Toad campaigners oppose golf club expansion plans

Residents and wildlife campaigners are opposing the expansion of a golf course due to the impact it could have on a colony of toads.

Bristol and Clifton Golf Club has submitted a planning application to North Somerset Council to expand the facility and provide a nine-hole academy course.

Abbots Leigh environmentalists and residents have objected to the application because they believe imported soils to create the new facilities would endanger wildlife.

Planning consultant Matthew Kendrick said it was "early days for any objector to conclude there's an ecological impact".

According to the golf club's planning application, the current ground conditions in the area include fragmented bedrock which would be "expensive and unsustainable" to break down.

Therefore, the land will havesoil importedto create facilities including golf holes and sports pitches.

The application states this will have "sustainability benefit" as the imported material would otherwise be landfilled.

But Tim Martin, founder of Farm Wilder, a not-for-profit organisation working with rewilding and regenerative agriculture, said there is a "fundamental flaw" in the application.

"They haven't taken into account runoff of water at all," he said.

"As soon as it rains, that's all going to run off straight down Manor Road into Abbotts Pool, and it's going to pollute the pool, it's going to damage the ecology of it."

Chair of the Avon Reptile and Amphibian Group, Andy Ryder, said in a statement the team was aware of the proposal and was "deeply concerned".

"The Abbots Pool Nature Reserve is one of the last remaining local strongholds for our beleaguered common toads," he said.

Martin said he was also concerned about the use of Weir Lane outside Abbots Leigh to transport the waste soil to the golf site.

"To move all that soil down Weir Lane will require 46,000 truck movements over two years," he said.

"That'll be a truck on Weir Lane every seven minutes.

"[The lane will] have to be expanded - it's a very narrow, overgrown, beautiful little woodlands."

Kendrick argued that the soil for the expansion has to be suitable for purpose, with the development improving run-off with "sustainable urban drainage systems" that have to be agreed with the council.

"I think it's early days for any objector to conclude there's an ecological impact," he said.

He added Weir Lane only has one residential property on it, and they have checked to make sure the lane is wide enough for lorries.

"The need for the facility - that seems to have been ignored," Kendrick said.

"There's an aging membership. Some of them can't play the full 18 holes, so they need something shorter, less challenging.

"[Secondly, the club] is trying to get more youths into the game to essentially address the demographic imbalance."

A spokesperson for North Somerset Council confirmed it had received a planning application and encouraged people to submit their comments by 29 January.

"We will carefully consider all the comments received when determining the application," a spokesperson said.

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