Money is the barrier to opening a picture-perfect Bath landmark to the public, not will, the council’s deputy leader has said.
Councillor Richard Samuel said if a pyramid can be built in Paris’s Louvre Museum, ambitions for the Colonnades under Bath’s Grand Parade can be realised.
He told a discussion on re-imagining the city that no private investor would risk millions but the stunning site will one day have to be brought into use.
Bath and North East Somerset Council gave the go-ahead in 2013 to a £5.3million capital investment to breathe new life into the derelict grade II-listed vaults – which up until the 1890s had generally been used as slaughterhouses – to secure an annual return of more than £300,000.
In 2016 it approved plans for a new restaurant or museum overlooking Pulteney Weir and a glass-floor lift and separate staircase to get down to the undercroft and vaults.
But the following year the authority conceded it was “no longer a viable option” because it did not have the capacity to cope with the project as well as other major developments such as North and South Quays, and instead it turned to private investors to take on a long lease for the space.
Asked what was stopping the Colonnades being developed, Cllr Samuel told a public forum organised by the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution on 4th October: “The problem with the Colonnades is that the structure supports the road above it, and the structure is not in a great condition.
“This is a common problem through the whole of the city.
“The structure of the road above [the colonnades] is held up by iron and steelwork. It’s in a very poor condition.
“That’s the barrier to development. It’s a fantastic space. If you can build a pyramid in the Louvre, you can make the colonnades suitable.
“What it requires is millions of pounds of cash. No private investor will take that risk with the condition that’s there.
“One day it will have to be brought forward, because it’s in a stunning space in the middle of the city.
“Money is the barrier, not will.”
Wera Hobhouse, who hosted the forum, said: “It sounds like a lot of money, and I’m worried to hear it holds up the whole structure of road surface above.
“Is it the next Cleveland Bridge that’s going to fall down, and we really need to go to government and ask for money?
“We’re talking about multi-million-pound projects. With the best will in the world we can’t go cap in hand to our citizens and ask them to make the contributions. That’s a big thing. That’s a big ask to government, ultimately.”
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Samuel said the structure was not going to fall down and the council would ensure it is safe.
He said the focus had to remain on completing projects like the Bath Quays and he could not see any funding streams to open up the Colonnades in the near future.
Conservation architect Geoff Rich, the curator lead of TEDxBath, recognised the engineering concerns but told the forum: “I think anything is possible. We just have to see it as an amazing opportunity for the future of the city.
“It has the opportunity to tell the story of the layers of the city, right from the Roman riverside to the riverside of the future.
“There’s a strategy that could be delivered over time that takes them from where they are presently to something more meaningful and valuable in the future.
“I’ve no doubt they’re a tough commercial proposition in their current state.
“When you see what we have there right on our doorstep it’s a tantalising site for the future.”
Stephen Sumner, Local Democracy Reporter
