Election results

On 4th June the European Elections co-incided with local elections in most rural areas of the country.

As an active Liberal Democrat supporter, I have been campaigning for my party in these elections, in Bath for the European elections, but mostly in Bristol where we stood a good chance of winning control of the council.

Our Lib Dem MEP, Graham Watson, has been in Bath several times last month. I joined him leafleting in Lambridge, near his mother’s old house! I am proud that the Liberal Democrats campaigned for the European elections on European issues. In the last two months, we delivered three European themed leaflets to (nearly) every house in Bath – 100,000 items in all. It is disappointing that no other party took these elections seriously enough to campaign to this degree.

In the run up to the elections, with politics and the opinion polls in flux, the election was considered very unpredictable. The results, oddly, show very little change from five years ago. Nationally, the number of MEPs representing Britain to Brussels has reduced. Labour absorbed most of these losses; indeed here in the South West the allocation went down by one, and our Labour MEP lost his seat. Aside from that, there was no change in BathNES, in the South West or (to much extent) nationally. The only notable result in BathNES was the fall of the Labour vote and the comensurate growth of the Green and minor party vote. The Conservatives, Lib Dems and UKIP got largely the same result on the same turnout.

In Bristol, however, the local elections have brought about significant change. The Liberal Democrats won four extra councillors, giving them majority control of the city. Labour lost heavily in a once strong labour council. This fits a little noticed pattern of Liberal Democrat growth in urban areas. The Lib Dems now run Bristol, Cardiff, Sheffield, Liverpool, Newcastle and Edinburgh city councils among others. Nationwide, the Lib Dems came second in the popular vote – again ahead of Labour – and were the only party to increase their support from the previous election.

That’s why this website has been a little quiet recently – I have been developing a healthy suntan delivering leaflets to the suburban housing estates of Bristol. This isn’t just good exercise, Lib Dem control of Bristol city council has real benefits to us here in Bath. My primary concern was the proposed incinerator, which the fallen Labour council had been forcing through. This pollution and unsustainable project is now dead, just in time before a single chimney was built!

In the council chamber

It’s mid-way through a busy week in the council chamber.

On Thursday we had a meeting of the Full Council (ie, all 65 councillors). These are now quite rare under the Conservatives so there is generally an exciting (and long) agenda. This was also our AGM so we elected a new council chair and made changes to our panels and committees.

I have swapped one quasi-judicial panel for another; leaving Regulatory & Access to take up Development Control. That is, I have handed over the footpaths’ committee in exchange for planning. I have sat on the planning committee to fill in for missing members several times recently, so know how it works by now. I also have experience from the other side; I have an architecture degree and have worked for, and submitted applications with, a couple of Bath architecture practices. This does mean though, that I will have to be very careful giving planning advice to Bathwick residents. I will continue to explain the system to applicants and objectors, so that they can make best use of the opportunities available for them to put their case, but I can no longer speak for or against individual cases before the meeting.

On Thursday night, council had two named votes. Ordinarily, votes are taken by show of hands with only the numbers recorded. However, councillors can request a named vote be taken for the public record.

The first vote was after a debate about licensing a casino in Bath; a similar proposal was passed in principal last year. Now with applicants in mind, the cabinet brought the controversial plans back to council. While the Conservatives proposed the licence, they clearly want the political cover of a council resolution in case it gets unpopular! A free vote was held, in which I voted against. I appreciate the principal that responsible adults should be free to spend their money as they see fit, and that politicians ought not interfere, but in this case, I cannot see the social or economic benefits of a slot machine parlour outweighing the social and economic costs. Regardless, this was an unusually and genuinely interesting debate with a close result. The casino licence was granted.

The second named vote was altogether more odd. Bristol Airport wants to expand and is preparing a planning application to its local authority, North Somerset. The Liberal Democrats of Bristol City council recently passed a motion questioning the justificaion for expansion on both economic and environmental grounds. BathNES council has a similar motion on record from a few years ago, but the Lib Dems wanted to strengthen it. With the airport causing as much global warming as all the traffic in Bristol, the environmental cost of short haul air travel is obvious. However, less clear is the economic cost. Recent surveys by the South West regional assembly reveals that most business does not want or use a regional airport like Bristol. The airport is used mainly for tourists – leaving the UK. With convenience and cheap fares, British people spending weekends away are taking their money out of the UK, hurting tourism jobs. It should be fairly obvious that there are more Bristolians who holiday in rural Spain and Portugal, than Iberian farmers who take their holidays in Bristol. However, this section of the Liberal Democrat motion was deleted and exchanged by one praising the job creation potential of the airport expansion. The Conservative who proposed this not only sits on the Bristol airport consultation panel, but his ward is the most blighted by airport traffic and noise! With the motion thus wrecked, I was forced to vote against.

Finally, now that I am on the planning committee, I am one of those judging the park and ride and BRT proposals on Wednesday. I look forward to an exciting meeting with an open mind.

