SYCAMORE Wood, an area near Gloucester Road, has been saved from a proposed development through formal recognition of its local name.
To the relief of those opposing the proposals, a planning application to build flats in the wooded area behind Tesco Express in Bishopston, was rejected earlier this year. The applicant described the area as ‘waste ground’, but the Planning Inspector recognised it by its local name of ‘Sycamore Wood’.
Peter Browne, from Friends of Sycamore Wood (FoSW), explains: “We have been encouraged to seek further protection from new development applications by asking Bristol City Council to make a Woodland Tree Protection Order (TPO). Unlike TPOs for existing individual trees, a Woodland TPO would protect all the trees in the Wood, at present and in the future. Currently, only six of the trees are protected under a TPO.”
Historically, what is now Sycamore Wood was the back gardens of the Gloucester Road shops between numbers 163-175. By the 1970s, people had ceased to live above the shops and the gardens had been abandoned and overgrown, their fences disappeared. The only access to the area was (and still is) from the individual shops – and the shopkeepers by and large had no reason to use it. Nowadays, the lack of public access has allowed this small wood to grow naturally, undisturbed at the heart of a larger area of trees growing in neighbouring residential gardens. Within that area, Sycamore Wood has become a wildlife haven and corridor, populated with flora and fauna and creating a natural barrier from the noise and other pollution from Gloucester Road and beyond.
With concerns about further commercial development, encroachment, dumping of waste, and loss or damage to trees, FoSW hopes that a full Woodland TPO would improve the limited protection against development already in place as part of the Bishopston Conservation Area.
One ‘encroachment’ undermining tree space is the large concrete yard belonging to the Tesco Express which is used for storing supermarket stock cages. However, the unexpected announcement that the store will be closing at the end of the year should free up some planting space once that lease expires.
Peter adds: “We hope that securing the future of the Wood through the Woodland TPO will also encourage better care of the area, with opportunities for further planting and maintenance, as well as controlled public access for enjoyment and education. “
The request for Woodland TPO status was lodged with Bristol City Council at the end of October and is still under consideration.