Plans for 290 student flats in two five-storey blocks at a gateway into Bath have been rejected amid claims the city is paying the price for decisions made a decade ago.

The site, currently home to Dick Lovett’s Mini dealership, sits within the 18-hectare Western Riverside masterplan, where outline permission was granted in 2010 to build more than 2,281 homes, up to 345 student flats and a primary school. 

Councillor Player, the Westmoreland ward member, said: “I have to accept that this proposal will provide yet more student accommodation but I feel it is being imposed upon us because of a decision made ten years ago. 

“I used to be proud to say I lived in Bath and was uplifted by all the wonderful architecture, open spaces, parks and views but now twenty years on I sadly no longer feel quite this way. 

Joanna Robinson from the Bath Preservation Trust questioned the viability of student housing at this scale and said the industrial design was “fundamentally incongruous.”

Some twenty one people objected to the application, saying it would lead to an over concentration of students in the area and that the lack of parking would put more pressure on the roads.

Planning officers recommended approval, saying the development “will not have any significant adverse impacts upon the environment or local residents beyond that already anticipated by the outline planning permission.”