Keynsham ‘has had its fair share of new homes’

KEYNSHAM residents have been urged to make their voices heard over plans for thousands of new homes in the town over the next two decades.

A public meeting was told that a significant amount of new housing had already been built in Keynsham over the years and it was now time for other areas of the district – including the city of Bath – to take their fair share.

The meeting, at The Space above the library, was called by the six Bath & North East Somerset councillors representing Keynsham, ahead of a public consultation on the council’s newly published Local Plan Options Document.

The council had previously consulted the public on proposals to build 14,000 new homes within the district over 20 years.

But last year, the new Labour Government decreed that more new housing needed to be built across the country and almost doubled the B&NES target to 27,000 homes over 18 years.

As a result, B&NES Council has drawn up a new Local Plan Options Document, showing that the number of homes planned for Keynsham has increased from up to 2,410 to up to 4,380. At Hicks Gate the total has doubled from 750 to 1,550.

Councillor Andy Wait told the public meeting on September 29 that, for the purpose of the exercise, the Government had suggested dividing B&NES in two, with 13,000 new homes being built in north-east Somerset and 14,000 in Bath.

Yet the B&NES document identified sites for only about 7,000 new homes in Bath, which raised the question of why the city was not taking its share.

The answer given, Cllr Wait said, was that Bath was a tourist hot spot as well as a World Heritage Site, a status that imposed limits on where new homes could be built.

Yet while only 117 new homes had been built in the green belt around Bath in previous years, a total of 1,032 had been built in the green belt around Keynsham. And it was also suggested that Bath was building lots of student accommodation rather than putting the housing needs of local residents first.

The meeting was told that the Keynsham population of 15,551 in 2011 had risen to 19,603 by 2021, a rise of 25%, but while the population had grown, its creaking infrastructure had not, resulting in incidents such as the power cuts and burst water mains that affected the town over the summer.

Residents expressed concern that major routes such as Charlton Road and the A4 Bath Road were already severely congested and that extra homes would make the situation worse.

GP and dental services were also struggling meet the needs of the current population, with one resident saying: “Services within Keynsham are very stretched, like everywhere, and I’m just horrified that we’re going to have more housing.”

Meanwhile, developers of new estates were failing to fulfil the conditions set by B&NES Council when granting planning permission.

A resident of St Ladocs Road said: “Developers manage to run rings round the planners so that they don’t provide all the facilities they’re supposed to provide or undertake the development in a timely manner so that we get the infrastructure up front.”

And a resident of The Meadows said that, since the last house was completed in 2017, the developer, Taylor Wimpey “had no incentive whatsoever to finish the infrastructure and get the estate up to the standard to become adopted.”

Other problems on new estates included roads becoming clogged with cars due to inadequate space to park them on private driveways and garages being too small for modern vehicles.

The meeting was told that B&NES was looking to concentrate new housing developments along the A4 Bath-to-Bristol corridor.

For example, up to 2,400 new homes could be built in North Keynsham, which would be served by a new relief road and might get new facilities such as a community hall.

Meanwhile, plans for new homes within the Bristol city boundary at the Brislington park-and-ride site could see the facility being moved to Hicks Gate, where up to 1,550 new homes are also proposed.

The Hicks Gate park-and-ride could also serve Keynsham, as people travel from Bristol and South Gloucestershire to work in the town.

There was concern at the lack of employment land identified for Keynsham in the council document, especially in North Keynsham.

One resident said: “We’ve already talked about becoming a satellite town for Bath and Bristol. If we’re going to have increased housing, we do need more employment land as well.”

But Cllr Wait said the Local Plan did offer the potential to create extra jobs for Keynsham.

He said: “We have a train station, we have the A4. We can attract that employment, and make it far more accessible for people to walk to those kind of employment opportunities.”
The feeling at the meeting was that the proposed Local plan was “unreasonable and unworkable.”

But Cllr Wait said North Keynsham and Hicks Gate could be good developments, resulting in almost 4,000 new homes and meaning Keynsham would be taking a “fair old chunk” of the 13,000 homes proposed for North East Somerset.

If this proved acceptable to the town, he said, it would strengthen residents’ argument for rejecting the development that the town did not want.

The next step was for residents to ensure they made their views known during B&NES Council’s public consultation, which is now under way and runs until November 14.

People can submit their comments online at https://bathnesplaces.co.uk/localplan.

They can submit them in writing to Planning Policy, Lewis House, Manvers Street, Bath BA1 1JG. If submitting by post, please clearly state which site or policy option your comments relate to.

Paper copies of the options document and executive summary are also being made available at Keynsham and Saltford libraries.

If you need support or have questions about the consultation, you can email B&NES Council at local_plan@bathnes.gov.uk. This email address cannot be used for consultation responses.