The Rec is our spiritual home, says rugby boss
BATH Rugby belong at The Rec” says CEO Tarquin McDonald, despite the latest set-back in the club’s plans to build a new 18,000-seater stadium at their traditional home.
In the latest twist in the saga to build a new stadium at the centre of Bath, this week a judge has ruled against the club’s lawyers who had legally challenged the 1922 covenants on the Rec as unenforceable.
The covenants on the Recreation Ground protects it from development on the land which may cause a ‘nuisance’, with Bath Rugby – in partnership with Bath Rugby Foundation and Arena 1865 – looking to build the Stadium for Bath on the site, including riverside regeneration, community use and a car park under a raised pitch.
Despite the Recreation Ground already being home to a 14,509-seater rugby stadium, the covenants on the site are a hurdle to future, permanent development taking place with the east stand of existing structure currently temporary.
The ruling by Judge Paul Matthews at the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Court in Bristol, published on Tuesday, means that any future development on the land could be open to a legal challenge from objectors to a new stadium, over whether it should be permitted.
Bath are now considering whether to appeal the ruling.
Mr McDonald told our sister website Somerset Live: “No one has ever developed a stadium in a World Heritage city before. I can not downplay the complexity of the project and what is involved but we will continue to work through that.“
Despite a history of roadblocks to the project, Mr McDonald says the club remains steadfast in their commitment to the project and staying in the city centre.
He said: “Our focus has always been at the Rec. It is our spiritual home, we have been there for 125 years playing rugby at the Rec.
“It is the spiritual home of the club and that is where the council’s local plan, where they effectively plan out how they want to develop the city over the years ahead, has enshrined the Rec as the site for a new stadium. That has always been our focus.
“We have considered alternative sites but our focus has been on the Rec being our home.
“We have consulted extensively and ultimately that is what people want, and I don’t just mean rugby supporters but people in Bath.
“It is at the heart of the city.”
When the coronavirus pandemic hit the UK back in March, Bath Rugby paused the stadium project and have yet to submit a planning application. With so much uncertainty in professional sport, with rugby clubs losing around £1 million a month due to having no matchday income, the landscape is certainly an uncertain one.
Mr McDonald said: “We said back in lockdown that work had paused on the project.
“We will reflect on the project given everything that is going on.”
As for the situation with the covenant ruling, Mr McDonald said: “This is an incredibly complex site, we have always been working tirelessly, consulting exhaustively to produce something exceptional and that is where we have always been.
“To do that, considering the site, there are just so many considerations; they are World Heritage, they are flood, and in that context this is another one of those considerations that need to be taken into account.
“If you look at what we have been doing, we have been seeking clarity for years, and obviously now we are reviewing the judgement and accessing our options; one of those may be appealing the decision.”
We are reviewing the
judgement and accessing our options;
one of those may be appealing the decision
TARQUIN MCDONALD