By John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter: Film director Ken Loach has joined protestors against plans to build a stadium in the centre of Bath.
Bath and North East Somerset Council is due to consider Bath Rugby’s planning application to build an 18,000 seater stadium on their pitch on the Recreation Ground next Wednesday (September 17).
The plan is controversial in Bath and the government has now ordered the council not to approve the plans without “specific authorisation.”
On Friday September 5, Mr Loach was one of about 30 Bathonians who held a protest against the plans on Johnston Street, a Georgian terraced street which ends suddenly at the edge of the Recreation Ground.
Mr Loach said: “A mini Wembley Stadium in the middle of these Georgian Houses is a travesty.
“No-one with any sensitivity to the unique beauty of this city could ever contemplate putting a lumpy massive modern structure that is a desecration of this city. People come to Bath for this architecture, they come for the mediaeval abbey, they come for the Roman Baths, they do not come to look at a hideous modern stadium, an eyesore right in the middle of it.”
The “Kes” and “I, Daniel Blake” director said the Recreation Ground should remain an open green space for all people to use — from lads who “put down coats and have a kickabout with a football” to people having picnics or simply walking across the fields taking in views of the hills and Bath Abbey.
He said: “Bath Recreation Ground was a gift to the people of Bath in 1956 and it should be an open green space forever. […] It was for the leisure for all the people of Bath and visitors for all the sports equally — and now we find that one wealthy club owned by one very wealthy man has a lease and is now looking to build a permanent large stadium here.”
Earlier this year Mr Loach submitted an objection to the planning application for the stadium, warning the stadium would be a “carbuncle” on the city. The film director is no stranger to protests in Bath and has repeatedly joined protests in the city against the genocide in Gaza.
Bath Rugby first played at the Recreation Ground in 1894 and currently has temporary seating around its pitch, which it now wants to replace with the permanent stadium. 368 people had submitted objections to the planning application for the stadium on the council’s planning portal — but an overwhelming 5,085 left comments in support of the plan. There are strongly held views on both sides.
The nearest neighbour of the planned stadium is Rosemary Carne, who lives in a flat just below street level on Johnston Street. Since moving in in 2010 she has stopped sitting at her flat’s only south facing window after the screen at the rugby pitch “completely ruined” her only view of grass. She said: “Where the proposed stadium is is far nearer […] and higher so basically there will be no sunlight, no real daylight, accessible to this room.”
Mel Clarke and Jay Risbridger, who attended the protest on Friday wearing green costumes and facepaint, said they were concerned about the environmental impact.
Ms Clarke said: “The reason why we are dressed in these costumes is we know that plastic grass will be used which finds its way into the sea eventually via the river right next to the stadium.
“The river is a wildlife corridor for bats and all sorts of things — beavers have just been reintroduced to the Avon.”
Bath Rugby said the “hybrid” pitch would be 96% natural grass and the reinforcement fibres used would be recycled.
Mr Risbridger added: “It’s about trying to preserve a green space that’s been in Bath for hundreds of years. Once its gone, its gone forever. You can always have another rugby game somewhere but you can’t have another Rec.” He said: “This is a World Heritage City. You can’t plonk a stadium in the middle of the green bit of the city.”
But Helen Cooke — one of several supporters of the stadium who came along to Johnston Street wearing Bath Rugby shirts while the protest was happening — said: “It’s the home of Bath Rugby. I just wouldn’t feel right being anywhere else.”
Bath Rugby has previously warned that not getting planning permission for the stadium could limit its ability to remain on the Recreation Ground. Ms Cooke said people enjoyed the current location. She said: “Wives don’t mind their husbands going to watch the rugby because they can go off shopping, they enjoy spending the day in Bath because it is such a beautiful place and it’s all really convenient.”
A spokesperson for Bath Rugby said: “The Stadium for Bath project will deliver a new, world-class 18,000 capacity venue with increased capacity to host events and regeneration of the riverside, generating a wide range of positive, long-term economic and social benefits for the city and local communities.”
He added: “The proposals will act as a catalyst for creating a destination for visitors and residents which revitalises the riverside and encourages sporting participation within the wider Recreation Ground and across the city, and which co-habits respectfully with near neighbours, the city and its architecture.”
The council’s planning committee will meet at 10am in the council chamber in Bath Guildhall on September 17 to consider whether to give its backing to the plan — but it has been told by the government: “The Secretary of State hereby directs your council not to grant permission on this application without specific authorisation.” The intervention is to allow the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government to consider whether the plans should be referred to them to decide instead.
Council planning officer’s 121 page-long report into the plans concluded that the proposals are in overall accordance with the council’s development plans but stopped short of recommending planning permission be approved, in light the government letter. Instead, officers recommend that councillors advise the Secretary of State on what the council’s decision would have been if the direction from government had not been issued. The committee also remains free to turn the planning application down.
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