Bath Transport Policy

The Alliance seeks to help and support Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) Council and West of England Combined Authority (WECA) in the development of transport policy and transport delivery that affect Bath. The Alliance Manifesto is intended to assist with this initiative.

Summarised below is the existing transport policy framework for Bath with links to key policy documents.

WECA is the statutory transport authority for B&NES (including Bath) and has responsibility for developing and delivering the regional Joint Local Transport Plan. B&NES is one of WECA’s three constituent local authorities (along with Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council) and participates in the development and delivery of WECA’s transport policies. B&NES retains responsibility for Bath transport policy and funding that is not within WECA’s remit, including matters such as public realm, traffic movement, air quality, parking, walking & cycling, commercial vehicles, and institutional travel plans.

WECA’s Joint Local Transport Plan can be found at JLTP4. The draft was published for public consultation in 2019 and approved by WECA in March 2020.

WECA’s Bus Strategy was issued for consultation Feb – March 2020 and approved in June 2020. The Alliance’s consultation comments are on this website under the ‘News, Articles and Papers’ tab. See also our blog on WECA’s Bus Service Improvement Plan dated Oct 21.

WECA also has responsibility for the Key Route Network (highways) and and is a primary funding source for transport infrastructure expenditures.

B&NES has a broad Bath Transport Strategy that was approved by the council in 2014. For many years, the Alliance called for the development of a plan as an essential policy framework for the coherent delivery of specific Bath transport initiatives, offering its Manifesto as a guide in developing such a Plan. Recently the Council has published five relevant policy documents to reach its target of ‘being carbon neutral by 2030, and to tackle the current climate and ecological emergencies’, the most recent of which could be viewed as a ‘plan for a plan’. The Alliance welcomes this development. These five documents are:

  1. ‘Breathe’ – the introduction of a Clean Air Zone (see below).
  2. ‘Liveable Neighbourhoods’, covering Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, Parking Policy revision and Electric Vehicle charging. The consultation ran from Aug – Oct 20, and the policy was adopted in Dec 20. The document for this can be found here. In Nov/Dec 21 the Council expanded on the 12 areas in Bath to be considered first, launching an extensive Public Engagement about these (see ‘Useful links’ on our home page). It was finally adopted in May 2022 (see para 5 below).
  3. ‘Partial Update to the Local Plan’, which includes much Transport content. This was consulted during Jan/Feb 21; and again during Sept/Oct 21. The most recent proposed changes can be found here. The Alliance’s comments were submitted to the Council on 2nd Oct 21 and are on this website under the ‘News, Articles and Papers’ tab. The next stage was the Examination in Public, during Winter 21/22, before final approval.
  4. ‘Bath City Centre Security – Permanent Access Restrictions‘, with the aim of ‘keeping the city’s streets and spaces safe and secure from the threat of terrorism’. This was consulted during Nov 20 and Jan 21, leading to revised plans approved by B&NES Cabinet in July 21. More permanent barriers will be erected during 2022, except in York Street, which is subject to a legal challenge.
  5. ‘The Journey to Net Zero: Reducing the environmental impact of transport in Bath’, is the latest version of the Council’s transport plan (previously called the Bath Transport Delivery Action Plan). It was published for consultation in Jan-Feb 22. Modifications were incorporated and it was adopted by the Cabinet on 5th May 22. Comments made by the Alliance can be viewed on the News page, with an accompanying press statement.

Alongside the Bath Transport Strategy is the Bath Public Realm and Movement Strategy (PRMS), an excellent and fully developed plan to upgrade the quality of Bath’s public realm and to redesign movement patterns in the centre of the city. It was approved by B&NES Council in 2010. the PRMS includes an ancillary Bath Pattern Book in two volumes. Currently there is no comprehensive plan to deliver the PRMS although several ad hoc projects within it have been completed.

As required by the UK Government, the Council implemented, on 15th March 2021, through its ‘Breathe’ policy, a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) under which ‘non-compliant vehicles (ie HGVs, coaches and vans) pay a daily charge to enter a defined zone in the centre of Bath’. This followed public consultation Sept- Oct 2019 and subsequent Council, Defra and DfT approval. The CAZ is required to bring air pollution by Nitrogen Oxides in Bath down to legal levels. Information on this can be found here.