Proposed expansion of car club scheme to Canterbury Road

The Council is proposing to install a new Car Club parking bay at various locations in the city including on Canterbury Road (adjacent to 56 Winchester Road), here in Oldfield Park.

These bays will be for the sole purpose of parking and storage of cars connected with the Car Club Scheme. The Car Club bays will be subject to a Traffice Regulation Order, and parking will not be permitted for any vehicles not contected to this scheme.

Local residents have 15 days to comment or object to these proposals. You can email your comments or objections to parking@bathnes.gov.uk by 21st August 2009.

Other locations for new bays include: Bathwick Hill, Kennington Road, St. Michael’s Road, Sydney Buildings, Sydney Place, The Circus, Triangle East, Vane Street and St. James’s Square.

Electrification will be huge benefit to Bath

Our MP Don Foster has warmly welcomed the news that the government is to begin immediately with plans to electrify the Great Western line from London to Swansea.

Although the work will take 8 years to complete, it will provide numerous benefits including increased capacity on trains, shorter journey times and, most importantly, a reduction in CO2 emissions.

Liberal Democrats have long campaigned from electrification of the rail network, and this plan was included within the “Green Road out of Recession” document that the party launched in autumn 2008. Don said,

Electrification of the Great Western line is long overdue, and something that I have been calling to happen for some time. This is great news for rail users in Bath, as well as all of us conscious of rising levels of CO2.

We have recently seen an increase in reliability of this service, so Bath and Oldfield Park train users are now finally getting a better deal. However, we still have the problem of hugely expensive fares – the London to Cardiff line is the 3rd most expensive per mile in the world.

There are still improvements needed to our service in the eight years before electrification, but there is now clearly a brighter future ahead for rail users in Bath.

Hopes for school transport improvements dashed

Local campaigners’ hopes that the new school year could bring improvements to school transport arrangements have been dashed by B&NES Cabinet members’ decision to reject key proposals from a committee review.

The Council’s Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting on Monday night was dominated by a paper on the Transport to Secondary School Review previously initiated by the panel.

In responding to the recommendations within the review, the Cabinet members for Children’s Services and Customer Services accepted a number of proposals such as investigating sources of funding for school transport, but crucially rejected proposals on:

• A flat rate weekly fare of £10;
• Cheaper weekly tickets for second and third children in a family;
• Making school transport a priority for the Council;
• Revising the distance which children may be expected to walk or cycle to 1.5 miles rather than 3 miles.

Councillor Nathan Hartley (Peasedown), who is the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet member for children’s services, commented:

I am disappointed that, despite a hard fought campaign by parents and a full review by the panel, the Cabinet is still refusing to take any definite action to address the issue of school transport.

The Cabinet members said in their response that school transport is not a financial priority for the Council and that the Council was not in a position to tell parents what is an acceptable distance to walk to school. The Cabinet has made it clear they are not going to bring about any significant change, and that they will not be willing to look at this matter again.

Everyone in this area knows that if we could improve arrangements for transport to school it would go a long way towards tackling congestion, particularly in Bath. We’re sure many people are looking forward to clearer roads now the school holidays are here – if we could encourage more people to use public transport to get to school, it could be like this all year around.

Lib Dems seek solutions to BRT chaos

Councillor Gerry Curran (Lib Dem, Twerton) who is the Lib Dem lead on planning, has said that the situation following last week’s second Bath Transport Package planning committee is one of chaos and confusion and is trying to persuade the Council Leadership to agree to bring an alternative scheme to the next planning committee. Councillor Curran said:

As things stand, the Conservative Leadership of B&NES Council is failing to take action, leaving a chaotic and confused situation. The planning application for the Newbridge Park & Ride and the bus rapid transit route has been deferred for the second time; it will come back a third time in August or September, but I can’t really see the point if the proposals are going to be the same.

Cllr Curren has requested an urgent meeting with the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council to try and come up with a workable and acceptable solution. We certainly don’t want to lose the Package as a whole, but he believes it is time for the Council Leadership to shift their position.

At the last planning committee meeting Councillors from all political Groups on the committee asked for the two elements of the planning application to be separated. Our proposal is that we should drop the BRT segregated route in favour of a bus lane from the Golden Fleece on the Lower Bristol Road to Windsor Bridge combined with extensive works to the two junctions at either end of the bridge.

Some of the money which would have been spent on the BRT should be put into the Western Riverside transport corridor, which might help kick start that whole project, while also bringing forward part of the transport package. We think this is a good argument to make to the government in the current economic climate.

Finally, we should look again at the proposal for a park and ride on the other side of the river at Newbridge – it may now provide a better alternative.
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Proposed BRT route must surely be dead – Foster

Responding to the decision of the Council’s Development Control Committee to defer the decision on the proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) route, and Newbridge park & ride extension, once again, Bath MP Don Foster has said that the scheme must surely now be dead. Don said,

If only the Conservative Council had listened to what I said at a Council meeting in September, and what Liberal Democrat Councillors have been saying for months: more work was needed into alternative routes, and residents needed to be involved in the process.

The Council did not heed this advice, and with the proposed-BRT route twice having failed to pass through planning it is time for the Council to go right back to the beginning.

The Conservatives have mismanaged this process, and could well be putting the government money at risk. Had they taken onboard my comments last autumn, then this would not be the case.

First ever cycling champion appointed by Council

Combe Down Councillor, Roger Symonds has been appointed as the first Cycling Champion for the Council it was announced this week (appropriately enough during bike week). Champions act as advocates for their area of interest but are not part of the Council ruling body.

