Plans for 286 new homes rejected

OVERGROWN mounds of rubble will continue to cover the site of a former printworks in Bath for months to come after plans for 286 homes were rejected.

Councillors refused to compromise on the key Bath Press site in Lower Bristol Road, which has been cleared of industrial buildings under a previous scheme to build 40 fewer homes that proved unviable.

Facing ongoing viability issues that members said it should have foreseen, Aberdeen Standard Investments made a one-time offer to provide four affordable homes – up from zero in the original plans but well below the 86 Bath and North East Somerset Council policy would require.

Ward councillor Colin Blackburn said the anger among residents was “palpable” and the shareholders should be “embarrassed” because the developer had overpaid for the site.

Dating back to the 1880s, the Bath Press site has been vacant since 2007.

Demolition work got under way in 2017, leaving a large pile of rubble, but the facade of the Bath Press building is being retained.

The latest application proposed 256 build-to-rent flats and 30 houses and commercial floorspace.

Aberdeen Standard Investment said other approved schemes “set a precedent for non-delivery [of affordable housing] where it has been proven not viable to do so”.

But council officers did not recommend refusal based on the lack of affordable housing. Instead the application was rejected due to the failure to provide office space or a north-south link and the lack of parking, a non-compliant 115 spaces.

Councillors also objected to plans to demolish the landmark chimney.