A Bath office block which could have created 80 new jobs could now be converted into flats.
How the extended office block in Railway Place would have looked | Image © BEGG Nominees Limited
BEGG Nominees Ltd’s hopes to add an extra storey onto 4-5 Railway Place were dashed amid concerns for the conservation area and the World Heritage Site.
They previously secured permission to turn the building into 21 flats – before tighter controls were brought in – and that scheme could now go ahead.
The agent for the developers told planning committee members on 15th January: “This doesn’t create substantial harm. You have to consider the benefits.
“The increase in grade A floorspace of 990 square metres will create 70 to 80 jobs.”
Until last year, developers could turn offices into housing without the need for a formal planning application.
Bath and North East Somerset Council cracked down after Bath lost lots of office space, but permission was granted to convert 4-5 Railway Place into apartments before those controls came in.
The agent added: “There’s a risk if this application isn’t approved the whole of the office space will come forward as residential – the loss of 3,700sqm.
“Bath consistently fails to attract office occupiers. It’s having a negative effect on the city.
“This will change that. It will encourage sustainable travel.”
Supporting the application, councillor Andy Furse had said: “This office space is vital to continue as employment use, it is in a highly sustainable location and also would go against the council’s objectives for this area of increasing and retaining employment space – the economic benefit of businesses within the city is vital.”
Bath Preservation Trust was among the objectors to the resubmitted plans, saying: “Whilst we support the sustainable principle of refurbishing buildings rather than demolition and rebuilding, in this case the proposed result of refurbishment will introduce a building of unacceptable height, scale, design and materiality into this part of the cityscape.”
Recommending refusal officers said: “The changes proposed in this resubmission are not considered to overcome the negative impact on the setting of the listed buildings, the World Heritage Site and the conservation area.”
Councillor Eleanor Jackson told her planning committee colleagues: “I don’t see that there’s this huge level of demand for office space in this location.
“We should go with the officers’ recommendation.”
The committee voted to refuse planning permission.
Stephen Sumner, Local Democracy Reporter
