The road ahead for our city in the coming year
Bath in 2022 will see major changes to the way people get into and around the city.
Council leaders are forging ahead with “proportionate” plans for a ring of steel around some of the areas with the highest footfall, despite a legal challenge to the proposals for York Street prompting a £60,000 public inquiry.
And they are rolling out low traffic neighbourhoods in a dozen areas in a bid to drive down the dominance of motor vehicles.
The year ahead will also see progress on a range of projects, from the delayed reopening of Cleveland Bridge following a £3.8 million repair project to the completion of Bath’s new police station.
Here’s a roundup of what’s to come.
Ring of steel
The city centre secure zone, better known as the ring of steel, can trace its origins to a 2016 review.
Avon and Somerset Police pushed for an anti-terror traffic regulation order covering much of the city but the council said it first wanted to concentrate on popular central streets around the Abbey.
After revised plans were approved that grant better access for disabled people than the “appalling” original scheme, the barriers installed last year to allow for social distancing will be replaced by permanent moveable bollards.
There are only a limited number of cases where access will be granted between 10am and 6pm and council staff will control who gets in and out.
The plans for York Street will be put on hold after a resident had her objection upheld, triggering a public inquiry next spring, although other roadworks will still see it closed to traffic.
The rollout of low traffic neighbourhoods will see more major changes to traffic flows in the city.
New measures could include reduced speeds, traffic calming, changes to junctions and crossings, residents’ parking zones and better cycle routes and storage.
Ideas from the first stage of engagement will shape concept designs that will be considered by a cross-section of the community during a series of workshops.
“Quick wins” could be fast tracked in January but the council is yet to confirm when the first schemes will be introduced, with consultation set to continue into next summer.
Conservative councillors have warned the liveable neighbourhood rollout will displace traffic, leading to higher levels of congestion and pollution and residents with mobility problems being disproportionately affected.
Responding to the concerns in June, cabinet member for sustainable travel Cllr Sarah Warren (inset below) said: “I would emphasise the importance of patience. In some instances we will need to hold our nerve.
“Traffic displacement can be an issue in the first few days but over the weeks that follow a new pattern develops.”
Police station
Bath’s new police station has been promised for years by politicians across the spectrum.
Work finally got under way in 2021 to expand the enquiry desk in Lewis House in Manvers Street and is expected to be finished by the spring.
Once completed, the neighbourhood policing team based at Redbridge House in Lower Bristol Road will move in, making them more visible and accessible.
The number of officers and opening hours of the enquiry desk will be unaffected.
The city’s police station was previously a stone’s throw away across Manvers Street in a building sold by Avon and Somerset Police in 2015 for £7 million that is now occupied by the University of Bath.
World Heritage Centre
A World Heritage Centre will open in the spring celebrating the city’s acclaimed status.
Visitors will have the chance to discover what makes Bath such a unique place and learn about the city’s attributes of Outstanding Universal Value: the hot springs, Roman remains, Georgian architecture, Georgian town planning, the social setting of the Georgian spa town and the city’s natural landscape setting.
Clean air zone
March will mark a year since the launch of the clean air zone, which has reduced average nitrogen dioxide levels across the city.
The biggest change to it yet could see a new charge levied on even the cleanest HGVS weighing over 12 tonnes in a bid to cut the numbers driving through the city and protect Cleveland Bridge.
Cabinet members backed the idea after hearing it was more likely to succeed than a unilateral decision to impose a weight limit on the Grade Ii*-listed bridge.
The crossing is undergoing £3.8 million repairs and members said more will be needed in a decade if nothing is done to stop the bridge being “pummelled” by HGVS.
But Wiltshire Council leaders have threatened to “formally oppose these plans at every step possible and keep standing up for our towns, villages and communities”.
B&NES Council is still unable to say when Cleveland Bridge, currently closed to vehicles wider than two metres, will fully reopen.
Transport bosses said the work could impact on other planned maintenance and events in Bath into 2022 after engineers identified a further 28 repairs in addition to 21 already accounted for.
The project was paused for Christmas (from December 23 to January 4), with an update expected in the coming weeks.
Council houses
Work on Bath and North East Somerset’s first council houses in a generation could begin in 2022.
The Liberal Democrat administration has approved a £12.1 million programme for the first 58 social rented properties on eight sites and promised to build hundreds more in years to come.
However, they have been criticised for refusing to reveal seven of the eight council-owned sites, only naming Newbridge Hill, because they contain estimated land values, site details and high-level business assumptions.
The majority of the programme will be funded through government grants and rental income.
Rugby stadium
We could see Bath Rugby’s plans for a new stadium materialise in
2022 but it will be a while before it is built.
The club has just applied for another extension to keep its stands at the Rec in place until 2026.
Under the current permission the temporary structure erected will have to be removed by the end of May.
The club said in its latest application: “At the beginning of 2018 the Stadium for Bath project launched.
There was significant work undertaken on the project in the subsequent two years, but as a consequence of the global pandemic, on May 14, 2020, it was announced that the project was paused, and remains so. It is hoped that it will recommence imminently.”
It added: “These applications, if approved, will allow the club to continue to operate at The Rec as it does presently for another four years.
“This will allow time for Stadium for Bath to submit their full planning application in due course and for it to go through the formal planning process.”
The club got an early Christmas present when the Court of Appeal ruled that covenants, thought by some to be a barrier to redeveloping at the Rec, are not enforceable.
Old King Edward’s School
Following decades of being left to “rot” there may be hope that old King Edward’s School will finally reopen.
The Broad Street property was bought by Yorkshire-based Samuel Smith’s Brewery in 1989 and there have been a number of different planning applications connected to it.
As far back as 1997 there were plans to turn it into a licensed premises but they were later withdrawn.
The North Yorkshire chain then got the go-ahead to turn it into a 12-bed hotel and pub in 2010, but nothing happened so the permission was renewed in 2013.
Despite pressure from city MP Wera Hobhouse and the Bath Preservation Trust the old school has remained empty, but a recent application from the brewery, which rarely responds to media requests, suggests something could soon happen.
The amendment approved in July by B&NES Council will allow the business to open until 11pm Monday to Saturday and 10.30pm on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
Entry Hill
Bristol’s Pedal Progression won the tender to create a new bike park at Entry Hill and had hoped it could open by the spring, although plans are yet to be submitted.
In concept designs it proposed a pay-to-use facility offering 5km of “purpose built, feature rich mountain bike trail” that will be inclusive and progressive.
The rest of the park would be free to use, with a wide multipurpose trail for dog walkers, runners and family cycling, cafe, play park, bike shop, bike hire centre, community garden, picnic area and allotments.
Bath and North East Somerset Council sought a new operator for the park to end its £70,000-a-year subsidy of the nine-hole golf course.
It set aside £500,000 in capital funding to deliver the project and approved the use of £35,000 to complete the required feasibility work to get through pre-app and then submit for planning permission.
According to a recent decision notice, the full scheme is set to cost more than £1 million and will need to be signed off by a cabinet member. Pedal Progression said on its website it hoped the bike trails could open in 2022.
We’ll have to wait and see what else the year ahead has in store for us.