Bath Spa Station - the fight continues!

It came as no surprise to anyone that the plans submitted for the lift on the up platform at Bath Spa Station were nodded through. It was clear from the start that they would be, though what went on does not cover B&NES in glory. Indeed, I sometimes wonder if the Major Developments Team actually wants the people of Bath to mutter the c-word - that's a 10-letter word, not 4 letters. Perhaps it gives them some kind of macho glow. First of all, despite being a listed building, the listed building officer of considerable seniority who is allegedly in charge of the plans for the station was not given the job - instead it was given to a planning officer - not from the heritage team, though the station is regarded as being of national importance - who has a history of ignoring heritage. It was thanks to her that the seventeenth century Burnt House Inn was consigned to history, and buildings of mind-numbing blandness erected in its place. She also ignored the vast number of objections to the lift plans, and the unhappy report from the snubbed listed building officer, who was clearly under pressure to agree to it. So congratulations, Varian Tye, for coming as close as you dare to saying you thought it was a bad idea. And no congratulations at all to English Heritage for being such a broken reed.

However, it didn't end there. New drawings were submitted shortly before the decision was taken, thus invalidating the objections. Clever stuff, especially as they didn't go up on the website until about a day or two before the decision was taken, so that no one would notice. Even so, the decision was taken twenty four hours before the statutory consultation time on these new drawings had elapsed, so planning permission has been granted improperly. The drawings are dated 11th May so no decision should have been taken until 25th May, but in fact it was taken the day before, on 24th May. Strangely enough, this was within a couple of hours of my spotting the new drawings and making a comment on the Chron website that everyone needed to slam in new objections. It appears that no one was going to be given the evening to make further cogent objections. To cover this up, the Decision Notice on the website is dated 25th May, but open it up, and you'll find the date of the decsion is 24th.

Despite the delay in getting documents up - some letters dated 11th May did not go up until after the decision was taken - the objections were removed faster than you would have believed possible.

What of my meeting with the council? Well, Cllr Gazzard and his project manager were both very friendly and understanding, and promised me a proper reply to my points in a week. About a month later, I am still waiting. So I have now started lobbying Mark Hopwood - he's the MD of FGW. I've sent off an e-mail today, in response to his somewhat terse reply to a previous mail I sent him, and I have invited him to talk to me. Yes, I said a bit more than that - such as pointing out to him that his plans are hopelessly flawed, and he must know it, and also that the DfT and the ORR think I'm worth listening too ( a fact of which he must be all too well aware) so why doesn't he actually set up a meeting and talk to me face to face? I've pointed out that I've had strangers come up to me on the platform and congratulate me on what I'm doing and I wondered if the same happened to him. I told him straight I doubted it.

Let's see if he really does want to listen to what people are saying. In the meantime, if you think that what went on over planning application 10/01383/LBA was a disgrace which brings B&NES into disrepute - and I believe that it does - then please write to John Everett, the Chief Executive of B&NES. For the moment, I am choosing not to make a formal complaint - I want to add it to a general list of what has happened in the wider scheme at SouthGate, and I am collecting evidence about the way in which local people are treated differently from developers - an offence under the Human Rights Act. But please start pestering. Above all, if you think that the plans will make the station less safe, keep bombarding the ORR - they really are listening. One again, here are the contact details.

Office of Rail Regulation
One Kemble Street
London
WC2B 4AN

Tel: 020 7282 2000

Email: contact.cct@orr.gsi.gov.uk

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