The project to develop the site of Bristol’s historic Zoo Gardens in Clifton has been put on hold - because local campaigners trying to stop it have begun legal action against the city council for granting it planning permission. The Save Bristol Gardens Alliance group, which is made up of local residents’ groups and campaigners who had been trying to save the zoo , have lodged a request with the courts for a Judicial Review against the awarding of planning permission for the scheme, which would see 196 homes built around the edge of the zoo site, and the creation of a publicly-accessible gardens in the middle. The Bristol Zoological Society say it needs to sell the site for housing to help fund its plans to expand the Bristol Zoo Project site outside the city at Easter Compton in South Gloucestershire , but campaigners - who have now launched a crowdfunder appeal to help pay for their legal challenge - say the council did not properly take into account the ‘environmental destruction’ that would come with building the flats at the Clifton site.
Read next: Bristol Zoo housing development confirmed as council and zoo bosses reach agreement Read more: Bristol Zoo campaigners 'disappointed' by Green councillors response to zoo redevelopment A Judicial Review had been widely expected after formal planning permission was awarded to the Zoological Society at the end of June this year. The zoo closed to the public on September 1, 2022, and councillors voted to agree to give p.