Councillors concerns over job cuts and potential threat to street cleansing

Councillor Caroline Roberts, Chair of the Safer Stronger Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel, has warned that the improvements in street cleansing promised for Bath may be impossible if the job cuts which have been threatened in the Council’s Environmental services section actually happen.

Councillor Roberts (Newbridge, Lib Dem) said:

Members of the Bath City Liaison Forum delivered a very detailed report on improvements to cleansing in the city of Bath, and the recommendations were accepted by the Cabinet member for Customer services.

These services are already being delivered with very limited resources and any reduction in service would not be looked at very favourably by local residents. We will be scrutinising the budget papers very carefully at our January meeting.

We were shocked that ‘at risk’ notices were delivered to staff during the festive season; this was a major blunder by the Council administration and is certainly no way to treat the Council’s loyal and hard working staff.

Views sought on public convenience provision

Local residents have just a few weeks left to give their views on public conveniences in the area, as part of a consultation being run by the Council.

The consultation, which ends on February 5, is looking at standards of provision across the district, including the quality, quantity, and distribution of public conveniences.

Amongst other issues, the Council also wants people’s views on what facilities public conveniences should contain, eg baby changing facilities; what times of day they should be open; where any new facilities should be located and how many facilities there should be.

One of the areas the Council is looking at with the private sector is a community or partnership toilet scheme whereby more pubs, restaurants and shops give public access to their toilets. This system works well elsewhere in the country.

The Tory Council thinks that this type of scheme could be a real opportunity for businesses and the Council to work together for the overall benefit of the community. The Council wants to hear what local shops and businesses think and which ones would be interested in taking part.

Anyone wanting to know more about the proposals and have their say can go to www.bathnes.gov.uk and under the ‘Of Interest’ link click ‘Public Convenience Provision – Consultation’. Or contact Council Connect on 01225 39 40 41 or email councilconnect@bathnes.gov.uk.

The online consultation also includes specific information and a questionnaire about a Community Toilet Scheme for businesses to input their thoughts.

The results of the consultation will be considered by the Safer and Stronger Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel at a later date.

Bath Lower Bristol Road and Western Corridor Regeneration Delivery Plan (RDP)

The Council is in the process of creating Regeneration Delivery Plans for the Western Corridor and Lower Bristol Road area of Bath.

RDPs are also being produced for Bath city centre, Keynsham, Midsomer Norton and Radstock and will help inform the strategic site allocations in the emerging Core Strategy. In due course the RDPs will help in the creation of area specific Supplementary Planning Documents which will be material consideration in respect of any planning applications and importantly will provide clarity over actions to deliver key regeneration sites.

The Council states that the,

RDP for the Lower Bristol Road and Western Corridor is being drawn up to help support and encourage economic growth whilst ensuring that the unique advantages of being based in Bath are identified and enhanced.

As part of the Lower Bristol Road and Western Corridor RDP, Savills, the Council’s appointed consultant, will be engaging with local stakeholders including businesses within the area to establish what businesses’ plans are in the short, medium and longer term. This will be carried out through telephone surveys and in some cases, site visits. Savills will also engage with local residents and other local groups to ensure that the voices of those who have a direct interest in this important corridor for Bath are heard.

The current planned engagement for the Lower Bristol Road Western Corridor RDP process is set out below:

– January 2010 – Finalise information gathering (including landowner questionnaires)

– February 2010 – Confirmation of issues and options through stakeholder engagement

– March 2010 – Draft RDP

– April 2010 – RDP sign off

If you have any comments on the future of of this area of the city or the RDP progress, please contact us with your comments.

Lib Dems call for action on food waste

Local Lib Dems are calling on the Conservative Council to begin a weekly collection of kitchen waste from April 2010. The Conservatives have repeatedly postponed the collection of kitchen waste from 2008 to the current implementation date of Autumn 2011.

Kitchen waste is soon to be collected weekly at kerbside across the old Avon area, except in B&NES. North Somerset Council has just decided to appoint May Gurney, the company that does B&NES’ recycling, to collect kitchen waste at kerbside.

Bath and North East Somerset is now the only old Avon authority not to collect kitchen waste. The Conservative administration here has deferred the start of kerbside collections from 2008 – the date originally planned by the Liberal Democrats – to Autumn 2011.

The budget for 2010/2011 has not yet been set, so there is still time to implement the collection of kitchen waste from April this year.

We used to be a leader nationally when it came to recycling, but even from a high base in 2004, it has lost ground over recent years to many other Councils through delaying the collection of kitchen waste.

