An English rugby team’s stadium plan sparks concern for beavers, bats and UNESCO designation

BATH, England — (AP) — Talk about a scrum.

The rugby club in the English city of Bath is at odds with some of its neighbors over plans to expand the team’s beloved stadium.

Though Bath Rugby won a legal case that went all the way to Britain’s Supreme Court, its plan to boost the Recreation Ground, or The Rec — its “spiritual home” since 1894 — faces more hurdles.

That's because the city of Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, renowned for its Roman roots, Georgian architecture and scenic landscapes. And the stadium sits in the heart of it, along the River Avon.

“I’m not anti-rugby. This isn’t about a sport. This is looking at what’s best for this city,” Joanna Wright, a Green Party member of the Bath and North East Somerset Council, said as tourists stopped for photos near Pulteney Bridge.

Wright, who opposes the plan, worries that reducing the “green setting” will impact the UNESCO designation. She motions toward the hills beyond the stadium’s temporary East Stand, which in the rebuild would become permanent rather than be removed each summer.

She noted that the city of Liverpool lost its world heritage status in 2021 because of waterfront developments, including Everton's new soccer stadium.

“We don’t know what the World Heritage organization will do, but we do know that they have decided that Liverpool is no longer going to get its status, so do you want to risk that?” Wright said.

Bath Rugby — currently atop the Premiership standings — wants to expand from about 14,500 capacity to 18,000 and create “a new sporting, cultural and leisure stadium.”

Bath’s planning committee has targeted September for a decision. In a public comment period, a large majority of respondents favored the plan.

“They recognize the importance of the sport to the city,” Doug Wrigglesworth, chairman of the Bath Rugby Supporters Club, said in an interview. “It’s an iconic stadium. (But) It It really needs to be brought up to date."

Bath Rugby has played home matches there for more than 125 years. Facilities were damaged in the 1942 "Bath Blitz" bombing by Germany's Luftwaffe during World War II.

After rugby union became professional in the mid-1990s, the club began adding capacity bit by bit.

Much of the seating is unprotected from the weather, and efforts to squeeze in more fans had been dubbed “Operation Sardine.”

Still, it's a bucket-list destination for rugby enthusiasts, the way baseball fans in the United States flock to Fenway Park or Wrigley Field. Pubs and restaurants fill up on matchdays.

“It’s quite a big advert for the city,” said Wrigglesworth, who has been attending matches for 45 years. “It brings the city alive."

Wright, however, describes game days as “pandemonium and getting in and out of the city is problematic.”

Bath was England's top team in the 1990s and won the European Rugby Champions Cup in 1998. Today, its star player is flyhalf Finn Russell, the Scotland captain.

Rugby union has been struggling financially. In the 2022-23 season, no Premiership club made a profit, according to the Leonard Curtis Rugby Finance Report. The Rec's capacity utilization in '22-23 was 91% — second highest in the league.

Expanding the stadium would generate more match-day revenue and corporate partnerships.

Bath Rugby, owned by businessman Bruce Craig, declined interview requests.

Bath in 1987 was declared a World Heritage Site, and in 2021 received a second moniker as one of the Great Spa Towns of Europe.

UNESCO — the UN's cultural agency — had put Liverpool on an "endangered" list years before pulling its world heritage designation. Last year, it rejected recommendations to put Stonehenge on the list.

Besides the UNESCO designation, concerns have been raised in Bath about everything from noise and transportation to the welfare of bats and beavers.

The UK government's Environment Agency cautioned in a letter to the planning committee that the plan's environmental statement overlooks the European beaver — a protected species.

“Beavers need to be considered as they are now known to be present in good numbers on the Avon with numerous active territories in the Bath area and Pulteney Gate being directly on the main dispersal route for these animals,” read the Environment Agency’s recent letter, which also raised flooding concerns.

The club's plan has prompted feedback about the need to protect bats, too, with stadium lighting flagged as a potential problem.

Residents scored a legal victory a few years ago by citing a 1922 covenant that said nothing should be built on the ground that would disturb the neighborhood. Bath Rugby got that overturned, however, when the Court of Appeal ruled that covenant language was too vague.

And when the Supreme Court in October 2022 declined to hear an application to appeal the ruling, the expansion plan was back on. The club has been revising it since then to incorporate feedback.

The UK committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites — ICOMOS serves as adviser to UNESCO on cultural World Heritage Sites — recently submitted its concerns to the planning committee.

ICOMOS-UK noted improvements in the design but encouraged “further reductions in height, especially to the central roof section, and a design approach that overcomes the exaggerated mass and scale and the incompatible form within the otherwise harmonious city.” It warned of “significant permanent harm."

However, Historic England, a public body that seeks to champion England’s history and environment, wrote that it has “no objection to the application on heritage grounds.”

Wright, the city councilor, said one of her favorite aspects of living in Bath is “wherever you are, you can always see trees.”

“That’s one of the (reasons) why it’s been given World Heritage status, it’s not just that it has all this heritage, it has settings of green spaces. Once you put in such a massive commercial development to the heart of the city, you change it.”

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