Planning evidence and monitoring

Find out about the evidence that underpins our local plan policies and how we monitor them.

Monitoring

We monitor development trends and carry out housing and business surveys to assess the effectiveness of local plan policies.

The pdf Housing Delivery Test Action Plan(188 KB) sets out the actions we are taking to boost the supply of homes in the city.

Evidence

The following evidence documents have informed the current local plan review.

Centres, shopping, and the evening economy

Design and conservation

You can find some documents that we use as evidence on the Conservation pages.

Central Area Context Study

This study from September 2013 has information on the historic development of Bristol and changes that have affected the central area of the city:

Economy and employment

The evidence base that informed the strategy for the provision of employment land and space in Bristol includes the following documents:

Flood risk

Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA)

The SFRA looks at how likely it is that different parts of Bristol will flood in the future.

SFRA Level 1 reports have an overview of the flood risk in Bristol:

SFRA Level 2 reports have more detail about areas in Bristol:

There are maps that go with the SFRA technical report:

pdf Land safeguarded from development that is required for current and future flood management(1.31 MB)

Avonmouth maps

Central area maps

Flood defence failure and flood risk maps

Central Area Flood Risk Assessment

This is a study on tidal and river flood risks in Central Bristol that we made with the Environment Agency.

You can look at pdf a summary report of the Central Flood Risk Assessment(7.15 MB) . You should use this alongside the SFRA as this has the most up to date information for the centre of Bristol.

To get the information used in the study, email the Environment Agency at WessexEnquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

Surface Water Management Plan (SWMP)

We'll use the SWMP to help us deal with flooding caused by heavy rainfall.

The pdf SWMP model summary(1.28 MB) has details of the flood modelling conducted.

If you need this information in an alternative format, email flood.data@bristol.gov.uk

There's information on parts of Bristol that have the highest risk of surface water flooding contained in the Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment report and accompanying surface water flood risk maps found above.

Green Belt

pdf West of England Combined Authority Strategic Green Belt Assessment (September 2022)(21.32 MB) .

Housing

We carry out assessments of housing need and of sites in Bristol that might be suitable for different types of housing:

Infrastructure

pdf Infrastructure Delivery Plan (November 2023)(897 KB)

The Avonmouth infrastructure study looks at flood risk, ecology and transport in the Avonmouth and Severnside area:

Natural environment

The Parks and Green Spaces Strategy has information on how green space in the city should be used. More information about the strategy can be found at pdf Bristol parks and green space strategy(21.28 MB) .

Severnside and Avonmouth Wetland Habitat Project

This project looked at what areas of land would be suitable as a habitat for wetland birds:

Sustainable energy and design

Transport

pdf Bristol Local Plan Highways and transport evidence: Evidence and information note (April 2024)(431 KB) .

You can also find documents that we use as evidence on the WECA transport webpage and our transport plans and projects page.

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