Minster Way house rejected by Planning Inspector

A government Planning Inspector has dismissed an appeal to build a new house in Minster Way.

An application was made last year to build a new house in the back garden of 53 Minster Way, accessed from Trossachs Drive. A similar application was turned down in 2003.

BathNES Planning Committee decided not to approve the latest application in May 2012. The applicant appealed against this decision to the Planning Inspectorate. The Inspector upheld the council’s decision owing to the harm to the conservation area, character and appearance of the proposal ad damage to the residential amenity of neighbouring homes.

Conservatives opposed crossing they proposed

2011 Conservative leaflet2013 Conservative leaflet

This website, the online home of your Bathwick Liberal Democrats, doesn’t often carry messages from the Conservative party, but today is an exception.

  • 2011 Conservative council candidates: “Tony and Johnny are backing investment in local road safety, such as plans for a new zebra crossing at the bottom of Bathwick Hill”
  • 2013 Conservative campaigner: “these plans have not been thought through”

During the consultation into the proposed zebra crossing at the bottom of Bathwick Hill, many asked where such an idea had come from. It appears that it was an election gimmick from Conservatives hoping to be elected in Bathwick. Having lost the election they forgot about the idea, but it was already lodged in BathNES Council’s list of potential schemes. Two years later the idea was drawn up and taken out to public consultation.

Dozens of local residents objected to the proposal, including your local Liberal Democrat councillors. Given this negative reception it is hardly surprising that the Conservatives have reversed their position. However, the process of designing the scheme and consulting the public will have been costly to the taxpayer.

It is yet to be seen whether proposing, then opposing, the works will be beneficial to the Conservatives’ electoral prospects, but it has certainly hurt public finances.

Lime Grove development

Rennie Close construction begins

The development of 13 houses on the site of the former school is continuing with a completion date of mid summer. Houses in the new Rennie Close are now being advertised for up to £700,000.

The Lime Grove Gardens road surface will require repairs once the works have finished and the developers have agreed to do this. In addition, the developers have agreed not to park vehicles in the adjacent roads, as this was causing problems for residents’ parking.

Cllr David Martin will continue to work with the developers to address the concerns of local residents during the development.

Smallcombe path

Cllr Coombes on the skyline walk

The owners of Smallcombe Farm have applied to formally divert the footpath from the steps by their farm to a zig-zag path through the nearby field. Dozens of local people have taken part in a preliminary consultation which closed on 4th March.

The preliminary consultation was undertaken by a professional agent on behalf of the applicant. They will now analyse the responses and possibly investigate compromises. When they are ready, the agent will write a submission for the Council’s Regulatory Committee to look at. Independent council officers will also write an accompanying report. It will be up to the Regulatory Committee to decide whether to take the application further or abandon it.

If the committee decides to take the application to the next step there will be a further round of public consultation undertaken by the council, followed by another meeting of the Regulatory Committee. Finally any application supported by the committee will be sent to a government Planning Inspector to decide.

Bathwick councillor Nicholas Coombes is chair of the Regulatory Committee. While he isn’t able to comment on the application, he is committed to keeping local people informed and making sure that they are able to be heard when the application is considered by the council. However, no developments are expected in the short term.

Winter warmth open homes

The Winter Warmth Open Home is an exhibition of measures to make our homes warmer, cheaper to run and more environmentally friendly. It is at 56 The Hollow, Twerton, Bath, BA2 1LZ and is due to open on 12th March

This is part of a partnership project between the Council, Curo, and the Centre for Sustainable Energy funded by a bid to the Department of Health. The British Red Cross, Age UK and West of England Care and Repair are involved in other aspects of the project.

The Winter Warmth Club Open house will be open to all Bath and North East Somerset residents from Tuesday 12th March. All residents of B&NES are welcome to come along and see how to save energy in their homes and reduce their fuel bills. Advisors will be on hand to demonstrate how to take meter readings, set central heating controls, practical measures to address condensation and damp, low energy lighting options and show how small changes in the home can result in big savings on fuel bills. Residents will be able to see insulation installed in the house and learn how choosing the right appliance for your home can save energy and money. All residents can pick up free leaflets and a free thermometer card and magnet. For the first 100 visitors there will be a free Winter Warmth pack!

There will also be some models to show internal and external wall insulation on display.

Opening times for the Open House are:

12th March – 14th April

Tuesday (late night opening) – 3-7pm
Wednesday – Saturday – 10-2pm

The Open House will be open on both Saturday and Sunday the 13th and 14th April for Green Homes weekend.

Muddy path proposal sent to Inspector

New surface for muddy path

Improvements to the muddy path between Claverton Down and Combe Down have got one step closer this week.

Over a hundred local people signed a petition organised by Nicholas Coombes and David Martin calling for the path to be  designated as a cycle route and brought up to a suitable standard. A legal cycle path would be a safe route for school pupils and university students to cycle and a maintained and controlled route will be better for walkers.

