Concert for Cleveland Pools

Concert for Cleveland Pools

Walcot State Choir and Friends

St Mary's Church, Bathwick

7.30pm Wednesday 9th July

Partners and Communities Together meeting

Would you like to actively engage with local agencies, police and residents with initiatives to promote Safer Stronger Neighbourhoods within Walcot?

Tuesday 17th June, 6.30pm

Riverside Youth and Community Centre, London Road

Tuesday 17th June 2008 will mark the third in a planned series of PACT meetings for the Walcot area, PACT meetings are designed to bring members of the community together with local police teams and key representatives of various organisations to decide on priorities in the local area.

PACT meetings are about giving members of the community a direct say on what they would like their local neighbourhood team to focus on and, equally, getting them on board to help us deliver the results.

The PACT Panel for Walcot will include elected councillors, representatives from BANES Council, Education, Housing, Youth Services along with Walcots Neighbourhood Policing Team.

Current PACT Priorities are:
- Parking on pavements around the Walcot ward in particular outside of Multiyork, Longacre Public House, Cleveland Bridge and the top of Snowhill.
- 2 and 3 Longacre: it is still being proposed to convert the buildings into managed homes, residents are against this.
- Pollution: Nitrogen Dioxide pollution is higher than the government targets, more time, work and funding is required in an effort to combat this.

Go Karting for Free!

Th Council's Youth Service, with the Police and Bath and North East Somerset Racial Equality Council are offering a free go karting trip to young people between the ages of 12 and 19 in the Snow Hill and London Road area.

The trip is on Monday 9th June and will depart from the Riverside Youth Centre on the London Road at 6.30pm and due to arrive back at 9.30pm.

Local Councillors and police beat team, as well as B&NES youth Workers will be attending.

Places are limited and will be on a first come first serve basis.

Please contact Rosco on 01225 442352 to book your place.

Council Budget

The Conservative administration have set a budget increase on Council Tax of 3.75%. However they have raised charges everywhere else which in our view means the real level of Council Tax rise is 7.56%. We voted against the buget and proposed an alternative which was rejected. Our alternative would have eliminated the carparking charges on blue badge holders, phased in increases in care charges and removed a substantial sum from the Waste Partnership of the West of England Partnership. The reason for this last part is that we are very concerned that this partnership is aiming to build a large mass burn incinerator (the Governments preferrred solution for waste) which we are completely opposed to. We would have used the money to bring forward food waste collection and a variety of other environmental initiatives.

Parking Charges Increase

Lib Dem Councillors have expressed their disappointment that the scrutiny call-in, which had been organised to look into the increases in parking costs in Bath, has been dismissed.The panel voted, by four votes to three, to dismiss the call-in, with Conservative Councillors from outside of Bath backing the original decision taken by their Conservative Cabinet colleague. The Cabinet member has now gone ahead and implemented the decision to apply increases of up to 60% to residents’ permit costs across the city, as well as a number of other changes to parking costs and arrangements.

The call-in panel raised a number of issues around poor consultation and excessive increases to permit costs. Although all Councillors agreed that consultation on this decision had been inadequate, Conservative Councillors appeared more concerned with the state of the Council’s finances than the issue of engaging with those who will be affected.

Councillor Ian Gilchrist (Widcombe), who led the call-in signatories commented:“I am disappointed that the Conservative and Independent members of the panel did not recognise the merits of the case made to uphold the call-in.“I thought that the arguments outlining the damaging effects of extending charged times in the city centre to 8pm were pretty compelling, and if they don’t listen to Nod Knowles (Director of Bath Festivals) who will they listen to?“I am slightly mollified by the apparent concession that Cllr Gerrish has made in the direction of Sunday evening parking, but this still has to be confirmed. If we have achieved even this small bit of good then that is a good thing. Residents will not be pleased at a 60% increase in their annual charges, but I do draw comfort from the thought that we at least did our best to oppose this.”

