41 High Street, Upper Weston, Bath

There is still insufficient information on the existing building to establish its historic significance. Until this is clearly established its demolition should not be accepted. Although the design has been revised in an attempt to reduce the impact of a three storey development, the resultant wide canted gable now proposed for the west elevation would be a poorly proportioned and over-dominant feature in this very prominent location. The High Street (north) elevation would have a top heavy mansard and the garage door at ground floor would be an unattractive suburban feature in this setting. The lower “link” block would jar with the adjacent facade of the listed Kings Head PH. To the south, the proposed building would compete visually against the historic mansard roof of the listed building. The Trust refers to its previous comment that the development should be subservient to the listed building. The revised scheme has failed to achieve this.

This proposal would harm the special interest of the adjacent listed building, would neither preserve nor enhance the character and appearance of the conservation area and fails to be of a sufficient design quality for a new building in the WHS. The scheme is contrary to the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 and fails to comply with Section 12 (Achieving well designed places), Section 16 (Conserving and enhancing the historic environment) of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), policies; B1, B4 and CP6 of the B&NES Core Strategy and policies; DW1, CP6,D2, D3, D5, D7, B4 & HE1 of the B&NES Placemaking Plan. For this reason we object to this application and recommend that the scheme is refused.