d) to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns.

Taking each of those in turn, the parcel of land in question in Saltford’s Green Belt is not Grey Belt for the following planning reasons:-

(a) to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas

Saltford’s Green Belt helps restrict urban sprawl that would otherwise merge Saltford with Keynsham and hence Bristol with Bath. The unwelcome precedent from the creation of new housing developments on Saltford’s Green Belt land would undermine that important planning constraint that helps Bristol and Bath maintain their unique identities and provides surrounding green open spaces that are essential for protecting the quality of life for city dwellers.

To develop parcels of this Green Belt parcel by parcel undermines that policy.

(b) to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another

Development of Saltford’s Green Belt would set an unwelcome precedent leading to an urban sprawl merging the cities of Bristol with Bath engulfing Keynsham, then Saltford, Corston and Newton St Loe in the same all-encompassing sprawl.

Keynsham itself has undergone significant and damaging over-development in recent years. The cumulative effect of this incremental approach to development and the absence of new road transport infrastructure has created significant additional traffic congestion including gridlock at peak periods in key parts of Keynsham that also congests the Bath Road (A4). The knock-on effect quickly creates traffic congestion for a wider area with Saltford’s road access severely compromised first. This congestion is demonstrably worse than the congestion experienced by residents prior to the new incremental developments.

To develop parcels of this Green Belt parcel by parcel undermines the NPPF policy of preventing neighbouring towns merging into one another.

(d) to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns.

As stated previously in this response, “preventing encroachment into the countryside” was the main reason why the Secretary of State REFUSED planning permission for 99 new houses on Saltford’s Green Belt in 2014. In dismissing the appeal from Crest Nicholson and refusing planning permission whilst taking into account “the substantial shortage of deliverable housing land in B&NES” (in 2014) the Secretary of State “identified harm to the Green Belt’s openness and harm to the Green Belt’s purpose of preventing encroachment into the countryside”. He attached “considerable weight” about the “extent of that encroachment” and that this “represents considerable harm, to which he attributes substantial weight.”

Saltford’s Green Belt, described and resolved as an Area of Great Landscape Value (AGLV) by SPC in March 2024*, gives the village its rural countryside setting valued by residents, local businesses, and visitors alike. It is important to retain and enhance attractive landscapes near where people live.

 *(https://www.saltfordparishcouncil.gov.uk/saltford-area-of-great-landscape-value-spcs-definition-of-saltfords-landscape/; see also the attached SPC evidence paper ‘The Saltford Area of Great Landscape Value – Planning Policy and Character Appraisal by Saltford Parish Council (March 2024) + Annex (Photographic Record)’)

BaNES Council’s Senior Planning Officers have agreed with the evidence provided and detailed representations made by SPC that the parcel of land that is the subject of this planning application is within an area of Saltford’s landscape in the Green Belt on the south side of Saltford that meets the criteria of the BaNES Council Landscape Setting of Settlements Planning Policy NE2a intended to protected the area’s valued landscapes from development. This was confirmed by Alison Farmer Associates (‘Review of Landscape Setting of Settlements – Bath and NE Somerset’ – December 2024), an independent landscape architecture and environmental planning practice, that was tasked by BaNES to undertake a review of settlements within Bath and North East Somerset.

Open green spaces in the countryside, like Saltford’s Green Belt and in particular taking account of Saltford’s location midway between Bristol and Bath, are important for the mental and physical health and well-being of city, town, and rural village dwellers alike.

Further loss of Green Belt land in the Saltford and Keynsham area would contribute to the destruction of the essential characteristics of the Green Belt (NPPF para. 137), i.e. “openness and permanence of the countryside” as well as the rural setting and individual character of Saltford, a village steeped in history, as with other communities nearby. It is important to retain and sustain a sense of community for rural villages like Saltford.

Saltford is classified as a Rural Area RA1 village in the B&NES Placemaking Plan 2017, i.e. development will be acceptable within and adjoining the housing development boundary on land outside the Green Belt. Further new housing developments on Saltford’s Green Belt land would contravene policy RA1.

