Exciting news… it looks like Michael Gove is considering whether to intervene in the decision to approve Broadwalk!

There is a process where you can ask for a planning application to be “called-in” and scrutinised by the government, and Cllr Lisa Stone (Windmill Hill, Green) very kindly wrote to him about the Broadwalk scandal. Other local Cllrs have since written to support her request. The chances of a call-in request being accepted at 1000:1 so we really didn’t expect anything of it, it was just one of many different avenues of justice that we were exploring, to leave no stone unturned.

I never expected Michael Gove to be my knight in shining armour in any aspect of my life - or anyone else’s for that matter - but we heard that his team are interested in what’s happening at Broadwalk and have added it to the short-list. It may not make the grade and he may not intervene, but just making the shortlist means that everything related to the planning application has to freeze. As you can imagine, the Developers are delighted about this!

If we are lucky enough to make the shortlist (and if he agrees with us) Mr Gove had the ability to squash the decision of the 5th July and to dictate that the application should be refused. In many ways this would be far better than a successful judicial review, as the most likely outcome of a JR is that all the meetings are nullified and we have to start the decision-making process afresh. 

This week’s news is all very positive, but we’ll hope for the best while planning for the worst. So work continues apace on the JR and legal side of things, and we really need you all to make BCC feel the pressure by signing the petition (https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/loss-of-confidence-in-bristol-s-planning-system and joining our protest at 5pm on 12th Sept (College Green) 

Thanks as always for getting us to this point - we couldn’t have got this far without you! 

Laura & Helen