The celebrated return of a Bath view is off this summer due to the city’s success in the rugby and the climate emergency.

Bath Rugby is usually required to take down the East Stand at its pitch on the Recreation Ground each summer to allow the space to be enjoyed unobstructed outside of the rugby season.

The rule is laid down by Bath and North East Somerset Council but following their “heroic” success this year, which saw them only narrowly lose the Gallagher Premiership final, the club can keep it up all summer.

Having to keep the stand up to play the semi-final at the Recreation Ground on June 1 meant that the East Stand would only have been removed for nine to ten weeks before it needed to be returned for the new season.

Chair of Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee, Ian Halsall (Oldfield Park, Liberal Democrat) said: “It just seems bonkers to be taking down a stand to reassemble it just for a few weeks.”

He was speaking at a meeting of the planning committee to which 52 people had lodged objections to the proposal to keep the “ugly” stand up through the summer, with just four people lodging messages in support of the club’s proposal.

Councillor Manda Rigby (Bathwick, Liberal Democrat) urged the committee to keep the rule in place. She said: “Parties are held on the day the stand gets removed and the long hidden view of Bathwick Hill and fields returns to view and the outstanding universal value of our World Heritage Listing to do with seeing the setting of Bath is restored.”

But Tim Burden, of Bath Rugby, told councillors that keeping it over the summer would be beneficial for “a range of community and club uses,” such as the Bath Rugby Summer Scrum, Bath Carnival, and graduations from both of the city’s universities which could all use its facilities.

He added: “There are also environmental benefits in terms of removing the significant construction traffic movements and noise which occur during the construction phases.”

The work leads to around 134 HGV movements through Bath and the release of 2.5 tonnes of carbon, according to Bath Rugby.

Planning committee member Toby Simon (also Bathwick, Liberal Democrat) said although it was “not a thing of beauty,” he said that the logic points “firmly” towards allowing the stand to stay.

Councillors voted to allow the stand to stay up through the summer.