This Conservative administration has had to be dragged kicking and screaming towards collecting kitchen waste and even then it will be a full three years later than was planned by the last administration.

Collecting kitchen waste is not only good for the environment, but it is cheaper than sending it to landfill, so in a Council which is making drastic cuts in its staff, surely there is a duty to make savings where it can.

Planning tomorrow today: Core Strategy events

Local residents have the chance to give their views on the major challenges facing the district over the next twenty years and the options to address them at a range of events over the coming fortnight. Some extra dates have been included due to the high number of people wanting to have their say.

• Keynsham drop-in session – 17th November 2009 3pm – 6pm Keynsham Town Council Offices;

• North Bath drop-in session – 20th November 2009 3.30pm- 7pm New Oriel Hall, Larkhall;

• Twerton drop -in session – 24th November 2009 3.30 pm – 7pm St Michael’s Primary School Twerton;

• Radstock drop-in session and presentation – 26th November 2009 5pm – 8.30pm Working man’s club Radstock (5-7 pm: drop-in session/display; 7-7:30pm: presentation by Council Officers; 7:30pm – 8:30pm: questions/discussion).

Residents can also read a four-page feature in the current Winter 2009 edition of Connect Magazine being delivered to homes across the district right now. This can also be accessed online at www.bathnes.gov.uk Residents have until 11th December 2009 to respond with their view on the tough challenges faced by the area, like the need to provide more affordable homes, improving the availability of modern flexible office accommodation, delivering necessary infrastructure and one of the biggest issues facing the planet – climate change and reducing the community carbon footprint.

People can long-on to www.bathnes.gov.uk/corestrategy or call 01225 477548 or write to Planning Policy Team, Trimbridge House, Trim Street, Bath BA1 2DP, or email planning_policy@bathnes.gov.uk to find out more. The document can also be read at all libraries in the district and at reception areas in Trmbridge House, Bath; Riverside, Keynsham; Hollies, Midsomer Norton.

Council administration put on the spot about ‘Twenty is Plenty’

The Conservative administration of B&NES Council is to be put on the spot about implementing 20 mph limits in residential areas at the meeting of the Council later this month. This follows a fact finding visit to Portsmouth, a city which has already implemented the scheme, in September.

Councillor Caroline Roberts (Newbridge) will ask the Cabinet member for Transport to accept that decisions to implement 20 mph limits in particular streets show that there is a need for a general speed limit in residential areas and that the piecemeal approach should be abandoned.

Councillor Roberts said:

“The Cabinet member should come out and admit that ‘Twenty is Plenty’ and get on with Liberal Democrats proposals to slash speeds in all our residential areas.

“By proposing a number of small scale 20mph limits recently, the Cabinet member is tacitly admitting that ‘Twenty is Plenty’. Liberal Democrats have been calling for the introduction of blanket 20 mph limits in residential areas for over 2 years, and there is a lot of support from residents for the idea. 20 mph speed limits would make walking and cycling safer and should result in fewer accidents.

“I recently went back to Portsmouth to hear about the progress in their 20 mph scheme which was implemented in 2007. The conclusions are positive; the limit is popular with residents and has resulted in some reduction in speed.

“B&NES Cabinet member for Transport also attended the briefing in Portsmouth and it is clear that a 20 mph scheme is of interest to the Council. I am calling on the Cabinet member to make the plans clear.”

“Twenty is Plenty” campaigns, run by Liberal Democrat Councillors, have shown support for 20 mph limits for residential streets in many areas including the villages south of Bath, Widcombe, Peasedown St John, Combe Down, and James St West.

Nationwide first for BathRider bus ticket

Bus passengers will be able to travel as many times as they want on Bath bus services whatever the operator because of a bus season ticket scheme created by Bath & North East Somerset Council and introduced by the commercial bus operators in Bath. Both Day and Week tickets will be available for adults and children.

The BathRider Scheme is a national first where a Council has used powers under the Transport Act 2000 to make a ticket scheme. All operators in the city are required to take part in the scheme which starts November 9th 2009.

Public transport groups have given their support for the initiative. Mike Greedy, Passenger Focus Manager, said, “Simplified ticketing and faster journey times are two features that passengers raise as important areas for improvements. Passenger Focus welcomes this initiative which will make travel easier and quicker for all bus passengers in the city of Bath and hopes this can be extended elsewhere in due course.”

