{"id":32879,"date":"2025-12-05T08:18:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/?p=32879"},"modified":"2025-12-05T08:18:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:18:31","slug":"high-court-dismisses-claim-to-block-bristol-zoo-housing-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/32879-high-court-dismisses-claim-to-block-bristol-zoo-housing-development","title":{"rendered":"High Court dismisses claim to block Bristol Zoo housing development"},"content":{"rendered":"

A campaign to block plans to build 196 homes on the former Bristol Zoo site have suffered a major setback after a judicial review was rejected.<\/p>\n

The High Court dismissed the challenge brought by Save Bristol Gardens Alliance, which had argued that Bristol City Council unlawfully used outdated metrics to calculate biodiversity and carbon emissions, and failed to properly assess the loss of open space.<\/p>\n

The ruling clears a major obstacle to the sale of the 12-acre Clifton site, which Bristol Zoological Society closed in 2022 after 186 years.<\/p>\n

The charity plans to sell the land to Acorn Property Group for redevelopment into 196 homes, which would include 20% affordable housing, a public park, caf\u00e9, playground and conservation hub.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Dr Justin Morris, Bristol Zoo<\/p><\/div>\n

Bristol Zoological Society chief executive Dr Justin Morris said the legal challenge and associated campaigns had cost the charity more than \u00a3300,000 in legal fees \u2013 money he said could have funded 35,000 disadvantaged children to visit the zoo for free or paid for six years of field conservation work.<\/p>\n

“We cannot state clearly enough the impact and financial toll of these legal challenges,” Morris said. “In recent years we have faced a concerted campaign by individuals who have purposefully delayed the sale of Bristol Zoo Gardens, preventing us from accessing the proceeds and harming our charity and work.”<\/p>\n

He said the delays had forced the charity to postpone construction of new visitor infrastructure at Bristol Zoo Project, its replacement site at Cribbs Causeway, including parking and pedestrian access. The charity has also had to make redundancies and cut costs.<\/p>\n

A Save Bristol Gardens Alliance spokesperson said the ruling was “not by any means the end of the opposition to this dreadful plan”.<\/p>\n

They added: “Had the Zoological Society and its Board consulted properly in the first place, listened to the people of Bristol, and been open to an alternative scheme that did not entail such vast environmental destruction, we might have avoided going to court.”<\/p>\n

\"\"

The planned Bristol Zoo Gardens development (Credit: Perkins & Will)<\/p><\/div>\n

The judicial review was heard over two days in May and the judgement was handed down on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

It examined three grounds of challenge: whether the planning application used outdated biodiversity metrics that calculated a net positive impact when updated metrics would show a net loss; whether carbon emission calculations used outdated criteria; and whether the development unlawfully reduced protected open space.<\/p>\n

In dismissing the case, Mr Justice Mould said: “I have not found it necessary to refer to the evidence given in the witness statements filed by the parties.<\/p>\n

“The orthodox approach to determining a claim for judicial review of a grant of planning permission, where the local planning authority has essentially founded its decision on the advice and conclusions of its planning officer, is well settled.<\/p>\n

“This court should focus on the reasoning in the planning officer\u2019s report and the evidence which was before the local planning authority at the time of its decision. That has been my approach in this case.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judicial review rejects attempt by campaigners to overturn council’s planning decision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":32880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"coauthors":[81],"class_list":["post-32879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-bristol-and-bath","tag-top-story"],"yoast_head":"\nHigh Court dismisses claim to block Bristol Zoo housing development - South West<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/south-west\/news\/32879-high-court-dismisses-claim-to-block-bristol-zoo-housing-development\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"High Court dismisses claim to block Bristol Zoo housing development - 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