Dancers feel ‘forced out’ by student flats
Dancers say they were heartbroken to be “forced out” of a valued community space in Bath to make way for student housing.
Plans to redevelop Oldfield Park’s Co-op store were approved last month despite residents “saying loud and clear that they don’t want more student accommodation”.
Hundreds of dancers used the studios above the shop every week but teachers say they were asked to leave at the end of last year.
Bath MP Wera Hobhouse said the Scala Dance School, rented from Co-op, was at risk of becoming the “latest casualty of speculative student development”.
Developer Rengen disagreed and said its plans will provide improved community space - but Lindi Ford, who ran the dance school, said the new facility would be tiny and could face noise complaints from the new flats.
She said: “My husband and I built that studio with our own hands. That place was a wreck. We put everything in there. It was a purpose-built studio we loved and treasured. There were so many people using it every week. Now no one has anywhere to go. It’s made all of us so depressed. It’s really been awful.”
She said children would go to her classes straight after school, do their homework, have their dinner and dance, and there were free Friday sessions for the benefit of the community.
“It was like a family,” added Mrs Ford, who competes at a high level. “We’ve lost all that. It really broke the kids’ hearts.”
Dance teacher Kim Jones was based at the Scala for five years and left at the end of 2020. She had been teaching around 350 people a week at the Scala but that number has been halved - she blames the move and the impact of the pandemic.
“We were told to leave,” she said. “They were only offering month by month rolling contracts. No one can run a business like that. Bath is really bad for offering any kind of studio space. We all end up using church halls and other spaces that aren’t suitable.
“My dancers objected to the original plans but we felt like we weren’t being listened to. I don’t know what we could have done to stand in the way of the plans. Bath has too much student accommodation.
Rengen’s scheme will house 16 students above the Co-op in the former Scala cinema and 72 more in a separate building, with another block providing nine residential flats, none of which would be classed as affordable.
More than 150 people objected to the plans.
Councillor Lucy Hodge told her planning committee colleagues on November 18: “Looking at the objections from the community, people are saying loud and clear that they don’t want more student accommodation and there is a desperate need for key worker and family accommodation in this area.
“I still find it very difficult to support this application. It’s an important site within an important community that is struggling to adapt to all the challenges. We’ve got to get the right development on this site.”
The application was approved by eight votes in favour to two against.
Speaking before the plans were approved, Mrs Hobhouse said she stood with the dance school in opposition.
“The dance school provided a valued community space for local residents and this must be considered,” she said.
Rengen chief executive Iestyn Lewis welcomed the planning committee’s a decision, saying: “Our proposals include an upgraded Co-op store with the facade of the Scala building being preserved and restored.
“It will also feature a fully refurbished community space of 512 sqm which is flexible for multiple uses and accessible to all via a disabled lift, as well as space for a dance school, changing rooms and showers are also being provided.
“Throughout the planning process there were extensive discussions with the previous dance school tenant of the first-floor studio space which helped inform the proposals that have been approved.”
He said Bath and North East Somerset Council planning officers had accepted that although the floor space of the community space would reduce, the facility would be flexible and arguably more fit for purpose.
“We disagree with the comments from Wera Hobhouse MP that the dance school is at risk or that a popular community facility has been lost,” Mr Lewis said.
“The approved proposals quite clearly deliver improved community space for all to enjoy as well as a better retail offering and new residential accommodation, all of which has been acknowledged by BANES Council planning committee members.”