A group of residents have united to fight the proposed relocation of Bath’s recycling centre from Midland Road to Locksbrook Road, saying the whole of the city will be impacted, not just those living on the doorstep.
Protestors outside the proposed recycling site on Locksbrook Road
They came together for a protest rally on Monday evening, 16th September, to highlight why they believe Bath & North East Somerset Council’s proposals are flawed.
The Midland Road centre is being redeveloped, with full planning approval in place for 176 new affordable and market homes. The council has said Locksbrook Road was chosen for the replacement centre after more than 50 sites within and around Bath had been considered.
The site is currently used by the local authority’s street cleansing team which will relocate further along Locksbrook Road to the site that formerly housed the council’s fleet works and MoT test centre.
Those services relocated to the council’s new Keynsham Recycling Hub, which cost more than £41 million, and was officially opened earlier this year.
Under a lease agreement, Locksbrook Road car dealership Bath Volkswagen currently stores vehicles on part of the site earmarked for the new recycling centre. As landowner, the council has advised the company to “explore alternative arrangements”.
Many concerns about the proposed recycling centre have been flagged up by locals – including the impact on traffic, the proximity to homes and the smells and noise that residents will have to suffer, that the plans fail to adequately address the flood risk, and that there is no satisfactory plan to mitigate fire risks, particularly those related to batteries discarded in general waste.
Campaigners from left, Laura Gale with baby Casper, Tim Wallace, Pam Richards & Keith Costello holding Flora
Tim Wallace, who lives on Locksbrook Road, told Monday’s rally that he had heard repeatedly on social media “Nimby, Nimby, Nimby, you’re just complaining because it’s in your own back yard”.
He explained: “But the point about this is the council say it’s the best alternative because it’s in council’s hands and it’s a cheap, cost-effective option which is good for all of Bath – but we all know that when you buy something cheap, it comes at a cost.
“And what’s the cost to the whole of Bath? Well, we here in the western side of Bath have easy access to the Keynsham tip. But what this plan does is bring all of that traffic from the east and the north and the south straight through the congestion zone.”
He said the other downside for all of Bath is the “dangerous” proposed model of using stairs and gantries at the new recycling centre. He said that model is not used at Keynsham nor at the current site at Midland Road.
Mr Wallace also highlighted the “huge congestion” problems in the road already and said that a few hours before the rally “a truck stalled for 20 minutes, traffic banked up on Upper Bristol Road, that’s affected the whole of Bath”.
He said that neighbouring firm Horstman is putting in an objection, as is Bath Spa University which has a campus in Locksbrook Road.
He highlighted that VW is in a “tricky situation” as it would be losing its parking which would disrupt operations and potentially cost jobs.
He said the dealership has a second adjoining parking lot on a month-to-month lease through the council “which is an effective way of silencing VW because it would destroy their business to lose that parking as well”.
The site that will be developed into the new recycling centre
Of the traffic analysis done by the council, Mr Wallace branded it “shoddy”, adding: “If you compare it to the traffic analysis done for Keynsham, it was like cheap and dirty.”
Pam Richards, who has lived in the area for 50 years, told the rally: “There’s always been industry here and most of the time we’ve co-existed reasonably well.
“You don’t mind if they are well-behaved and create some jobs, but this is going to be messy and there are no jobs associated with this site.”
She said the council is “trumpeting” the area as an industrial and employment area but “most businesses will run a mile if they think there is a tip at the end of the road.
‘It’s going to actually discourage business, rather than encourage it, so I think that because they think this is just an industrial area, it doesn’t matter, but they haven’t reckoned on the strength of feeling within the community. We’re not going to let it happen.”
At the end of the rally, people were urged to object and to keep on lobbying local councillors. Among those attending the rally was 80-year-old Keith Costello, who lives closest to the planned site – just 25 metres away. He has lived there for 55 years.
He told the Bath Echo: “As far as I’m concerned, this is the worst council Bath has ever had.”
The council’s traffic modelling shows that the impact of the proposed scheme is “unlikely” to be significant.
There will be a pre-booking system, and separate public and operational access points are proposed along with a dedicated pedestrian access point from Locksbrook Road, and pedestrian and cycle access from
the Bristol and Bath Railway Path.
The deadline for comments is 29th September. The planning reference is 24/03168/REG03.
Fundraising campaign to fight council’s plans
The Stop the Locksbrook Tip campaigners are looking to raise £3,500 to hire an independent planning consultant to prepare an objection.
A GoFundMe page has so far raised more than £2,500.
It highlights that the road already suffers from parking and traffic congestion, meaning access to the centre and egress will be problematic, with the turn onto Upper Bristol Road described as being “one of the busiest unregulated junctions in Bath”.
It says the proposed site misses the opportunity to reduce the levels of cross-Bath car travel and the Weston side of Bath already has easy, alternative access to the upgraded and expanded Keynsham centre.
The fundraising page adds: “The proposed Locksbrook site introduces a higher risk model of residents having to use stairs to access skips, a model used in some recycling centres but inherently more dangerous compared to the current site with ground level access; there are several reported deaths in the UK from people falling from stairs in recycling centres.”
Risks of run-off and pollution into the river behind the site are also highlighted.
