Homes set to be built on Bath’s “tufa field” wildlife haven will improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the area, the council has said as it approved the controversial plan.
How the new bungalows will look | Image © Arcadis / Bath & North East Somerset Council
Building on the field by Englishcombe Lane, which contains rare limestone formations called tufa and is a unique habitat, has been unpopular locally, but the field has been designated for housing for about 20 years.
A previous plan to build 37 homes on the field was scrapped, and top councillors at Bath & North East Somerset Council have insisted their plan to build 16 units of supported housing on the field will protect the unique nature of the site and make it a feature of the development.
Planning permission for the council-led scheme was approved a year ago. In their meeting on 12th September, the council’s cabinet voted to allocate the £10.122 million in capital funding to construct the homes.
Council cabinet member for built environment, housing, and sustainable development Matt McCabe said: “It is an excellent award-winning scheme that meets an unmet need in our community and will undoubtedly improve the lives of some of our most vulnerable residents.”
The project will see supported housing for 16 individuals with complex needs, such as autism and learning disabilities, built in two clusters on either side of the tufa flushes in the middle of the field.
It won a national planning award in July and a national housing design award earlier this month.
The Tufa Field in Bath
Councillor McCabe told the committee: “The previously permissioned 37 home scheme just about scraped through the system and despite all its shortcomings, it was deemed policy compliant.
“But there was no local support and, having to listen to the concerns of residents, councillor [Kevin] Guy as the leader stepped in and said we should be delivering something much less dense and far more sensitive to the site.
“This coincided with a pressing need for local supported housing for some of our most vulnerable residents, where currently we pay for expensive care packages outside of our area, far from family and far from home.”
He added: “Although the tufa flushes do not meet the national requirement for protection, the local residents strongly expressed their desire for the natural environment to be protected and managed. So we have designed the scheme to treat its ecological value as an asset.”
Council cabinet member Paul May said: “The specialist housing will help residents live as independently as possible in their own homes, but with social care and support they need provided on site.
“The accessible accommodation and peaceful low stimulus environment will be tailored to the residents’ needs.
“This complexity of design will support people with different disabilities and above all will support people to stay in the local area, close to their families, whereas they previously might have been in expensive placements away from the local area.”
The cabinet voted unanimously to agree on the allocation of £10.122 million capital funding for the project. The figure did not appear in the publicly accessible reports for the council meeting, but did appear on a council webpage about the decision, although it was later removed.
The business case being considered by the cabinet was also excluded from the public documents — an action which councils are legally able to take if it is judged commercially sensitive and the public interest is better served by keeping it secret.
But on the Tufa Field website — tufafield.com — which hosts blogs about the field, campaigners have criticised the decision.
A post on the website said: “The decision to redact the business case is nothing short of outrageous and a blatant abuse of powers designed to legitimately protect privacy and commercial sensitivities.
“There is no case in this instance to protect this information, the council has a budget and an expectation of long-term cost-saving and these should be publicly available for scrutiny and long-term monitoring before commitment to expenditure of this amount of tax-payers’ money.”
Out of area placements are expensive for the council and reducing the need for them with more in-area provision will lead to a significant saving on the council’s revenue budget.
Council cabinet member for resources Mark Elliott said: “This development is good financially, good for the vulnerable people it will help support, and the best option available environmentally.”
The council plans to put the scheme out to tender within the month, award a contract in November, and see the first enabling works begin in February 2026 with a full start on site in July 2026.
It hopes the scheme will be completed by March 2028.
Councillor McCabe told the committee meeting: “This is a nationally excellent scheme but we wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for the intervention of the local community.
“I know there will still be those who object to any development but to those who said “if you insist on developing this field, then you must do better,” you were heard. We listened. We went back to the drawing board.”
He said: “We have those national awards because of you and because we listened.”
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
