1. SCOPE OF EVIDENCE
1.1 My name is Rodney Carran. I am a consultant to Chapman
Taylor, having been a senior partner for many years. I am a Fellow
of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
1.2 The purpose of the evidence is:
To describe how the scheme evolved over some twenty years, and
to explain the comprehensive nature of the proposals and how they
respond to the setting of listed buildings, conservation area and
world heritage site. The description of the scheme relates to the
area north of Dorchester Street.
2. EVOLUTION OF THE SCHEME
2.1 Following the Prudential's failure after ten years of
endeavour to obtain planning permission the site was sold to CGNU
in 1995. The proposals evolved over an eight-year period in close
consultation with officers and members of the Council, their
advisors and other stakeholders. Presentations and
discussions took place with the Royal Fine Art Commission, English
Heritage, Bath Preservation Trust, Bath Society and others,
resulting in a proposal that will bring harmony to an area
devastated in townscape terms by a 1970s retail centre,
multi-storey car park and bus station that are now functionally
obsolete.
3. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCHEME
3.1 Bath's main shopping street of Milsom/Union/Stall
Street is continued by a diagonal shopping route anchored on a new
department store opposite the railway station. All streets have
live frontages and will be open 24 hours a day. The design is
simple but varied, with the streets aligned on 'natural' routes
formed by the location of anchor destinations including public
transport and existing streets. At the centre a major public realm
space is created.
3.2 The retail units are of the size required by today's
retailers and are generally provided on two levels, with
residential or leisure over, the department store being on three
levels above ground.
3.3 Servicing and car parking is mainly at basement level in an
area of limited archaeological interest. Rail passenger parking
displaced by the scheme is re-provided within the basement car
park.
3.4 Bath has an architectural cohesion derived from design
compatibility and the use of a limited range of building materials.
A scheme that failed to recognise this cohesive character would be
likely to be doubly damaging because regardless of its intrinsic
merit, it might become visually detached from its surroundings and
disturb the composure of a whole area. While Southgate lies at the
outer edge of the central area of architectural cohesion, it was
decided that it should become attached to and integrated with it.
The preference of the client and the design team was therefore to
maintain a 'historicist' design approach within an overall
architectural discipline.
3.5 The scheme provides a series of six blocks described as
follows:
BLOCK A Forms the north-west corner of the scheme and together
with Block B forms the entrance to the scheme from Stall Street.
Triangular in plan it is three storeys high with flats in the top
storey.
BLOCK B Responds to Block A across the diagonal route. Three
storeys high. The Southgate frontage is smaller in scale and steps
down the street following the natural fall.
BLOCK C Contains a new store for Boots and possibly a food
store. Flats occupy the second and third floors.
BLOCK D Four storeys, with the upper two floors devoted to flats
over two-storey shops. A service yard is provided to the rear of
Block D, accessed from Kingston Road, which is adapted to form the
access and egress to the basement service area.
BLOCK F Has three main components: shops at ground level
including an arcade; a first floor restaurant court focused on the
arcade; and a second-floor health & fitness club.
BLOCK G A three-storey-high department store with a colonnade
along Manvers Street. The block adjoins the listed Argyll hotel on
two sides.
Blocks C, F & G are linked by covered bridges which link to
the covered arcade at first floor.
4. PHASING
4.1 Phasing will ensure the continuity of key elements such as
the bus station, switchgear to the substation and passenger railway
car parking, and the need to have regard to prior archaeological
excavation. The overall build period is estimated at four and a
half years.
5. RESPONSE TO OBJECTIONS
5.1 Plot 46 objection from Rosebys (No.5 Railway Street).
Plot 46 is a retail unit that forms part of the ground floor of
the multi-storey car park. The unit lies within the area of the
central square and its retention would prevent the scheme from
proceeding.
6. CONCLUSION
6.1 The comprehensive approach avoids disjointed development of
the Southgate site, which resulted in poor cohesion and pedestrian
orientation with few active frontages, contributing to the lifeless
and outworn character of the environment.
6.2 In contrast, the proposals create a new network of open
streets and squares, and provide greater permeability throughout
this part of the city centre. Buildings have been designed to
respect the pedestrian, with active frontages and retail activity
combining to ensure a vibrancy linked to the heart of Bath. The
development through its comprehensive approach proposes a rich mix
of uses, including residential, leisure, and a major transport
interchange, and it creates two major civic spaces. To achieve this
result the Orders sought to be confirmed are necessary and I
therefore support them.
