THE celebrated return of a Bath view is off this summer — due to the city’s success in the rugby and the climate emergency.

Bath Rugby usually has to take down the East Stand at its pitch on the Recreation Ground each summer to allow the space to be enjoyed unobstructed outside of the rugby season, under a rule laid down by Bath and North East Somerset Council.

But following their “heroic” success this year — which saw them only narrowly lose the Gallagher Premiership final — the club has been given the green light to keep it up all summer.

Having to keep the stand up to play the semi-final at the Recreation Ground on June 1 meant that the East Stand would only have been removed for nine to ten weeks before it needed to be returned for the new season — and three weeks of that on each end would be spent taking it down and putting it back up.

Chair of Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee, Ian Halsall (Oldfield Park, Liberal Democrat) said: “It just seems bonkers to be taking down a stand to reassemble it just for a few weeks.”

He was speaking at a meeting of the planning committee on June 6.

A total of 52 people had lodged objections to the proposal to keep the “ugly” stand up through the summer, with just four people lodging messages in support of the club’s proposal.

Speaking before the council’s planning committee on Wednesday June 5, local councillor Manda Rigby (Bathwick, Liberal Democrat) urged the committee to keep the rule in place to require it to be taken down.

She said: “Parties are held on the day the stand gets removed and the long hidden view of Bathwick Hill and fields returns to view and the outstanding universal value of our World Heritage Listing to do with seeing the setting of Bath is restored.”

She added that the stand had only been allowed to stay through the summer in previous years on a “one-off” basis, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020.

But Tim Burden of Bath Rugby told councillors at the meeting that keeping it over the summer would be beneficial for “a range of community and club uses,” such as the Bath Rugby Summer Scrum, Bath Carnival, and graduations from both of the city’s universities which could all use its facilities.

He added: “There are also environmental benefits in terms of removing the significant construction traffic movements and noise which occur during the construction phases.”

The work leads to around 134 HGV movements through Bath and the release of 2.5 tonnes of carbon, according to Bath Rugby.

Planning committee member Toby Simon (also Bathwick, Liberal Democrat) said he disagreed with his fellow ward member, Ms Rigby.

Although he said it was “not a thing of beauty,” he said that the logic points “firmly” towards allowing the stand to stay.

He said: “134 HGV movements is a considerable disadvantage to this city. Two and a half tonnes of carbon saved — that’s worth doing.

“I think the fact that this council has declared a climate emergency since the original imposition of this requirement to take the stand down is a material factor that we need to build in.”

Hal McFie (Keynsham East, Liberal Democrat) agreed. He said: “I think it’s a very good point that we have made that we have declared a climate emergency and I think that changes, to me, how I approach this.”

But Lucy Hodge (Lansdown, Liberal Democrat) said: “We declared a climate emergency in 2019  five years ago, so for everyone one of those years that reason stood up except for the exceptions during Covid.

“So I am frustrated by this application and it seems the main justification is the convenience.”

Eleanor Jackson (Westfield, Labour) added: “Is it not the case that what the applicant is really after is saving money? It’s not a question of low carbon or reducing carbon footprint. If this stand remains up, they will not have to pay the people who dismantle it.”

The one million pound a year cost of removing and reinstating the stand is a key reason why the club is in the process of applying for planning permission to replace the current stands with a permanent stadium for Bath.

Councillors on the planning committee voted to allow the stand to stay up through the summer.