Meeting documents

3 MIN. STATEMENT TO COUNCIL EXECUTIVE -
BWR - DENSITY/CARS/POLLUTION

There are some aspects of the BWR SPD which are totally unacceptable.
By encouraging `optimum' use of the site, providing 3000 dwellings and at the same time identifying public open spaces, developers are being driven to the top end of the allowable building heights.
Resulting densities, on built areas, will be more than double government guidelines of 50 dwellings / hectare.
This will create, in the words of the SPD itself - `challenging living conditions' - in effect - `slums of the future'.

Do we really need so much new housing, particularly when there is empty housing in the city centre? Repopulate the centre, make it safe for families (Continental style) and deny it to the yobs.

Developers have been handed a gift.
Not only can they cover the site at high density, but they have more space to do it, as car parking is minimal.
By setting a car parking ratio of just 0.7 cars per dwelling, the traffic impact on adjacent roads may be technically justified, but there is no allowance for the visitors, trades and service vehicles generated by some 6000 residents, or for any students.

In any case the 0.7 ratio is a fallacy.
Although the proposed Rapid Transit system and local facilities, will reduce car trips, car ownership cannot be controlled, or denied.
Cars will be owned to take families out at the weekend, or go to Cribbs Causeway where they can shop and park......etc.
Officers' response to public comment on this issue is most unsatisfactory.

In reality, car ownership will probably double - approaching the government guideline of 1.5 cars per dwelling . This will have an even greater impact on traffic congestion, and a disastrous effect on surrounding areas, already saturated by parking.

Local highways will not support further traffic congestion and light controlled access points will result in more static traffic and increased street pollution, already breaching government guidelines in places.

As the surrounding areas and roads, which have developed, over the years, to cope with their own needs and pressures, will not accept the sudden influx of some 6000 people and 4500 cars:

1. Limit height to a maximum of 4 storeys and thereby reduce the density.
2. Allow a higher parking ratio and ensure it is contained on-site.
3. Improve highway infrastructure.

Have Councillors, driven by high ideals of banishing the car, fully considered the implications of their decision making and the effect it will have on many Bath residents, to whom they are responsible?

Here is an opportunity to correct some of Bath's parking and traffic problems, not create new ones.

Once the SPD is ratified, there will, presumably, be no justification in refusing a compliant application so this is therefore the last chance to 'get it right'.


IF POSSIBLE!

This massive development has approached us like a runaway express train speeding out of the mist and beyond our consciousness, but heading straight for the buffers - and disaster for Bath and its status as a World Heritage Site.

A. Newnham 10.10.2006