A £60M transport plan in Bath received mixed fortunes last week – half the plans were passed, and the rest deferred to the Government.
Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning applications to expand both Odd Down and Lansdown park-and-ride sites were unanimously approved.
However, the application for expansion of Newbridge park and ride and the bus rapid transit route was deferred for further information on the scheme’s benefits and design. The planning application for the proposed A4 Eastern park-and-ride site was deferred to secretary of state, Hazel Blears, because it was a departure from the council’s local plan.
Cllr Charles Gerrish, cabinet member for customer services, said the additional information would be presented to a future meeting of the development control committee.
Natural England objected to all but one of the applications when it was consulted, and has called for a ‘sensitive design’ approach to be adopted. Amanda Grundy, an adviser on the organisation’s west of England team, said it recognised the need to tackle congestion in Bath by improving public transport, as well as pedestrian and cycle access for residents and visitors.
‘There are no fundamental objections, but we have major concerns over the impact this could on the landscape – particularly with regard to the Cotswolds area of natural beauty,’ she told Surveyor. The council submitted the four separate planning applications earlier in the year, claiming they would provide a 21st century transportation network (Surveyor, February 5 2009).
The plans were met by counterclaims from environmental groups which said they were not financially sustainable and that the social, visual and environmental impacts had been underestimated.
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