Cllr David Dixon (Lib Dem, Walcot) said:“This really is a kick in the teeth for the democratic process; this decision has been made with complete disregard for best practice in decision-making such as engaging with hard-to-reach groups and the elderly who are often on fixed incomes. The Cabinet member also refused to address the issues raised in the call-in notice, including my concerns around costs of permits for traders, most of whom are small independent businesses who can not afford such huge increases.”Concerns raised by Nod Knowles as to the impact on the night time economy, were supported by Cllr Roger Symonds (Combe Down), who said:“Extending car park charging from 6pm to 8pm will have a knock-on effect for all evening and night time businesses in the city centre. How long before this money grabbing administration extends charging until 8pm for kerbside parking as well? It is significant that none of the four councillors who voted to dismiss the call-in live in Bath.”

Improvements due at Morrisons Traffic Lights

After a local resident approached councillor David Dixon about the problems for pedestrians at Morrisons, changes are due to make life safer.

Traffic lights engineers have now spent some time assessing this junction and the conclusion was that the problem is being caused by vehicles from Bath turning into Morrisons through signals that are on red. This has resulted in some near misses.

To prevent this bad driver behaviour we are going to contact the Avon and Somerset Camera Partnership together with our own Traffic and Safety team to propose installing a red running traffic camera. In addition to this we will be changing the road markings and detector loop position on the right turn lane for Morrisons, this will reduce the number of vehicles held in this lane and help call the green filter arrow more frequently, which should further deter motorists going through the signals on red.

Claremont Post Office Under Threat!

The Post Office Network Change list for Bristol and Somerset has been revealed in the press today. Four Bath Post Offices are down for closure and Liberal Democrat Councillors with threatened Post Offices in their wards are campaigning with Don Foster MP against the Government plans.

Councillor Colin Darracott (Walcot) was appalled to learn that Claremont Post Office in Walcot is on the list, saying:

“Local people in Walcot will certainly be outraged to hear the Government is planning to close their Post Office. It is a focal point of local life in the community and certainly contributes to keeping the Camden Road shops busy.

“I urge all residents to support the campaign to save Bath’s Post Offices, and to sign the petition on our website.”

Don Foster MP said:

“I am concerned that the social importance of Post Offices is being ignored by the Government. These closures do not take into account the knock-on effect on other shops in the local community. It will be the elderly and vulnerable who are most affected by these closures as they may struggle to travel the extra distance to important services”.

To sign the petition please visit www.ourcampaign.org.uk/savebathspostoffices

Resident Parking Consultation

Due to the Conservative's plans to increase residents parking by 58% to cover their poor administration of the highways maintenance contract over the past 4 eyars - this has unexpectedly cost the tax payer £700k with the possibility of more to pay out. Until than, any consultation on residents' parking schemes will be on hold.

A Perfect View?

Cllr Dixon is working with residents of Perfect View to see what can be done to ensure that the view stays perfect.

The road offers of the best views acroos Bath, however with oversized Poplar trees getting ever taller, the view is at risk.

We are working with Council officers and local residents to look at possible solutions.

Youth and Community Centre Update!

After a four year campaign by local councillors and residents to improve youth services in Walcot, the Riverside Youth and Community Centre behind the Porter Butt on London Road, has finally been refurbished and the access road rebuilt with new lighting.

A growing youth club operates on Mondays and Thursdays from 6.45pm to 9.15pm.

Cllr Colin Darracott said of the centre, "This is the end of a 4 year campaign by local councillor and local residents to save the centre from closure, and see the investment of £250,000 by Council and local businesses to improve this environment. I do hope that the Conservative administration will recognise the hard work put in by the local community and save the centre from being axed."

Claremont Road Resurfacing

The length of Claremont Road, Bath which extends from its junction with Dowding Road to its junction with St Saviours Road.

Will be resurfaced at the end of February.

