The Development and Delivery Plan (or Plan for short), will guide the recovery, regeneration and transformation of Bristol city centre.
A draft of the Plan can be read on the Ask Bristol website. A consultation is now live for everyone to review and comment on the draft Plan.
The Plan sets out a vision for the future of the city centre and high-level principles to guide regeneration. It also identifies key changes required in the coming years to the city centre streets and spaces and the way land is used for development. These focus particularly on the Broadmead and Castle Park areas and will help transform them into more inclusive, sustainable and connected places and create a green, safe and vibrant city centre. Overall the Plan will help ensure future investment, development and regeneration is co-ordinated.
What is the Plan and how much influence will it have?
The Plan is a set of written documents and plans that will be used to inform and co-ordinate development and regeneration proposals across the area. Following consultation, the Plan will be reviewed, amended and submitted to the council’s Cabinet. If endorsed by the Cabinet, it will become a ‘material consideration’ which means that the council will have to take account of what is set out in the Plan when making decisions on planning applications. It will also be used by the council to guide land and investment decisions.
The Plan is not starting from scratch - it will build on the City Centre Framework which was adopted in 2020. This set out principles and broad proposals for regeneration and development in Bristol city centre. This work evolves that thinking further.
The Plan also considers existing and emerging strategies including the following:
- The emerging Local Plan
- The Joint Local Transport Plan
- The One City Plan
- The One City Climate Strategy
- The One City Economic Recovery Strategy
- The One City Ecological Emergency Strategy
- The One City Bristol Belonging Strategy for Children and Young People
- Liveable Neighbourhoods
It also takes account of what people have told us they want the city to be like in various recent surveys and consultations. Engagement has helped ensure the Plan is informed by an understanding of how people feel about the city centre at the moment and what they hope it could be like in the future. This has included workshops, on-street interviews, focus groups, sessions with young people, surveys of businesses, an online public survey and interactive map and ongoing discussions with partners and stakeholders.
Importantly it will also respond to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and city’s ambition to be carbon neutral and climate resilient by 2030.
Where our work is focussed
The term ‘city centre’ means different things to different people. This draft Plan is looking specifically at the area shown below (click the image to enlarge). It focuses on the area around Broadmead and Castle Park as key parts of the city centre where there is opportunity for regeneration.
What does the Plan include?
The Plan sets out a vision for the future of the city centre. This aims to provide a clear message about what the city centre should be like in the future. It reflects feedback from stakeholders and tries to capture everyone’s aspirations.
The Plan sets out how the vision can be achieved through six thematic strategies as shown in the diagram below. The six strategies are supported by more detailed plans for the main streets in the Broadmead area and for Castle Park. Priorities relating to sustainability are integrated throughout the six strategies.
What stage is the Plan at?
A draft Plan has now been published for consultation. A consultation about the draft Plan is now running until midnight on Sunday 1 October.
Click here to find out about the wider timeline for this Plan.
Links to other work
We are aware that there are many different projects underway in the areas around the city centre, such as:
Individual developers are also bringing forward plans for their sites.
We are working closely with all these people and plans for the city centre area are being developed with these in mind.