Index of Topic Interest Reports

The Peasedown St John Parish Design Statement issued in 2001 covered in some detail the Environmental

Setting of the Parish and the related Countryside Issues and that the Parish community was fully appreciative of the benefits of the Green Belt policies.

There was the need to conserve the rural setting of the village, and any new development should maintain the open countryside around the Parish. To this end the issued Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) stated that there existed a local feeling that the area south of the by-pass not already zoned for planning development should be left permanently in its then current state.

The Parish Design Statement / Supplementary Planning Guidance, as approved, had taken account of the following matters :

Background.

Included in major post-war legislation was the Town & Country Planning Act 1947 which from that date forward covered every building or structure that existed or was planned to be constructed and thus introduced a rationale and discipline that had been sadly lacking through the 1920s and 1930s.

Implementation of the T&C Planning Act enabled detailed consideration to be given to both urban and rural development to ensure town and city expansion did not lead to unfortunate coalescence of small communities.

Hence by 1955 the Policy of ‘Green Belt’ was brought into operation to restrict urban expansion in sensitive areas in England to cover some 13% of the land under PPG2. The need to prevent coalescence of Bristol and Bath resulted in Somerset County Council laying down 70,000 hectares, i.e. approx.50% of the former Avon County, in Green Belt, and within this the then Wansdyke section of B&NES became over 70% Green Belt. This Green Belt passes around Bath City and spreads some small distance into Wiltshire. It is in this area of Green Belt that Bath University is seeking a 12 hectare expansion and this land also forms part of the Cotswold area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). In undertaking this essential move due account had to be taken of the existence of existing operational industrial activities such as mining that lay within the new Green Belt. Hence Fullers Earth (Bath) and National Coal Board (Norton Radstock) have continued as anomalies for some fifty years even though all mining operations had ceased by 1973.

Outside these two anomalies, the Green Belt policy has been rigidly enforced to prevent urban spread and to keep countryside land permanently open. Hence this policy has prevented neighbouring towns/villages from merging and has retained land in agricultural and related uses, thus ensuring that over the years these features have been incorporated in both the Regional Structure and the Local Plan.

Whilst the ongoing coal mining operations ceased in 1973, considerable parts of both Radstock and Midsomer Norton have continued to be excluded from the Green Belt discipline with consequences such as Tesco taking over the surface area of Old Mills Colliery and Coates Electrographics the surface of Norton Hill Colliery.

With the need to bring more work into the South West, the Avon/Somerset Green Belt was the subject of a regional review in 2005/06 to examine whether any part of the Green Belt area could be considered for release to accommodate urban expansion, coupled with an indication of the potential harm that might arise as a consequence of any such release. Essentiallv the release areas would be concentrated around the S W and S.E.

Within the Parish Design Statement, approved as Supplementary Planning Guidance to the Local Development Plan in January 2001, it was stated that for future housing additions or changes proposed as developments, there was the need to ensure they were responsive to the local character of the Parish and suitably reflected the local building styles where appropriate with a positive local environment enhancement. Any such development, whether premises modification or infilling, needs to be viewed to see whether it lies within a pocket of similar properties and to endeavour to ensure that it blends suitably thereby avoiding conflict with any localised consistency of style. The SPG was written just as the last of the major housing developments ( Laxton Way and BelleVue ) was being completed. Any new proposals for housing must take full account of the existing enlarged village building design and should be of a planned density compatible with its immediate surroundings. There has been general agreement that the village by-pass completed in 1996 provides a logical southern boundary for the developed extent of the village and this factor was fed into the Local Plan along with the planning need to ensure that the discrete spacing between the Parish boundary and the adjacent villages of Shoscombe and Camerton and of Radstock Town should be maintained.

The re-emphasis of the above housing planning matters within the Parish provides a sound foundation from which to consider the proposed and likely outcome of the Governments philosophical approach to the development of jobs and houses in the South West.

The Government, through its regional offices in Bristol (Government Offices in the South West –GOSW ) had, by 2006, overseen the creation of an Integrated Regional Strategy for the South West within which the primary aim was the enhancement of the region’s economic prosperity coupled with the quality of employment opportunity throughout the period 2006-2026. The execution of this aim has emphasized the need for the region to plan for continued economic and population growth. Naturally the population growth resulting from this economic growth will create a housing need in excess of the current 2006 annual provision rate of 20,000. Within the former Avon County Council territory, both Bristol and Bath have been identified as Strategically Significant Cities and Towns ( SSCTs ) with both these locations offering the greatest opportunities for employment coupled with the greatest levels of accessibility to cultural, transport, health, education and other related services.

However the encouragement to more South West residents to choose to live in the future SSCTs of Bristol and Bath has emphasized the need for clear demonstration that urban living in these locations can offer major benefits to these new incoming residents. Within the B&NES section of this S.W.Regional Policy, there is a 16,000 to 20,000 new job expectation over the 20 year period in the ‘Bath Travel to Work Area’ which also includes Norton-Radstock residents travelling north. This new workforce will require at least 16,000 additional homes, i.e. an extra additional 800 homes each year above the existing yearly rate in 2006.

With the implementation of the ‘Regional Spatial Strategy’ by 2008 the expected location of these new homes could be as follows :

1 --Bath ( within the existing Bath urban area ), 7000 homes.

2 --S.E.of Bristol ( Whitchurch/Keynsham ), 6000 homes.

3 --South of Bath ( urban extension ) 1500-2000 homes.

4 --other towns in B&NES ( Radstock/Paulton ) up to 2000 homes.

In items 1 to 3, the likely expansion into Green Belt to provide an urban expansion to the south has the advantage of minimising the need for new/additional transport infrastructure and the provision of short travel to work times. The repositioning potential of the Green Belt has been addressed in PPG2 above. The requirements of Item 1. will be met initially with the expedition of both the Southgate and Western Riverside projects with their new housing content within the City of Bath. The implementation of the B&NES Local Plan following its return to the public domain will influence the execution of Items 3 and 4
but one favoured solution for Item 3. would be the urban extension of Odd Down south on either side of the A367 taking in the troubled Fullers Earth former mining site on the one side and Duchy land on the other. In such case an expansion of the Park & Ride facility would ensure short travel to work times.

The Green Belt issue has already been dealt with above. Fulfilment of the next five-year Local Development Plan commencing in 2006 coupled with the Regional Plan should ensure that the possibility of new housing, other than infilling, within the Parish over the next five years, is minimal.