Youth Hostel license granted

In the same week that I re-joined the Youth Hostel Association, Bathwick Hill’s very own Youth Hostel was granted a mch extended alcohol and entertainment license.

The hostel has previously had a license for the sale of alcohol between 11am and 11pm, but following their refurbishment the new license permits for alcohol and entertainment 24 hours per day. The application, 08/02302/LAPRE is at http://planning.bathnes.gov.uk/PublicAccess/LI/LiApplication/li_application_detailview.aspx?refval=08/02302/LAPRE

 The license was granted because no objections were received. Given the controversy now this would seem odd, except that none of the neighbours (or councillors) knew about the application. Rules preventing the council from ‘soliciting objections’ restrict adverts to one lamp-post sign and one notice in the local paper. Following the planning applications related to the refurbishment, there have been application notices fixed to the nearest lamp post for months, so the neighbours did not notice this different notice until it was too late.

If you think that you are being affected by increased noise or disturbance, please make a record of these occurances for 6 weeks. Concerned residents can then apply for the license to be reviewed, possibly revoked, with these records used as evidence.

UK School Games in Bath

Bath University Sports Training Village

The UK School Games are being held in Bath and Bristol on 28th-31st August. The games are the junior equivalent of the olympics for (as should be evident) UK school children.

The University of Bath are hosting the athletics, fencing, table-tennis and volleyball on their Claverton campus; swimming is at theMillford school near Glastonbury and the remaining events at UWE and Filton, both North of Bristol.

Volunteers are needed to help run the games who will be fully trained, get free access o the events and a uniform to keep! Information on visiting and volunteering is at www.ukschoolgames.com.

Air Quality Management Area

Armand and Nicholas at the Warminster Road

The whole of Bath’s major road network is to be covered by an Air Quality Management Area to tackle unsafe levels of air pollution.

Originally the AQMA covered the London Road up to the Cleveland Bridge, a road with officially the worst air quality in Britain. This being insufficient, the entire major road network is to be included; in Bathwick this inlcudes Bathwick Street and the Warmininster Road until Minster Way. This change will come into effect on 30th July, following a decision made by the cabinet a few months ago.

An Air Quality Management Zone is derrived from the Environment Act and designates an area of special attention for pollution initiatives. When the AQMA was declared for the London Road in 2002, five specific measures were stated. None of these have yet been implemented.

Cycle Week

Lib Dem councillors on their bikes

In pouring rain, Liberal Democrat councillors got on their bikes to support national cycle week this morning. Cllrs Nicholas Coombes, Paul Crossley, Roger Symmonds, Ian Gilchrist, Cherry Beath and Mayor Tim Ball came to BathNES council’s cycle breakfast in the Abbey Courtyard. Conservative Vice-Chair of the council, Bryan Chalker, drove his notoriously toxic trabant to the event, effectively cancelling out the carbon savings of the other participants!

Neither Bathwick councillor, Nicholas or Armand, have a car; both walk, cycle or bus around the city. With a little practice, even Bathwick Hill is possible for a keen cyclist! Unfortunately Nicholas’ pledge to cycle to all meetings this week went awry when a last minute puncture forced him to walk to the BRSLI yesterday, but now the bike is ready for an event at Bath Spa University later today.

Tory cabinet told to think again

BathNES Council Chamber 

The second call in against Conservative cabinet decisions in recent weeks has been upheld. Cllr Pritchard (Con, Chew Valley S) had sought to increase care charges for elderly and vulnerable people by 74%.

However, Cllr Pritchard has already said that he will ignore the panel’s recommendations, just as he ignored the concerns raised previously by the Overview and Scrutiny panel and the Full Council. Unfortunately the nature of our governmental system means that the minority Conservative cabinet is able to act exeactly as it wants without listening to the justified concerns of residents and opposition councillors. The upheld call in requires Cllr Pritchard to reconsider and justify his position, though it does not lead to a different decision.

I signed this ‘call in’ petition as I believe that it is unfair to raise so much revenue from the most vulnerable people. While the state pension has risen by 50p per day this year, meals on wheels in BathNES are now set to rise by over £1/day. However, I was disgusted to read Pritchards statement in the Chronicle, that he intended to ignore the call in process. The Conservative cabinet have lately taken to complaining about the cost of the ‘call in’ system.  However, I argue that it is not used frivolously, this is the last chance that councillors have to oppose decisions which they feel will harm the community. Further, councillors are irresponsible if they DO NOT fight bad decisions at every chance. Pritchard states that he has already heard the opposition from two Overview & Scrutiny reports and Full Council, so the call in was unnecessary. The call in would have been unnecessary if he hadn’t simply ignored the previous recommendations. Faced with an arrogant and uncaring executive though, councillors must do all that they can to protect the people they represent.

Residents’ Parking & Care Charges – Call Ins

Car Parking

Since the first Conservative budget last month, there have been a flurry of cabinet decisions implementing the increased charges for Residents’ Parking and Home Care. Opposed to these increases, the Liberal Democrats have lead ‘Call-ins’ against these, asking the cabinet member to reconsider. First was the proposal to raise Residents’ Parkign charges by 60%:

The panel voted, by four votes to three, to dismiss the call-in, with Conservative Councillors from outside of Bath backing the original decision taken by their Conservative Cabinet colleague. The Cabinet member will now be free to go ahead and implement the decision to apply increases of up to 60% to residents’ permit costs across the city, as well as a number of other changes to parking costs and arrangements.

The call-in panel raised a number of issues around poor consultation and excessive increases to permit costs. Although all Councillors agreed that consultation on this decision had been inadequate, Conservative Councillors appeared more concerned with the state of the Council’s finances than the issue of engaging with those who will be affected.

Councillor Ian Gilchrist (Widcombe), who led the call-in signatories commented: “I am disappointed that the Conservative and Independent members of the panel did not recognise the merits of the case made to uphold the call-in.

“I thought that the arguments outlining the damaging effects of extending charged times in the city centre to 8pm were pretty compelling, and if they don’t listen to Nod Knowles (Director of Bath Festivals) who will they listen to?

“I am slightly mollified by the apparent concession that Cllr Gerrish has made in the direction of Sunday evening parking, but this still has to be confirmed. If we have achieved even this small bit of good then that is a good thing. Residents will not be pleased at a 60% increase in their annual charges, but I do draw comfort from the thought that we at least did our best to oppose this.”

Meanwhile I have signed the Call In against the increased charges for personal care and the meals on wheels service, which will hurt the most vulnerable. This has lead to some comment on the Chron website… http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=180730&command=displayContent&sourceNode=232315&home=yes&more_nodeId1=163047&contentPK=20354849

Islamic awareness days

Bath University 

I joined the Bath University Islamic Society with the Mayor of Bath to launch the 2008 Islamic awareness days this morning on the University campus.

The theme is “to know each other”, taken from a verse in the Quran. In that verse, God/Allah recounts that he created different tribes and races so that they could learn from and get to know each other. Regardless of ones deity of choice this is surely a laudible aim and I congratulate the Islamic Society for their series of events here: http://people.bath.ac.uk/su5is/index_files/iad.htm

Unfortunately after the speeches I had to leave without taking my full compliment of sweets and delicacies. It was for a good cause however as I gave blood at the UoB sports training village. I have been giving blood since sixth form; it is a vital resource which few people provide despite most of the adult population being able to. Have a look at www.blood.co.uk for more information and to book a session. They are normally at the Cricket ground but visit the university a few times per year. Unfortunately the bood service refuse to take donations from sexually active gay men which I disagree with; nonetheless, any boycott would only disadvantage recipients so I keep on going.