Allowances and expenses

National politicians have a bad reputation right now over their finances. Leader of the Lib Dems, Nick Clegg MP, has called for a complete over-haul of the system; media coverage is here.

Here in local government, the numbers are very small, yet some people still think that councillors are in it for the money! My annual allowances is about to be published; this is what they will show:

£7,956 Annual allowance (effectively a salary)

£41.10 Travel expenses (one train journey and a few buses I think)

I choose to work only four days per week at my ‘real job’, so my allowance compensates for lost earnings and pays for all the evenings and weekends I spend on council work. From it, I also pay for my laptop, letters and postage, plus all of those Focus leaflets we use to communicate with!

The allowances will also be published with an attendance list of meetings. In the last 12 months I have been to all four Full Council meetings and both of the Regulatory (Access) Committee meetings. In addition to my normal panels, I have also sat on five Planning Committees, three Corporate Audit panels and been to one meeting of the Enterprise & Economic Overview and Scrutiny panel.

A quick sum suggests a rate of £500 per meeting; I hope that you will have noticed that I do a bit more than that for the money!

PaCT meeting

This month, the Bathwick Police and Communities Together meeting re-affirmed their commitment to the previous priorities:

– tackling speeding

– mnaging anti-social behaviour in Sydney Gardens

– getting a zebra crossing over Bathwick Hill

Although there has been improvement in all of these areas since the previous meeting, the meeting decided to retain the priorities. There were very few attendees this time, so any new priorities would have been unrepresentative of the wider area. Thank you though to those who did take the time to participate.

In the last few months, our beat manager (local policeman) has moved on and his position had been filled temporarily. Avon and Somerset Police have now appointed a new beat manager and expect him to be transferred to Bathwick in the new year.

Nocturnal use of Sydney Gardens has decreased rceently, mainly due to the cold weather. However, the police have been following a new management plan recently which sees the park patrolled a lot more frequently at its ‘busy times’ ie late evenings on Friday and Saturdays. Our PCSO and supporting officers intercept alcohol as necessary from those who should not be drinking it.

Your councillors Armand Edwards and Nicholas Coombes have been pushing for the zebra crossing over the canal bridge. Since the last meeting, BathNES council have conducted a traffic survey which prove a statistical justification for the crossing, but the Conservative administration failed to include it in the spending plan. Cllr Edwards presented our petition for the zebra crossing to the cabinet member at the last meeting of the full council.

Youth Hostel license unused

I spoke today with the manager of Bath Youth Hostel, on Bathwick Hill. The hostel was recently granted a 24 hour drinking and entertainment license, to the concern of their neighbours.

The license was granted by BathNES as no objections were received from local residents. However, the licensing application was poorly advertised and neighbours were not notified of the application. The council claimed that this was because of guidance preventing them from ‘soliciting’ objections. Don Foster, MP for Bath and Shadow Culture Secretary, agrees that this was the case previously, but that he and others have since reversed this guidance in parliament.

BathNES should have advertised the licensing application more widely and are now aware of this following Don Foster’s intervention.

However, none of this matters to the manager of the hostel, who did not want a 24 hour license and has no intention to use it! The licenses were applied for by the Youth Hostel Association for every one of their hostels in England and Wales. The manager of Bath Youth Hostel says that their hostel, a Grade II listed building, does not attract many late night drinkers and those few are catered for in town. It makes no sense for the manager to staff a bar all night when there is no demand.

Therefore, despite gaining a 24 hour entertainment and alcohol license, the hours of operation have remained the same and the manager intends to continue closing the bar at 11pm, as she always has. The one exception may be New Year’s Eve, which is understandable.

If your experince suggests that the alcohol and entertainment license at the hostel has caused your quality of life to worsen, despite the manager’s assurances, please take notes and get in contact.

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.

Comittee meetings

Contrary to popular belief, BathNES council is not run by inummerable committees with endless meetings.

Most policy decisions are now taken directly by the Conservative cabinet, which are occasionally reviewed by Scutiny panels. However, there are some remnants of the old committee structure left where legally required. These are the judicial and regulatory committees which are run non-politically for legal matters. I have sat on two of these this week, Regulatory & Access and Planning.

Yesterday’s Regs committee in Keynsham town hall created 44 new footpaths in the city centre within a matter of minutes. This is less dramatic than it seems, the footpaths are already there, but they are now formally recorded. This is part of a long term plan to record all of the paths in Bath onto a definitive map. Such a map already exists for the mostly rural former Wansdyke area. Bathwick is next to be recorded!

Today was a planning meeting, my first as holder of an architecture degree. For a few of the applications I was strongly tempted to re-design the proposals but forced to resist. It is a shame to think that something could be done better, but have to permit the development because it would be unreasonable not to. Still, the planning committee is an architectural court, we neither make the buildings nor the laws, we just examine whether one matches the other.

