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.
Olympic torch to reach Bath on Tuesday
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.
Darlington Place’s signs
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.
Half Marathon – 11th March
The Bath half marathon will be on Sunday 11th March.
15,000 people will run twice around the Upper and Lower Bristol Roads, starting and finishing in Great Pulteney Street. The race starts at 11am, with winners generally completing just after noon.
In Bathwick, Darlington Street, the Bathwick Hill roundabout, and Pulteney Road will be closed from 9:45 until 3:30pm, with parking suspended from 6am. There are also parking suspensions planned on Cleveland Walk and North Road to allow for bus diversions and emergency vehicle access. The city-wide diversion will be around Sydney Gardens and up North Road, then aroudn Claverton Down Road to Combe Down.
Full details of the road closures and parking restrictions are being circulated by leaflet from the event organisers to affected homes.
Good luck and best wishes to all Bathwick residents competing and their chosen charities.
Dog control orders
Update
Following publication of the Dog Control Order documents your Bathwick councillors and local residents found many errors in the proposed maps. The consultation has now been withdrawn for these to be corrected and will be relaunched later in the year.
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BathNES Council plan to compile all of their dog control bylaws into a single set of orders, which are now available for public consultation here.
There are five sections; sections 1, 3 and 5 ban dog fouling, give council officers the right to instruct walkers to use leads and restrict walkers to six dogs respectively. These apply to the whole of BathNES. Section 2 requires dog walkers to use leads at all times on the scheduled land. The nearest area to Bathwick with such a restriction proposed is the open space at the junction of Horseshoe Walk and Abbey View.
The most concerning aspect of the consultation is the list of areas from which it is suggested that dogs be banned entirely. The consultation has been deliberately arranged so that public areas where dogs are likely to come into contact with the public are included in this section. It is therefore up to dog walkers to reply to the consultation and request that they be allowed to continue using these areas. Bathwick councillors David Martin and Nicholas Coombes will be responding in this manner. Suggested dog-free areas in Bathwick are:
- Bath University – the entire Claverton campus is covered, which seems excessive
- Smallcombe cemetary – despite the presence of dog bins currently
- St Mary’s Primary School – this seems reasonable, but families with dogs will have to wait outside of the playground
- Canal Gardens allotments – do allotment users like to work with or without their pets?
- Sham Castle – poorly drafted and impractical to exclude from the Skyline walk
- Sydney Gardens – only childrens play area, tennis courts and bowling green intended for exclusion, but poorly drafted
To respond to the consultation email dogcontrolorders@bathnes.gov.uk or write to 9-10 Bath Street, BA1 1SN.
Snow wardens appointed for Bathwick and Claverton Down
Cllr David Martin is among the volunteer snow wardens appointed in our area.
The Liberal Democrats have introduced the pilot scheme to support communities through icy weather. Wardens will be provided with salt and spreaders to treat important routes and pavements in their area.
One of the trial areas will cover the Claverton Down area in Bathwick ward. Another is between the Bathwick Estate and Sydney Buildings.
“People have cleared the snow from outside their homes for decades,” says David Martin, “now the Lib Dems are giving communities some extra support.”
Transplant Games
The British Transplant Games will be held at the University of Bath this summer.
800 competitors who have recieved donated organs will compete over the weekend of 20th to 22nd August. Information is at http://www.transplantsport.org.uk/page.asp?section=0001000100040012
James Tottle, who has lived on Claverton Down since 1976, will be competiting this year. He had a heart transplant in 1997. While on the transplant waiting list he wrote the song ‘Cut me some slack’, available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVg30wgscu0, as a chartity song.
I am very happy to link to this here, as I am to urge registration for organ donation. I’m a registered organ donor as it pleases me to think that my (possible) unplanned death will be good news even to people who don’t know me.
Lime Grove “second choice for ‘wet house'”
Lime Grove School was seriously considered as a suitable location for a ‘wet house’ – a hostel in which homeless alcoholics may continue to drink.
The Conservative cabinet member for community safety let slip that Lime Grove was his second choice location during a council meeting last week.
Following outrage in Kingsmead, he has now agreed to re-consider his first choice of James Street West. The Chronicle has the story here.
While Cllr Vic Pritchard was considering using the old school building as a home for alcoholics, no local people were consulted and neither Bathwick or Widcombe councillors were involved. His accidental statement in council was the first public acknowledgement of the plan.
Bathwick councillor Nicholas Coombes has now submitted a written question to the cabinet member asking for clarification of the situation, now that his prefered hostel location is under review. Cllr Coombes has requested that local people be kept fully informed this time if the Lime Grove site is to be reconsidered as a ‘wet house’.
Woodside care home re-opened
Yesterday I joined the Mayor of Bath to officially open Woodside care home on Bathwick Hill.
This was one of many council elderly people’s homes sold by BathNES a few years ago in order to fund the refurbishment of the rest. The site was bought by a local family business and has been thoroughly rennovated as a private care home. Their first clients are due to move in from Thursday.
There are still some outstanding planning problems with the landscape and garden, however; work has been halted while BathNES council investigates. The Bathwick Hill Residents’ Association and I are following this.
Notwithstanding, the home manager and company director are approachable and seem genuinely concerned to be good neighbours. Let me know if you experience otherwise…
Social mobility
Earlier today, a friend asked me “how about some social mobility discussion on the blog Nick?”
When I noticed that the report of the Social Mobility Commission, established by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, was published today (http://www.libdems.org.uk/home/children%E2%80%99s-life-chances-still-tied-to-the-circumstances-of-their-birth-clegg-123335373;show) it was too good to miss. The report was managed independently of the Liberal Democrats and chaired by the Chief Executive of Barnardos.
I admit that my professional experience makes me better qualified to comment on things which can be kicked (roads, town planning, buildings, public realm etc) rather than those which should not be kicked (children, elderly people, social workers etc). Social mobility could be considered out of my remit, but it is actually the thing which I am most passionate about.
It is unacceptable that the principal determinant of life expectancy in Britain is the wealth of ones parents. A child born to wealthy parents will live 10 years longer, on average, than a child of a poorer background. A poorer child will have poorer health, worse education and a less secure job. I believe in a society in which opportunity is related to ability, not parents’ income. This is not that case in Britain today.
I will provide an update on blocked drains later, but now you know why I ‘do’ politics and why I am a Liberal Democrat.