A planning application has been submitted to Bath and North East Somerset Council’s to build 16 homes for people with autism and learning difficulties on Bath’s unique “tufa field.”

The council says there is currently a shortage of supported living in the area and the homes will be “life-changing,” allowing people to live independently but with appropriate care and support in their own homes.

Many locals have urged the council not to build on the field on Englishcombe Lane in Bath, which is ecologically and geologically significant due to its limestone flushes where rare limestone formations called tufa form.

A bid three years ago to build 37 homes over the field for the open market caused outcry and was scrapped when current council leader Kevin Guy took over the running of the council. But the council then began plans to build a smaller social development on the field.

Now a planning application is live to build 16 homes: 10 one-bed bungalows, four split-level two-bed homes, and two three-bed homes. The “landscape-led” development would house 16 residents and provide overnight accommodation for carers and would also include a “community hub.”

The buildings would be arranged in two “clusters” on each side of the tufa springs in the heart of the field and would be linked by a footpath. A statement submitted with the planning application said: “The landscape vision for Englishcombe Lane is to create an exemplary peaceful and landscape-led place to live, that responds the site’s unique characteristics to enhance the natural environment and provide a renewed sense of vitality and well-being to the residents.”

The field is recognised as an “important green hillside” in the Bath World Heritage Site Setting supplementary planning document. Streams flow down the middle of the field and the statement submitted with the planning application said: “The site is prone to land erosion, flooding, and mudslides related to the watershed.”

The development will use geocellular crates to act as soakaways, pave the drive with a permeable surface, and buildings at the top of the hill will be built into the hillside with retaining walls to stabilise the mudslides.

The statement added: “The development proposals will aim to be broadly neutral in terms of their impacts on habitats, by creating new ecologically valuable habitats to offset the impacts of the loss of grassland. Green roofs have been included in the design, along with habitat enhancement around the retained watercourses in the centre of the site.”

While contractors were on site carrying out geological surveys, a forklift tipped over with the driver inside at the entrance to the field — with a campaigner to protect the site rushing to help and calling an ambulance. The driver’s injuries were minor and he was discharged that night.

Plans will be open for consultation until May 25 and the council will aim to decide whether to grant planning permission for its plans by July 16.