Tory plans parked; U-turn prepared

Liberal Democrats who fought Conservative parking charge increases have been backed by the Bath Chronicle
The Tories had planned to make millions from higher residents’ parking fees, extra fees for disabled badge holders and longer hours at the city centre car parks. The Bath Chronicle have joined the campaign to get this policy, car park fees until 8pm not 7pm, put back.

“The decision to extend the hours of charging was completely crazy.” says Don Foster, Bath MP “It shows how out of touch our Conservative Council leaders are. The decision has hit hundreds of people, from charity volunteers to restaurant owners. Everyone who travels into the city centre for an evening event or to enjoy the nightlife has been adversely affected. Even our Special Constables whose shift begins at 7 pm now have to pay to park their cars in the car park next to the Police Station. Even those who help keep our city safe are now out-of-pocket.

“I’ve been amazed by the lack of consultation by the Conservative-run Council. Until the protests began, the people of Bath have had no say about a decision made by Council leaders most of whom don’t live in the city.”

The Council Liberal Democrats ‘called in’ the price rises, citing insufficient consultation and a failure to consider the wider implications. The Conservative dominated panel threw out the call in, allowing the decision to stand. However, the public outcry has now prompted the Tories to review their policy, which they were so keen to defend last month. “If they’d have listened in the first place, the council needn’t have wasted so much time and energy” said Cllr Edwards.

Payment published

Expenses and allowances for the last financial year have been published by BathNES council (although the web page appears to be intermittent). In the interests of transparency I thought I’d put them up here too just so that you know.

From my election last May until the end of March, I have been paid £6,702.01 in allowances. This is not technically a salary, although it is nearly all taxed (thank you Gordon Brown, you doubled my tax from 10% to 20%). It compensates for the hundreds of hours I spend on council business when I could be earning money with a real job. I pay for my printing, postage and phone from this.

I do not have any ‘special responsibility allowances’. The committee I sit upon is not important enough to pay any extra.

I have claimed £118.80 in travel expenses. This is for three reurn rail journeys to Coventry for a training course I was sent upon (it was very worthwhile); I booked in advance and used my own ‘young persons’ railcard’ to reduce the cost. I also claimed for a return bus and train journeys to Keynsham. I have not claimed bicycle allowance for cycling to meetings in Bath, that seems a bit greedy.

In the period assessed I attended 4 out of 4 Full Council meetings and 2 of 3 Regulatory & Access Committee meetings. I did not attend the first of these as I had a percieved conflict of interest with the main agenda item. I have also substituted once onto the Corporate Audit Committee, which was very exciting and held in a genuine church crypt. [In the last month I have attended another Full Council, a Regs & Access and a Planning Committee but these are outside of the timeframe]

I hope that satisfied your curiosity. Some councillors do even less work for their money http://www.libdemvoice.org/david-murphy-2-2705.html

Loading bay consultation begins

The loading bay for Tesco has been put to public consultation. You are welcome to write to the Highways team with your views (click on the picture to read the notice and address).

This needs to have public consultation because it changes the legal parking status of that patch of road on Bathwick Hill. The pedestrian refuge and other pavement works did not need public consultation as they were modifications to council/public property.

A loading bay is needed here (just below the canal bridge) to allow delivery lorries to unload safely to the Tesco Express which was given planning permission by an appeal inspector last year. Effectively the government inspector instructed the BathNES highway department to install the loading bay and upgrade the pedestrian crossing, regardless of their own professional views. I have spoken to a member of the highways team about this apparent contradiction and he told me about another authority he has worked for. Following a similar appeal the highway department was ordered to make safe a junction which they claimed couldn’t be done. The legal battle went to the House of Lords and cost the council millions in fees when Tesco finally won.

I am of the opinion that our highway safety department have done a good job in difficult circumstances with the pedestrian refuge, road markings and loading bay. Their solution isn’t perfect, but this is hardly surprising given their professional judgement against Tesco’s planning permission.

Representations must be made in writing to the council by 5th June. If there are objections, which we expect there will be, a report must be written for the cabinet member to decide. Cllr Gerrish (Con, Keynsham North) shall make the final decision mid-June, for the loading bay to be rejected or painted on soon after. There is no truth in the rumour that Tesco have successfully sued for damages against the council. The process has indeed taken a long time but no legal action has yet been taken by Tesco.

Unfortunately the zebra crossing we all want may take even longer. As Tesco did not provide enough money for providing a zebra crossing, the central refuge has been widened and given tactile paving, while the pavement has also been widened. As well as giving more room to wheelchair users and those pushing bikes or buggies, this pavement widening improves the view down Bathwick Hill from those waiting to cross. This is a vital requirement for a zebra crossing, that visibility is good. With these improvements, it will be possible to paint on the zebra stripes later, from council tax money. However, I was angry to discover that this scheme has not been listed for funding in the next financial year and have chased this up with the Conservative cabinet member responsible.

Bathwick Liberal Democrats

Cllr David Martin, Claire Jackson & Cllr Nicholas Coombes