No way is this charming.

Richard Wyatt

I come home from a weekend break in Berlin to hear about proposals to build 3,000 homes on Charmy Down.

That’s one daft way of adding a load of incoming traffic to the A46 and the London Road into Bath!!

We don’t want or need satellite settlements.

I hear there is more ribbon development planned in Batheaston too. Lining the side of our countryside roads.

Meanwhile, what is this obsession with student housing? Stop it now. If it’s solely to accommodate the steady flow of rich foreign students, I hear even they are finding costs prohibitive.

Homegrown students are also starting to think twice about taking on such massive debts at such a young age. Then somewhere down the line, there’s an expensive mortgage lying in wait – that’s if they can afford to get a foot on the property ladder!

Build flats for local people. Convert empty office space and floors above stores for more central accommodation. They don’t need garages. Brown field comes first and not green.

Published by Richard Wyatt

Freelance Journalist, broadcaster, columnist and local historian. Director of Bath Newseum. Married and lives in Bath. Interested in local history, architecture and visual display in museums and urban spaces.

5 Comments

  1. BRAVO Richard, succinctly put. No houses on green fields. And save our allotments – the benefits are so manifold.

  2. I totally agree with your comments on student accommodation. Why are these luxury student block in Central Bath and not out of town near the campuses where there is plenty of space, and we wouldn’t need so many Uni buses either. Why are these central developments not offered to senior citizens who would welcome living in central locations? Am I being cynical in thinking that to all comes down to lucrative opportunities and ‘deals’?
    Thanks for all your hard work in reporting on all aspects of Bath and its residents.

  3. Bath is supposed to have a mix of buildings and open spaces. It is part of the reason for being a World Heritage City. Therefore building on every available open space will destroy its character.
    I agree completely with your views on student accommodation, though I have some sympathy for the students in my area. There are 3 HMOs near me, in what used to be 3-bedroom family homes with gardens. Those three former homes now accommodate 21 en-suite student rooms, and the ones that have proper windows rather than frosted glass look tiny inside.
    Whilst I can recognise that flats accommodate more residents than houses for a given land area, and really help meet housing targets, what is actually needed is more family homes each with a garden for the children to play in so that the need to buy these outside Bath and commute in to work is reduced.

  4. How I agree, leav.e the lovely countryside around Bath alone,why do students need luxury apartments in the City centre with student buses adding to traffic do they not have bicycles there seem to be plenty of those annoying electric ones left about. Build on brown ground certainly where actually needed but do make sure adequate services are provided too. When I lived in Spain the local town hall issued free bus passes to all residents.Immediately quieter streets and full buses 24 hours a day,just an idea!

  5. Congratulations, you’ve just launched a campaign to keep 3000 families in inadequate housing or, worse, no housing at all. Plus by restricting the supply of housing you’re ensuring that prices stay high – lovely for people like you but a nightmare for young people.

    And where exactly is all this brownfield land in Bath, or disused office blocks that you’re praying in aid? Almost all of our brownfield land has been built on, and offices are already being converted.

    And, though I have some sympathy with your diatribe against student accommodation, without it you’d effectively put the city’s largest employer out of business.

    By the way, Larkhall was once a “satellite settlement”.

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