B&NES planning committee decided last night to defer the planning application for the Newbridge Park and Ride and Bath Bus Rapid Transit Route (BRT) in order to request more information.

On the whole this is a good result. The committee’s decision is a vindication of the campaign that Councillors and residents have been running for months now.

The news this morning that the Council will be looking more thoroughly at the design of the scheme is welcome; however the Council must finally look properly at the alternatives, as we have been asking all along.

Bath MP Don Foster commented:

When I attended a Council Overview & Scrutiny panel meeting in September last year, I argued that consultation with residents had been poor and that there hadn’t been satisfactory work conducted into alternative routes. To date I am still not convinced that this work has been done.

I hope that this deferment will allow the Conservative Council to go away and conduct real research into all the options. We want to see a proper case put forward.

Had this research been conducted correctly in the first place we wouldn’t be in this position. Let us hope that the Tory failure to follow correct processes does not end up costing Bath £50million of government money.