Campaigners have reacted with fury and disbelief to comments by B&NES Cabinet member Anthony Clarke, in which he said that neither of the proposed sites for Bath’s controversial fourth Park & Ride were visible from surrounding villages.
Batheaston parish councillor Emma Adams said Cllr Clarke’s comments, which he made during a live BBC Radio Bristol interview, revealed an ignorance about the sites that was ‘astonishing and terrifying’.
Ms Adams said: “B&NES council has spent £1 million researching these sites for a project that nobody wants and the council itself admits won’t help traffic and pollution.
“Yet, despite spending all this money, it seems that Cllr Clarke is still not aware that both sites are clearly and prominently visible from all the villages in the valley, including Batheaston.”
During the interview on BBC Radio Bristol, which followed the news that Highways England has said it cannot support the proposed access for the council’s favoured site in the latest twist in the troubled development, Councillor Clarke was asked how it was possible to screen the sight of cars parked on the meadows.
Mr Clarke said it was possible, and continued: “You have to remember that from ground level there is very little difficulty as far as screening is concerned because it is not as if either site is visible from Batheaston particularly or the other communities around. So the issue is more from above.”
His comments were immediately greeted with outrage on social media, with people posting pictures from their homes showing just how visible the Meadows are from the hundreds of houses that look out onto the valley.
“Here’s the view from my window,” said one angry Batheaston resident. “Maybe Cllr Clarke is planning to give standard-issue black-out blinds to the Batheaston and Bathampton residents as his ‘screening’ strategy.”
Another picture from Batheaston Mr Clarke. No amount of trees will shield the two cars, concrete and light pollution @Piers_Taylor @bathnes pic.twitter.com/pjTMTNxrqj
— Meadows Alliance (@MeadowsAlliance) April 6, 2017
Others invited Cllr Clarke to visit their homes to see for himself just how visible both sites – Site F and Site B – are from all the surrounding villages as well as the surrounding hills, two of which are National Trust sites.
Another resident, who lives on the old A4 which runs from the A46 roundabout to Batheaston, posted: “I enjoy watching the floods rising on Site F from my bedroom window. It’s a grandstand view of all that lovely water being soaked up by Site F, thus preventing central Bath from flooding.”
Parish councillor and campaigner Emma Adams said she was worried ‘about the future of transport in this city if the elected official with responsibility for transport can get a basic fact so spectacularly wrong’.
Batheaston and Bathford are built on the side of hills overlooking the valley. Many of the houses along Batheaston High Street, the old A4, enjoy stunning views across the valley floor towards Bathampton.
Three of the leading architects in the country (award-winning landscape architect Andrew Grant, and internationally-renowned architects Piers Taylor and Dr Peter Clegg) have already told B&NES Council that it would be impossible to adequately screen a development of this size and the whole valley would be blighted by the proposed Park & Ride.
A report commissioned by B&NES into potential sites, the Halcrow Report, said there were ‘500 visual receptors’ or houses looking onto Site B alone.
Mr Clarke gave the live interview to BBC Radio Bristol on Wednesday afternoon. He said that he was there to correct inaccuracies and disputed that Highways England had said they would categorically oppose the access route for one of the proposed sites, Site B. Documents from Highways England obtained by campaigners show Highways England saying it could not support the proposed access route.
You can listen to the interview from BBC Radio Bristol on iPlayer here. (P&R report starts at 1hr 9mins)
A spokesperson from Bath & North East Somerset Council gave us the following statement: “Councillor Clarke’s comments in the Radio Bristol broadcast were based upon information contained in the Cabinet report of 25th January 2017, in particular sections 6 and 7, which make reference to Planning, Transport and Operating Advice.
“Any proposal for a Park & Ride would need to be tested through a planning application, which would be supported by various reports including a Landscape Impact Assessment.”