A high-ranking councillor has apologised to Bath after plans for 80 student flats were approved on appeal without public scrutiny.
Plans for the Plumb Center in Bath | Image © Summix LRB Developments
Officers refused proposals to redevelop the Plumb Center site in Locksbrook Road but in an “extremely bizarre” move were overruled by a planning inspector.
Councillor Matt McCabe said he thought Bath and North East Somerset Council’s policies were “clear cut”, so he did not call for the plans to be considered by the planning committee he chairs.
He said developers were seeking loopholes to build student housing in Bath wherever they can, and there are “whispers” the buildings could be turned into hotels or listed on Airbnb.
The owners of one student housing block, Twerton Mill, have already applied to temporarily turn part of it into an aparthotel, blaming lack of demand this year on the pandemic.
Planning committee members were left “between a rock and a hard place” when Summix submitted a revised scheme for the site, including 72 student flats.
It was approved with just three votes – two councillors opposed and eight abstained.
Cllr McCabe told the planning committee meeting on 10th February: “I wanted to start off by apologising. When the first application came through we didn’t send it to committee because it seemed clear cut that student accommodation was simply not appropriate in an industrial estate. I thought our policies were very clear on that.
“Developers have started sifting through to see where we haven’t specifically said we don’t want student accommodation and are whacking in applications to see if they’ve found a loophole, and taking it straight to the planning inspector to see if they’re right.
“I’d like to apologise to the people of Bath that I didn’t send it to committee the first time, because then we might have been able to discuss how awful the building looks. Now we have the rulings, even though they’re extremely bizarre.”
He added: “I wonder how long it will be before we see this building on Airbnb, or a request for a change of use to a bijoux hotel, as is whispered some of the other PBSAs [purpose-built student accommodation] are considering.”
Officers refused the first application, saying student accommodation risked prejudicing the operation of the industrial estate.
They said there would be too much student accommodation in the area, and also objected on ecological, arboricultural and residential amenity grounds.
Planning inspector John Woolcock overturned all the reasons for refusal and allowed the appeal.
He said meeting Bath’s “substantial shortfall” of PBSAs would allow shared houses known as HMOs that are currently occupied by students to be turned back into family homes.
An angered Cllr Manda Rigby was not convinced by that argument, saying: “Can we point to any one HMO that has come back into family use because PBSA has been built? No we can’t.”
She said Cllr McCabe should not have to apologise because anyone else looking at the council’s policies would have come to the same conclusion.
On appeal developer Summix secured permission to build 80 student flats, 1,354sqm of employment floorspace and a 354sqm replacement gym for the Genesis Lifestyle Centre.
Officers said the firm’s new application improved on that “fallback position”. It cuts the number of student bedrooms to 72 and proposes 1,180sqm for light industrial use and 290sqm for the gym, all in a three-storey building.
Cllr Rigby said: “You’re asking me to vote between the devil and the deep blue sea, and I don’t want either.”
She was among the members to abstain from the vote.
It will be up to Summix to decide which scheme to proceed with.
Stephen Sumner, Local Democracy Reporter
