​A campaign group has accused the council of misleading the public by pushing through controversial transport plans as one package.

The organisation VeraCityBath (VCB) has filed papers calling for a judicial review into the way Bath and North East Somerset Council handled the Bath Transportation Package (BTP).

The group has argued that B&NES is now backtracking on its original insistence that it was an all or nothing package of measures, that needed every part to work.

It says a letter from a member of the council’s legal team seems to suggest that the authority has changed its mind about whether the individual elements of the BTP can be implemented separately.

During the planning application process, officers insisted that schemes relating to park-and-rides at Bathampton, Newbridge, Odd Down and Lansdown and the bus rapid transit (BRT) route all needed to be approved - and that it could not go ahead piecemeal.

Councillors and members of the public were repeatedly told that the scheme could not be broken up and that if any single aspect of it was rejected, the whole scheme would collapse.

Officers even went as far as using the benefits of the whole transport package as “special circumstances” for building on the green belt at Bathampton.

VCB is now using a letter from solicitor Maggie Horrill, from B&NES’ legal and democratic services team, which was sent to the group’s lawyers, as a key plank in its challenge.

In it she said: “There are a number of factors which will, no doubt, have a bearing on how the applications are implemented and I understand, as with many transportation schemes of this nature, the intention would be to develop the whole scheme.

“However, the planning applications have been issued separately and as such are capable of separate implementation.”

The issue was discussed at a number of planning meetings.

Those who were in favour of some parts of the package but opposed to others asked if they could be separated.

The minutes from a meeting on July 8 last year show that officers said this was not possible.

They say: “A member queried whether the P&R (Newbridge) could be voted on separately from the BRT but officers stated that this could not be done as the proposals formed one application and were intrinsically linked.”

VCB spokesman Mark Millar said: "The council says in its legal letter that each part of the package can be developed independently - and yet the whole basis on which the council permitted the developments, despite their damaging effects, is that they were part of a bigger package.

"Now they are saying each element can be developed independently. The council must come clean and let the public know what its true intentions are."

VCB has also filed separate papers calling for a judicial review against the way Communities Secretary John Denham handled the planning applications, which had to be rubberstamped by his office.

A judge is now considering both cases and should make a decision in the next few months into whether to hold a review.

A spokesman for the council said it could not comment on the allegations because of ongoing legal proceedings.