Bathwick has done well in this year’s road works plan.
Bathwick Hill will be ‘reconstructed’ and it is proposed to resurface North Road, Widcombe Hill and Darlington Road. The plans have been presented for cabinet approval; the full scope of the works will become clear later. They are part of the Structural Maintenance Capital Programme 2011/12.
Street lights on Oakley and Bathwick Hill are also promised an upgrade, like the ones one Claverton Down and Widcombe Hill installed recently.
The disputed fence on the AQ78 footpath has finally been dismantled.
The fence was erected several years ago, reducing the width of the path from Claverton to Combe Downs. The matter was taken up by local residents to the Council. Bathwick councillor Nicholas Coombes, sitting on the footpath committee, recommended action prompting the public enquiry. This found the official width to be up to 7 metres, so the fence had to come down.
Since then B&NES Council has been discussing with the landowners along the route to dedicate the whole path a bridleway. This would allow safe and legal cycling for Ralph Allen pupils and University students. Negotiations continue, but residents will be pleased to see the fence removed. It is likely to be reinstated several metres further back, allowing for a much wider path.
Your local Liberal Democrats in Bathwick and Abbey wards are organising another public meeting about Pulteney Bridge. The meeting is at 7 pm on Friday 4 March 2011 in the Percy Room at the URC in Grove Street.
Since the regular local buses stopped using Pulteney Bridge in anticipation of its closure to all traffic, many people have been considerably inconvenienced. We appear to be no nearer a proper solution to this problem, despite lots of objections from residents in our parts of the city and a campaign involving a well-supported petition to the Council. This meeting is a forum to hear about the current unsatisfactory situation and for people to express their opinions on what should be done next. Liberal Democrats will listen to local people and continue to press for the Council to sort out this ill-conceived scheme.
We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.
Cllr Nicholas Coombes is planning to use his devolved funding to buy a handrail for the Darlington Place steps.
The path, which continues from the National Trust fields to the canal, is tricky for the elderly on its decent to Sydney Buildings. During the icy winter it was impassible for everyone.
Lib Dem councillor Nicholas Coombes is working to procure a suitable handrail, recognising that a standard galvanised steel rail would not fit this part of Bath.
Your local Liberal Democrats continue to seek and report potholes across Bathwick and Claverton Down.
Claverton Court’s street sign has been repositioned for better traffic safety.
Local Lib Dem campaigner, Dr David Martin, arranged for the work after talking to residents of the flats. The street sign had been blocking the view of drivers seeking to leave the cul-del-sac. The new position is much more convenient for residents.
If you would like to advertise a community event on the website, email nicholas_coombes@bathnes.gov.uk
The Spring meeting of the University Neighbours’ Forum is on Tuesday 8th Feb at 5:30pm.
I established this forum two years ago to improve communication between Bath University and its near neighbours on Claverton Down. The Autumn meeting covered the University’s Masterplan and travelplan and also mentioned the Combe Down footpath and Avenue phone mast.
If you would like to attend or add anything to the agenda please contact G.Gillespie@bath.ac.uk
On Thursday the full council debated the Joint Local Transport Plan. While this is a 130 page document with nine supplementary documents still to come, all of the attention is on one thing.
Even the report acknowledges that the main method for delivering the transport improvements are ten major projects across the greater Bristol region, worth £600M. The problem is that none of them have been given government funding. Only one is in BathNES – the Bath Package, of Park & Rides, bus roads and bus stop improvements. The coalition government has told B&NES to think again and come back when the scheme is better value for money and has greater local support.
The Conservatives running B&NES re-submitted their plan in secret last December, but it took me until this week to find out what they had proposed on our behalf. They had made cuts – they propose to remove bus lanes from the A36 and A4 and also to cut back on bus stop improvements and information screens. This is supposed to save £7.9M, but on my analysis there’s a lot more ‘value engineering’ necessary and more cuts to come to reach £7.9M. Unfortunately their cuts are of useful and popular elements which would really make a difference to bus reliability and patronage.
There is one obvious cut – the £20M proposed to spend on the bus road through businesses and back gardens in Newbridge. This route is universally unpopular, absurdly expensive and absolutely useless. The 1 mile route is a parallel alternative to the uncongested Upper Bristol Road. Even the bid document says that it will not reduce congestion or pollution and will save no more than one minute on the bus journey time. It is supposed to join with the Western Riverside development, but this won’t be finished for another 30 years – until then the bus route would actually be longer than currently. However, the Conservative Council leadership refuse to consider removing it.
To fund their obsession with this bus road, B&NES taxpayers are to be billed £18M. This covers the £8.7M of our money already spent on the project – including three attempts to bully my planning committee, lawyers fees to defend legal challenges from B&NES residents and a public enquiry to compulsarily purchase residents’ back gardens. Another £9.1M has is to be offered to make the remaining plan more attractive for central government funding.
At the council meeting it is becoming obvious that the Conservatives are driving our council to an ‘all or nothing’ condition. Again and again they have blocked debate on this issue, most recently refusing a proposal of cross party co-operation in November. There are alternatives and it’s not too late to change the Bath Package – the final bid isn’t until the Autumn. However, through their own stubborness and mismanagement the Conservatives are putting the whole package at risk.
Bath needs a transport solution but what is on offer from the Conservatives is expensive and ineffective.
As an architecture student two of my main interests were environmental sustainability and architectural history.
However, the needs to conserve both energy and historic buildings are often in conflict. This is frequently demonstrated by the single-glazed window, which has been at the centre of a regulatory struggle between English Herritage and Building Control for decades.
The Bath Preservation Trust and the Centre for Sustainable Energy have collaborated to produce a survey about this balance. The value judgements are very difficult, but please do spend five minutes completing it.