Further loss of Green Belt land in the Saltford and Keynsham area would contribute to the incremental destruction of the essential characteristics of the Green Belt (NPPF para. 142), i.e. “openness and permanence of the countryside” as well as the rural setting and individual character of Saltford, a village steeped in history, as with other communities nearby including the town of Keynsham. It is important to retain and sustain a sense of community for rural villages like Saltford.

Saltford, a large rural village with a Conservation Area and historic landscape with a population of over 4,000, is larger than several of England’s towns whose histories are not necessarily more significant than Saltford’s (e.g. Watlington and Charlbury, Oxfordshire; Mitcheldean and Painswick, Gloucestershire; Settle and Bedale, North Yorkshire; Sedbergh and Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria; Bruton, Watchet and Williton, Somerset, etc.). Although the NPPF definition of Grey Belt refers to the special character of historic towns, there is no statutory definition of towns or villages.

Furthermore, interpreting the intent of heritage protection legislation, not just the more narrow context of the NPPF, arguments focus on the fact that the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, for example, requires special regard to preserving the setting of all designated heritage assets – including conservation areas within villages – regardless of the size of the settlement. Historic villages often possess similar, or higher, sensitivity regarding their “setting” and “special character” compared to larger towns. Failing to protect the village setting through Green Belt policies may be interpreted to contradict the broader statutory duty to preserve the historic environment.

If a large settlement like Saltford is historically called a “village” but acts functionally like a town, any reasonable legal conclusion in a court of law would be that its surrounding land must be assessed under purposes (a), (b), or (d).

SPC also maintains that even if a parcel of land is alleged by a developer to meet the “technical definition” of grey belt, but SPC strongly disputes that definition for this parcel of land, because it rests alongside a village rather than a town, for a large and historic village like Saltford, there can be no justification for the development to fundamentally undermine the NPPF purposes (taken together) of the remaining Green Belt across the area of the Local Plan. Saltford’s Green Belt is part of the Bristol and Bath Green Belt and serves a key purpose of keeping those historic cities apart as two distinct settlements within a rural setting.

Therefore, the Secretary of State’s ruling on this parcel of land in March 2014 that the development proposals were inappropriate development in the Green Belt and that the proposed development was in the Secretary of State’s opinion harmful to the Green Belt’s openness and harmful to the Green Belt’s purpose of preventing encroachment into the countryside that, represented considerable harm, to which he attributed substantial weight is an important factor. That official Government planning policy decision taken together with the landscape value and protection reasons applied in 2025 by BaNES Council for the exclusion of the land from the Options Menu for the draft Local Plan 2025-2043 following on from the Alison Farmer Associates report(‘Review of Landscape Setting of Settlements – Bath and NE Somerset’ – December 2024), shows that this is not grey belt land and provides the planning policy reasons to refuse planning permission.

PROTECTING THE LANDSCAPE SETTING & WILDLIFE (& EIA REQUEST)

BaNES Council’s Senior Planning Officers have agreed with the evidence provided and detailed representations made by SPC that the parcel of land that is the subject of this planning application is within an area of Saltford’s landscape in the Green Belt on the south side of Saltford that meets the criteria of the BaNES Council Landscape Setting of Settlements Planning Policy NE2a intended to protected the area’s valued landscapes from development. This was confirmed by Alison Farmer Associates (‘Review of Landscape Setting of Settlements – Bath and NE Somerset’ – December 2024), an independent landscape architecture and environmental planning practice, that was tasked by BaNES to undertake a review of settlements within Bath and North East Somerset.

For that and other reasons, e.g. poor connectivity to the Bath Road A4, this parcel of land is NOT included by BaNES Council in the draft Local Plan 2025-2043 Options Menu for development and the applicants in their planning application do not therefore take account of that landscape protection and the application should be refused.

In refusing this application, BaNES Council should take account the landscape value and protection reasons for the exclusion in 2025 by BaNES Council of the land from the Options Menu.

