Core Strategy - Consultation Draft
CS24: Royal Portbury Dock
The role of Royal Portbury Dock will be maintained and enhanced.
Land at Court House Farm, Easton-in-Gordano/Portbury will continue to be safeguarded for port uses, subject to demonstrable need for those uses that cannot be accommodated elsewhere within the port estate and to detailed requirements to be set out in a Site Allocations DPD. Further expansion of the port within North Somerset is not supported.
This policy contributes towards achieving Priority Objective 5.
Draft RSS (Policy RTS5) confirms that the future needs of the port can only be assessed across the whole complex, which involves Bristol as well as North Somerset. The RSS Panel report concluded that the next longer-term development of the port will occur on the north side of the river.
The Core Strategy approach
Expansion at Royal Portbury Dock up to 2011 is provided for by Policy E/6 of the North Somerset Replacement Local Plan and land safeguarded, subject to proof of need and other detailed requirements. The Core Strategy continues this approach. No further land for port use will be identified.
How and where the policy will be delivered
Development of the port is led by its owners, whose responsibility it is to ensure that the environmental impacts of growth are satisfactorily addressed. The council will seek the preparation of a port master plan covering the whole of the Port of Bristol.
The policy safeguards land and will be applied through development management procedures.
Alternative options and contingency planning
The alternative considered would be to take a more relaxed approach to the expansion of the port. This has been rejected because the amenities of residents of Easton-in-Gordano and Portbury are an important consideration that should be highlighted in policy. So too is the protection of open countryside, which the RSS recognises should not be sacrificed in advance of a demonstrable need for development. Other land around the port in North Somerset is approved Green Belt; this status is only alterable in exceptional circumstances.
Monitoring and review
Monitoring of planning applications.
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