The disused training center could be turned into a car-free housing community

A former training center could be demolished and turned into a car-free and sustainable housing community. The disused Matrix Training Center near The Crescent in Sea Mills closed a few years ago but the site has been occupied and maintained by rangers who have planted different areas using raised beds and pots.

Tiny House Community Bristol (THCB), a registered community benefit society, has earmarked the site and another nearby car park to be developed into a shared housing community, with homes surrounding a shared courtyard garden. The society has submitted plans to Bristol City Council to demolish the disused Matrix training facility, existing housing on the northern site and the car park on the southern site.

THCB wants to divide the land into two sites, called the Northern Site and the Southern Site. The North site would include five two-bed properties, two three-bed properties, two one-bed properties, as well as a shared house and workshop. The South site would have three one-bed properties, one two-bed, a communal circular house and family accommodation.

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Applicants also want to include cultivation spaces, install landscaping and tree planting. The site would have no parking spaces, but there will be a disabled parking space and an access and return space for emergency services.

There are plans to create 34 bicycle parking spaces with electric charging facilities.

THCB say they are “dedicated to tackling Bristol’s housing, climate and environmental crises through community-led Tiny House settlements and we put nature and community at the heart of everything we do”. The application adds: “The proposals are for a mix of affordable/social rent and shared ownership.

“This is to meet a number of needs identified by the local community, Bristol City Council and THCB members, to diversify the limited housing supply in the area and better suit the changing population. Regenerative settlement will introduce new dimensions to the garden suburb model, being an infill site, as is done in Knowle West to optimize available land.”

The THCB adds that the scheme is “unique to Bristol” with low-impact urban housing and “creating an intentional community”. They add that its members and individuals have expressed interest in moving to the site as they aim to “provide an innovative solution to the growing housing crisis”.

The common garden space will have a common circular house, while its common spaces will be centrally positioned and face the allocated food growing space. THCB adds that they will keep waste to a minimum with low-flow toilets, aerated diffusers mounted on faucet nozzles, water flow restrictors and the use of various rainwater collection methods for multiple uses.

The plans have already attracted one objection, with an anonymous neighbor unhappy about the cutting of the hedges suggesting it would kill the hedges. They wrote: “Replacing a very green hedge with gray concrete and wood is not enough just to allow abnormal loads to move in and out of the site.

“When discussions were held with the residents, there was never any discussion about removing parts of their gardens that they have maintained for many years. This will be a large cost to neighboring properties in the future, even if the scheme is willing to front to put in the fence.

“To add a bin deposit with what looks like 7/8 bins behind the hedge – says nothing about pest mitigation in this area.”

The plans can be found online via Bristol City Council’s planning portal or under reference 24/01326/F.