In January this year we asked the Secretary of State to ‘call in’ the St Mary le Port proposal and to hold a public inquiry in order to examine all aspects of the proposals. We have just received this reply from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities:
The Government remains committed to giving more power to councils and communities to make their own decisions on planning issues and believe that planning decisions should be made at the local level wherever possible. The call-in policy makes it clear that the power to call in a case will only be used very selectively.
The Secretary of State has decided, having had regard to this policy, not to call in this application. He is satisfied that the application should be determined at a local level.
I appreciate that this is not the preferred outcome for you, and I understand that there will be great disappointment as a result. It is however, now for the Council to determine this application.
Simon Birch
Previous Civic Society coverage of St Mary le Port: January 2022, May 2021 and July 2021
The new building is just as bad as the one proposed earlier. The massing is far too high in this ancient area of Bristol and the building itself resembles the worst “designs” of the 60’s and 70’s. It is brutal and pays no respect to the surrounding area. The existing Bank of England building was always a poor design, in my opinion, but it was at least inoffensive and of a more suitable scale. The new proposal looks like a ridiculous
stack of boxes. I just wonder if it would be more acceptable if the two top “boxes” were removed and a pitched and hipped metal clad over hanging low rise roof was installed instead – dream on!!.
The present design must at all costs be rejected.
St Mary Le Port is as old as Bristol itself, it is a hugely symbolic building and what is left of it must be cherished. To surround the church within even larger sole-less buildings would be an absolute travesty and a result of obscene greed to extract the maximum return from this site of historic interest. We really must protect this site and the best way to do this would be to clear the existing monstrosities and extend Castle Park to include this area. If we don’t then future generations of Bristolians will never figure us.
Are you deranged? It’s a bombed out shell which looks ghastly and horrific no matter the history behind it. No tourists or locals bother to read up or are interested in it’s history since it’s usually surrounded by or full of people downing cans of thatchers gold or huffing nitrous oxide.