Following the decision of the Development Control Committee of Bath and North East Somerset Council to permit, subject to various conditions, the Outline Planning Application (OPA) for the whole Western Riverside site and the detailed planning application (DPA) for the first phase, Caroline Kay, Chief Executive of the Bath Preservation Trust, said:

“Bath Preservation Trust has consistently opposed this development in its current form (because, inter alia, it will dominate views across the city and its design has not inspired us or others) and it is therefore unsurprising that we are disappointed that the Development Control Committee has, subject to conditions and delegated negotiations, permitted both the OPA and DPA last night.

“The Trust is however pleased that the tall riverside building was withdrawn from the DPA and agree with English Heritage in the principle that the three riverside or ‘object’ buildings should share design principles. However, the Trust remains opposed to the indicative height of those buildings having their substantial mass at 8 or 9 storeys.

“The Trust is proud of its achievement over the last 2 years in lowering the overall height of the bulk of the development and will continue to seek further improvements as the plans proceed.

“In addition, we note that the Government Office of the South West still has the Article 14 directions in place on these two applications and the Trust will therefore continue to urge the GOSW to use their power to call the application in”.