"Save our zoo" say residents opposed to development plans

Dozens of concerned residents marched on Sunday in support of keeping Bristol Zoo Gardens open.

The crowd, which included many children dressed as animals, marched from the Victoria Rooms on Queen’s Road up to the former zoo site in Clifton.

Campaign group Save Bristol Zoo Gardens (SBZG) organised the march on March 12 to demonstrate public concern about the closure of Bristol Zoo Gardens and the conversion of the site to a housing development.

Bristol Zoo closed its doors after 186 years on September 3, 2022. The charity that runs the zoo wants to sell the 12-acre site to fund the creation of a new Bristol Zoo at the Wild Place Project in South Gloucestershire.

A planning application to build 196 homes on the site, as well as a public garden, has been submitted by the zoo.

SBZG say there has been a lack of transparency from the zoo about the plans and that the proposal to move the animals formerly housed at the Clifton site to Wild Place are inadequate.

Images: Wong Yat Him.