Anne Lock, spokesperson for Campaign for Better Transport, said, “Members of Campaign for Better Transport were delighted to hear of the work undertaken by the Council in order to get the BathRider scheme up and running. We welcome the successful introduction of this initiative which will enable buses to ferry passengers around the City without the delays which arise from succeeding passengers fumbling for their fare and receiving change.”

Complex negotiations with commercial bus operators have taken place over the past six months. The Council is grateful to them for their co-operation, assistance, and advice in getting to a workable solution that will offer worthwhile benefits for passengers. Amongst those to benefit the scheme are children going to Ralph Allen School who need two buses to go to school and University students and staff who need more than one bus to get to campus. The ticket is not applicable to Park & Ride services or tour buses.

How does the BathRider work?

Passengers can buy their Daily or Weekly BathRider scratch cards at Bath Bus station; Tourist Information Centre – Abbey Churchyard; Tourism Centre –Bath Spa railway station (Platform 1); STA shop – Bath University.

When the date of travel is scratched off the ticket is then valid for the whole of that day. If it’s a weekly ticket the ticket is sealed over and is then valid for 7 days from the date scratched off. There is no limit to the number of times the ticket can be used that day or week, but the ticket must be shown to the driver each time it is used. The price (set by the bus operators) will be : Daily – £4.95 Adult/ £3.70 Child; Weekly – £17.50 Adult/ £16.50 Child.

To find out more about the district’s public transport network people can go to www.bathnes.gov.uk/transportandstreets

Campaign success as Council joins ‘Cycle to Work’ scheme

Liberal Democrats have been calling for Bath and North East Somerset Council to join the Government’s Cycle to Work for several years now. They have therefore welcomed news, announced to Council employees this week (as part of the Council’s Green Week), that the Council has finally signed up to the scheme.

The Cycle to Work scheme offers employees the chance to purchase new bikes repaid by loans through a salary sacrifice system. Employees could save up to half the cost of a bike!

Councillor Roger Symonds (Combe Down) is a keen cyclist and the Council’s Member Champion for Cycling. He commented:

“I’m delighted that after several years in the asking the Council has finally signed up to the Cycle to Work scheme. This will be a real benefit to employees – saving money and improving their health and fitness – and the community as a whole through a contribution to reducing traffic.

“In Bath we are lucky to have Cyclescheme – the country’s leading company in providing bikes through this salary sacrifice idea – right here in the city, so it’s especially right that we should sign up.

“Many other employers in the area have already joined the scheme.”

The scheme has won the backing of MP for Bath Don Foster, who said:

“I am pleased that the Council has finally shown leadership and signed up to the Cycle to Work scheme. The Council has long been trying to encourage people to cycle more, but yet has done little to help its own employees cycle to and from work.

“It is great that a Bath company is leading the way in promoting this programme, and that so many employers are signed up to the scheme including Bath employers such as the RUH. I hope that the scheme will now go from strength to strength, and that more employers will look to join in.”

Councillor Paul Crossley (Southdown) added:

“I welcome this news but I am amazed that the Council’s Conservative leadership has been so far behind the curve. We have been calling for the Council to join the scheme for a long time now, whilst the Administration said it was too complicated.

“Now that the Council has joined the cycle purchase scheme I call on them to sign up to the full ‘Cycle to Work Guarantee’ and start looking at what other facilities cycle commuters need, such as lockers, secure storage and even showers. ”

Mystery of disappearing bins

Councillor Ian Gilchrist (Liberal Democrat, Widcombe) has stumbled on a mystery which has residents annoyed and Council officers perplexed: someone is stealing Bath’s litter bins!

The problem was first brought to the attention of Cllr Gilchrist by a resident in Widcombe who detailed four locations in the area of the Lower Bristol Rd and Brougham Hayes, where there had once been litter bins performing their civic duty but where there now remain nothing but a circular impression in the ground. Other Councillors have heard similar reports from other areas.

Fearing that this might be a Council tactic to reduce litter collection costs Cllr Gilchrist contacted the relevant officers, who replied: “We are bewildered as to why/who has removed these bins. We have had many bins disappearing since August, and we can only assume that some parties may be involved, taking the opportunity to increase their income through the scrap metal trade”.

Cllr Gilchrist says:

“Bizarre though this explanation seems, I can think of no other. It’s hard to attribute the problem to random acts of vandalism as the removal seems so systematic. I don’t believe there is much scrap metal value in these bins so I can’t see how it benefits the perpetrators, but nevertheless the cost to the Council to replace them will be considerable.

“Until the new bins can be put in place I would urge all people passing through this area to ensure they carry their litter home and dispose of it properly there.”