From the arena to the Green Belt and from the harbourside to old industrial estates
The councillors elected to decide on major changes to the city look set to have a very busy 2026, with huge plans to transform many parts of Bristol awaiting a decision at City Hall.
From the continued expansion of student flats to plans to replace shopping centres and industrial estates with thousands of new homes, there will be many controversial decisions made in the council’s two planning committees.
For some, the big decisions that will trigger the biggest transformation of Bristol since the Second World War have already been taken – it’s just that work is yet to begin on the ground.
So things like the demolition of The Galleries, the old Debenhams, the eyesore old bank buildings near Bristol Bridge and the Rupert Street multi-storey car park to be replaced by large blocks of flats and offices that will transform the city centre – these have already been taken and will happen – if or when the developers who proposed them actually get started.
Then there’s the plans for the Sporting Quarter at Ashton Gate, with its 5,000-capacity arena – work is expected to start within weeks on that, while plans to build more than a thousand homes at Hengrove Park, 550 homes at Ashton Vale, and very tall blocks of flats and student flats at St Judes on the approach to Bristol down the M32 – these have already been given the go-ahead.
But what’s left? What could be in the council planning committee’s in-tray in 2026? Here’s 12 of the biggest decisions they will have to make.
1 Cabot Gate
The new Cabot Gate development would centre around a huge student accommodation tower(Image: Hammerson)
Cabot Circus is enjoying something of a resurgence at the moment, with the new M&S late last year closely followed by the new Odeon cinema opening up too. And the shopping centre’s owners want to get in on the student accommodation boom sparked by the rapid expansion of both the city’s universities.
The plan is for two tower blocks housing as many as 600 students on the bit of land between the main road, commonly known as the end of the M32, and the distinctive spiral ramps to the main Cabot Circus car park. At the moment, it’s home to a car and van hire firm. What’s planned there will change the entrance to Bristol from the motorway forever.
READ MORE: Cabot Circus submits plans for huge student tower block
2 Princess Street
The redevelopment plans for Princess Street in Bedminster- view looking east from ‘Block A'(Image: Claridge Architects/Sam Ellis Design)
The big Bedminster Green regeneration scheme has half-stalled, but developers are pressing on with the even bigger regeneration project between Bedminster station and the River Avon – the Whitehouse Lane masterplan.
The council want to see as many as 2,000 new homes built there on what is currently a maze of industrial units and car dealerships, just north of Windmill Hill City Farm. The first big plan is in the council’s in-tray, and it’s already controversial. It will see the tallest building ever built in South Bristol, with a mix of build-to-rent flats and student accommodation.
There are tons of objections, not least from the police and the NHS, and the developers have already redesigned their plans once, late last year. If it gets approval, it could trigger even bigger plans for the area between the railway line and the river in Bedminster.
READ MORE: Plans for South Bristol’s tallest ever building met with fierce objections
3 Broadwalk Shopping Centre
The new plans for Redcatch Quarter, on the site of the Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Knowle(Image: Broadside Holdings)
With what was perhaps the most controversial planning decision made in 2023, councillors gave the go-ahead to demolish the 50-year-old Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Knowle and have it replaced by more than 850 new homes in high-rise blocks of flats.
A year or more of legal threats and negotiations saw local campaigners ultimately score a remarkable victory in getting the developers to radically scale back those plans – which should now be decided on by council planners soon.
It will mean, finally, that the Broadwalk Shopping Centre will close and be demolished – something that’s been on the cards for years.
READ MORE: Developers to reveal new plans for Broadwalk Shopping Centre
4 Club 3000 Bingo
The new Club 3000 location in Bedminster(Image: Club 3000)
Part of the fall-out from the Broadwalk plan is the plight of Bristol’s biggest bingo venue – Club 3000 – which fills a surprisingly huge venue underneath the shopping centre. It’s now closed, and bosses have submitted a plan to build a new bespoke venue at the bottom of Hartcliffe Way in Bedminster.
With the bingo venue already closed – and sooner than bosses had hoped – Club 3000 and its thousands of customers would love for the council planners to give this one the go-ahead as soon as possible, so the time between the closure late last year and the building and opening of the new venue is as short as possible.
READ MORE: Club 3000 Bingo first look as Bristol venue announces move
5 Stoke Lodge CCTV
A CCTV camera in place as Cotham School begin work to install a new fence around their playing fields at Stoke Lodge in Bristol, on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 23 and 24, 2025(Image: Bristol Post / Paul Gillis)
In the greater scheme of things, an application by a Bristol school to install some CCTV cameras around its playing field would not usually take up too much time at City Hall.
But this is Stoke Lodge, probably the most argued over piece of land in Bristol. 2025 was the year Cotham School scored some decisive victories in the 15 year long battle over whether the grounds of Stoke Lodge are theirs to control, fence off and conduct PE lessons on, or whether the local community should have open and unfettered access as well.
The fence is up, there have already been claims of vandalism. Some CCTV cameras are already installed, and the school’s planning application is certain to be hotly contested.
