Fields popular with walkers on the southern edge of Bath could soon either be closed off to the public or have houses built across them.
The South Stoke Plateau | Photo © Ned Garnett
Plans to build 290 homes on the South Stoke plateau were turned down by Bath & North East Somerset Council’s planning committee in April 2024.
But developers the Hignett Family Trust appealed, with the appeal before the planning inspectorate concluding on Tuesday 11th February.
The decision now rests with the planning inspector as to whether to dismiss the appeal and uphold the council’s decision, or to grant the appeal and let the development go ahead.
But the agent for the Hignett Family Trust has warned that all public access to the fields will be blocked if the homes are refused.
A paragraph in one of their submissions to the inquiry said: “If the appeal is dismissed, that the appellant will then take immediate action to prevent further public access.
“That will take the form of closing access points, removing signage and replacing signage to clearly indicate that access is no longer permitted.”
Ned Garnett of the South of Bath Alliance, which has campaigned against the development, said: “Obviously they are within their rights to do it. I think it’s sad they feel the need to.”
The fields have always been a popular place for people in South Stoke and Combe Down to go for a walk, with paths lacing across the field boundaries towards the Millennium Viewpoint.
But if the homes are given the go-ahead, a network of “new and enhanced” pedestrian and cycle paths would be installed across the remaining fields.
The 290 homes are the third and fourth phases of the “Sulis Down” development.
The first phase of the Hignett Family Trust’s Sulis Down development, 171 homes by Odd Down Park and Ride, was granted planning permission by councillors “with the utmost reluctance” in 2018.
Sulis Manor and the land surrounding it is phase two of the development, but will be “developed by others.”
The land was taken out of the green belt in the council’s local plan ten years ago as an allocation for a “mixed-use” residential development of about 300 homes.
Together with the first phase of the development, phases three and four would exceed this figure by more than half but the figure is “not a cap” if all relevant placemaking policies are met.
But, at the three week public inquiry, a lawyer hired by the South of Bath Alliance and South Stoke and Combe Hay parish councils argued that these policies had not been met, and that the plans were a “homogenous dormitory development” without a substantial mixed use element.
James Neil said, in his closing statement: “This is not a good scheme. It is a poor scheme that seeks to do the minimum in terms of any provision for the community and the maximum in the terms of residential provision.”
Stephen Morgan, representing Bath & North East Somerset Council, added: “The proposals do not include any community, retail, employment or any other use which might allow the development to be a mixed use.”
But, representing the Hignett Family Trust, Paul G Tucker KC called this argument an “absurdity” as employment space already existed within the allocation.
He said: “This proposal does not maximise the extent of built development, but it seeks to use land efficiently.”
The scheme would include community allotments in a corner of the site and 40% of the homes would be affordable housing.
A new planning application would likely be brought forward if this development was not granted at appeal.
The South of Bath Alliance raised £13,000 to fight the plans, but that was not enough without the South Stoke and Combe Hay parish councils also contributing.
Mr Garnett said: “That’s just for a seat at the table.”
He said: “I certainly think we have put up a good fight and I think B&NES, in the areas they covered, put up a good fight. So we shall see.”
But he added the appeal process had been frustrating. He said: “The fact that councillors on the planning committee rejected this by seven votes to one seemed to have absolutely no weight.”
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
