Press release from the Council

Following a mediation and extensive three way discussions between Bath & North East Somerset Council (B&NES); Carillion plc (which acquired Mowlem plc, the main contractor on the Bath Spa project, in February 2006); and Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners ((“NGP”) the project architect), the three parties have agreed to a settlement of the litigation between them over the Bath Spa project.

The settlement agreement provides for net payments to be made to the Council towards its Spa-related costs by both Carillion and NGP. The payment by Carillion takes account of its own financial claim against B&NES.

           All three parties agree that the settlement reflects a sensible recognition of the costs and           uncertainties associated with pursuing litigation.

Finally the Millenium project has finished.

It is really good news that all three parties can now move on. The Spa has been a success since its opening and has undoubtedly been one of the factors in maintaining Bath’s economy in a more buoyant mood than many other cities around the country.

You can read The Chronicle report HERE

Thermae Bath Spa – visitor value to Bath economy 

(Additional spend in the local economy by people whose primary reason for coming to Bath is to visit Thermae Bath Spa)

·         This income is income which would not have come to the local economy without Thermae Bath Spa.

·         The figures do not include the money spent by Thermae Bath in the local economy (ie local butchers, bakers, florists, marketing literature designers and printers).

·         The figures do not include the spend in the local economy of Thermae’s 150 staff.

 

First year of operations: August 2006 – August 2007

Total additional spend in Bath as a result of visits to Thermae Bath Spa = £4,705,524

 

Second year of operations: August 2007 – August 2008

Total additional spend in Bath as a result of visits to Thermae Bath Spa = £6,474,398

 

Third year of operations: August 2008 – August 2009

Total additional spend in Bath as a result of visits to Thermae Bath Spa = £7,405,882

This Labour Government is obssessed with big construction projects – whether it is barrages across the Severn or rebuilding new nuclear power stations.

The solution to our energy needs is most definately not a new batch of nuclear power stations built right on the coast. I have just submitted my views to EDF on the Hinckley Point C consultation – my comments are ref no 177 at this LINK

The really sad point is that the solution is wrong from every aspect and in proceding with this application they hjave ditched their plans for a wind farm on the site.

We had the annual conference on the LSP today. I wonder how many people in the Country are aware that their local Council has an LSP and a community strategy developed in their name.

We were discussing the latest version of our local Sustainable Community Strategy and in reality it fails on the big issue of tackling climate change. Perhaps communities are not yet prepared for the change that is coming but also I think the debate is framed the wrong way round. Rather than doom and gloom and what people will loose I think we should look to what people and communities will gain by adapting our lifestyle to meet the challenge of beating climate change.

The big ideas are coming from groups of citizens such as the Transition Towns who I think will bring the requirement for change from people themselves. Here in Bath I am part of the food group and it is fascinating to see the growth of interest in food production and growing your own. This though at the same time that the supermarket chains continue to gobble up all before them. Life is fuill of contradiction.

Still this week we have made a large amount of damson jam and apple chutney and even two demijohns for a go at calvados all from apples from the garden.

The Combe Down Stone Mines saga is now nearly complete. After several years of pouring foam concrete into the ground in one of the biggest land stabalisation projects in the country which included creating a 5 Star bat hotel underground its time to remember the work of the project. Our community has been host to a number of Welsh miners during these years and they have done a fantastic job.

The project cost the Government £160M and has been managed by the Council and delivered on schedule and without a major incident.

The agency commissioned a work of art to celebrate the project and it is currently on show at the Octogan. It is a wall of plates that depict the mines project. It is a fantastic work of art by Chrie Tipping. Also on show are all the clay miners made by local school children as part of an art project. Great stuff. The wall of plates should certainly go on show – perhaps starting with a tour to other towns that have been part of the land stalisation scheme.

The Transplant Games launched this week from the Pump Room for the 2010 games. They are returning to Bath after their successful games here a few years ago. At the launch we heard some amazing stories of the gift of life people get from having a transplant. I am signed up to the NHS organ donor scheme.

The Western Region Liberal Democrats conference in Bath was a great success on Saturday 7 . The speech from Paddy Ashdown was great and when you hear him speaking unscripted and from the heart you feel great. The EU would do now better than appoint him as the first president rather than all the candidates they are considering. Still any of the options would be better than Tony Blair who simply deserves nothing for his anti european prime ministership and his disgraceful invasion of Iraq.

Don Foster MP made a good speech too

Speech to Western Counties

7^th November 2009

 

We meet with just under six months to go before we face some important local elections in the regions and, almost certainly, a General Election.

 

Many of you have already been working towards these elections for some time. And I thank you for what you have been doing.

 

And it makes a huge difference. Take just the views of the electorate about Liberal Democrat MPs compared to those from other parties.

 

A recent PoliticsHome survey concluded;

 

“Liberal Democrat MPs were more highly regarded by their constituents than Conservative or Labour MPs were by theirs. The most significant contrast, which probably goes someway to explaining all the other differences, is the level to which constituents of Liberal Democrat MPs think their MP keeps in touch via newsletters and leaflets.”

