Around 40 local residents attended our regular Oldfield PACT (Public) Meeting took place on Wednesday 10th March 2010 at Moorlands Infant School, Moorfields Road.

These local residents were joined by two of our local Police team (PC Mark Brain and PCSO Paul Spreadbury), representatives from Somer Housing and your local Councillors, Will and Shaun. In addition, the President of the Students’ Union at the University of Bath attended with the new Community Liaison Coordintor from the Student Community Partnership, which I set up (well the Student Liaison Committee, which was renamed the SCP).

Firstly, we discussed the progress in tackling the priorities from the last meeting. Then those present were asked for their priorities, which were voted on. The following three top priorities were agreed at the meeting:

o Parking problems outside St John’s RC Primary School. Parents parking on zig-zags, pavement parking and double yellow lines.

o Student’s behaviour on St Kilda’s Road.

o Reduce the number of ‘To Let’ signs on houses of multiple occupancy.

In addtion at the meeting we heard about the ‘Oldfield Park Growing Together’ project.

We shall together with the Police now work towards resolving these issues and report back at the next PACT meeting scheduled for 6.30pm on 7th July 2010 at St Alphage’s Hall, Oldfield Lane, Bath.

Quite often there has been bad press arising regarding the relationship between students and permanent residents in Oldfield Park. In order to help remedy this and improve the relationship between permanent residents and students in this area, the charity V Inspired, the Council, University of Bath and Bath Spa University’s Students’ Unions have created a project that aims to do just that.

The project, run by a core volunteer group of 4 students, seeks to match underutilised student household gardens with permanent residents who wish to grow their own food (responding to a local lack of allotments). The proposal is for a research project that will lead to a pilot scheme, designed and delivered by the volunteer group working in and with the community.

Currently being carried out is research into the market by distributing questionnaires, and semi structured interviews to determine the likely supply of gardens and also estimated demand for growing space in the community. The group are also attending local community meetings and collaborating with similar schemes that already exist such as the Bath Area Garden Share (part of Transition Bath) and Bath Organic Group, and taking inspiration from existing garden share schemes such as the one in Totnes, Devon.

The aim of this part of the project is to find out if it is feasible within the Oldfield Park area. If it is found to be feasible, by the middle of April it is hoped that two gardens will be being piloted with members of the local community using student gardens to plant their vegetables in, just in time for the recommended planting season!

If you feel your garden has a good space that someone could grow their veggies in please contact us!! If you are interested in getting involved or would like more information please email: op.growers@googlemail.com

Bath Spa University is consulting on their initial proposals for the future development and combining enhancement of the Newton Park campus.

The University would like to hear your views on the emerging Newton Park master-plan exhibited here, which will provide the basis for planning applications coming forward in the future.

We both believe that it is important local residents of Oldfield Park have their say about the need for the University (actually both universities) to build and house more students in Halls of Residents on their campus and take some of the pressure off the local housing in our community.

Both Will and Shaun have already attended the exhibtion and have spoken informally with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Frank Morgan, about the plans. We will be also adding our formal comments to the online consultation exercise.

The University has stated that local residents comments and views are important to them in helping to shape their proposals. Feedback from the exhibition and future consultation will be carefully considered as part of the ongoing design work.

The consultation documents are also availble as a large (6MB pdf) doc.

Please do respond to this consultation exercise and encourage your friends and neighbours to also respond.

Today, all councillors received this letter from the most Senior Police Officer in Bath & North East Somerset:

Total crime reduction (-12%) compared to last year
Crime detection (37.4%)
Customer satisfaction (86.8%)
Read the rest of this entry.

Liberal Democrats in Bath are “over the moon” following the government’s announcement of new powers for Councils to control ‘Houses in Multiple Occupation’ (HMOs). Councillor Shaun McGall and Don Foster MP have been campaigning on this issue for 10 years.

Today’s announcement shows that the government has finally bowed to national public pressure and has given local Councils the much-needed powers to control the spread of high concentrations of shared rented homes. This will allow Councils, such as ours, to tackle pockets of unsafe and substandard accommodation run by bad landlords. Liberal Democrats in the city headed by MP Don Foster had been calling on the Government to speed up action on the subject. Local MP Don Foster said:

I warmly welcome this announcement from the Minister. HMOs play an important role in providing affordable housing, but a dense population can have serious effects on the local community. It is great that the government has finally realised this and changed the law.

