Another bid to build homes at St Martin’s Hospital in Bath has been thrown out on appeal amid ongoing concerns for a listed chapel.
Plans for the site at St Martin’s Hospital in Bath | Image © Colburn Homes
Colburn Homes hoped to address previous concerns about the lack of parking or tree planting and the “nondescript” design as it swapped the eight mooted townhouses for eight flats.
The firm said its application “strikes the right balance between making best use of previously developed land whilst respecting the setting of heritage assets”.
Nearby are the former Bath Workhouse and a chapel built by the inmates, both of which are grade II-listed.
Nine residents objected and Bath Preservation Trust continued to oppose the development in principle.
When Bath and North East Somerset Council rejected the scheme, Colburn Homes lodged an appeal.
Planning inspector Nick Davies sided with the authority’s officers, saying: “The development would make a valuable contribution to the council’s housing strategy, a matter that attracts significant weight.
“The apartments would be sustainably located, and would involve the efficient use of brownfield land.
“The benefits would not outweigh the harm that would be caused to the significance of the heritage assets by the intrusive development in their settings.”
He said the block of flats would be much more prominent and intrusive than the existing structure, and building a 17-space car park would harm the tranquil character of the area.
More than 1,100 residents of the Bath Workhouse are buried in unmarked mass grave next to the chapel.
Bath MP Wera Hobhouse has backed a campaign to protect the site from redevelopment after B&NES Council listed the area as being land available and suitable for housing in an update to its Local Plan.
“The stories of those buried at the Bath Workhouse Burial Ground must be remembered, and their final resting place left undisturbed,” she said in November.
“I fully support calls to preserve the site. I am writing to the prospective property developer and to NHS Properties. I expect them to find a way of working with the local community to ensure that the site is restored and preserved for future generations.
“I have launched a petition to save this important site that is of special significance to Bath’s collective heritage. The history of our city’s working people is a vital strand of our past and it must be recognised and honoured.”
More than 100 people have signed her petition.
Dr Jon Moon, a local resident who has been campaigning to save the grounds, said the workhouse was where those who built the city went when they fell on hard times.
“These were the people who quarried the Bath Stone that the city crescents were built from. Here they faced a hard existence and after death were buried in unmarked communal graves, several bodies deep.
“Many of the descendants of the workhouse inmates buried at St Martin’s still live in Bath,” he said.
“The consecrated burial ground needs to be kept as a local amenity green space open to the community. The listed, consecrated chapel, built by a workhouse inmate buried in the site, deserves to be restored, preserved and used.
“Its future could be as a community centre, museum and even a place for marriage. The chapel and burial ground must not be blighted by inappropriate property development.”
Stephen Sumner, Local Democracy Reporter
