Bristol Council to be directly involved with all Bristol sites for sale and for lease.
There are sites throughout Bristol which are large sites and they are being advertised for sale or for lease but often people cannot get past the gatekeeper on the telephone to find out full details about the site, how much the owner wants for the site and they cannot be sent any details.
The sites aren't always added to databases and made searchable and those sites certainly do not appear in results. Then at planning meetings we hear excuses like "there's been no interest".
Bristol City Council should start an online database which lists every site in the city which is vacant and make it mandatory for all new sites and sites which become vacant to be added to this database. Any sites missed by owners will be faced with a huge fines for potentially holding back the city from potential investors searching online from national and international locations.
Bristol Council to have a telephone number added to all sites being advertised so that callers going to a gatekeeper can call BCC instead and ensure that their call is taken seriously when the BCC dept have details of the site owner and the agency involved. Penalties for potentially causing delay to investors as well.
An eysore tax for sites which bring down the appearance of local communities and lead to areas feeling deprived.
Why the contribution is important
It's important because businesses aren't seeing all opportunities online and those opportunities for Bristol are across various databases when they should also be in one smart searchable location.
It's important because planners ask for a change of use for sites which aren't being properly advertised.
It will get Bristol building a lot quicker and it cuts out the middle team if they do not act fast enough to see sites developed with current planning permission.
An eyesore tax of say 20% a year will see BCC take full control of the city's most neglected sites within 3 years if the owner doesn't take action or has vanished beyond reach.
by user946047 on December 24, 2013 at 01:08AM
Posted by user251846 December 31, 2013 at 14:22
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Posted by user428889 January 03, 2014 at 16:17
We can see where you're coming from, but.........
There are a number of elements in your idea which the council would not have the legal power / ability to do:
**mandate all sites are added to a database
**employ a team of people to run this service at a time where we're trying to save £90 million (a quarter of our budget)
**impose 'huge fines' on land not registered with this service
**impose an 'eyesore tax'
The council has to act within the law and actually has far more limited powers than most people believe. English Planning law is decided centrally at Westminster and we operate within the legal framework the Parliament determines.
Read more on the government's planning reform: http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06418.pdf
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Posted by user946047 January 04, 2014 at 13:43
Legal powers are sadly an issue but hopefully Mr Ferguson can raise similar ideas with No.10 next time he has the opportunity. This is a UK wide problem so it should be tackled as such..
I don't think you need to employ a team of people here. It's just a database, you'll need an administrator and for people working in customer services to have access to the system. Easy and effortless to implement. You just need contact details for the site owners, planning permission for each site and a e-paper-trail. Someone to contact the site owner every few weeks as well. This will pay for itself time and time again by getting Bristol building. You can use a little section of Community Infrastructure Levy from every job to cover staff costs and upkeep of the system.
Kind regards
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