Sydney Garden plans on display

Plans to improve Sydney Gardens have been published. This is the first stage of the restoration works for the park, funded by the Liberal Democrats on BathNES Council.

Local residents, park users and your local Liberal Democrat councillors have been involved in drawing up the plans. The first stage of the project includes:

Making entrances and paths more welcoming and accessible with improved information and interpretation.
Carefully conserving the park’s special landscape character of “rooms”, but removing overly secluded areas and revealing selected views within the gardens and towards the city.
Replacing worn out benches and litter-bins, placing them in better locations.

You can see all of the plans online or visit Sydney Gardens before 20th April to read about the works,

Smallcombe Cemetery restoration wins lottery grant

Volunteers seeking to restore Smallcombe Cemetery have been granted nearly £50,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund for their work.

The £48,600 was awarded to the Friends of St Mary’s Churchyard for a restoration project involving repair to the walls, vegetation management and promoting the heritage of the cemetery. The Friends are working with BathNES Council, Bath Spa University and National Trust to realise this project.

Dozens of local people are signed up as friends of the project and have volunteered on action days already. If you would like to join in, get in touch with the them.

Lib Dem Council gives Sydney Gardens £250,000

A project budget of £250,000 has been allocated to improve Sydney Gardens by the Lib Dem run Council.

The budget will pay for immediate improvements to the infrastructure in the park, such as the tennis courts and the play areas. Improvements will also be carried out on some of the listed structures. Work will be co-ordinated with Network Rail’s electrification project to ensure maximum public benefit.

Representatives from local residents’ associations, the Holbourne Museum and local councillors are involved in drawing up a priority list for the works.

Local campaigner Claire Jackson said “it is helpful that the Council has reached out to local community groups and residents to ask for their input. Ideas coming from the steering group are being shared more widely in a consultation leaflet. Local people care deeply about the Gardens and we have to make sure that these works have their support”.

Roundabout sunflower to remain to 2016

The sunflower sculpture on the Bathwick Hill roundabout will remain in place for another two years.

BathNES Council Parks Department commissioned Iron Art to produce the sculpture as part of Bath’s entry for Britain in Bloom. The 2014 awards mark the fiftieth anniversary of the awards, first won by Bath in 1964 and a dozen times since. This year Bath won the South-West in Bloom competition, and was again awarded Best Small City in the national rankings.

Over the next two years the council Parks Department will continue to install new planting schemes around the sculpture. The sunflower was designed and built in Bath; it is 4.7m tall, 4.5m wide, and weighs 750kg.

Sydney Gardens railway plans

Network Rail’s plans for the Great Western electrification through Sydney Gardens are becoming clearer.

The track will be lowered so that the electricity supply can be fitted under the bridges, which are listed structures. There will also be special designs for the cables and supports. For a period of six weeks in summer 2015, there will be a rolling programme of train service changes whilst the construction work is carried out.

Your Lib Dem Councillors are keeping in close liaison with Network Rail. Cllr David Martin said “we have provided comments on the plans and asked for some on-going repairs to the railway infrastructure as part of the programme”.

Cycle tour of Britain visits Bathwick

The Tour of Britain bicycle race will include a stage starting in Bath in September this year. The Bath to Hemel Hempstead stage is 206km long and will occur on the sixth day.

The stage will commence at the Royal Crescent on Friday 12th September at 10:15am; the peleton will ride down Milsom Street, over Pulteney Bridge and along Great Pulteney Street. In Bathwick, the riders will pass the Holburne Museum, going down Darlington Street, over the Bathwick Hill roundabout and out along Pulteney Road.

Support for National Trust projects in Bathwick

With funding from his Ward Councillor Initiative budget, David Martin has funded a new bench on the National Trust land in Bathwick.

Robert Holden, National Trust Head Ranger, said: “We are delighted with our new addition to Bathwick fields. This oak bench with its fantastic views over the World Heritage city will be much appreciated by the many visitors walking through the area”.

David has also recently supported another National Trust project to open up areas to create wildlife friendly glades in Bathwick woods and connect up with an old drove track which leads from North Road up to Bathampton Down.

Progress for Lime Grove Gardens footpath

Bathwick councillors David Martin and Nicholas Coombes and lobbying BathNES Council to improve the footpath and steps at Lime Grove Gardens, from the canal to North Parade Road.

The Council has now drawn up a plan to re-surface the whole path and reconstruct the steps to improve safety. There will also be a channel installed alongside the steps for bicycle wheels, so that cycles can be pushed up the path. The works are funded by an agreement with the developers of Rennie Close.

Now that a plan has been drawn up, the works are expected to be done during the summer.

Diseased Warminster Road tree to be felled

A diseased Lime tree on Warminster Road is to be felled at the weekend. BathNES Council’s arboricultural expert has identified extensive decay in the main stem.

The tree is on the east side of the road, near the junction with North Road. The works will be undertaken on Sunday and may result in some traffic disruption.

A replacement tree will soon be planted in a similar location.

Vodaphone seek to build bigger mast on The Avenue

Vodaphone are seeking to replace their phone mast on The Avenue with a larger model. They are consulting about replacing the 13.4m mast, installed in 2006, with a 17.5m mast carrying more equipment.

Bath University Estates have responded to the consultation objecting to the proposal, pointing out that the existing phone masts on top of their Norwood House could be used for the Vodaphone service.

Liberal Democrat councillor David Martin will also be sending a robust reply in response to this proposal.

Bathwick Liberal Democrats

Cllr David Martin, Claire Jackson & Cllr Nicholas Coombes