Top UK destination may pave paradise to put up a parking lot

SEE VIDEO HERE

Bath puts UNESCO world heritage status in danger to accommodate more motorists

Roman and Georgian Bath is very successful at attracting big numbers of tourists. The recently-established but now famous Christmas market alone boasts over 390,000 visitors.

Ranked in the top 20 UK destinations, the city provides 900,000 bed/nights and receives some 6.7 million day visitors.

But, of course, all these tourists to a beautiful, but delicate city of just 80,000 inhabitants delivers strains if not managed extremely sensitively.

And as there are limited access routes into the city, traffic issues for local residents are a major issue. Traffic in Bath, has troubled politicians and local people for many years. Due to the city’s geography, nestling in a valley surrounded by seven hills, it is difficult to find a way of getting over seven million visitors a year – on top of commuters and residents – in and around its Georgian streets

In an effort to provide more parking, the local council has identified Bathampton Meadows as a potential park and ride site and the scheme has unleashed a massive local wave of protest, and a major petition.

Locals say that the council is destroying a beautiful and historic local amenity – in effect to accommodate more tourists who would further inconvenience them.

The Meadows, a wildlife sanctuary in their own right, are on the Northern and Eastern sides surrounded and overlooked by the villages of Batheaston and Bathford and nestled between the river Avon and the Kennet and Avon canal.

Batheaston on the lower slopes of the Iron-Age fort of Solsbury Hill, made famous by Peter Gabriel in his song of the same name boasts an equally old historic past with its own entry in the Doomsday Book. It is reputed to have been the home of Bladud, who discovered the curative powers of the hot springs in Bath. Eagle House in Batheaston was the residence of John Wood the Younger, who built the famous Bath Circus in the 18^th century. The house was later the refuge of the suffragettes, who recuperated there and subsequently planted an arboretum on Solsbury Hill.

It forms part of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

Protesters against the scheme, argue it would spoil one of the celebrated green approaches to the city and destroy the vista from Little Solsbury Hill,

More than 5,000 people have signed the petition against the proposals for Bathampton Meadows and 200 people formed a choir to sing Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi, which protests against paving paradise in favour of a parking lot, at the site.

The National Trust, Bath Preservation Trust and Campaign for the Protection of Rural England have all expressed concern about the proposals while direct action protesters have hinted they will set up a camp on the meadows to try to stop the bulldozers moving in.

According to the UK Guardian Sophie Spencer, the director of the Avonside branch of the CPRE, said it was strongly opposed. to the scheme. "It would cause serious damage to the Avon green belt, and be a negative visual intrusion on the Cotswold area of outstanding national beauty and the Bath world heritage city. The rural setting of Bath would be changed forever. Is the end game an ever-expanding ring of car parks on the periphery of a world heritage site?"

The National Trust also expressed concerns over the "likely adverse impacts on the green setting of the city". It said it was likely to spoil views from Little Solsbury Hill and from Bathwick Woods on the other side of the valley.

Among the organisations concerned that Bath’s world heritage status could be undermined is the Bath Preservation Trust. It points out that Bath’s "garden city feel" is specifically referred to in Unesco’s description of the city. The trust claims a park-and-ride would cause "significant and irreversible harm to the landscape setting of the world heritage site".

David Gledhill, a parish councillor from the village of Batheaston, close to the meadows, said the plans were angering people who live around the proposed sites. "We believe that it’s all about politics. The council and the MP [Ben Howlett] have made pledges to sort out the traffic. They want to be seeing to do something quickly," he said.

Valere Tjolle

@ValereTjolle [email protected]