Two Bathwick locations are due double yellow lines at residents’ requests, backed up by your councillors. Parking on Claverton Down and Warminster Road will be restricted to legal bays, prohibiting dangerous side of road parking.

On Claverton Down a number of residents have requested that parking on the verges is stopped and the informal layby near the Skyline Walk route is regulated. It is proposed that the parking bay is now restricted to two hours parking only, with all other parking banned. This should shop the erosion of the grass verges which has left the area muddy and messy.

Parking on the Warminster Road, which has been highlighted by Cllr Nicholas Coombes and neighbouring Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Gail Colshill, is to be moved entirely to the North-West side of the road, leaving the Bath bound carriage-way unobstructed. Some new parking spaces can be created safely on the MoD side of the road, but double yellow lines are planned from Minster Way through to Trossachs Drive. 

BathNES council has published a jumbo Traffic Regulation Order covering changes to parking arrangements in 22 locations across the city. Although this super order saves the council money, it has slowed down progress on the Bathwick schemes.

Your local councillors have presented their petition for a zebra crossing to the Full Council. The meeting took place on the week before the Bathwick Hill Tesco opened for the first time.

The council Highways Department took over a year to paint on the loading bay needed by the shop following the government planning inspector’s ruling. The council had argued that loading at the shop would be unsafe and the loading bay remains controversial. Following objections from local residents and your Lib Dem councillors, the loading bay has been reduced in length and the road re-marked.

Cllr Edwards is still concerned though: “The new layout might just about work on paper, but real cars, lorries and buses swing across the lines risking a real accident here.”

Cllr Coombes added: “The best we can hope for is that drivers will stop to pass each other when a lorry is parked outside Tesco. What we need now though is a zebra crossing to improve pedestrian safety. This should also slow traffic over the canal bridge.”

In presenting the petition to BathNES council, Armand Edwards drew attention to the traffic and pedestrian counts, justifying a zebra crossing over Bathwick Hill at the canal. The Conservative cabinet have again failed to fund the crossing ns the next financial year until April 2010. Having first raised this with the then cabinet member in January 2007, your councillors will keep up the fight for this much needed crossing. The petition is at www.ourcampaign.org.uk/bathwickcrossing.

One whole year after winning their planning appeal, Tesco are still unable to open their shop on Bathwick Hill. The loading bay, for which Tesco were compelled to pay the council, has nto yet been painhted outside the shop.

Design difficulties and continued staff shortage delayed the planning stages and the statutory consultation phase. As there were objections from the consultation, a report must be written for the conservative cabinet member. However, this still hasn’t been presented for a decision, delayed by another week. When the cabinet member does decide, there will be a further three week wait for ratification. The loading bay may be marked out in early August, with Tesco keen to open the moment it is ready.

The pavement of St Christopher’s Close are to be resurfaced – 20 years ahead of schedule!

When Cllr Edwards first asked for the work, BathNES highways warned that the Tory budget allowed for resurfacing every 70 years. As St Christopher’s Close, off Minster Way, is only 50 years old, there would be a long wait.

Knowing the pavement’s poor state, your Lib Dem councillors persisted until the council agreed to do the work this year. The broken top surface of the pavement will be removed and replaced with a thin layer of bitumen slurry to seal the surface.

The work will be done in August with households notified individually nearer the time.

BathNES council insists that a zebra crossing for Bathwick Hill depends on the number of cars and people using the road and paths. We will only be given a zebra crossing if the road is ‘busy’ enough.

A twelve hour traffic survey was undertaken last week, although I did point out that this was during the University holidays. I was sent a copy of the results today and discussed them with the BathNES traffic team leader this evening at a meeting about pedestrian and cycle safety.

To our surprise, even during the holidays and before Tesco opens, Bathwick Hill is already busy enough to warrant a zebra crossing. The threshold figure for traffic volume is exceeded during both morning and evening rush hours and pedestrian flow is steady throughout the day, with an unexpected peak around 10am.

There is now clear evidence of a need for a zebra crossing from the survey figures and evidence of local demand from our protest and petition (www.ourcampaign.org.uk/bathwickcrossing). Armand and I shall be using this information to push even harder for funding for this crossing from the Conservative council.