Willsbridge Valley
High
Valley green space and surrounding land. Watching for planning pressure, Green Belt impact, traffic, drainage, landscape and community-separation issues.
Between: Hanham · Willsbridge · Bitton
Green
Belt
The land across Bitton & Oldland Common, Hanham, Longwell Green, and Parkwall & Warmley wards is not vacant land. It is functional Green Belt, and once it is gone, it is gone.
The Argument
The Green Belt is not just nice views.
The Green Belt around Hanham, Willsbridge, Bitton and surrounding communities helps keep places distinct and prevents one continuous sprawl. In some locations, it also protects valued landscape, walking routes, wildlife corridors and land that helps manage water. Each site should be judged on what it actually does for the local area.
We need homes. Nobody on this campaign disputes that. What we dispute is housing dumped on already stretched roads, schools, GP surgeries and buses, with no infrastructure to match. That is not a housing strategy. That is a planning failure dressed up as ambition.
The principle
Green Belt here is not nostalgia. It is functional space for busy suburban communities, the only thing keeping Our South Glos from becoming one continuous sprawl with one set of strained services.
Once.
It can only be lost once
Green Belt is irreversible
4 → 1
Four wards or one sprawl
What the Green Belt protects
First.
Infrastructure before homes
Roads, GPs, buses, schools
Our Three Tests
Every approval has to pass them.
1. Keep communities distinct
The Green Belt across Bitton & Oldland Common, Hanham, Longwell Green, and Parkwall & Warmley wards is what stops Our South Glos from blurring into one place. Each loss closes that distance permanently.
2. Infrastructure before expansion
No more housing approvals that arrive without roads, buses, school places and GP access to match. If the infrastructure isn't funded and timed, the answer is not yet.
3. Protect functional space
In many places the Green Belt is doing a real job — protecting landscape, walking routes, wildlife corridors and the land that helps manage water. Strip those functions out and the cost lands on household budgets and local services.
Green Belt Watch
The sites we are tracking.
A working list of green belt land flagged in pre-application interest, planning pipeline activity, or repeat resident reports. Updated as the campaign learns more.
Land near Bitton
Medium
Rural-edge land helping separate Bitton from surrounding urban pressure. Any proposal should be judged against Green Belt purpose, road impact, landscape, drainage and local infrastructure.
Between: Bitton · Oldland Common · Cadbury Heath
Hanham East Fringe
Medium
Eastern-edge watch area. Any named proposal should be checked for Green Belt, traffic, GP access, drainage, pavements and community-separation impact.
Between: Hanham · Longwell Green
Cadbury Heath approach
Watching
Resident-raised watch area. Monitoring for any named application, site proposal or formal planning movement.
Between: Cadbury Heath · Oldland Common · Parkwall
Threat levels reflect campaign judgement based on planning pipeline activity, repeat resident reports, and the strategic importance of each section of belt. Not legal status. Always check the South Glos planning portal for the formal record.
The bottom line
Once it is gone, it is gone.
You cannot un-build a housing estate in a green belt. You cannot reinstate functional Green Belt. The decisions made over the next planning cycle will define what Our South Glos looks like for the next generation.
How to help
Three things you can do today.
Add Your Name
Sign up to back the campaign. Numbers count when planning decisions are made.
Tell Us About a Site
If you've heard about a green belt site under threat, log it through the Squeeze Audit.
Comment on Live Applications
Where there is a live planning application, your formal comment carries weight. We'll point you to it.
Share With Neighbours
Most green belt losses happen in silence. The single biggest defence is awareness on the street.
Common questions
Reasonable questions, straight answers.
Are you against all new housing?
No. The campaign is explicit: infrastructure before expansion. If a development comes with funded, timed roads, GP access, school places and bus links, that is a different conversation from what is happening today, which is housing approvals followed by promises.
Isn't the Green Belt just nostalgia?
The Green Belt does real work. In many places it separates communities, breaks up commuter traffic, and protects landscape, walking routes and the land that helps manage water. Strip those functions out and those costs do not disappear, they land on household budgets, council services, and flood insurance.
Why focus on these communities?
Because they are linked. The pressures that hit Hanham land on Longwell Green a year later. The bus that gets cut on Bitton's evening route is the same one residents in Oldland Common can't use to get home. Our communities. One campaign.
What about national housing targets?
National targets are real. Local capacity is also real. The job of a council is to apply targets in a way that does not break the place delivering them. That is what infrastructure-first planning actually means.
How will you report progress?
Every 30 days, in public, by community. What was raised. What was done. What is still outstanding. Including the green belt watch list, sites added, sites cleared, sites still under threat.