New date set for BRT hearing

A court hearing over controversial transport plans in Bath will now take place next month.

Objectors and council officials had been due to meet in court this morning to discuss an application for an injunction which could halt progress on a controversial transport scheme.

Campaigners and Bath and North East Somerset Council representatives had been called to Bristol County Court to hear an attempt to derail the authority’s Bus Rapid Transit scheme.

But the man taking the council to court had to cry off because of an emergency dental appointment and the case was adjourned to Friday December 4 at 10am.

The move comes as it is revealed that there have been 160 objections to compulsory purchase orders relating to the council’s £57.5 million Bath Transportation Package, which also includes a new park and ride site at Bathampton and the expansion of the existing facility at Newbridge.

Officials at the Guildhall insist that the way in which planning permission was granted for the BRT route through Newbridge was entirely above board, with the decision legally watertight.

But Larkhall-based campaigner Carlo Ambrosino, supported by the Bath Heritage Watchdog pressure group and other campaign groups, has applied through the county court system for an injunction to stop work on the scheme, which still depends on the compulsory purchase of 59 plots of land.

Accusing the council of the common law offence of misfeasance in a public office because it has not replied to letters questioning the legality of the planning permission for the BRT, he initially took his case to the court on Monday.

B&NES says it did not have to attend that hearing, leaving Mr Ambrosino waiting for an hour.

It will attend the latest hearing, although it is cracking on with work on the BRT, going out to tender to find a construction firm to build the system along an old railway line at Newbridge

Opponents are hoping that a public inquiry will be called into the four compulsory purchase orders which are being pursued by B&NES, most of which affect land along the BRT route.

The 160 objections are now being processed by civil servants in a specialist team in Newcastle.

B&NES has been given a deadline of March to get its paperwork in order on the package to be sure of securing the Government funding which will pay for the vast majority of the schemes.

That means it has to secure all the CPOs by that time, with a public inquiry likely to push the whole process beyond the next General Election and into major funding doubt.