There are “no fixed plans” for affordable housing tenants to use a separate door at a major development in Bath, the council has stated.
How the proposed development could look | Image © B&NES Council / Stride Treglown
Bath & North East Somerset Council submitted plans last month to build 351 homes, split across four apartment blocks, on the city’s old gasworks as part of the Bath Western Riverside development.
The planning application had stated that any affordable housing in the largest of the apartment blocks would be accessed from a separate entrance and stairwell, but now the council have said there are “no fixed plans for such a move.”
The affordable housing statement submitted with the plans had said that most affordable housing was anticipated to be in the three smaller blocks: B, C, and D.
But it said: “Any affordable housing proposed in Block A will be served from its own separate entrance and stair core to avoid any management complications.”
Now the council has stated in a press release: “The outline application includes affordable housing and market housing designed as a mixed community and fully integrated into the current phase one development and the proposed Berkeley site.
“No fixed plans have been made for a proposed separate entrance in one block of the proposed scheme which if included would ensure service charges could be directed at those who need to pay them.”
Asked for a comment on whether this would be changed, a council spokesperson said there was “nothing more to add.”
When first reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, previous Mayor of Bath and former Liberal Democrat councillor Rob Appleyard posted on Twitter that he was “surprised” and expected the comment about the separate entrance was missed when the planning application was discussed.
He posted: “This concept was attempted many years ago and got thrown out, totally goes against the concept of equality. There are ways of managing shared space in terms of maintenance, etc.”
The Bath Western Riverside development is a major area of development in the city and it was recently visited by Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Matt McCabe, the council’s cabinet member for Built Environment & Sustainable Development who joined him on the visit, said: “We are committed to building new and affordable homes across our area and took the opportunity to show the Secretary of State what we have already achieved, with great support from Homes England, and what we hope to achieve in our outline plans for the second phase at Bath Western Riverside on the former gas works site.
“In phase two we want to see a flexible community and business space with a mix of tenures, which include market and affordable homes for rent and shared ownership with are all designed on exceptional building performance standards based on Passivhaus principles and a fabric first approach.
“The outline plans also promote low car use in line with our ambitions to build a sustainable future for Bath and North East Somerset.”
You can view and comment on the application here.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