The SPC landscape character evidence from SPC (‘The Saltford Area of Great Landscape Value – Planning Policy and Character Appraisal by Saltford Parish Council (March 2024) + Annex (Photographic Record)’; and ‘Landscape and Heritage Sensitivity Assessment of Saltford South of the A4’ (June 2024)) is attached to this response.

This parcel of land is immediately east of the private long-standing mature woodland (containing a permissive footpath) known as Longwood, one of only two mature woodlands in Saltford Key wildlife species that roost in Longwood, Tawny Owls, Little Owls and bats are regularly observed feeding in and across the paddocks. It is notable that the applicant’s Ecological Impact Assessment identified 11 bat species within 4 km of the site. Wildlife feeding areas and wildlife corridors adjacent to important habitat like Longwood should be protected from development to help local ecosytems to thrive as a response to the ecological emergency.

Development here would destroy this important local landscape that provides one of the last remaining open green spaces on the southern side of Saltford. The proposed development would take housing right up to the Longwood woodland at the same time removing the mature trees and hedgerow that fringe Manor Road, in effect disconnecting the woodland from surrounding wildlife corridors. The woodland fringe that would be lost is critically important for wildlife because it provides essential transitional habitats, rich in biodiversity and structural diversity. These areas act as ecological powerhouses that support a wide variety of species providing a plentiful food supply and habitat for insects, birds, and mammals. They enhance a woodland’s resilience and integration with the surrounding landscape.

SPC has serious concerns about the negative effect on wildlife from the removal of mature trees and hedgerow that fringe Manor Road as part of this proposed development. These concerns have been heightened owing to information that has come to light for works linked to the Withies Green development on widening the footpath along the highway verge between Keynsham and Saltford. As a result, SPC makes a strong request to BaNES Council that it should require a full Environmental Impact Assessment to be carried out by the applicant (under the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017) before any planning decision on this application is made by BaNES Council and that the completed EIA be subject to public consultation of a sufficient duration before BaNES Council makes that planning decision.

Observing wildlife and green landscapes are important factors for the health and well-being of rural communities like Saltford’s as well as visitors from neighbouring cities who rely on the surrounding countryside for their own health and well-being. 93% of households that responded to the Saltford Parish Plan questionnaire in 2009 specifically said that they wanted Saltford’s Green Belt to be protected. Since 2009, support for the local landscape is likely to have increased due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 when residents had more time and need to experience the local landscape for their own health and well-being during such a challenging time.

HOUSING NEED & SALTFORD’s HISTORIC GROWTH

Evidence from Government data and other respected sources shows that there is no need whatsoever to take land out of the Green Belt and/or classify undeveloped Green Belt land as Grey Belt to meet the nation’s housing needs for affordable homes or the Government’s housing target.

There are 719,470 vacant dwellings in England; of those, 264,884 are classed as long-term vacant (source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government data, gov.uk, 31.3.2025). England possesses enough identified brownfield land to develop 1.41 million new homes according to Local Planning Authority brownfield land registers updated up to 2024 (CPRE). Those figures exceed the 1.5 million new homes for England by 2029 target from HM Government. There is therefore no genuine need to build on the Green Belt or on other green field sites.

Furthermore, it is widely accepted that any housing or shortage in England is for affordable housing in or close to areas of employment, not in rural areas like Saltford. To illustrate that fact, data from the ONS shows that from 2000 to 2025 England’s housing stock grew by 4.5 million whilst England’s population grew by 7 to 8 million. England’s average household size is 2.35 persons/household (English Housing Survey 2021-22). Thus, 4.5 million new homes times 2.3 persons per household provides new capacity for 10.35 million persons, representing a built capacity “surplus” for 2.35 million persons more than the population growth.

The 1980s privatisation of social housing (right to buy) created a reduced affordable housing stock and thereby creating long-term supply challenges of genuinely affordable housing. A strategic approach in planning policy is necessary from HM Government and Local Planning Authorities to correct this anomaly, not the constant erosion of the Green Belt to build unaffordable homes and placing even more burdens on transport networks in areas like Saltford on congested routes leading into the cities and large towns like Bristol and Bath where new employment opportunities arise.

