Bath & North East Somerset Council is ploughing ahead with a planning application for a new waste and recycling hub at Locksbrook Road in Bath even though only 14% of respondents in the consultation felt it to be the right location.
An artist’s impression of how the recycling centre would look | Image © B&NES Council
The local authority is proposing to develop the site currently used by its street cleansing team.
The new facility will replace the existing recycling centre site in Midland Road, which was identified for redevelopment as part of the Bath Western Riverside regeneration project and has full planning approval for 176 new affordable and market homes.
The council’s planning application, submitted this week, says it is “critical” that a new recycling centre in Bath is permitted and implemented as soon as possible and that Locksbrook Road is “the only suitable and available site”.
However, comments from the public engagement session highlight a catalogue of concerns, with one objector branding it a “cheap and nasty solution”.
The council held a programme of public engagement from the end of May to the end of June. The drop-in was attended by around 100 people – most of them from the Locksbrook Road area – and 40 feedback questionnaires were completed on the day.
There were nearly 3,000 unique views of the engagement website and 162 feedback responses were submitted. The council said the feedback showed 60% of residents who responded believed it was important to continue to provide waste and recycling facilities in Bath.
However, it also showed that only 14% were happy with the chosen site. A council report notes: “In considering this statistic, it is worth noting the location of feedback respondents.
“Common themes and responses were concerns regarding traffic and access, environmental impacts, and site design and accessibility.
“Although feedback was dominated to a significant extent by concerns from the community in the immediate vicinity of the site, there were some supportive comments (albeit in a minority), with some welcoming the provision of dedicated access on foot and by cycle, whilst others welcomed the commitment to re-providing the recycling centre within the city.”
Although the council’s Pixash Lane depot at Keynsham has a new state-of-the-art household recycling centre, which cost almost £42 million, a political commitment was made when that planning application for it was approved in July 2021 to provide a new, additional household recycling centre to serve Bath residents.
Waste operations and processing moved from the Midland Road site to the Keynsham hub earlier this year, along with the council’s MoT test centre and vehicle workshop previously located at Locksbrook Road.
The site for a new waste and recycling centre at Locksbrook Road includes the car park connected with the adjoining VW dealership. As landowner, the council said in May that it had advised the car dealership of the emerging plans to give them time to “explore alternative arrangements”.
The existing street cleansing tipping function will be retained at the site. The new centre will provide collection facilities for household waste and recyclables, scrap metal, large electrical items such as washing machines and dishwashers, cardboard, garden waste, bulky waste and soft furnishings.
The western side of the site will remain for operational use only with a dedicated vehicle access point.
The eastern side of the site will be publicly accessible with dedicated access from Locksbrook Road.
The council says parking capacity in this area has been calculated to “eliminate” queueing on the Locksbrook Road. Traffic flow will be managed by a public booking system to control the number of vehicles on the site.
Proposals include a further entrance to the south for pedestrians and cyclists to the access the centre from the river path.
A secure fence line will be maintained around the perimeter of the site and landscaping will be enhanced.
The council hopes to get planning permission this autumn/winter and that work will start on site in spring 2025, with the new centre opening by next autumn.
The Midland Road centre would close once the new centre is operational.
The opening hours would be the same as those at Midland Road.
The planning application says: “Although some environmental impact will arise, the inclusion of mitigation and on-site biodiversity net gain will therefore not give rise to adverse impacts that outweigh the presumption in favour of granting planning permission.”
A statement of comments received as part of the community engagement include: “The smell from the current recycling centre is often quite overpowering, particularly in summer months, and this is only going to get worse due to climate change.
“Given that the wind in Bath usually comes from the west, it would make far more sense to move the recycling centre to the east of the city, and uphill would be sensible too, given the bowl shape that the city sits in. That way smells will usually blow out of the city, not in … I believe there is already another tip-type place out of town via Wellsway. Could that not be turned into a recycling centre and get the tip out of the town centre entirely?”
One objector said “What about those of us on the east side of Bath? The latest LTN (Low Traffic Neighbourhood) in Sydney Place is making car journeys more difficult, taking longer to reach the west of the city. What provision is there for us/those without vehicles. There are no buses that run from Bathwick/ Bathampton through to this site. A site outside the centre – e.g. near Odd Down Park & Ride would be better.”
Another branded it “an absolutely dreadful idea that will for a number of reasons put B&NES wildly at odds with your commitment to net zero, to regeneration planning, to lowering air pollution and to overcoming the climate emergency”.
It was highlighted that all traffic to and from the site will need to pass through residential areas and narrow streets.
The commenter added: “This will create a risk for children, the elderly and cyclists. The corner on which the site is proposed is already a dangerous corner. The increased traffic and potential queuing traffic will cause congestion that will also impact on air pollution.”
Another critic said: “You can’t stop people turning up early for their slot which will cause queues. A booking system won’t stop people turning up, it just means they’re more likely to be turned away if they do show up.”
There was also criticism that the proposed site is smaller than the Midland Road site and will provide fewer facilities with one responder saying: “The need for those using the proposed site to climb gantries in order to access skips is a major drawback of the scheme and represents a significant degradation in the useability of the facility compared with the Midland Road site.”
Another objector said: “Carrying waste up steps, even if a ramp is available for elderly, infirm or disabled users, is a poor design.
“The Keynsham centre is an excellent addition to the recycling system but the Locksbrook Road one is a solution where cost is clearly the driving force, rather than efficiency and ease of use. A cheap and nasty solution.”
The council says the feedback from residents and other stakeholders has been considered by the design team and concerns around the noise, reduction in air quality and accessibility within the site have been addressed.
Councillor Tim Ball, cabinet member for neighbourhood services, said this week: “I’d like to thank everyone who took part in the engagement and has given their feedback on the proposals.
“We have listened to what was said and incorporated some suggestions when shaping the planning application. I would encourage everyone to give us their comments on the revised proposals that have been developed.
“The current Bath Recycling Centre will remain open as normal until a replacement is operational, but once an alternative site has been confirmed and the Midland Road site vacated, we can start work on the first phase of affordable homes – which will help to deliver on one of the council’s key priorities.”
You can get an overview of the proposals and the proposed site layout on an interactive map at https://www.bathrecyclingcentre.co.uk/.
The planning reference is 24/03168/REG03. The deadline for comments is 26th September.
