By Harry Mottram: For many Solsbury Hill has a powerful emotive pull with its views over Bath, its connection to the Peter Gabrial song and the controversial fight to stop the A46 carving through the countryside below it. Now the city’s Green Group led by Lambridge Councillor Joanna Wright are demanding that a barn conversion on the hill should not go ahead. The Bath and North East Somerset’s Planning committee approved by five votes to four in favour of permitting a former barn to become a 4 bedroom home, on 21st Jan 2026 which Cllr Wright feels breaks the Liberal Democratic party run Council’s own policies.
She attended the planning meeting to represent residents and requested that the planning application be refused. The site in question is in Bath Avon North ward but ward councillors for Bath Avon North, the Leader of B&NES Council, Cllr Kevin Guy and Deputy Leader, Cllr Sarah Warren did not speak at the Planning meeting although the ward she represents at Lambridge is adjacent to the site.
Councillor Wright said: “I am staggered that the ward councillors for Bath Avon North did not attend this meeting and defend the green belt on the flanks for the world famous Solsbury Hill. They regularly claim that they are advocating for nature-positive outcomes for B&NES. Yet in their own ward they have chosen not to speak up.
“We do need more housing, but converting this barn into a 4-bedroom house is not going to create an affordable home, or one which anyone with social housing needs can access. It will most likely be a short term let. The application had no Highways report. It had no sustainable energy included in it, such as solar or air source heat pumps and it sits on a muddy path that crosses a historic right of way that has connected locals for generations. I do think that if the ward councillors had bothered to stand up on this issue, the planning committee would have voted differently.
“This site is a local and a national treasure and should be protected. The site has already had permission for one house to be built on condition of another house being demolished. I despair of how the Labour Government has allowed changes to the planning system that now allows for former agricultural buildings to be converted to housing.”
In a press release to Bath Voice the Green Group said the site of the proposed barn conversion ‘sits below Solsbury Hill, part of the historic Bath Skyline and managed by the National Trust. The site can be seen from many locations within B&NES, including the canal tow path, Claverton valley, or Bathampton Down.’
The Green councillors said they question the local Liberal Democrats commitment to protecting the green belt by not attending the planning committee meeting and requesting this plan be refused. Councillor Warren and Cabinet Member for Sustainable Bath and North East Somerset, has previously advocated for a “nature-positive” Local Plan (2025-2043) that embeds green infrastructure, aims for 30% of land to be managed for nature by 2030, and increases biodiversity net gain requirements to 20%. She has expressed concern over development proposals in the Green Belt, including a dog paddock proposal in 2021 citing potential breaches in landscape and character of the Green Belt or World Heritage Site.
Bath has a housing crisis with a shortage of homes in the city and the surrounding areas. The UK as a whole is thought to need at least three million new homes while Bath has several thousand people on the housing waiting list with around 500 people in crisis according to The Big Issue. Add to that more than 1,600 empty properties and over 800 only occupied part of the year with Airbnbs a contributing factor there’s no doubt more properties are needed. And in favour of the barn conversion there will be many who feel since the barn was already there then it is essentially a change of use. And some people may argue there’s an element of inverted social snobbery about opposing a barn conversion but not social housing on a brown field site. That’s as maybe – but planning issues have and always will be controversial to many.
The hill is no stranger to controversy having been the site of a battle between road builders over the widened and modernised A46 that carved through the countryside below the hill and those opposed to the development. It became the site of a series of campaigns to stop major road construction projects from destroying fields, hedges and woodland which saw similar fights against the Newbury bypass, Twyford Down and the M11 Link road. The plans backed by the Conservative Government of John Major at the time saw bitter confrontations – Solsbury Hill included – with protestors climbing into trees, digging tunnels and doing everything they could to prevent construction with some violence as contractors and security teams attempted to stop them. Though the campaigners lost the fight and the road was built, their efforts helped to change long-term government transport policy and still influences environmentalists today – which also led to the rise of the Green Party and in Bath in later years the Green Group.
Solsbury Hill was first developed in the Iron Age just before the Romans arrived in Bath as a hill fort – or rather a hill top village with a surrounding rampart of earth topped almost certainly by a timber wall. It appears to have been sacked – possibly by a rival tribe – or perhaps abandoned after a fire. Later since it has a flat top to the hill it was farmed by Early and Later Medieval families – but eventually in the 20th century came under the protection of the National Trust. Today it is a favourite walk for many and a place to look down at the valley below and Bath in the distance – as reflected in the opening lyrics of the Peter Gabriel 1977 song Solsbury Hill:
Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
Had to listen, had no choice
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