The need now is for new homes to be affordable and near centres of employment, not developer-led housing developments in the Green Belt and green field sites away from employment, creating more commuter traffic, reduced habitat for nature and less food security from English/British sourced and farmed produce.

Saltford has more than doubled in size, i.e. by 114%, since 1950 and has thus reached the reasonable limit of its development growth, particularly as Saltford is not a centre of employment. This means new housing developments would lead to loss of undeveloped Green Belt land whilst creating and worsening the transport congestion that so badly affects the area (see our comments on TRANSPORT CONGESTION in the next section).

It is demonstrably unfair and short-sighted to constantly add new housing developments to areas that have reached their limit for development growth, thereby drastically reducing the quality of life for existing communities like Saltford and Keynsham who have to live with the consequences of poor planning decisions or attempts by developers to override Local Plans that have not taken a holistic, sustainable development approach to what houses are needed and where they should be built.

TRANSPORT INCLUDING SAFETY, ACCESS & TRAFFIC CONGESTION

Access to the Bath Road A4 and bus services from the site will be past the adjacent rear entrances to Saltford Primary School and the Happy Days Pre-School that are busy during school arrival and leaving times, along the walk/ride-to-school route, and via residential roads that are already badly affected by peak time congestion and parking. This particular area cannot take any more vehicular traffic for reasons of the safety of young children and for the reasons given below.

The proposed siting of the vehicular entrance to the proposed new housing estate is also inconsiderate for existing residents, being directly opposite and facing onto a dwelling when a more considerate design would have located the entrance to the east so that it faces the school playing field fencing and the field’s public footpath. However, wherever the entrance is located on Manor Road it will be directly onto where young children arrive for school either on foot, wheeling or when being delivered via parental transport.

The applicant’s Transport Assessment monitoring data was for the single week of 30^th June to 6^th July 2025, a summer period unreflective of typical or worst-case conditions such as during the winter and/or full school-term traffic. The data did reveal that 85% of vehicle speeds were well above the 20mph limit at 27.2 to 28.2 mph. Such excessive speeds by a primary school entrance in winter driving conditions (i.e. poor visibility and slippery road surfaces) are naturally a major safety concern for SPC and make this location close to a bend in the road even more inappropriate for a new housing development.

Furthermore, Manor Road will become less safe for older children cycling to Wellsway School via the popular Manor Road lane shared cycle/walkway.

This stretch of Manor Road is part of the B&NES Strategic National Cycling Network and also of the circular route around Bristol, the 85-mile Avon Cycle Way route 410, that leads down to the Bristol and Bath Railway Path on the northeast side of Saltford. Additional traffic arising from a new housing estate leading directly onto that route that is already busy with traffic that regularly ignores the local speed limit would reduce the safety of cyclists visiting the area.

Peak time traffic congestion on the Bath Road A4 through Saltford and past Keynsham remains of great and serious concern to Saltford Parish Council. An increasingly significant knock-on effect is for Saltford’s minor back lanes that quickly become clogged as drivers try to avoid gridlocks and very lengthy delays that can have serious implications for important appointments (employment, medical, childcare, etc.) caused by the existing high levels of congestion at peak times or during roadworks on the A4. The significant economic cost of the congestion appears to continue to be ignored.

This increase in local congestion is why residents in Saltford increasingly feel trapped in their own village by the effect of recent new housing and related developments between Bristol and Bath, the incremental effect of which has been totally over-looked by traffic modelling and/or ignored by the planning system, to the detriment of the quality of life for existing and future residents.

This provides real cause for concern and brings into question the suitability of local transport and other infrastructure (schools, GP and dental practices, retail, leisure, etc.) and therefore whether a re-think on new development between Saltford and Keynsham is now necessary before the known or new plans for housing developments in this area are permitted to be taken forward in the Local Plan or via planning applications such as this speculative application from Crest Nicholson.

