Redland Park – Flytipping/Litter 02.04.2018

Whilst out in the area yesterday, we came across several black bags that had been dumped and ripped open. Unfortunately, at the time we did not have any bags/litter pickers, however, I returned to the site and cleared 7 bags of rubbish.

Please think before you put out a black sack, exactly who is going to take it away, with the new waste and recycling process, no bags are being collected if they are not put inside the receptacle you have been given.  If you still do not have one, please contact the Council.

Long Valley Road – Lane issues 29.03.2018

The lane in this picture is in a terrible condition, I have requested a meeting with BANES to highlight this issue and request that it is fully repaired to make it safe for everyone to use.

I have also requested the issue of lighting in this lane is looked at as it is extremely dark at night, with no lighting the entire length of the lane. I have asked them to look at various options to ensure the surrounding properties are not adversely affected if lighting was installed.

Linley Close – Issues reported 25.03.2018

Whilst out walking around Twerton today, I found the following issues, which have been reported.

Street Lights remaining on during the day on the footpath leading to the garage area and also outside 21 Linley Close.  These have been reported several times now but do not appear to have been sorted.

The state of the garage area clearly shows it has not been touched for a long time.  The large amount of waste building up by the recycling bins is totally unacceptable.  I have reported this to Curo and BANES and have asked that action is taken to get this cleared as soon as possible, so that residents can use the recycle bins correctly.

 

Freeview Road – Parking Update 24.03.2018

In February I met with Curo and have finally established who is responsible for which areas of communal land in Freeview Road.

We had previously received costings for replacing areas of grass with parking spaces which ranged from £6,000 to £65,000, dependant on which areas were implemented.  These costs vary considerably due to services that are below the pavements/grassed area needing to be lowered or moved to ensure vehicles can park without putting pressure on the underground services eg Gas, drains, water etc.

This has meant that Councillor Tim Ball has now been able to obtain correct cost codes from BANES Council and submitted a bid for funding to expand current parking facilities to remove some of the grassed areas and replace this with parking.

We are awaiting to hear the outcome of the bid requests and will update you further when this is known.

School Admissions

Last Thursday I attended the Full Council Meeting at the Guildhall and spoke about the impact the closure of BCA is going to have on our communities. As a result of this, the Council has agreed to have a meeting to discuss the issues that we are now faced with and see what can be done going forward.

Here is a copy of my statement in full:

Statement to Full Council – 22/03/2018

Almost 8 years ago I stood in this room to talk with Councillors about the impact the closing of Culverhay school would have on our communities. The children in the South West of Bath needed a co-educational school that served their needs, yet the administration at that time decided this city didn’t need the school.

We fought hard and managed to secure an academy on the Rush Hill site, however, over these last 8 years most of the other secondary schools in Bath became academies themselves and increased their intake levels. All the time not actually stopping to think what impact this was having on our children.

We now find ourselves in a situation where Cabot have backed out of helping our children, with BCA closing in July, several secondary schools reducing their intake levels and the government deciding to stop supporting Free schools, thereby leaving large numbers of children without a school they can safely walk or cycle to in this city.

My son was forced to move to a new school last September forcing me to either join the large number of parents that drive their children to school or find £20 per week for bus fares.

St Marks has seen their year 7 intake increase from 40 pupils last year to 140 proposed this year, almost doubling the number of children in the whole school overnight. Many of these places have been given to children from the South West of Bath who didn’t even put it down as one of their choices, we were assured this would not happen. As it was BANES admissions that have allocated these places and as many these children do not live within 3 miles walking distance surely Free school transport is going to be provided for them, what budget is that cost going to be coming from?

The cost to get children to school is going to have a massive impact on families that are already living on or close to the breadline pushing them over the edge and having to juggle already impossible budgets. This will also create even more cross city traffic adding to pollution and school run chaos.
The time it is going to take in travel will mean our children are going to be so tired every day from early starts and returning late and not being able to join in after school activities as they have busses
to catch to make sure they get home at a reasonable time to be able to do their homework.

In just a few years, this authority is going to face a shortfall of secondary school places with all the current secondary schools already cramming children into over-populated sites. Does the Rush Hill site not have a covenant on it that states it is to be used for educational purposes only?

Is there nothing you can do to retain secondary education on the Rush Hill site, do our children mean so little to you. They are our future and every single one of them matter and deserve the support to grow and become successful members of our society. Action needs to be taken now before the Rush Hill site is lost forever.

Kelston View Bus Service 29.07.2017

Confirmation from FirstBus of which rout the number 5 service will be taking whilst the final phase of work on Kelston View is completed can be found here.

They have agreed to ensure a service will run around Haycombe Drive, so it will just be the Kelston View bus stops that are out of service.

The planned work should take approximately 4 weeks, but given the surprises that came out of the last phase this may not be the case.  I will confirm as soon as we have a final completion date.