 

And the same is true of our councillors.

 

After all, it is that message of “working for you all year round – not just at election time” that, in part, distinguishes the Liberal Democrats from the other parties.

 

But it’s not just working for local people; it’s a record of action for local people; getting things done.

 

And, for that, we should all be proud and grateful for the service to our party and the people they serve, of our local Liberal Democrat councillors. They, and all of our party members who support them, deserve our thanks.

 

But, with just six months to go, we have to re-double our efforts.

 

We have to ensure we use the next six months to get over our key messages; that we Liberal Democrats are ambitious, that we are straight talking and that we are very, very different from the two tired old parties.

 

We Liberal Democrats believe that there is hope for a different future; for a different way of doing things in Britain; a way that will build a fairer and freer society, that will create a sustainable economy and will clean up politics (not least through a fair voting system so that every vote counts and makes safe seats a thing of the past).

 

The country is fed up with Labour.

 

Labour’s time is up. They are past their sell by date. They’ve let us all down.

 

Labour as a progressive, radical party is hollowed out. There’s only a withering hulk left.

 

How can Labour claim to be a progressive and radical party when;

 

·   It’s even more centralising than the Tories were

·   It’s taken us into a war on a false prospectus

·   It’s presided over the biggest ever encroachment on civil liberties.

 

Take that one issue of civil liberties alone.

 

Who could have imagined, in those balmy days of Tony Blair’s victory in 1997, that nearly 13 years later New Labour would have;

 

·   Introduced 3,500 new criminal offences in almost the same number of days

·   Banned protest outside parliament – even passing laws which saw someone arrested for reading out, by the cenotaph the names of those who had died in Iraq.

·   Introduced 28 days detention without charge– the longest in any modern democracy.

·   Built up the largest DNA database in the world

·   Proposed ID cards

·    Created a surveillance society in which with just 1% of the world’s population we have 20% of the world’s CCTV cameras and so much more………

 

150 years ago, John Stuart Mill – in many ways the founder of the Liberal party – wrote his famous essay, “On Liberty” in which he bemoaned the erosion of liberty at that time.

He will be turning in his grave at the reductions in liberty that have taken place under so-called New Labour.

 

The country is crying out for change; crying out for a fresh start.

 

We face enormous problems; enormous challenges; young people out of work, broken politics, climate change spinning out of control, poor housing, growing inequalities and civil liberties under threat.

 

We face an economic crisis, an environmental crisis and a democratic crisis.

 

People want straight answers, fairer taxes, a country fit for ALL children, green jobs and political reform.

 

Now there is a clear choice between the fake change offered by the Conservatives and the real change for the better offered by the Liberal Democrats.

 

Already people are beginning to see the Liberal Democrats as the leading progressive party in the battle for ideas. Already we are seen as straight talkers who get it right;

 

·   On Iraq

·   On the looming recession

·   On Northern Rock

·   On political reform

·   On the Speaker

·   On the Ghurkhas

·   On Trident

·   On Afghanistan, and

·   On the environment

 

On all of these we have been prepared to speak out when other tried to be silent.

 

Despite all this, many believe that it’s the Tories turn; that the Tories will just have to get through the inconvenience of a General Election and then be handed the keys to Numbers 10 and 11; that in under six months Cameron, Osborne and the rest will have moved in.

 

It doesn’t have to be that way.

 

Let me tell you why I think – as you leave here and redouble your campaigning efforts – you can do so with a real spring in your steps; why I think that while being ambitious for the country we can also – with confidence – be ambitious for our party.

 

I said that we tell it like it is. Here are some of the media reactions when we’ve done so;

 

On the Economy

•  “Cable’s the man to power up our failing economy” – Daily Express editorial:
•  “Seismic times could yet see the Lib Dems eclipse Labour: Vince Cable is setting the agenda, and the party is closer than it seems to reclaiming the mantle of British progressivism”. – Guardian

 

On the Gurkhas

• “The vote is a personal victory for Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader who first challenged Mr Brown over the issue in the Commons in March last year” – Daily Telegraph:
•  “Nick Clegg has looked over the past fortnight like a man whose time has come.” – Newcastle Journal

 

On Speaker Martin

·         “Lib Dem chief Nick Clegg’s opposition ejected  Michael Martin  from the Speaker’s chair.” – Daily Mirror

·        Nick Clegg has “captured the public mood” – The Times:

 

And more generally;

• “the Liberal Democrats had been “ahead of the curve on Iraq, identity cards, Trident, the debt bubble, Northern Rock, bankers’ bonuses, public spending cuts and now Afghanistan.” -Independent
•  “The Liberal Democrats can make a reasonable claim to be the most intellectually vigorous of Britain‘s three biggest parties; the most outspoken; the most prescient on political, economic and environmental crises; and the most copied, in terms of policy.” – Guardian editorial:
•  “[The next election] may set off a once-in-a-century upheaval in the structure of British politics, with the Liberal Democrats displacing Labour as the dominant part of the Left.” – The Times,

 

 

Of course, I hear you say, that’s all very well but we’re behind in the opinion polls.