BaNES Council Planning Officers have already recognised the above issues as they had designated the area adjacent to this site as meriting a poor rating for connectivity by sustainable means based on existing networks in 2024/25.

OTHER MATTERS INCLUDING FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT & SENSITIVE ARCHAEOLOGY

Therapy animals, principally horses but also sheep and pigs, for people with mental and physical health needs are kept and used in the paddocks for health support work commissioned by social services. The therapy provided is a very valuable service to the wider community. Saltford Parish Council would not wish this valuable service to be lost from Saltford or from this location, for which the surrounding countryside provides a haven of green space, wildlife, peace and calm that benefits clients of the therapy sessions. Horses have been kept on these paddocks for several decades including those once owned by the Saltford Pony Club. Equestrian use is therefore a long-term feature of those paddocks that contribute to the character setting (NE2a) of Saltford as a rural village.

The Met Office confirms that climate change is directly contributing to increased intense rainfall in the UK with a warmer atmosphere holding more moisture so that incoming storm systems are carrying significantly more water. This results in a higher frequency of flash-flooding events. In recent years Saltford’s residential roads due north of this site and neighbouring fields have become increasingly subject to streams of run-off rainwater flowing northwards, towards the river. This occurs when the public drains cannot cope with the sheer volume of surface water run-off due to intense rainfall.

Increased surface water run-off resulting from new housing developments in this area of Saltford will worsen this issue. Therefore, the ongoing and long-term management of the proposed flood risk attenuation pond to maintain safety including through minimising drowning risk for young children, the control of odours, mosquito and midge control, clearance of accumulated litter, and vegetation management to prevent blockages will be a matter of great concern and anxiety to the community and in particular to residents in the immediate vicinity.

The fields surrounding Saltford have revealed many ancient artefacts. Farmland including this parcel of land have been farmed and therefore remained undeveloped for centuries, with archaeological evidence of Roman and Bronze Age farming activity in Saltford.

Evidence from a geophysics survey by Bath & Counties Archaeological Society (BACAS) of the northern most aspect of Saltford Golf Club (on the immediate south side of the site) in January 2013 revealed “a number of areas where there are also possible round houses” and “an ovoid enclosure with indications of a round house”. Another geophysics survey by BACAS and Saltford Environment Group in October/November 2015 in the field where a Roman coffin was found in 1948, also on the south side of the village but west of Saltford golf course, revealed “a number of probable round house drip gullies.” These roundhouses could be from the late Bronze Age (1,100 BC – 800 BC) or Iron Age (800 BC – 43 AD); the two bronze socketed axe heads found in Saltford are further evidence of settlement during those time periods. The site is thought likely to contain some historic artefacts.

Saltford Parish Council is aware of the possible presence of a plague pit (or pits) within the environsof this parcel of land. The precise location of the pit is not shared in the public domain as this is a sensitive matter. Its actual complete size is not known or whether part of it extends to the site. It is not known if the pit(s) was used to bury the bodies of plague victims from just Saltford or from the neighbouring town of Keynsham also.

Unknown to residents at the time, a small WWII subterranean bunker was secretly built in Longwood during World War II for sabotage operations by specially trained clandestine Auxiliary Units if Britain was invaded. SPC is aware that possible evidence has been discovered of a further underground bunker on the western border area of the site but that has not yet been excavated so its size is unknown at present.

BaNES Council should discuss the above sensitive issues in confidence with Saltford Parish Council before any archaeological dig or trenching is proposed for this site due to the sensitivity surrounding the plague pit and the location of the possible WWII underground bunker.

ATTACHED ANNEXES TO THIS RESPONSE:

• • ‘The Saltford Area of Great Landscape Value – Planning Policy and Character Appraisal by Saltford Parish Council (March 2024) + Annex (Photographic Record)’
• • ‘Landscape and Heritage Sensitivity Assessment of Saltford South of the A4’ (June 2024)

www.saltfordparishcouncil.gov.uk