READ MORE: Cameras installed on disputed playing fields in latest Bristol planning applications
6 Elsbert Drive
Plans for 100 new homes on the very edge of Bristol, on land between Bishopsworth and the South Bristol Link Road. The land is just inside the Bristol boundary.(Image: Google Maps)
Few people outside of Bishopsworth and Highridge have heard of Elsbert Drive, an unassuming cul-de-sac on the south-western edge of Bristol.
But there are plans for 100 new homes to be built on two fields to the west of Elsbert Drive, the only part of the green fields that form the corner created where the South Bristol Link Road meets the A38 at the Lime Kiln roundabout that is still inside Bristol.
The developers have plans to completely fill in that corner with hundreds more new homes over the border in North Somerset, but would need to get permission for the Bristol side first. It’s a key test of the Green Belt and the emerging Bristol Local Plan.
READ MORE: First plan for 100 homes on ‘old Green Belt’ bordering Bristol
7 YTL Arena expansion
A view of the Brabazon Hangar – which will eventually become the YTL Arena – with the railway line in front(Image: Google Maps)
If 2025 was the year that the long-promised huge arena was promised even more, then 2026 could be the year things actually start happening. Or at least, to paraphrase Churchill after El-Alamein in 1942, 2026 could be the ‘end of the beginning’ in the saga that has been the idea to convert Bristol’s biggest building, the Brabazon hangar, into a 20,000-capacity arena.
The thing is, YTL only has planning permission to convert it to a 17,000-capacity arena, so there could well be a planning application and decision to be made this year to make it even bigger.
Until then, there’s the grand plans for a concourse bridge over the railway line to be decided on – plans were submitted in July and a decision expected in 2026. Work on the actual conversion should also begin – the prep work has already been completed – but for how many people?
READ MORE: Huge arena will ‘put Bristol on the map’ as it plans to expand capacity to 20,000READ MORE: We visit the YTL Bristol Arena site to see if it’s really making progress
8 The expansion of Brislington
Sketch of how the 555 homes next to the Brislington Park and Ride would look
There’s a green field site next to the Brislington Park and Ride where developers want to build 555 new homes. It’s been mooted for years, and a decision is due during 2026, bringing the eventual amalgamation of Bristol and Keynsham one step closer.
9 The Document building
How the flats replacing Document would look(Image: Westworks)
Late last year, planners gave the go-ahead to two of the key sites that form the ‘Frome Gateway’ regeneration scheme – turning the industrial sites of St Judes into thousands of new homes and student flats. There’s a third, bigger site, that will be decided during 2026 – the former document warehouse on Pennywell Road that is now quite a major Bristol arts, music and cultural venue called Document.
The plan is to build 416 build-to-rent flats across four blocks, the tallest of which will be 17 storeys, with workspaces, shops and cafes.
READ MORE: The tiny area of Bristol where 2,000 homes are plannedREAD MORE: Huge music venue could be demolished and replaced with hundreds of flats
10 Dove Lane
How the Dove Lane flats were originally planned to look, before the latest expansion(Image: Glenn Howells Architects)
The land between Cabot Primary School and St Pauls Park, where there was once a big paper mill factory, has been fenced off and barren for years, a gaping hole in the heart of St Pauls. There have been many, many plans over the past 20 years to regenerate it with new affordable homes, businesses and shops, and pretty much all of them have been given planning permission by the council, but just haven’t happened.
Last year a new plan landed in the planning department at City Hall – for student flats. The latest plans that should be decided this year see 280 new homes, and blocks of flats for 420 students.
READ MORE: Hundreds of flats in St Pauls and Bedminster in latest Bristol planning applications
11 Lloyds Amphitheatre
Canons Wharf(Image: Buckley Gray Yeoman)
Not a huge transformation, but key to the city nevertheless. Since Lloyds Bank pulled out of the crescent and circle buildings that are in the heart of the city by the amphitheatre at the harbourside, they have been empty, boarded up and fenced off – not a good look for Bristol, particularly given other bank and financial offices by Bristol Bridge and Castle Park have been empty for around 30 years.
So the plan for a major refurbishment of the offices, to keep them as offices – not, as many predicted, convert them into student flats – is a positive signal that hopefully they won’t be empty for too long. The plans, which also include a rooftop bar and cafes, should be decided early this year by council planners.
READ MORE: ‘Iconic’ Bristol building could reopen with rooftop bar and cafes
12 Fishponds
Verona House (left) and Filwood House (right), in front of one of the two landmark chimneys that would be retained(Image: Copyright Unknown)
Councillors have already given the go-ahead to two key sites in the radical transformation plans for Fishponds – the industrial area between Rose Green and Hillfields will see thousands of new homes built in the end.
There’s a third one coming through this year, the demolition of Filwood House and Verona House on Filwood Road, with 380 new homes planned. It was submitted last summer, and should be decided at some point in 2026.
READ MORE: Scaled-back plans to demolish two offices and build 380 homesREAD MORE: Social housing plea for huge Fishponds development amid gentrification fears