News / KNowle West
Plans to build flats above convenience store approved
Plans have been approved to extend a convenience store in south Bristol and build flats above it.
Bristol City Council has given the green light for the redevelopment of the site on Melvin Square in Knowle West.
The development will see the Best-one shop and post office enlarged, but with seven new flats across two floors on top of it.
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Plans have been approved to extend a convenience store in Knowle West and build flats above it – photo: 3bd Architects
The council’s planning committee approved the proposals despite officers recommending them for refusal, saying they are “out of character” with the surrounding area.
But 200 people signed a petition in support of the plans, and a local councillor says the two two-bed and five one-bed flats will add to the mix of accommodation in the area.
Speaking at the planning committee meeting on Wednesday, Filwood councillor Zoe Goodman said: “The ground-floor store is a popular local convenience store that currently has very limited floor space. It has narrow aisles that lead to overcrowding at times which restrict access to people in wheelchairs or those with buggies.
“The improved layout would provide 50 per cent more floor space and this proposed expansion of floor space would allow expansion of the fresh produce range, which is an important consideration given that Filwood currently has no supermarkets.”
The former post office and flower shop on Melvin Square, pictured in 2012 – photo: Google
The Melvin Square Post Office site was previously redeveloped almost a decade ago, when the current shop was built in place of the former post office and flower shop buildings.
Opposite the shop, on the other end of Melvin Square, is Carpenters Place, a three-storey block of flats built in place of The Venture Inn pub.
And round the corner in Filwood Broadway, the former cinema is currently being demolished to make way for flats with commercial space on the ground floor.
Charlie Watts is reporting on Knowle West as part of Bristol24/7’s community reporter scheme, a project which aims to tell stories from areas of Bristol traditionally under-served by the mainstream media
Main photo: Charlie Watts
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