BathNES Council has issued a parking survey to homes in or near residents’ parking zones.
The survey is intended to discover the demand for parking and find residents views about how the system works for them. There are also questions about bicycle ownership to gauge opportunities for increased cycling. The responses will be used anonymously to help plan for new development within the city.
Please complete the survey online for residents here and businesses here.
BathNES Council has held an exhibition on the future of the Warminster Road MoD site.
The Lib Dem run council wants to know residents’ views before the MoD sell the site to housing developers.
“It’s good that the council is being proactive about the future of the site,” said Cllr Nicholas Coombes, “I urge residents to get involved in the plans.”
The consultation is online at www.bathnes.gov.uk/mod-conceptstatements until 30th May – there’s not much time left to take part.
Bathwick’s Liberal Democrat councillors are able to support small community projects.
The Ward Councillors Initiative provides a devolved budget to all councillors for one-off items in their area. Your councillors have previously funded the recycling bins in Bathwick, re-surfacing the canal towpath, the Darlington steps handrail, cycle stands at the Holburne and restoration in Smallcombe Cemetery.
If you have a community project or idea in need of funding, please contact your local councillors.
The Olympic torch was carried along Claverton Down Road and down Bathwick Hill to large crowds and bright sunshine.
My household think that the torch bearer passing Cleveland Walk was Mark Sanders who volunteers for youth football.
The Olympic flame reached Britain today and begins a 70 day journey around the country.
It will be carried through Bath on Tuesday afternoon, passing down Bathwick Hill after 3:30. The route is from the University to Newbridge, passing along Great Pulteney Street and the city centre including the circus and crescent. A map of the route is here.
For the duration of the relay there will be road closures in place and parking suspensions. Claverton Down Road will be closed between 2:30 and 4:30, Oakley from 3 to 4:00 and Bathwick Hill from 3:30 to 4:30. Full details are here.
Please do greet the torch as it passes through our city. A list of the relay runners is here.
Finally, BathNES Council is trying to set new world record for the largest ‘human olympic rings’, hoping to attract 5,000 people to Royal Victoria Park in the morning. Details are here.
Enjoy the show.
New lights are being installed on the footpath from Pulteney Road to the canal.
The footpath, which runs past Lime Grove School and Canal Gardens Allotments, has been poorly lit in the past, particularly under the railway arch. This area is also prone to graffiti attacks.
The request for improved lighting was originally made by fellow Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Gilchrist at a time when the path was within his Widcombe ward. Following a boundary revision, Lime Grove Gardens is now firmly in Bathwick, and your local councillors have maintained the call to better light the pathway.
Five new LED streetlights have been installed, like the new lamp on the Darlington Place path. When turned on they will provide a bright but carefully directed light with low energy costs. The existing corroded lamp stands will be taken away when the new lights are wired up.
The pathway will be improved further when the Lime Grove School site is developed, as the builder has agreed to provide £18,000 towards necessary works.
An exhibition of possible plans for the Warminster Road site is open to the public this week.
Prior to the MoD site on Warminster Road being bought by housing developers, the council wants to establish what the public expects of the development. A draft plan is being exhibited for neighbours to comment upon and submit their own ideas for the site.
The exhibition takes place at Bathwick St Mary’s Primary School on Thursday 17th 3-7pm and Saturday 19th 9am-noon. It is also possible to take part online at www.bathnes.gov.uk/mod-conceptstatements.
More details are in the council’s press release here and on previous articles on this site.
Your Liberal Democrat councillors, Nicholas Coombes and David Martin, regularly talk to Bathwick residents on their doorsteps.
Recently Cllr Martin spoke with Darlington Place residents about their concerns with dog fouling on the pavement. The street is a popular walk for dog walkers heading to the National Trust fields.
He has since arranged for new signs to be attached to the lamp posts, warning of the £1,000 penalty possible for not cleaning up after a dog. However, it is to be hoped that responsible nature of dog owners will continue to clean up after their pets without such measures.
Chronicle readers may have spotted that a conference for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles is to be held in Bath’s Assembly Rooms next month. The building is owned by the National Trust and managed by B&NES Council.
As a high profile public building, I do not think that the conference should have been booked, although it now seems to late to cancel. Here’s what I said at a ‘Vision & Values’ debate in Council last night:
While discussing values, I think it would be disengenious not to mention the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle conference booked for our city.
The conference, which must not be referred to as an Arms Fair, is to be in the Assembly Rooms in June. Our council does not accept bookings which would cause offence or harm the council’s reputation. I accept that this was a difficult judgement, but I disagree with it.
Military drones kill indescriminately from the sky. The conference should not have been accepted.
The council has issued a press release welcoming the conference and stating that only one objection has been recieved. I congratulate that objector for standing up for their values.
I am now raising my objection to the conference. It can no longer be said that there was no protest. If this arms show goes ahead, it is not in my name.”
This is, of course, a personal view and not necessarily shared by other councillors. However, if you agree with me, there is a petition against the conference here. I may also see you protesting outside the Assembly Rooms in June.
Nicholas Coombes
Of the two Bathwick planning applications decided by the Development Control Committee yesterday one was approved and the other rejected. Your local Liberal Democrat councillors voted against both.
The Lime Grove application was brought to the planning committee under a new protocol introduced by the Liberal Democrat administration – that proposals on council owned land are determined in public. Nicholas Coombes and David Martin judged that the proposal was not good enough for Bathwick. Their main objections were that the houses would be built to the lowest possible environmental standards, that they were not adequately protected from the railway noise and that the development missed the opportunity to improve the adjacent footpath. However, the majority of the committee agreed with the plannig officer that the application was acceptable.
Cllr Nicholas Coombes brought the application for a new house in a Minster Way back garden to the committee as a previous proposal had been rejected. The planning officer judged that the latest proposal was sufficiently different from the 2003 application to be approved. However, the planning committee disagreed and voted to reject the proposal on principle.