Lansdown Lawn Tennis & Squash Racquets Club, Northfields, Lansdown, Bath

This application concerns the Lansdown Tennis Club site, situated within the Bath conservation area and World Heritage site. Works are constrained to courts 1-7 to the northern end of the site. Planning permission was previously granted in 2002 for the erection of 8 8m tall floodlights, with 2 new floodlight columns for court 4 being approved in 2016. A total of 18 columns across the site was indicated in 2016 (see 16/01700/FUL).

We note that the current proposals call for the replacement of the existing floodlights across the site with LED equivalents of a matching 8m height. It is also proposed that the scheme would include a rearrangement of the proposed floodlights’ new positions to more effectively light the courts. However, the existing plan appears to indicate an approximate number of 21 floodlighting columns on the site, whereas the proposed plan suggests a proposed approximate replacement number of 30 floodlighting columns. It is therefore unclear as to whether proposals would result in a cumulative increase in floodlighting and resulting lightspill from the site, and we trust this will be followed up by the case officer.