People are being invited to have their say on new proposals for around 200 homes at Sulis Down on the southern edge of the city before a planning application is submitted to Bath & North East Somerset Council.
How the new homes could look | Image © Welbeck Land / Hignett Family Trust
A public consultation is being held today, Tuesday 13th January, at Odd Down Community Centre from 4pm to 7pm.
The proposals are also available to view and comment on at www.sulisdown.info.
Plans for up to 290 homes on the land on South Stoke Plateau, which is owned by the Hignett Family Trust, were refused by Bath & North East Somerset Council in 2024 and subsequently dismissed at appeal last year.
The land was taken out of the Green Belt a decade ago for a “mixed-use” development of up to 300 homes.
But with 171 homes already built during the first phase of the Sulis Down development, the proposed 290 new properties would have exceeded the 300 figure by more than half.
Three hundred would not have been considered a cap had all other placemaking strategies been met, but the planning inspector appointed by the Secretary of State did not agree that they had, and warned that the scheme would have a harmful effect on the Cotswolds National Landscape.
The latest plans are said to have been “carefully revised” to reflect feedback from the community, B&NES Council and other stakeholders following the appeal decision.
A spokesperson for land promoter Welbeck Land, which is working with the Hignett Family Trust, said: “We are taking a careful, landscape-led approach at Sulis Down, with fewer homes and clear community benefits.
“At this early stage, our focus is on listening to local views and working with the community to shape proposals that are right for the area.”
The land proposed for development | Image © Welbeck Land / Hignett Family Trust
The latest proposals include increased tree planting and green buffers, and a “strong focus” on benefits for local people and the wider area.
These include public open space, improved walking, cycling and public transport links, opportunities to enhance wildlife habitats, and contributions to local services.
The press release adds: “Sulis Down sits within the Cotswolds National Landscape and forms part of the setting of Bath’s World Heritage Site. The updated proposals aim to protect views and minimise landscape impacts while providing a balanced mix of homes, including smaller homes for younger people, homes for older residents wishing to downsize, and affordable housing to help meet local needs.”
We reported last month that controversial proposals for allotments to serve Phase 1 of the Sulis Down development had been refused by councillors, contrary to the advice of B&NES planning officers who felt that delivery and certainty of the scheme would outweigh the potential benefits arising from the co-location of allotments in the future as and when the other phases of development are approved.
By a majority vote, the committee rejected the application from Countryside Properties (Vistry) for nine allotment plots at Derrymans Field at Combe Hay Lane.
As part of Phase 1, which was permitted in 2019, there was a Section 106 planning obligation for the developer to provide allotments within the allocated site before 50% of the homes were occupied. Vistry has been in breach of that.
The site at Derrymans Field is not in the allocated site, but in the Green Belt, Cotswolds National Landscape and in an ecologically sensitive area.
There had been objections from the Cotswolds Landscape Board, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, Bath Preservation Trust, South of Bath Alliance, and parish councils, as well as from more than 80 local people.
