Batheaston Bridge

 

Web Batheaston bridge opening

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Liberal Democrat adminstration I lead at Bath and North East Somerset Council has been investing in new cycle and pedestrian links around the authority area for all three years of the Council and we will be continuing on for a fourth year. Connecting communities with new cycle and pedestrian links is good for health and good for our roads as it allows options for travel. the new bridge crosses the river at Batheaston car park and joins Bathampton on Mill Lane. One young student says it is saving him 20 minutes each way when he visits friends in Batheaston. Also lots of dog walkers are enjoying the new set of fields to walk in and exercise their dogs.

 

Fracking Concerns

Fracking, in my view, is a very risky technology even with the best of safeguards. It would be far better getting far more households with solar power and more efficiency put into our old housing stock. However in Bath and NE Somerset our area is covered by 4 licences and 3 have expired and one has a 1 year extension. I have written to Government asking that the 3 expired licecnes should be revoked and not added into the next sale of licences. The reason is the risk to the world heritage city of Bath and its Spa waters.

In addition to Governement I have also written to several key environmental agancies and the Workld Heritage management asking for their support in this request.

for more inormation see this link

http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/content/council-leader-calls-coalition-government-protect-bath%E2%80%99s-natural-hot-springs

Cycle Fest

 

Scorpions Cycle club

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cycle Fest at Odd Down was a great success on Sat 12 July with over 2000 visitors during the day. The new cycle track implemented by the Liberal Democrat Council is prooving to be a great success with many different cycle clubs using it and indeed travel from other towns to make use of the facility. Our next stage of development up at this sports hub is a new pavillion and changing rooms and other facilities.

The cyclists have got together to form a great new cycle club for young cyclists called the scorpions and lots of youngsters came along for the challenge races and everyone got a ‘Tour de France’ style t-shirt.

Studio School at Odd Down Cycle Fest

Paul Crossley with Bath Studio School head Colin Cattenach

 

 

 

The Cycle Fest at Odd Down on Saturday 12 July was a great success with over 2000 people attending during the day. At the start of the day I caught up with some of the stall holders as they set up fior the busy day ahead. One of the innovations that has come from Michael Gove is the conceopt of the studio school and whilst I was initially sceptical about this new format it has been taken up with enthusiasm by Colin Cattenach and the Bath Studio School which is linked to the former Link School which he is rebranding as Aspire school. The Link was for students with behaviour problems and I think the new title is so much better. I was chair of governors at this school for two years. The Studio school will be working with local firms to ensure an approach based on the strap line ‘Real Life Real Work’. It opens in September this year.

 

Land Registry

The idea to float of the land registry was another item of bad news for local councils. We deliver the service really well and efficiently and make a profit from the service which helps Councils. As Leader of Bath and NE Somerset I wrote to our two MPs Don Foster and Jacob Rees-Mogg to complain about this and asking them to support my Council’s plea and that from many other groups not to proceed with the idea. It is great that Vince Cable MP has vetoed the idea and so it is not now going to happen. Guardian article for more detail.

Alexandria Bowls Club

 

Web AlexandriaParkBowls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a Liberal Democrat Cabinet and Council one of our projects is to involve communities in running facilities and taking ownership of them so that they are in control of their own destiny. We call this our Community Asset Transfer programme. One of the facilities we are looking to transfer is the bowling club in Alexandria Park to the Bowls club that operate from there. It is an idea that is beneficial to both the club and players as well as to the Council.

Bath data gets hacked by the techies

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 .

Guildhall Collonades Rejuvenation scheme

When the Liberal Democrats took back control from the Conservatives of Bath and NE Somerset in 2011 we found plans in train to remove much Council operation from the Guildhall. Our approach was to scrap these ideas. The Guildhall is important to residents. Our plan is to rejuvenate the Guildhall and keep it as the political hub of the Council and grow its commercial uses.

Our first scheme was to develop part of one end into a co-working hub The Guild – very successfully and this weekend hosting its first Hackathon.

Our second scheme was to increase our revenue stream from the building and so we are looking at the basement area and are now working to find two high quality restaurants to operate fabulous river side operations. The two operations will have different architectural styles because of the layers of history we have here and this is creating a big buzz in the hospitality world as anyone who follows @BigHospitality tweets will have seen.

economic investment into Bath

As a Lib Dem run Council we are working hard to ensure that our local economy stays vibrant and diverse. Part of this plan is to enable our local companies to grow and develop here in Bath and NE Somerset. We have just launched an MOU with a local company called BMT. This will enable them to work with the Council to develop the area called Bath Quays South and provide at last a much needed boost in this area. It will enable the company to consolidate its 3 office blocks into one and also add space to grow. This has created a lot of media interest and Breeze FM were keen to interview me on this project.

It goes with a string of achievements in recent months – the creation of the co-working hub in the Guild – the agreement to develop the Guildhall undercroft – the successful marketing of the Cattlemarket and Cornmarket – and that’s just the schemes which involve the Council.

My Lib Dem Cabinet is creating in Bath and NE Somerset a place of wide ranging employment opportunities and growth in the digital and creative sectors.

And just finished an interview with Breeze FM on the subject.

 

 

Key Cities

23 small and medium sized cities have formed into a Local Government Alliance called Key Cities. This is to counter what is felt to be undue influence by the Core City group and London on Government policy. Every other month we meet up to discuss the next steps. It is a cross party grouping and although only a few months old is making rapid progress. We have already launched a manifesto and are now working on the next steps. Meeting today was at Centre For Cities