Car Park Adjacent To 6, St John’s Road, Bathwick, Bath

The proposed site of tree works is the car park on the western side of St John’s Road, situated within the Bath conservation area and World Heritage Site. The site closely borders the River Avon, and consequently falls within the Green Infrastructure Network and Ecological Network, and sits closely against the defined boundary of a Site of Nature Conservation Interest. As existing, this extent of the river to the north of the Hilton Hotel has maintained a decent vegetative screen on both banks, through which limited views of buildings on either bank can be ‘glimpsed’, which limits inter-visibility between the river as a significant green corridor and its urban built context. The riverside canopy additionally forms a welcome green backdrop along St John’s Road in which pockets of open space and planting interject into what is otherwise a relatively high density streetscape.

We therefore emphasise the cumulative value of the existing tree belt along the western boundary of the car park in wider streetscape and river views. We appreciate there is a fine balance between the usability of the space for parking, and its aesthetic contribution to its setting. We maintain the importance of considering how best to retain this canopy without excessive thinning or tree reduction as part of future maintenance works, potentially with some replanting efforts where required. We trust that this will be considered by the appropriate officer.