Roger has said that one of his first actions will be to examine the Council’s Cycling Strategy to discover what progress has been made towards achieving the targets set when the strategy was put together in the 1990s. He also intends to develop a plan of action and would welcome ideas from the public. Roger said: “Some of my initial thoughts for the “Plan of Action” include:

• I would like to see many more children riding to school in safety – in the past the message going out to cyclists has been “it is too dangerous to cycle on the roads”. I want to play a part in changing the message to one of encouragement“. Our roads should be made safer to encourage more cyclists, especially the young.

• I will call for better road surfaces for cyclists; some of them are potential death traps with the number and severity of potholes and repairs. The condition of some of our main roads is not good enough. I will ask the Council’s highways team to ‘think bike’ whenever there are road improvements or changes.

• I will be looking for places, where it is safe to do so, to ask the Council to establish more ‘shared paths’ like the one between Saltford and Keynsham.

• I would like to see action taken to encourage First Group and First Great Western to show more consideration to cyclists on their buses and trains. With the loss of the ramp at Bath Spa station I will be trying to find out what steps Network Rail are taking to avoid the jam of people, bikes and luggage trying to get through narrow turnstiles.

• We should aspire to the cycling culture of our twin city of Alkmaar, in the Netherlands – we should look at some of the ways that they promote cycling. I believe we can make great improvements with a great deal of commitment and a little funding.”

Accusations fly over transport vote

Five senior, cross-party Councillors in Bath and North East Somerset have accused Council leaders of coercion and “thinly veiled threats”, with regard to a crucial planning vote on the controversial Bath Package of £54m of government funding for transport projects in Bath.

Councillors from the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Groups have called on GOSW and the Local Government Minister to reject the decisions taken by the Bath and North East Somerset planning committee of 20th May; saying that:

Voting was not free for all Councillors on the planning committee – members were “pressurised, encouraged or coerced” into voting in favour of the applications;
• One committee member was substituted at the last minute (despite being present in the room) by a Councillor who had not previously seen the applications or visited the sites;
• Proper democratic processes were not followed with regard to consultations;
• Key documents were suppressed or not released and inaccurate or misleading information was given to the public and members.

Councillor Gerry Curran (Lib Dem, Twerton, Lib Dem spokesman on planning) commented: The way the committee was conducted did nothing for the reputation of the Council. In my opinion, it brought that reputation into disrepute in the eyes of the public. People did not see the committee process as having been fair, open and honest and many are of the opinion that some members were predetermined in their view on the applications.

Council needs to be seen to be fair, open and honest. It has failed on this occasion.

“I have been working to persuade the Council to separate the BRT and the Newbridge park and ride elements of the final planning application in the hope that by doing so it will go some way towards restoring the Council’s damaged reputation.”
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Foster writes to Denham on BRT

Bath MP Don Foster has today written to the new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham MP, to re-affirm his view that the Bus Rapid Transit planning application should be called in.

Don wrote to Mr Denham’s predecessor at the department, Hazel Blears, in the lead up to the local planning meeting on June 20th. Ms Blear agreed to a ‘Section 14 Direction’, meaning she would take a closer look at the plans. This direction is still in force.

Don said:

I felt it was important for the new Secretary of State to receive my views on this issue first hand, which is why I have written to him drawing attention to my correspondence with his predecessor. I do not believe that consultation with local residents has been adequate, and research into alternative routes has not been considered. These are both issues I raised at an Overview and Scrutiny panel meeting last autumn.

Home to School Transport Scrutiny Panel Report – Cabinet Response

Frustration and anger at last Monday’s Meeting of The Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel

The Panel undertook a cross-party review of “Home to School Transport” and presented its reccomendations to the Cabinet member responsible earlier this year. At Monday’s Meeting of the Panel the Cabinet member’s response to the recommendations were received and discussed.

See this Link for full table of reccommendations and Cabinet member response: http://tiny.cc/RESPONSE733

Overall, the Cabinet’s response to the review is disappointing, and gave no real timescales as to when anything would or could be implemented. For instance the Cabinet member Cllr Chris Watts failed to accept the idea of a pilot “Green Bus” scheme, stating that ”a public transport provider cannot be favoured by the Council”.

The idea of a £10 per week bus ticket was accepted as a good idea, but the Panel was told by Cllr Watts the Schools Forum would have to discuss this first, and as with other reccomendations, no timescales for action/implementation were forthcoming. After a proposal from the Labour Member on the Panel it was decided that Cllr Watt would come back to the Panel in July, when the Panel, if still dissatisfied with the responses, could opt to refer it to the Full Council September meeting for an open debate.

It is surely not a good day for participatory local government to hear on the one hand that substantial numbers of residents like the parents who campaigned so committedly on this issue over many months, feel disillusioned and largely unheard. And on the other, the work and reccomendations of the Cross-Party Scrutiny Panel has not been valued and taken on board to any significant extent by this Conservative Administration.

For further views see the story on the Bath Chronicle website: http://tinyurl.com/qvho6w

Bath BRT vote: further Lib Dem reaction

B&NES planning committee decided last night to defer the planning application for the Newbridge Park and Ride and Bath Bus Rapid Transit Route (BRT) in order to request more information.

On the whole this is a good result. The committee’s decision is a vindication of the campaign that Councillors and residents have been running for months now.

The news this morning that the Council will be looking more thoroughly at the design of the scheme is welcome; however the Council must finally look properly at the alternatives, as we have been asking all along.

Bath MP Don Foster commented:

When I attended a Council Overview & Scrutiny panel meeting in September last year, I argued that consultation with residents had been poor and that there hadn’t been satisfactory work conducted into alternative routes. To date I am still not convinced that this work has been done.

I hope that this deferment will allow the Conservative Council to go away and conduct real research into all the options. We want to see a proper case put forward.

Had this research been conducted correctly in the first place we wouldn’t be in this position. Let us hope that the Tory failure to follow correct processes does not end up costing Bath £50million of government money.