The Tour of Britain cycle race stage start from Bath is now only a few hours away. As Leader of the Council and a keen cyclist I am delighted that we are bringing a stage of this increasingly popular sporting event to Bath and NE Somerset.

We are expecting a big crowd and so we have put out information as widely as possible to show everyone the options.

Travel information around Bath for the Tour of Britain

Bath & North East Somerset Council is reminding people travelling in and around Bath to be prepared for the Friends Life Tour of Britain, which sets off from the city on Friday 12 September.

Following the huge build-up for the event in the local media and the Council’s Connect magazine, the Council is keen to assure people that disruption will be kept to a minimum so that everyone can enjoy the big day.

Some rolling road closures will operate along the route on Friday 12 September 2014 between 9am and 12noon along with some fixed closures at various points. However, the restrictions will not be active for the whole of this period and the closures will only be in operation when traffic signs or a police rolling road closure are on the scene. The rolling road closures will only last until the final race convoy vehicle has passed – which is anticipated to be no more than 25 minutes.

For up to date information on getting around Bath on the day visit www.bathnes.gov.uk/love2cycle.

Gear up for the big event

A large number of spectators are expected to line the route. The lead cars leave Royal Avenue at 10am and the race starts at 10.15am. Up to 120 professional riders from 20 teams will pass by some of Bath’s most iconic heritage sites before leaving the Bath and North East Somerset area via Brassknocker Hill around 10.45am.

If you plan to watch the race in Bath or on the city outskirts, please get there early. We advise that you walk, cycle or take public transport on the morning of the race or use the Park and Ride services at Lansdown, Newbridge and Odd Down.

For buses, please visit www.travelinesw.com, email info@travelinesw.com or call 0871 200 2233. For trains, please see www.nationalrail.co.uk or call 0845 748 4950.

For more information and updates on the big day, follow the Council on Twitter via @bathnes.

The Roman Temple at Bath is included in a new learning resource developed by the British Museum to support the revised National Curriculum for History.

The web-based resource has been developed with support from 35 museums, of which the Bath & North East Somerset Council-run Roman Baths is one.

Around 100,000 school children of all ages visit the Roman Baths each year with around 12,000 having dedicated teaching sessions delivered on site by staff. It’s excellent that the Roman Baths, and specifically the Roman Temple, are going to be part of this important new learning resource.

Research has shown that the object-based learning in which museums specialise is a highly effective way of delivering education programmes with improved understanding and retention of information by pupils.

Objects like the Roman Temple from Bath, Guy Fawkes Lantern and a Fire Bucket from the Great Fire of London are just some of the wonderfully evocative objects on the website that bring people into direct and personal contact with the great events, people and stories that have formed and define our national heritage.

The website address is www.teachinghistory100.org

Picture shows me renewing my annual exhibition pass. A snip at £10.

The Victoria Art Gallery in Bath is one of the BathNES Council’s many museum service venues. Apart from the free entry to the main collection the gallery regularly puts on visiting exhibition and for these there is an entry charge. However to encourage repeat visits we offer an annual pass for £10. This allows as many entries as you like to each and every touring exhibition. The cabinet of the council wants to ensure that touring exhibitions pay for themselves and thus are not a charge to local taxpayers. The scheme is working well and bringing in income. The Victoria Art Gallery also has its own Twitter feed Tweets by @VictoriaArtBath .

The current exhibition is from the Radev Collection and is well worth a visit with a range of great art.

The Liberal Democrat run Council is doing a large regeneration on the Guildhall area with new employment areas, an extended market place, new restaurants in the undercroft area and also looking to see how we can extend the Gallery to increase its facilities and enable it to grow its business.

The City of Bath retains the heritage of it’s Mayor through the Charter Trustees. Each year the mayor is chosen from the Trustees and in any year may have over 600 engagements with the public and groups. One of the roles it covers is the Change Project whereby money is collected and used to help the homeless through charities such as Julian House and Big Issue. Each year the money collected is give out to the charities at the Change Project reception

Today at The Guild – a Liberal Democrat innovation to work with digital workers on creating an exciting co-working Hub – the Council  are hosting the first Bath Hackathon  ‘Bath: Hacked’ – a two day event to come up with a clever use of technology that could change the way we look at some of our data and improve life for all of us with innovative apps and tech solutions to understanding data.

‘Bath: Hacked’ will enable technology experts to think, play and hack a range of data streams to create their ideas. It is taking place at The Guild, High Street, Bath and the challenge is simple: make something useful for the community.

The Hack starts at 10.30am and continues through the night until 3pm tomorrow where demonstrations and presentations of the software or apps that are created take place. There is an overall prize pot of £2,000 for the best creations and the opportunity to present at the Bath City Conference being held 30 April 2014.

As the Leader of Bath and NE Somerset Council I am delighted to be welcoming some of the most creative hi-tech minds to the Bath: hacked event. Bath is a beautifully innovative city with an ever growing technology sector. The challenge we are putting to the people who have generated this reputation for our area is to create a really useful app or piece of software that will benefit the community. I’m certain it will be amazing what people can achieve in thirty-six hours and the Council is delighted to be one of the major sponsors of the event.

Again in line with our partnership approach we are working with the business community on this event and we are sure the sponsors who have joined us this weekend will value their participation as well.

A Big Thankyou to our sponsors Invest Bristol + Bath, Mayden, Real World Studios and Vidahost

People can follow the hack through the night on twitter @BathHacked

The data streams include the location of buildings, geography, environment, economy and jobs, population and demography, getting around, health and wellbeing, government and society, and historical data.

No personal data will be used in the event .