THE Government has confirmed today (Wednesday, February 23) that
a £154.6 million grant will be made available to stabilise the
Combe Down Stone Mines under the city of Bath.
The grant is to be paid by English Partnerships – the
Government’s national regeneration agency – over a period of five
years.
It will enable the work to be carried out that will save the
village of Combe Down from risk as well as ensuring
archaeologically important areas and bat habitats are
protected.
The Combe Down Stone Mines are currently a serious hazard to
1,500 people and their homes.
Those homes, and other areas of open space and roads, have been
resting on a thin crust of ground - in some places only a few
metres thick - above deep underground cavities which were formed
when the stone was excavated for the building of Georgian
Bath.
Traffic vibration and climatic conditions have worsened the
situation in recent years.
Substantial emergency works, costing some £23m already, have
been needed over the past three years, to stabilise the ground in
the worst affected areas while a longer term solution has been
explored.
Cllr Colin Darracott, Bath & North East Somerset Council’s
Executive Member for Economic Development, welcomed today’s
news.
He said: “We are obviously delighted the government is still
supporting the Stabilisation of Combe Down Mines but there is a lot
of work to be done before the project is complete.”
