PLANS to build an 18,000-seat Bath Rugby stadium on the city’s Recreation Ground have sparked significant debate, attracting both supporters and opponents concerned about the impact on the city’s historic green space.

Amongst the protestors was filmmaker Ken Loach, who joined around 30 people demonstrating against the proposals on Johnston Street.

Bath and North East Somerset Council is due to consider Bath Rugby’s planning application on Wednesday, September 17 but the plan is controversial and the government has ordered the council not to approve it without “specific authorisation.”

On Friday, September 5, Mr Loach was one of about 30 Bathonians who held a protest against the plans on Johnston Street, a Georgian terraced street which ends suddenly at the edge of the Recreation Ground.

Mr Loach said: “A mini Wembley Stadium in the middle of these Georgian Houses is a travesty.

“No-one with any sensitivity to the unique beauty of this city could ever contemplate putting a lumpy massive modern structure that is a desecration of this city. People come to Bath for this architecture, they come for the mediaeval abbey, they come for the Roman Baths, they do not come to look at a hideous modern stadium, an eyesore right in the middle of it.”

Earlier this year Mr Loach submitted an objection to the planning application for the stadium, warning the stadium would be a “carbuncle” on the city. The film director is no stranger to protests in Bath and has repeatedly joined protests in the city against the genocide in Gaza.

Bath Rugby first played at the Recreation Ground in 1894 and currently has temporary seating around its pitch, which it now wants to replace with the permanent stadium. 368 people had submitted objections to the planning application for the stadium on the council’s planning portal — but an overwhelming 5,085 left comments in support of the plan. There are strongly held views on both sides.

Mel Clarke and Jay Risbridger, who attended the protest on Friday wearing green costumes and facepaint, said they were concerned about the environmental impact.

Ms Clarke said: “The reason why we are dressed in these costumes is we know that plastic grass will be used which finds its way into the sea eventually via the river right next to the stadium.

“The river is a wildlife corridor for bats and all sorts of things — beavers have just been reintroduced to the Avon.”

Supporters, including Helen Cooke, said people enjoyed the current location, with Ms Cooke noting: “Wives don’t mind their husbands going to watch the rugby because they can go off shopping, they enjoy spending the day in Bath because it is such a beautiful place and it’s all really convenient.”

A spokesperson for Bath Rugby said: “The Stadium for Bath project will deliver a new, world-class 18,000 capacity venue with increased capacity to host events and regeneration of the riverside, generating a wide range of positive, long-term economic and social benefits for the city and local communities.”