Pulteney Bridge meeting – 7pm Friday 4th

Your local Liberal Democrats in Bathwick and Abbey wards are organising another public meeting about Pulteney Bridge.  The meeting is at 7 pm on Friday 4 March 2011 in the Percy Room at the URC in Grove Street.

Since the regular local buses stopped using Pulteney Bridge in anticipation of its closure to all traffic, many people have been considerably inconvenienced.  We appear to be no nearer a proper solution to this problem, despite lots of objections from residents in our parts of the city and a campaign involving a well-supported petition to the Council.  This meeting is a forum to hear about the current unsatisfactory situation and for people to express their opinions on what should be done next.  Liberal Democrats will listen to local people and continue to press for the Council to sort out this ill-conceived scheme.

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Transport plan – stubborn Conservatives throw another £11M at the BRT

Bath Guildhall

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.

Warminster Road school crossing

Cllr Coombes and Dr Martin with the Warminster Road crossing campaign

Last September David Martin, along with local residents and councillors, petitioned the council for a school crossing on the A36 Warminster Road. Dr Martin is a school governor of Bathwick St. Mary’s Primary.

B&NES have now proposed that a central island pedestrian refuge is installed close to the rear entrance of Bathwick St Mary Primary School. This will also serve the footpath from the end of St. Christopher’s Close.  Although this is not a complete solution, we welcome the improved safety that this refuge with bring. 

However, it is not likely to be funded until 2013.  It is possible that improved signage can be funded earlier.  We will continue to press B&NES to raise the scheme up the priority list.

Conservatives admit they didn’t plan for Pulteney Bridge Closure

Nicholas Coombes and David Martin on Pulteney Bridge

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.

Claverton Down Road speed limit to be reduced

Cllr Coombes and Dr Martin are extending the 30mph limit on Claverton Down Road 

Nicholas Coombes and David Martin have persuaded B&NES Council to extend the 30mph zone on Claverton Down Road.

If all goes well, the 30mph zone will continue to the junction with the University. This will reduce the speed limit outside the houses on Claverton Down Road and will make it safer for bus passengers to cross the road.

Cllr Nicholas Coombes had the job put onto the highway department’s ‘task register’ soon after he was elected in 2007. Earlier this year your local Liberal Democrats collected signatures on a petition, which Dr David Martin handed into the council. This expression of public interest was enough to bump the job up the priority list.

There is a three week consultation period, with the notice advertised here.  If there are no objections the limit should be changed and the signs moved in the new year.

Six week delay for Pulteney Bridge decision

Manda Rigby surveying on Pulteney Bridge

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.”

Bathwick councillor funds towpath resurfacing

Resurfaced section of towpath through Sydney Gardens funded by Cllr Edwards

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.

Petition for safer school crossing

Cllr Coombes and Dr Martin with the Warminster Road crossing campaign 

School Governor Dr David Martin is campaigning for a safer crossing over the Warminster Road.

Dr Martin has responsibility for the ‘safer routes to school’ initiative at Bathwick St. Mary’s Primary. He and local resident Claire White have collected almost 100 signatures on a petition for a safer crossing.

The petition was presented to the Conservative cabinet member with responsibility for traffic at the last B&NES council meeting. Speaking at the meeting, Claire White said:

“I dread the day my children will ask to go to school on their own. Each time we ‘run the gauntlet’ across Warminster Road negotiating cars, vans and lorries. The current traffic island isn’t even wide enough for a buggy, while HGVs hurtle past just a few inches away.”

Their campaign is supported by local councillor, Nicholas Coombes, who raised the need for improvements with B&NES several years ago. Since Bathwick’s Liberal Democrat councillors were elected they have already delivered a pedestrian crossing on Pulteney Road and a zebra crossing on Bathwick Hill.

“Residents in Minster Way and St. Christopher’s Close are concerned about the difficulties of crossing Warminster Road to get their children to school.” Said David Martin at the council meeting. “Elderly and frail people living in this are also find the road difficult to cross. There is much heavy traffic on this road.”

To join the petition write to 6 Beech Avenue, Bath BA2 7BA or email bathwick_libdems@yahoo.co.uk

Public meeting on Pulteney Bridge closure

Manda Rigby surveying on Pulteney Bridge

A public meeting has been organised to discuss the closure of Pulteney Bridge on the knock on effects to public transport and traffic. The meeting will be on Friday 24th from 7pm at the Percey Room in the United Reformed Church on Grove Street.

Manda Rigby, a city centre resident, is organising the meeting after speaking to residents and business owners on the bridge and Great Pulteney Street. She says “there appears to be much confusion  about the current state of play, some dismay about the consultation process and timing, and some dissent about what is being propsed.”

This is certainly true for Bathwick, where many residents have been left angry and inconvenienced or isolated by the changes to the bus services. I have placed an objection as local councillor on account of the unintended (but forseeable) consequences to public transport of closing the bridge.

Hundreds of people on the Pulteney Estate and around Sydney Gardens have lost their direct bus service and thousands of passengers on Bathwick Hill and at the University are now suffering a worse service, missing the Guildhall stop and stuck in traffic on North Parade. This morning there were long queues at North Parade and the junctions either side; yesterday afternoon bus passengers stuck in traffic on North Parade Bridge were allowed off the bus to walk to their destinations.

Experts from B&NES council plus the Conservative councillor who has been pushing this proposal have also been invited to the public meeting. People of all opinions and none are warmly invited.

Resurfacing for Claverton Down Road

Part of Claverton Down Road is to be resurfaced later this summer.

Work will be done from Oakley all the way to Limekiln Lane. Currently this section is one of the roughest in the area; there is lots of loose grit on the road surface following the harsh winter. Small stretches of Oakley and Norwood Avenue will also be resurfaced at the same time.

 All work will be undertaken at night with the roads closed; they will be open during the day. Currently this is expected on the nights of 31st August to 3rd September. A traffic regulation order has been issued allowing for five days closure during six months – this allows for flexibility, although a six month delay isn’t expected yet!