Today, 25th September 2024, Bath and North-East Somerset granted itself permission to develop the Tufa Field SNCI site. You can watch a commented video of the process here. (Large file).

The development will provide supported housing for  neuro-diverse residents.

Local people had argued for the Council to fulfil its commitment to action to combat the Ecological Emergency in the area and support the fight against human-induced climate change.

Instead, the unique nature of this site will be lost.

So our focus now switches to holding the Council and it’s developers to account to produce the ecological mitigation plans they have put forward. Every detailed plan will be scrutinised, every action undertaken during and after construction will be monitored and every deviation will be followed up with the full force of available remedies. Expect the Health and Safety Executive and Planning Enforcement officers to be busy.

Preliminary site work is expected to begin immediately with the removal of Trees and clearing vegetation.

As always, you will be able to follow this work here via our live cameras and daily blogs.

 

As a consequence of this development, it has come to light that the local Moorfields Sandpits stream will be severely curtailed, since its main source is to be diverted as part of the work. This has given great pleasure to many children over the years and will be sorely missed.

In the meantime, here is the focus of the debate.