This is good for local residents giving control over unregulated profit driven changes to the community. Good for HMO tenants, as it will improve standards and get rid of bad landlords, by providing a mechanism for councils to set up local landlord licensing schemes.

The changes mean that landlords will need to apply for planning permission in order to establish a new HMO with a change of use, for example when the use of a property is altered from a family home to a shared house, with three or more tenants who are not related.

We would like to thank residents from across the city who responded to the Government consultation last year following our campaign.
Read the rest of this entry. Read the rest of this entry.

Bath Spa University has been considering its long term needs both in terms of academic and student residental accommodation.

The University has been working with the Duchy of Cornwall (their landlord), the Council and English Heritage to establish the scope for development of the campus at Newton Park. There now want to explore their initial ideas with the local community.

The University has announced it is to hold a public exhibition at Newton Park on the 5th and 6th February 2010. For those unable to attend the exhibition in person, all the information will be available on the Bath Spa University website www.bathspa.ac.uk from Friday 5 February. Please put this in your diary and once we know more details we shall add them to our website.

It is important local residents of Oldfield Park have their say about the need for the University (actually both universities) to build and house more students in Halls of Residents on their campus and take some of the pressure off the local housing in our community.

This weekend your local neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs will be security marking bicycles, which increases your chance of having your bicycle returned to you if it is lost or stolen.

They will also be giving advice of how to keep bikes safe and less attractive to potential thieves. Everyone who has their cycle marked can enter a free draw with a chance of winning a £150 voucher towards new accessories such as lights, locks and helmets. Bring your bike along to one of these locations:

Twerton, Whiteway and Southdown (Southside Youth Centre, Kelton View, Twerton)

Saturday 23 January 2pm-3.30pm
Sunday 24 January 2pm-3.30pm

Foxhill (Bradford Road shops)

Saturday 23 January 10am-11.30am
Sunday 24 January 10am-11.30am

City Centre (Green Park Station)

Saturday 23 January 2pm-3.30pm

Larkhall (Alice Park)

Saturday 23 January 11am-2pm

Bath MP Don Foster is writing to the new Minister for Housing and Planning, John Healey MP, asking him not to let the response to this summer’s consultation on House of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) drag.

Earlier this year, the government consulted on changing the use class order of HMOs which would, in effect, mean someone wishing to convert a family home into a HMO would have to apply for planning permission.

Oldfield ward Lib Dem Councillor Shaun McGall has been lobbying for changes to the law for a number of years. He said,

Where areas have a high concentration of HMOs it can add a number of strains to the community, for example in car parking and refuse collection. Councils have not had the ability to do anything about the rise of the HMO, meaning that communities, such as Oldfield Park, can change very quickly as private landlords buy family homes to convert. HMOs do serve a purpose, but they need to be controlled so that local communities aren’t damaged. That is why this government consultation is so important.

Bath MP Don Foster said,

This consultation was finished in August, but the new Minister doesn’t seem to have any expectation of when the findings will be published, partly because of the overwhelming response. I have written to him to stress the importance of this issue, which is affecting communities up and down the country. When we clearly need more affordable housing, it is important that councils have the power to prevent more family housing being converted into HMOs, especially in the most affordable areas of our city. HMOs should be spread across cities, not concentrated in certain areas which can have a massive effect on the local community.

Please see below for the full text of Don Foster’s letter to John Healey MP. Read the rest of this entry.

There is now less than eight months to save a new generation of young people from huge increases in university tuition fees, according to Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, Don Foster

Don was speaking after the Conservatives suggested they will increase tuition fees to £7,000 if they take power at the next general election, which has to be held by next June.

That will see tuition fees for undergraduates more than double. Currently there is a cap of £3,300 in England and Wales.

Peter Mandelson has already suggested that Labour will allow universities to charge more than at present if re-elected – though the party is too scared to push through the changes it wants before June.

Only the Liberal Democrats will scrap tuition fees. The party believes university education should be free and everyone who has the ability should be able to go – and not be put off by the cost.

Bath MP Don said:

“I look around Bath and I see people return from university with no job and a bank balance tens of thousands of pounds in the red. What sort of message is that?

“Labour and now the Tories are showing their true colours. They don’t care about young people – they just want to saddle them with staggering amounts of debt.

“The choice is clear: the people of Bath can vote for a politician who will condemn a generation of youngsters or for the Liberal Democrats who will make education free again, giving young people the best possible start.”