BathNES Council has now completed the documents required and submitted them, together with our petition, to the Planning Inspectorate who will decide on the matter. The documents will be at http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/planning/countryside/rightsofway/onlinerow/onlinerowab#banes when registered.

This good news comes at a time when the Liberal Democrats running BathNES Council have just chosen to invest £500,000 in improving cycle routes across the area in their annual budget. This is on top of the works currently underway funded by the Local Sustainable Transport Fund which includes a new bridge at Batheaston and an off-road route to Bath Spa University.

Bath’s biggest cycle sceheme, the Two Tunnels route under Combe Down is expected to open one month from now, on 6th March.

Sydney Gardens restoration

Nicholas and David in Sydney Gardens

Lib Dems on BathNES Council have submitted a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore Sydney Gardens.

The council has allocated £500,000 as part of a proposed £5.4 million restoration project.  The first stage will be a design study aimed at producing a development plan.

Public consultation will form an important part of this stage, and your local Councillors will ensure that residents have a chance to take part in the design process.

“This is a really exciting project,” said Cllr Nicholas Coombes, “I look forward to working with residents, the Holburne and others to get a great result.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the gardens, Network Rail have proposed several barrier designs to protect their track at the low balustrade. The favoured solution is to reduce the ground height on the park side of the balustrade so that there is a higher barrier between the public area and the railway lines.

Bath Half Marathon – 3rd March

Half Marathon on Darlington Street

The Bath half marathon will be on Sunday 3rd March.

15,000 people will run twice around the Upper and Lower Bristol Roads, starting and finishing in Great Pulteney Street. The race starts at 11am, with winners generally completing just after noon.

In Bathwick, Darlington Street, the Bathwick Hill roundabout, and Pulteney Road will be closed from 9:45 until 3:30pm, with parking suspended from 6am. There are also parking suspensions planned on Cleveland Walk and North Road to allow for bus diversions and emergency vehicle access. The city-wide diversion will be around Sydney Gardens and up North Road, then around Claverton Down Road to Combe Down.

Full details of the road closures and parking restrictions are being circulated by leaflet from the event organisers to affected homes.

Good luck and best wishes to all Bathwick residents competing and their chosen charities.

Progress for Warminster Road school crossing

David Martin inspects the school crossing site

A safer crossing outside Bathwick St Mary’s Primary is expected to be built within weeks.

Local Liberal Democrat councillors collected a petition for the crossing which was accepted by BathNES Council. The works have been budgeted for this year and should be built in March or April.

A formal consultation has been published over the parking changes necessary for a safer crossing. This will close on 21st March and, assuming no objections are made, work should start immediately afterwards.

A pedestrian island will be built between the footpath from St Christopher’s Close and the back gates of the school. The markings for school buses will be moved and a few parking spaces cancelled to ensure that children using the crossing are visible and safe.

Free assessment to cut energy bills

Free home energy assessments are available for householders across Bath and North East Somerset, from Wednesday February 6, thanks to Our Green Deal in Somerset, an initiative backed by seven local authorities, including Bath & North East Somerset Council, and run on behalf of the Centre for Sustainable Energy.

The initiative, which is funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, aims to get the area more involved with the Green Deal; the national, Government scheme, which enables householders to pay for energy efficiency improvements through their energy bills.

Green Deal energy efficiency improvements include: new heating systems, wall or loft insulation, secondary glazing and draught proofing. The improvements will help residents cut energy use, and their energy bills won’t rise overall either.

Councillor David Martin, the Council’s energy and climate change champion, said: “A home energy assessment shows which energy efficiency improvements would work best for a particular home, as well as whether any improvements could be funded through the Green Deal. Assessments usually cost around £175 each, however Our Green Deal in Somerset is giving away about 100 of them for free in our district. The offer ends on March 15 2013 though so people in the Bath & North East Somerset Council area need to sign-up quickly.”

The assessments are independent and homeowners are not obliged to sign up to any improvements. Private tenants can still take advantage of the offer but need to get their landlord’s permission first.

James Ryle from the Centre for Sustainable Energy, said: “The Green Deal has a lot to offer, particularly in Somerset which has a lot of ‘hard-to-treat’ homes where people are being hit by high fuel bills. This initiative will get the Green Deal rolling in Somerset.”

In addition to the free assessments, Our Green Deal in Somerset intends to launch a programme in the near future, which will see local community groups explain how the Green Deal works and the benefits of the scheme to householders in their area.

Details will be available shortly. A new website is also set to be launched soon, which will record the progress of the scheme. It will also include further information and details of reliable, local tradespeople.

For more information on Our Green Deal in Somerset, contact CSE’s Home Energy Team free on 0800 082 2234 or email at home.energy@cse.org.uk To learn more about the other energy efficiency initiatives available to Bath & North East Somerset residents, visit: www.bathnes.gov.uk/greendeal.