Banks ‘going roughshod’ with luxury homes plan
Residents say they fear Arron Banks is “trying to come in through the back door” as his firm seeks retrospective planning permission to build six luxury properties near their home. The millionaire’s project on land off London Road West in Bath stalled late last year with building work stopping just months into the development. Amended plans for all six properties, which could sell for more than a million pounds each, were submitted in September by his Bristol-based property investment company Old Down Ltd. A target decision date of December 14 has long passed. Bath & North East Somerset Council has not yet made a decision on the amended proposal. Angela Whitfield has lived in one of the homes overlooking the site since 1985. She said it used to be a garden centre nursery until the 1960s when it was abandoned. It was left to grow as a field with trees and animals including bats, badgers and deer. Original plans submitted by A Banks were approved by the council in 2015 and construction began in March 2017. Ms Whitfield shared pictures she said were taken on July 17, a month “before they chopped all the trees down and uprooted all the plant life and disturbed the wildlife”. She said she did not object to the original scheme, but claimed that it was not being built as specified. “When they started building, it’s not what was on the plans,” she said. “The garages are too high and in the wrong place. [They’ve also] changed the position of the houses by as much as 90 degrees.” Her comments echo ward councillor Lin Patterson (Green Party, Lambridge), who wrote: “I object to this application. It has made unauthorised changes to the structures and positioning of the buildings. “It now is highly intrusive to nearby residents. It is unsafe due to flood risk. It is likely to be unstable due to ground springs. “The exterior finish is incongruous. Please consider this in committee.” Mr Banks has been in the media spotlight since he famously donated £1 million to Ukip in 2014. He bankrollled the Leave.eu campaign in the 2016 referendum on the UK leaving the European Union to the tune of £9 million. After the success of the leave campaign, he issued a disparaging description of the residents of Bath. He said in a tweet that Bath was “full of bleeding heart liberals” and “soft rich Tories”. Ms Whitfield, who works in sales on the family business Westfields Pattern, said: “We think they’re trying to come in through the back door,” she said. “Mr Banks will think he can do what he likes. Just because he is who he is, he can’t be going roughshod over everyone.” She said her house was built in 1928 and sits on clay. Since the building work began, a crack has opened up in the arch of the door to her rear garden, and the door between the kitchen and conservatory no longer fully closes. It was not possible to say whether the work had caused either to happen. Ms Whitfield said: “These foundations go into blue clay two metres deep. These houses move. They move a lot and suddenly we’ve got this massive crack appear.” She lives with her daughter Fay, who is the Green Party’s prospective candidate for Cllr Patterson’s seat, who is standing down in May’s local elections. Fay said: “It’s to do with underground springs. “In the basement we had really bad underground flooding last year. It was like a natural overflow. It just shows the impact it can have.” The Chronicle contacted the planning agent in this application, but has not had a reply.