Basically, we aren’t in a floodplain and we have a railway station and secondary school with capacity which has put Nailsea in the spotlight for further housing.

And planners see us all working from home with our high-speed internet or cycling to Bristol along the Festival Way.

Of the many sites identified for potential building in Nailsea and Backwell none has been discounted even if it has ‘drainage’ issues.

For instance, ‘site within or partly with a Groundwater Source Protection Zone’ or being in the Greenbelt with part of site having ‘Priority Habitat’ status are all still in the mix.

North Somerset Council has prepared a draft local plan which will be discussed at its executive committee on Wednesday, February 2.

Nailsea has no councillor on this committee and Backwell has Green Party ward councillor Bridget Petty.

Government tells us 20,000 homes must be built in North Somerset in the next 15 years, that is before 2038.

An interesting inclusion is this paragraph about a new road.

It says ‘in order to unlock growth at Nailsea, this will enable a road link crossing the railway linking to the Nailsea side of Station Road, improving access to Nailsea and access for buses and reducing congestion at Backwell crossroads. A potential road link to the west of Backwell is also being investigated. The transport improvements will require further investigation but will require contributions from all development sites in the area.’

Read more HERE which links to agenda papers for the executive.

Seven per cent of North Somerset is 215,000 (2019 estimate) population live in Nailsea.

With developers looking to build on Nailsea’s fringe a new site on the south of Nailsea is proposed for 600 dwellings.

This is adjacent to, and east of, the site won on appeal for 450 dwellings and will be located inside Youngwood Lane and include walking and cycling links to the station.

This would involve development on part of the land currently designated as the Strategic Gap.

To mitigate the impact of this and other proposals it is proposed to replace the existing Strategic Gap between Nailsea and Backwell with a new extension to the existing Green Belt to ensure its long-term protection.

North Somerset’s primary town is Weston-super-Mare accounting for just over 30 per cent of the population, followed by Portishead at 11 per cent and Clevedon 10 per cent.

In total, more than 60 per cent of North Somerset’s population live in its main towns, influencing the future transport provision and infrastructure.

And if you want a long-life North Somerset is the place to live/retire with 12 per cent of the population aged 75+ above the national norm of eight per cent.

Nailsea does not show up on the charts as an area of deprivation.

The most deprived areas are parts of Weston-super-Mare.

The least deprived areas are to the east of Portishead, and to the south west of Bristol, such as Long Ashton.

Most of the district falls outside of the top 60 per cent most deprived areas in England and Wales.

Most people living in Nailsea work in Bristol.

Nailsea / Backwell area snippets from the council papers:

• These proposed growth areas are close to the main town of Nailsea and therefore a reasonable level of amenities, facilities and services. Nailsea and Backwell have good links to Bristol and the employment opportunities in the city, albeit relatively low employment density in the towns themselves.

• The proposed growth areas, especially south of Nailsea are nearby to Nailsea and Backwell rail station. This station provides connections to both Weston-super-Mare and Bristol, and beyond, opening up greater opportunities to employment and other services.

• The A370 is a good corridor for bus routes, already providing connections between Nailsea and Backwell, Bristol and Weston. Development in the area has the potential to improve bus services further, providing an additional travel option to rail and car, by connecting to the main towns as well as the villages off the A370.

• The Nailsea and Backwell area benefits from access to one of the main strategic active travel routes in the district; the Festival Way. This largely traffic-free route directly links Nailsea and Bristol, via Flax Bourton and Long Ashton, opening up a safe and reliable walking and cycling route for leisure and utility purposes. Pedestrian infrastructure is present on majority of roads, albeit narrow and intermittent in places.

• The percentages that cycle to work in this area, taken from the PCT 2011 Census dataset, is one of the highest in the district, potentially as a result of the Festival Way and relative proximity to Bristol. In the E-bikes scenario, commuter cycling levels have the potential to increase to 20% and in the Go Dutch scenario, there is the potential for cycling levels to increase to 30 per cent.

• Broadband speeds in this area are good, with ultrafast speeds available in Nailsea and Backwell and could easily be extended to the growth areas adjacent to these urban centres. 

• Urban focused housing and employment development with growth concentrated at Weston-super-Mare and Nailsea, outside of the Green Belt.

• Limited development in villages, except where growth would be at a proportionate scale, such as Yatton, Backwell.

• Limited rural development, mostly in windfall sites