B&NES Council has worked with the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (WECA) to prepare a Growth Strategy for the West of England. This document sets out the overarching context for investment and development to support economic prosperity for our region as a whole. The Strategy envisages growth driven by an interconnected set of regional Growth Zones, where investment will bring new businesses, jobs, homes, culture, nature and opportunity. It identifies the two growth zones in B&NES as: Central Bristol and Bath (including the river corridor connecting them) and the Somer Valley This will be enabled by ambitious plans to transform our transport network, set out in the regional Transport Vision.
Encompassing the urban core of our region, the Central Bristol & Bath growth zone has three distinct areas with strong investment potential:
- Central Bristol
- Bristol to Bath Corridor
- Bath City Centre
While each investment opportunity is distinct, cumulatively they will play a crucial role in transforming our region, delivering a significant proportion of the economic growth and development that will shape a bright future for our cities.
The Bristol to Bath Corridor investment opportunity
Bath and Bristol are currently two separate and distinct economic areas, yet they are only 15 minutes apart by rail. If these economies were combined, they would become the 7th largest in England. The Corridor between these two thriving centres provides opportunities for us to better join the economies of our two cities. It will have exceptional connectivity by public transport and active travel (walking, cycling and wheeling) into Bath, Bristol and beyond, offering sustainable and affordable access to work, education and recreation for both new and existing communities.
The Bristol to Bath Corridor offers an opportunity to do things differently, building a network of connected communities within the valley landscape. The River Avon valley and its tributaries provide the environmental capital for a new way of living and can drive forward a thriving place that is both nature-positive and of optimum density.
Exemplary net zero and landscape-led sustainable housing developments and vibrant local businesses will create the standard for climate resilient placemaking and design. This will increase industrial and commercial capacity, job opportunities, and new homes of all types and tenures, including genuinely affordable homes. It will be unlocked through a well-connected, sustainable multi-modal transport corridor that offers a range of realistic transport choices and promotes active travel modes.
As a council, we are clear that growth and development need to deliver a better quality of life for our residents, now and in the future. The scale of development envisaged by the targets set for us to deliver new homes and employment space presents a challenge – but also an opportunity to tackle housing affordability and to bring new investment for local communities, supporting infrastructure, services and green spaces. Our Local Plan will set the spatial framework for development, whilst the proposed Movement Strategy will help ensure that a growing population is able to more easily get into and circulate around our principal City of Bath.
We will work with communities through our autumn programme of consultation and engagement to shape our shared vision for the district and for our individual communities – in Bath, Keynsham, Saltford Village, Whitchurch Village, the Somer Valley and our wider Rural Areas. These shared place-shaping visions will inform not only where development takes place, but how we will invest and deliver services to ensure that our communities thrive.
The A4 corridor between Bristol and Bath, and the A37 through Whitchurch Village, are characterised by persistent transport challenges. The most notable transport challenge is congestion at key junctions where peak-hour traffic volumes frequently exceed capacity, which leads to unreliable journey times and impacts air quality.
In Keynsham for example, the A4 acts as a barrier to north-south movement for pedestrians and cyclists, with limited safe crossing points and fragmented active travel infrastructure. Congestion on the main routes also results in through traffic diverting onto residential streets, impacting local communities. While bus services along both corridors are frequent, their reliability is undermined by the absence of bus priority measures, making them susceptible to delays. Additionally, clusters of road traffic collisions at major junctions highlight ongoing safety concerns for all road users.
The majority of the district located along the Bristol to Bath A4 corridor, and at the south east edge of Bristol is located within the Bristol and Bath Green Belt. Delivering future growth along the A4/rail corridor and to the south east of Bristol would require significant areas of land to be removed from the Green Belt. The impact of removing these parcels of land will need to be carefully considered both on an individual basis, including identification of potential areas of grey belt land reflecting updated national policy, and also cumulatively across the whole area, such that the five Green Belt purposes are not ‘fundamentally undermined’ when considered across the area of the plan.
As outlined in previous sections, WECA, with the constituent authorities, has commenced Stage 1 of a Strategic Green Belt Assessment that takes into account the updated NPPF 2024 and Green Belt Planning Practice Guidance published in 2025, including regarding the provisional identification of grey belt land. The assessment work is ongoing and will inform the Draft Local Plan. Following the Strategic Green Belt Assessment (Stage), it is likely a more detailed (Stage 2) assessment of the impact of development on more specific areas of the Green Belt will also be required, including consideration of whether the ‘golden rules’ are met, including providing new or improved publicly accessible green space.
Green infrastructure is a network of multi-functional green and blue spaces and other natural features, urban and rural, which is capable of delivering a wide range of environmental, economic, health and wellbeing benefits for nature, climate, and communities. Opportunities to enhance and extend the Green Infrastructure network should be central to the design of new developments, and development proposals should demonstrate strong links to the wider green infrastructure network.
Some of the site options set out in this section include reference to ‘Strategic Green Infrastructure Opportunities’, which are located outside of the area shown for potential development. These are indicative areas where the council considers that green infrastructure could be provided or improved to meet Natural England Green Infrastructure standards, and which may also offer nature-based solutions to address issues such as flooding and nature recovery. Work is ongoing to explore optimum locations. New and enhanced green infrastructure will either be funded by development in the area, or through other mechanisms to be explored as we prepare the Draft Local Plan.
The West of England Local Nature Recovery Strategy and Toolkit (LNRS) was published in November 2024. The LNRS identifies the following areas
- Areas that are already of importance to biodiversity. These are sites that are nationally designated for their value to nature (Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas); are designated as Local Nature Reserves; are locally designated as ‘Sites of Nature Conservation Interest’ (SNCIs); and/or are irreplaceable habitat including ancient woodland.
- Focus Areas for Nature Recovery. This is where action to recover nature will have the biggest impact and is most feasible. These have been mapped to reflect the priorities for nature recovery, and include all of the mapped measures for nature recovery. The focus areas for nature recovery are referred to as ‘areas that could become of particular importance’ in regulation.
The map below shows where these areas are located in the Bristol to Bath Corridor, and the relationship between these areas and the Site Options under consideration in this Options consultation. Constraints and opportunities are referenced for each Site Option where appropriate.
The River Avon flows between Bristol and Bath, in parallel with the A4 corridor. Areas of flood risk exist along parts of the River Avon, and Bristol City Council are currently preparing a Bristol Avon Flood Strategy, to consider potential areas of mitigation required along the river.
B&NES Council and Bristol City Council are in regular correspondence to discuss any impact that flood defence works in the Bristol area might have cross-boundary in B&NES, particularly in the north Keynsham area.
There may also be scope across the whole river catchment for areas of flood risk to be considered for nature-based solutions, and to explore key areas where retrofitting of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) could be beneficial.
Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council administrative areas are located directly to the north and west of the Bath to Bristol corridor. Therefore, meetings with both of these authorities have been undertaken and will continue to take place to discuss strategic cross-boundary matters such as transport, flood risk, Green Belt, and housing provision.