 

True, but with a very big BUT.

 

Our polling is ahead of what we normally see in the electoral cycle.

 

More importantly, the polls also show;

 

Approval ratings for Nick Clegg continue to strengthen (he’s already way ahead of Gordon Brown and rapidly catching up with David Cameron).

 

Vince Cable is the most trusted of all leading politicians.

 

And, when polls were taken immediately after our conference – and the same level of coverage we will also be guaranteed at election time – our figures shot up.

 

But perhaps most interesting are the in-depth polls which show that Tory support is neither deep nor based on any real desire for David Cameron to be Prime Minister.

 

A recent ICM poll summed it up;

 

ICM for News of the World, Sep 27

Do you agree with following things said about the Conservative party:

                                                                                               

Cameron is new face but Tories haven’t changed            Agree 61               Disagree 34

I’m more likely to vote Tory because of Cameron             Agree 45                    Disagree 51

Cameron is more spin than substance                               Agree 55                    Disagree 38

Cameron is not that good, just the best of a bad lot          Agree 56                    Disagree 41

 

What is clear is that even voters prepared to switch to the Tories do not trust the party. There is strong evidence that people do not trust David Cameron and his party. Overwhelmingly people believe that he is spin, not substance, and that he is merely the best of a bad lot. He has far from convinced the public that the Tories deserve their vote.

 

The message is very clear; it’s all to play for.

 

And that message is re-enforced by looking at real votes in real ballot boxes.

 

Local Government by-elections provide a real test;

 

And what’s happened;

 

Since the start of this year what would you have expected?

 

Labour losing loads, LibDems possibly holding their own and the Conservatives shooting up?

 

Absolutely not.

 

In fact Labour has made a nett GAIN of 4 seats while the Tories have made nett LOSSES of 18 seats.

 

And who are the big gainers? Yes, it’s the Liberal Democrats with nett gains of 15 council seats.

 

And, there are many by-elections where seats didn’t change hands but where our share of the vote has gone up.

 

Take just one – and well done to all concerned –  Lynford ward on Taunton Deane Borough Council – a ward in Jeremy Browne’s constituency. We were fighting to hold the seat against stiff Conservative opposition. Yet, despite that, we held the seat with an increased majority.

 

And there have been other staggering wins in real elections.

 

Take the recent election for a mayor in Bedford.

 

The mayoral area covers 40 percent of a safe Tory seat and all of a Labour/Conservative marginal. Bedford is a seat where Ashcroft money is flowing in to support the Conservatives. David Cameron visited twice during the election. We started in third place.

 

But with all the ballots in, Dave Hodgson, Liberal Democrat was declared the winner.

 

And that means Liberal Democrat control of another major city.

 

Remember, we run, or are in are partners in administration for 17 of the country’s biggest cities:  Bristol, York, Derby, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Portsmouth, Birmingham, Cardiff, Swansea, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Cambridge and Exeter.

 

So it really is all to play for.

 

The party nationally is playing its part;

 

Paddy leading the fight in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset with increased investment is staff,

 

A major fund-raising campaign led by our new, highly experienced and successful fund-raising manager.

 

Three million centrall-provided tabloids being delivered in many of our key target seats before Christmas.

 

A brand-new web site and more and more support than ever from the Cowley Street Campaigns team, and from ALDC.

 

Why all this effort? Simple. We have the best chance ever of replacing Labour as the party of the centre left and as the one truly radical and progressive party in this country.

 

So as you go out campaigning; campaigning for real change, do so with a spring in your step, do so with ambition for the country and for the Liberal Democrats and do so knowing that the next six months could be the most exciting time of your political life and the most exciting for the Liberal Democrats.

The City of Bath now has a bus rider scheme which enables people to buy an all day ticket to be used on any bus regardless of operator. This part is good news. However at £4.95 a ticket it is going to be very expensive for a lot of residents and unnaffordable for families.

As we get more bus competion into Bath and hopefuly increased use  and cheaper fares it is important that the day ticket prices are made more affordable. The best way to beat congestion is to get more journeys on the bus. Our day tickets are far more expensive than day tickets in Bristol or Brighton for example.

Phase One of SouthGate, Bath opened on Wednesday November 4^th 2009. The project development has been led by Multi Development who have been exemplary developers working with the community and its contractors to deliver on time this major project. The first phase will contains shops such as Boots, Sainsbury’s, H&M and New Look set in wide, open streets with public spaces.

The scheme as it completes will also have about 100 flats 25 of which will be social rent. The scheme is so much better than the old Southgate. The irony is that the opening by the Chair was the Conservative Councillor who nearly stopped the Southgate project happening with his last minute campaign on the Churchill House.

The opening also brought into use three more bus stops to help the new bus station operate more effectively.

This is good news for Bath. However we now need to put more effort into other sections of the centre to ensure that we keep our independents and thus our diversity that makes the City such a a good shopping destination. No Clone City here please.