Another 351 homes have been proposed for Bath’s former gasworks to create “a new and modern part of the city”.
How the proposed development could look | Image © B&NES Council / Stride Treglown
But people moving into affordable housing in the new development might need to use a separate door.
Bath and North East Somerset Council has submitted a planning application for four apartment blocks on the section of the gasworks which it owns: a main seven-storey block surrounding a shared garden with a car park below, and three smaller three-storey buildings.
All blocks would have a mixture of ground-floor maisonettes and commercial units, with apartments above.
Affordable housing will mainly be located in the three smaller buildings, but any located in the main block will be accessed by its own separate door and stairwell “to avoid any management complications.”
Once home to the Victorian gas holders which stood out on Bath’s skyline, the disused Bath gasworks site has been vacant since 1971 and now forms part of the Bath Western Riverside development, a formerly industrial area of the city designated for regeneration.
Another developer, St William, is planning 616 apartments on the rest of the gasworks site.
A design and access statement submitted with the council’s application for their 350-home development said: “The centrality of the location allows the promotion of a low car use environment, helping the streets to be prioritised for pedestrians and cycles – feeding into the desire that this too will promote transitory foot powered traffic through the site as part of newly created desire lines extending connections across the city.
“The reduction of car-oriented highways, enables more greenery to be incorporated into the general infrastructure of the site, enabling natural rainwater control, increased biodiversity and in general creating an environment with an inherent natural character.”
The homes will be low-energy and use “non-fossil fuel based heat sources,” with the intention of reducing energy usage and costs for the people who move in. Achieving “Passivhaus” status will be explored, but will be agreed at a later point in the planning process.
The statement said: “Bath Western Riverside Phase 2 will be a new and modern part of the city but will communicate Bath’s DNA.
“It will poignantly reflect an overwhelming evolution locally from a site which historically consumed and generated energy to somewhere which conserves and actively reduces energy use.”
Work has been undertaken on the site to move the remaining gas infrastructure on the old gasworks to the edge of the site.
You can view and comment on the application here.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
