11,000 signatures, an MP’s backing, and what we do next...
Thank you!
Eleven weeks ago this petition didn’t exist. When we downloaded the final list on Friday morning, 10,736 people had signed online. A further 417 signed by hand on paper sheets at drop-in sessions and in local shops. That makes more than 11,000 signatures in all.
What you did:
This wasn’t a handful of neighbours. Around four in ten online signatures came from North Somerset, and nearly a third from the BS20 postcode alone, which covers Portishead and its neighbouring villages.
Nine residents wrote letters to the Prime Minister. Children from Portishead and the surrounding villages sent us 102 drawings and messages, from “Save all the trees” to “Do not destroy the woods please”.
Every one of those names was collected by someone: a person with a clipboard, a sheet on a shop counter, a link shared in a group chat, a word with a neighbour. Thank you to every one of you who did that.
Where your petition goes now:
Every name, letter and drawing is now bound into one 713-page document. On Wednesday 14th October it goes to 10 Downing Street. We’ll ask the Government to look hard at the Tower Farm and Black Rock allocations while the Local Plan examination is still running.
We also met our MP, Sadik Al-Hassan, to talk about the petition and the wood. This is his public statement:
“I am a firm believer in building the homes North Somerset needs. However, they must be the right homes, in the right places, for the right people.
We must also ensure that new development supports our climate commitments through good planning, sustainable design, passive cooling, and the protection of our natural environment.
Any development that threatens the existence of ancient woodland fails to meet those tests.
Weston Big Wood is already under pressure from overuse and years of insufficient maintenance. Its decline should never be used as an excuse to accelerate its loss. Instead, it should strengthen our resolve to protect and restore it.
It was fantastic to meet with the organisers of the campaign and hear about the work that has gone into the petition to save Weston Big Wood. I support efforts not only to protect the woodland from the impact of inappropriate development, but also to address its current challenges so that future generations can enjoy it responsibly.
I look forward to presenting the petition to the Prime Minister and continuing to make the case for protecting this precious local asset.”
Sadik Al-Hassan MP, North Somerset
We’re not on our own. Avon Wildlife Trust, who own and manage Weston Big Wood, are working alongside us and have started speaking up for the wood publicly. Stuart will be joining us at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday, and the Trust will be with us at the public meeting on 21st October and at the Gathering at Merlin Park on the 31st October. In addition, the Trust will be making a representation at the planning hearings on 8th December.
And yes, the Parkers Strategic Land planning application is in for Tower Farm... https://www.towerfarmportishead.co.uk/
Parker Strategic Land are the developer promoting Tower Farm; they are behind an outline planning application for up to 400 homes on the site (reference 26/P/1618/OUT). North Somerset Council validated it on 1st October. Comments close on Thursday 5th November.
This is where your voice counts most. The petition shows how a community feels, but it isn’t a formal planning objection. A comment on the application is. Anyone can make one, whether or not you commented on the Local Plan last year.
Three things you can do next:
Please comment on the application by Thursday 5th November. Go to planning.n-somerset.gov.uk, search for 26/P/1618/OUT, open the Comments tab and choose Make a Comment. You can also write to Planning, 2 West Post Point, North Somerset Council, Town Hall, Weston-super-Mare BS23 1UJ, quoting the reference. (Please note that emailed comments are not counted.) Write in your own words about what you know: the school run on The Downs, how you use the wood, the wildlife you’ve seen, water on the fields after rain. The Council weighs planning reasons, not the number of objections. One accurate comment from someone who lives here counts for more than a long one copied from elsewhere. Click here for our short guide on how to comment.
Be the wood’s eyes. The Council will judge this application on evidence, and the people who know this place best are the ones who live here. Your observations, dated and photographed, can show things a consultant’s report written on a few visits may miss. There are three things we’d especially like you to look out for.
- The school run on The Downs. The Downs would be the only road in and out of the new estate, and it runs past two primary schools. On a school day, between about 2.45 and 3.45pm, count how many cars are parked along it. Note anything that looks unsafe: blocked pavements, children crossing between parked cars, vehicles struggling to pass.
- Water after rain. If you walk the public footpaths around Tower Farm after heavy rain, look out for standing water on the fields or water coming up out of the ground. Note exactly where it is.
- Wildlife. Look out for bats, owls, deer, birds, plants and fungi in and around the wood and the fields. Dusk is the best time for bats and owls.
For anything you spot, note the date, time and exact place, and take a photo if you can. Traffic and water: email info@swbwportishead.co.uk with the topic in the subject line (eg: “The Downs, 14 Oct”).
Wildlife: log it on iNaturalist, the free wildlife-recording app. Anything you record in and around Portishead appears automatically in our project, Wildlife of Weston Big Wood, Portishead. Records from the wood and the Tower Farm fields are the ones that matter most. Click Join on the project page if you’d like to follow what others are finding. A record on iNaturalist is public, dated and mapped, and other naturalists can confirm what you saw, so it carries more weight than a photo on its own. If you’d rather not use the app, email your wildlife sightings to us instead. We’ll gather everything into one dated record for the campaign’s response to the Council. Please stay on public paths, keep children’s faces out of photos, and never disturb wildlife. If you find a bat roost or a nest, email us rather than posting it publicly.
Thanking Sadik and asking him to stay with us to the hearings could also help. If you live in the North Somerset constituency, you can email him at sadik.alhassan.mp@parliament.uk. Give your address, because he can only act for constituents. Tell him in your own words why the wood matters to you, and ask him if he would please take part in the Tower Farm session of the Local Plan hearings on 8th December. The Planning Inspectorate’s own guidance, paragraph 5.5, says an MP can take part in a hearing session on behalf of constituents, even without having commented on the plan before.
Dates for your calendar:
- Sat–Sun 10th–11th October: petition weekend with Portishead Town Council
- Wed 14th October: petition hand-in at 10 Downing Street
- Wed 21st October, 7.30 pm–9 pm: public meeting at Somerset Hall, Portishead, hosted by Portishead Town Council with Avon Wildlife Trust
- Tue 27th October: deadline for written hearing statements (only for those taking part in the hearings)
- Sat 31st October, 10 am–12 noon: community gathering on the lower field of Merlin Park
- Thu 5th November: comments close on the Tower Farm application
- Tue 8th December, 10 am: the Inspectors’ hearing on Matter 13, which includes Tower Farm, at the Town Hall, Weston-super-Mare. Anyone can come and watch, and a full room counts
Two more ways to stay involved:
1) Our parliamentary petition 777301 is still open until 12 February 2027. It asks the Government to clarify Grey Belt policy for land next to nationally protected nature sites. At 10,000 signatures, the Government has to respond in writing: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/777301 (You might also be interested in this Parliamentary petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/766093).
2) This is the last update you’ll get from this petition. From now on, every update will be on Facebook at facebook.com/swbwportishead, so please follow us there.
If you do one thing this autumn, please comment on the application before 5th November.
Thank you for getting us this far. We hope to see you on the 21st or 31st October!
Tom & Susan
Save Weston Big Wood