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.
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.
Continuing my ocassional series of attactive photographs of Bathwick ward, here’s Claverton Down in the snow.
This is the field behind Quarry Rock Gardens on the footpath AQ78. This path is soon to be improved and dedicated as a bridleway.
With the return of the cold weather our roads and pavements are icing up again.
I have recieved requests for new grit bins on Minster Way (top of hill), The Avenue and Bathwick Hill (middle). While these are not in my gift, I intend to collate these and present an omnibus request. If your area needs a new grit bin please put a request in the comments.
Quarry Rock Gardens now have their own private grit bins after needed to be rescued by the fire-brigade (I helped a little) in January this year.
The streetlights on Widcombe Hill and part of Claverton Down have been replaced.
The new lights have energy efficient bulbs and more accurately directed light. This reduces light pollution while saving money and energy. However, given the cost of replacing the lamps it will take several years before the savings are made.
It is increasingly clear that B&NES Conservatives tried to close Pulteney Bridge without planning for the consequences.
A decision over whether to close the bridge fully has been delayed until April 2011, yet bus services have already been moved away at the request of the council. Thousands of passengers have had their regular service disrupted or cancelled. No alternatives were provided at the time of the change.
Two months later a replacement service for Great Pulteney Street is about to begin – it will run three times a day. Liberal Democrats including Cllr Nicholas Coombes are campaigning for the usual 18 service be restored during the six month decision period.
Cllr Coombes has also discovered that no prior traffic modelling was undertaken to predict the effect of closing the bridge on congestion. Conservative councillors had claimed that there would be no adverse effect on congestion. In answer to a written question, it emerges that these traffic models, prepared in 2008, were of closing the bridge together with opening up the bus gate.
In order to reduce congestion on North Parade, where the buses have been re-routed to, the council now proposed restricting right-hand turns onto Pulteney Road for the duration of the Christmas market this year. Taxis, which formed the majority of the bridge’s traffic, have not yet been re-routed to North Parade, but would be if the bridge were closed fully.
It is clear that the unplanned and botched closure of Pulteney Bridge has caused great inconvenience to local residents and is costing a great deal of tax-payers money in delayed and partial mitigation attempts. So far there hasn’t been a single benefit.
AQ78 is officially a footpath!
The deadline for appeals against the inspector’s ruling has passed, so the historic path between Combe Down and Claverton Down is now officially recognised. The council is also now also able to take enforcement action against the landowner to have the fence taken down.
However, to secure a long-term solution B&NES Public Rights of Way department have decided not to enforce immediately. They are negotiating with the private landowner, council and National Trust to voluntarily dedicate the entire route a bridleway – much easier than another round of legal challenges!
Forming a full bridleway will allow children to legally cycle from Bathwick to Ralph Allen school, avoiding Claverton Down Road, and also university students to travel from Combe Down. This happens already which churns up the mud on the path and is sometimes dangerous at the Claverton Down end. Legalising and regulating this will allow improvements to the path surface and for safe traffic management at the junctions. Students from the University are already prepared to volunteer to re-surface the muddy stretch of the footpath.
Cllr Nicholas Coombes will continue to press B&NES council for a speedy resultion and give assistance as required.
B&NES Conservatives have delayed making a final decision on the closure of Pulteney Bridge for six months. This is a tacit admission that they failed to do enough research before re-routing the bus services.
This delay is the worst possible results for residents as there will be no work to improve Pulteney Bridge, yet locals are still deprived of their bus services. Bathwick’s Liberal Democrat councillor has written to the leader of the council asking that the buses are returned while they wait to make their decision.
A hundred residents attended a public meeting organised by Lib Dem campaigners Manda Rigby and Jay Risbridger. The Conservative councillor promoting the closure was invited but did not attend. The clear view of the meeting was that the consultation was inadequate and that no thought had been given to bus users. Thousands of passengers have been disadvantages by the needless re-routing of the 18 and other bus routes.
Six weeks after all buses were taken from Great Pulteney Street, a belated mitigation service is due to commence. The number 4 bus will be diverted to run up and down Great Pulteney Street on four occasions through the day. This has been rightly condemned as insultingly inadequate by local residents and Lib Dem campaigners.
“It’s clear that the Conservatives had no thought for bus passengers when they tried to close this bridge,” said Cllr Nicholas Coombes. “The replacement service is six weeks too late and derisorily infrequent. The council should start again with proper research and real public consultation and return the bus services while they do so.”
A section of the canal towpath has been resurfaced thanks to Lib Dem councillor Armand Edwards.
Cllr Edwards used part of his devolved funding to pay for the agregate used improving the surface through Sydney Gardens. The work were undertaken by the Sustrans ‘Future jobs fund’ which provides employment and training to unemployed young people (more information here) and organised by British Waterways.
It is the 200th anniversary of the Kennet & Avon Canal this year and various celebrations and improvements are underway, which Cllrs Armand Edwards and Nicholas Coombes have been supporting. For ideas about how you can get involved, have a look here.
More work to the canal through Bathwick is yet to come.
