The Planning Committee of Bradley Stoke Town Council has lodged a strongly-worded objection to a change of usage application for the site of the Bristol Motorcycle Training Centre in the south-east corner of the town.
The centre, located within the Vantage Office Park on Old Gloucester Road, was established in 1979 and claims to have been the country’s first purpose built motorcycle training facility.
Located at the highest point of the business park [map], the centre lies close to houses in The Worthys and Elan Hay Road, but is not visible from those roads due to the presence of trees and hedgerows.
Access to the site is from the business park’s main entrance, opposite the Amcor factory in Old Gloucester Road.
Councillors (or, more likely, the Town Clerk) recalled that they had twice before (in 1997 and 1998) objected to similar plans and repeated that they believe the proposed development would result in “unacceptable additional traffic”, leading to “more noise and pollution”.
The Planning Committee was also critical of the local planning authority for, it believes, failing to define an overall policy for development at the Vantage Office Park site:
The status of numerous planning applications for this area has been confused to say the least – distribution units, dwellings, care homes, motor cycle training facilities, etc. A policy for the whole site should be determined before allowing any development at all.
It is not known if the applicants have any connection with the business presently operating at the site. A source at the training centre claimed to be unaware of the latest planning application.
It seems odd that the town council planning committee should object to a vehicle showroom on the basis of additional traffic when there have been so many office developments on the same site over the last decade!
Mind you, I don’t know how many people work there now, but I must confess it’s not really one of the traffic bottlenecks in north Bristol, even in rush hour. I drive past the Winterbourne Rd/Old Gloucester Rd junction every day to get to work at Aztec West without much issue.