Residents who beat gas power station now 'urging support' for energy firm's Plan B

"We are urging everyone to support the planning application"

A group of residents who successfully fought off plans for a gas burning power station next to their local children’s nursery have thrown their weight behind the plan the energy firm came up with next.

Neighbourhood Planning Group Plan-El, which is made up of people who live and work in the St Phillips area of Bristol, have said they are now backing a second plan for a site owned by an energy firm.

Conrad Energy were refused permission to build a gas power station to generate electricity on the site of a scrapyard near to a nursery school in St Phillips.

Want Bristol news straight to your inbox?

Sign up to our daily newsletter using the box at the top of this article, read all about what's involved here, or click here to see all of our newsletters

But now the energy firm has submitted an alternative application which, instead of burning gas to generate power, now is an electricity storage base using giant batteries.

Residents fought a long campaign against Conrad Energy’s original plan for the car breakers yard at Philip Street, just a short distance behind Temple Meads station, and won the crucial backing of the Mayor, Marvin Rees, in the days leading up to the planning committee decision.

In early 2019, residents were celebrating after councillors said they shared their concerns over the gas power station plan, and refused it planning permission.

And again just a few months ago, the campaigners at Plan-El said they were delighted when Conrad Energy confirmed they would not be appealing that decision.

Now, the energy firm has returned with an alternative plan, which has got the backing of the local residents.

The plan would see the site cleared and large batteries installed to store electricity for the National Grid, housed in four long, low green units.

Plan El, local residents and people who run businesses nearby met with Conrad Energy last week in a video conference. “Having discussed the scheme with Conrad Energy, we are urging everyone to support the planning application,” said Stuart Phelps, from one of the campaign groups Residents Against Dirty Energy.

“Overall we support this application as it is a significant contribution to the future of a sustainable city as opposed to the previous application, which we wholeheartedly opposed,” he added.

Plan-El’s support was given a caveat that work needed to be done to ensure that the construction traffic to create the battery power site did not adversely affect parents and children at the local nursery school, and that the cooling fans aren’t too noisy when the plant is operational.