Bath Rugby will be allowed to keep its “eyesore” east stand up on the Recreation Ground throughout summer this year and next, despite neighbours’ claims that it hurts their quality of life.
The east stand at the Recreation Ground pitch | Photo © John Wimperis
The current temporary rugby stands on the Recreation Ground were only granted planning permission by Bath & North East Somerset Council on the condition that the club takes down the east stand outside of the rugby season each year.
It means that neighbours can enjoy their view of Bathwick Hill for a few weeks in the summer, but the operation costs Bath Rugby £1 million a year.
Now the council’s planning committee has agreed to allow Bath Rugby to keep the stand up through summer 2025 and summer 2026, despite protests from neighbours who hold parties every year to celebrate the return of their view.
Rosemary Carne told the planning committee at its meeting on 4th June that she was “Bath’s most affected citizen.”
She said: “My house and garden are next to the north and east stands. Over 15 years of increasing renewals of increasingly larger temporary stands, my outlook has changed from a grass playing field to seeing only the massive Dyson branded east stand — not a blade of grass to be seen. All for 16 days of Ruby matches.”
She told the committee: “This is not about rugby. This is about quality of life.
“Me and many neighbours count the days until it comes down, every bang worth it to be relieved of the eyesore and the views restored for the summer.”
The issue has divided the two local councillors for Bathwick, the council ward which contains the stadium and its neighbours. Manda Rigby (Liberal Democrat) addressed the committee as ward councillor and urged it to keep the rule in place.
She said: “Parties are held on the day it gets removed when the long-hidden view of Bathwick Hill and fields returns and the outstanding universal value of our heritage listing to do with the setting of Bath is then restored.
“The decision to take the stand down every year was made on good solid planning grounds and they have not changed.”
But with Bath Rugby’s recent success, the club have been playing later in the season. Fellow Bathwick councillor Toby Simon (also Liberal Democrat) sits on the planning committee and pointed out that the stand would only have been out of use for 13 weeks.
Seven of them would have been spent taking it down and putting it back up again. That would only leave six weeks, during which the space would have to be fenced off anyway for reseeded grass to grow, which Mr Simon said would be “a futile endeavour.”
The planning committee voted unanimously to allow Bath Rugby to keep the stand up for the next two summers.
Councillors also agreed to extend the temporary planning permission for the other stands, which had been due to expire, until 2027.
Bath Rugby is planning to replace the stands with a permanent 18,000-seater stadium. A planning application has been submitted to the council and is expected to be decided by the planning committee later this year.
But the plans have been hugely controversial in the city. Speaking for Bath Rugby at the planning committee, agent Tim Burden said that part of the reason for extending the planning permission for the current temporary stands was to allow time for a potential battle over the plans.
He said: “We are mindful of the very real possibility for an application for judicial review of any decision on the permanent stadium.
“That process itself can take up to a year to resolve. Similarly, that process itself may be subject to a secretary of state call-in.”
Bath Rugby was also granted permission to keep the stand up last year. Ms Rigby told the committee it felt like “groundhog day”.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
