The highways department will be conducting a traffic survey to asses the need for a zebra crossing over Bathwick Hill on Thursday 3rd July.

Cllr Coombes has pointed out that the results of this survey will soon be irrelevant as the opening of Tesco will change traffic and pedestrian patterns and more importantly the University is on Summer holidays and so the 12,000 students and 2,600 staff will be mostly missing from the statistics. The traffic team leader has suggested that another survey may be carried out in the future.

It is surprising that a traffic survey has not been carried out to date, despite the Tesco application going to a public enquiry in which the council was fighting a case to reject on highways grounds. Elgar may be gone, but the new Tory on traffic doesn’t seem to be doing any better. The department he is responsible continues to be understaffed; in the past year there have been three different individuals responsible for the Bathwick Hill crossing.

Staff shortage has also delayed the writing of the report needed so that a decision can be taken on the loading bay. It was mostly written this morning and should be going for a cabinet decision in two weeks time. This means that the loading bay could be painted, and Tesco opening, mid-August at the earliest.

Cllr Nicholas Coombes presented a set of written questions to the Conservative Cabinet this week, including three on the zebra crossing on the Tesco site. A single response was provided to all questions which answered none of them:

Q – does the demonstration of 50 protesters show clear public demand?

Q – do the accidents at the site, including a fatality, show a high level of pedestrian risk?

Q – if Tesco were to provide extra funding, would it be spent on a zebra crossing?

A – Pedestrian crossings require fulfilment of numerical criteria relating to vehicles and pedestrians. A count is programmed for early July.

It appears that the cabinet member is unwilling to commit to an answer even now, one year after Tesco were given planning permission. It is also odd that a pedestrian and traffic survey is only being planned now, when surely one should have been prepared for the Tesco planning enquiry last year and certainly for the changes made to the pedestrian crossing.

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The full question and answer session is now available at https://sslvpn.bathnes.gov.uk/http/cis/committee_papers/Executive/Exec080625Mins/080625zAppx01QA.pdf

Both the Bath Chronicle and the Western Daily Press have included our Bathwick Zebra story this week (though I wasn’t too impressed with the WDP headline!).

Cllr Gerrish (Con, Keynsham N), the cabinet member responsible, is quoted: “I have instructed highways officers to undertake measurements of footfall to establish whether the point meets statutory criteria for a crossing. I must wait until I have the factural information that this is a well used crossing point before anything else can be done.”

I have posted two questiosn to him at the next cabinet meeting asking “Does the cabinet member agree that last week’s demonstration of 50 protesters on Bathwick Hill show a clear public demand for a zebra crossing over the canal bridge? Further, do the many accidents, including a fatality in 2006, show the high level of pedestrian risk in this location.” He has previously been uncommital answering these sort of questions in the past.

Join us for a publicity stunt to get our zebra crossing! Meet 4:30pm on Monday 16th outside Tesco, with Ziggy the Zebra.

BathNES council are becoming increasingly evasive about a zebra crossing for Bathwick Hill. The half finished works were designed to be completed as a zebra crossing when council funding became available, but now the Conservatives are questioning whether one is necessary at all. We need to show the public demand for a completed crossing.

We are holding a photo stunt on Monday to grab the attention of the media, the council and possibly Tesco; we will be aided by Ziggy, our life-size ‘zebra’ to make a photogenic image. Please join in to give us a big crowd of people for the cameras!

Please remember to sign the petition too at www.ourcampaign.org.uk/bathwickcrossing

I always walk (or cycle or bus) around Bathwick with a critical eye; a lot of the time I am satisfied, it is a very beautiful area. However, today I spotted a few bits to be fixed, after our surgery.

The cul-de-sac sign to Darlington Place has been knocked by an unfortunate motorist (or momentous pedestrian) so that it leaning quite jauntily. However, jaunty is never good for traffic signs, so I have reported it to be fixed.

 In Sydney Buildings many potholes have now been filled in along the length of the road. I reported these almost three months ago, so I am glad that they have finally got through the system. A few holes are still unfilled though and on first glace I couldn’t work out why. I’ve sent a reminder to the BathNES highways team to check up, it’s a shame to have persued it this far and not yet finished.

In good news, a yellow patch of road on Bathwick Hill just uphill of the canal has been laid. This was described to me as looking like a French market place; it is actually non-skid surface for drivers approaching the crossing to make that corner just a bit safer. I’ll give a full zebra update separately when I have a clearer situation to report.

Bath University have now appointed their contractor for the replacement of the footbridge over Quarry Road. The old bridge was removed a few years ago to local concern when the structure was deemed unsafe.

An application to re-route the footpath was rejected by BathNES’s footpath committee; in the last year Cllr Nicholas Coombes has had the committee chair write to the University Vice-Chancellor asking for its speedy replacement, while Cllr Coombes himself has raised the matter with the Director of Estates, Vice-Chancellor and Chancellor on many occasions.

Now that the contractor has been appointed and the bridge ordered, the works should be on time for completion by late August, to re-open the footpath in September before the Autumn term. Quarry Road is due to be closed for 20th-27th August on the current timetable.

There is only one potential problem remaining now; the recent discovery of a nearby badger set…