Labour councillors say Bath’s UNESCO World Heritage Site status should not be a barrier to building homes.
Bath and North East Somerset Council has been told by the Labour government to build 27,324 homes over the next 18 years. Earlier this month, the council published a draft of its local plan, which sets out where they should go. But despite the City of Bath accounting for around half of the district’s population, it is only set to get around a quarter of the new homes.
The Liberal Democrat-run council is proposing building most of the homes around Keynsham and the Somer Valley, as it says that building suburbs around the city of Bath would threaten its World Heritage Site status.
Leader of the council’s opposition Labour group Robin Moss (Westfield) said: “We’ve repeatedly asked why the Lib Dem administration thinks World Heritage status stops them from building homes, but got no reasonable answer. UNESCO is proud of other World Heritage Site cities where the locals aren’t priced out.”
Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site twice over and the listing does not just cover Bath’s iconic sites like the Royal Crescent and Pulteney Bridge, but also key aspects about the character of the city as a whole — including its setting a “hollow in the hills.” This has effectively halted any further suburban expansion of the city, with new houses to be focussed on brownfield sites within its boundary and few very small parcels of land at the edges.
The plan allocates space for 5,900 homes in Bath, 4,600 in the Somer Valley around Midsomer Norton and Radstock, and 2,600 in the district’s rural areas. Meanwhile 8,600 would be built in what it refers to as “the Bristol and Bath corridor,” around Keynsham, Saltford, Whitchurch village on the edge of Bristol, and a new town at Hicks Gate.
Allocating a site for development in the local plan does not mean there are current plans to build there, but any planning applications which are in line for developments proposed in the plan will almost certainly be approved. The council considered allocating a large area of land from the edge of Twerton up to the Globe Roundabout as space for 2,000 new homes, but decided against including it in the draft plan.
Documents said: “Whilst development in this location would undoubtedly deliver public benefits and help to address objectively assessed housing and other economic needs, this had to be weighed against the substantial harm that development would cause to the dual inscribed World Heritage Site and impacts on the setting of the Cotswolds National Landscape.”
Labour councillors — who all represent wards outside the city, in the former mining areas around the Somer Valley — previously suggested that Bath should drop its UNESCO status in order to build more houses. But losing the coveted status, as happened to Liverpool in 2021 after redevelopment of its Victorian docks, would likely be seen as a humiliation and failure to preserve heritage by many.
Mr Moss said: “Already too many people who work in Bath can only afford to live outside it where the homes cost less. This just moves the problem, adding to commuter crush and environmental damage every morning and evening, because these local workers and families have no other choice.”
Announcing the draft local plan, council leader Kevin Guy (Bathavon North, Liberal Democrat) said: “The government has imposed a requirement for 27,324 homes over 18 years. We had no choice over that figure and we remain concerned that the unique characteristics of our area, including our World Heritage status and the extent of our green belt, have not been taken into account in the way we would have hoped.
“The reality is that a large number of homes are likely to be built in our area. Our only choice is whether we plan for that growth or leave ourselves at the mercy of developers. Without a local plan, there is less influence over where homes are built, what type of homes are built and how the infrastructure needed alongside them is delivered.”
The latest draft of the plan went before the council cabinet on September 10 before going out for a six-week consultation, starting the week commencing 14 September. This will be the final opportunity for people to comment on the plan before it is submitted to the government for approval. Once approved, it will establish the rules by which planning applications are decided until 2043.
Bath & North East Somerset Council’s draft Local Plan went out for a six-week public consultation in mid-September.
Residents can view the proposals and find details of how to submit comments via the council’s Local Plan webpage: www.bathnes.gov.uk/local-plan
By John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter