Rec is no ordinary site for development

The council has announced that 29th March is a final date for it to receive comments or objections to the planning application to develop the Recreation Ground.

This application should never have seen the light of day since the Rec belongs to the citizens of Bath with the council as signatory to and guarantor of the open space in perpetuity, a condition of the property’s 1956 conveyance.

Council’s 2002 application to the High Court resulted in Justice Hart upholding the 1956 terms and stating that the Rec was a charity and should be so managed by an entity separate from the council.

Initially three councillors, the subsequent management trustee has failed to hold open annual general meetings as required, and is now run as a private company appearing to be aligned with the developer.

The public trustee has allowed commercial rugby to dominate the use of the Rec which is a breach of 1956 conveyance.

Subsequent Charity Commission proceedings required the council, as custodian trustee, to extinguish its existing leases for professional use of the Rec which we considered to be illegal use of a charity asset. This has yet to be done.

The ill-considered and weak planning application is a threat to local democracy and to the rule of law by which citizens attempt to run the UK.

Its motives are purely financial. It has driven our hard-pressed council officers down the planning rabbit warren of scrutinising ongoing submissions and paperwork, possible future appeals and enquiries, all at cost to the local taxpayer.

The objection by ICOMOS, acting for UNESCO shows that a consent will threaten the World Heritage status of Bath and its participation in the 11 Spa Towns of Europe initiative.

A consent will significantly change the civic environment and lifestyle of central wards and local residents, and further erode our struggling retail centre which supports the listed buildings of Bath’s historic core.

The Rec is no ordinary site open to possible development.

Council’s 2014 Core Plan policy B8 2(b) for a stadium on the Rec, subject to the resolution of unique legal conditions, puts the council in a bind since these conditions are a material consideration of planning scrutiny and the first consideration in any subsequent enquiry.

The council has issued leases, contrary to the terms of 1956, the length of which effectively privatise a community asset for private exploitation.

The way out of this escalating can of worms is for the council to execute the Charity Commission requirement for the council to exercise its right to extinguish leases, at the next quinquennial review date of June 2024.

What of the future of the Rec after this mess has been cleared up?

In 2018 the Friends of the Rec association released its goals for use of the Rec in a manner consistent with the Outstanding Universal Value element of Bath’s World Heritage Status, to assist with council’s response to climate change, especially that of flood alleviation and to provide a further magnet to the city’s visitor appeal.

This paper could form the basis of a citizen input to the development brief called for in 2014, as part of the now emerging Local Plan. Steve Osgood Bath