NOOKS and CORNERS
THE long and bitter battle to rebuild and expand Bath Rugby’s stadium on the city’s Recreation Ground looks finally to have been won by the club.
Despite Bath being a UNESCO world heritage site, Bath and North East Somerset council (B&NES) recommended approval, and the scheme (pictured) has got the nod from the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Bath Rugby has played a long game (Eyes passim). It had managed to unpick a restrictive covenant from 1922 which, objectors argued, protected nearby residents from the Rec being developed. The case went to the appeal court, which ruled the covenant too vague to be enforceable, and refused leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. The new stadium will gobble up more of what’s long been a public open space.