Riverside Youth Centre

The youth centre held a successful reopening party on 6th December enjoyed by over 35 young people, and the celebrations included live performances by young singers, m.c.'s and d.j.'s, a 5-a-side football training session, caribbean food and refreshments. Our thanks go to Ryan Thomas and Pauline Swaby for preparing the buffet, to all at LRSHP for funding the buffet, to Versatile Media and Sound Knowledge for their help in publicising the event and supporting the young musicians, and to Mark Brown for organising the football session.

We changed the youth club opening times a couple of weeks ago, current times are:

Open access: Mondays & Thursdays 6:45pm to 9:15pm
After school music studio session: mondays 4pm to 6pm

All our sessions target young people from school year 11 to aged 19.

We hope to also reopen on wedneday evenings in the near future - we have had to close wednesday sessions for the time being due to staffing shortages, but we hope to fill vacant post within the next two to three months. After a quiet period following the two refurbishment closures last year, attendance at the Youth Centre has started to increase again during over the past month, and we plan to build on this thoroughout the year. We also plan to recommence on street detached youth work from April onwards once new staff are appointed.

During the past 12 months we have recieved funding for the music studio and the young people accessing from Youth Music, Somerset Crimebeat and Youth Bank which will help us continue to build the project, so we are looking forward positively to the coming year.

Stop Conservative Plans for Homeless Shelter at Murder Spot

The new Conservative run Council along with Somer Housing want to build sheltered housing at 3 & 4 Longacre.

Despite offers on these buildings from businesses and an approach by local residents in the Snow Hill area to take over the buildings for community use, the Council has been working with Somer Housing to draw up plans for sheltered housing in this location.

This area is still a hotspot for drug dealing, the alleyway next to these buildings has been known for serious criminal offences including a high profile murder.Local councillors and residents are working hard to strengthen the community in and around Snow Hill, trying to promote a sense of place and well being.

This scheme would be a step back, increasing the turnover of local people to the area, putting at risk vulnerable people and exposing them to the risk of further drug misuse or crime.

Only two people can now put a stop to this, two Conservative Councillors from Chew Valley.

Sign our petition and help us pursuade them that this is not a good idea.

Floowing this link http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/longacre

THANK YOU

Thank you to all that went out on Thursday and voted!

Colin Darracott and I have been returned as your Councillors for Walcot Ward.

We knocked on almost every door on the run up to polling day and delivered far too many leaflets.

The final results were:

David Christopher DIXON
Liberal Democrats
723
Elected

Colin Gordon DARRACOTT
Liberal Democrats
706
Elected

Susan Elizabeth Francesca YUILLE
Conservative Party
605

Jim YUILLE
Conservative Party
572

Nick HALES
Green Party
475

Patrick Michael MCCARRON
Labour Party
189

Bernard William MORGAN
Labour Party
170

Across the district the Conservative Party gained 5 seats, now holding 31 seats on the Council, two short of the 33 needed to take overall control of the Council.

The Liberal Democrats lost 3 seats - leaving us with 26 seats overall.

Labour lost 2 seat - giving them five seats overall.There are 3 independent Councillors.

The Council is still in no overall control and the Conservatives are now the largest party. We wait to see how they decide to make up an administration.

Colin and I look forward now to continuing the good work we have started in Walcot.

Every Vote Counts

We have had a great reception while out and about knocking doors in Walcot.

Residents have told us just how much they appreciate the hard work and committment that Colin and I have shown the ward over the past 4 years in Walcot.

As always the election in Walcot will be close between us the the Tories and every vote for Colin and I will count.

People are telling us that they are voting Lib Dem because of our local record of acheivement. Here are some of the highlights:

• Riverside Youth and Community Centre
  Investment of £130k, the new access road is on the way in a couple of months and we and the Youth Club back up and running there, along with a new recording studio for youth people and soon we hope to have a canoeing club.
• Kensington Meadows
  The Liberal Democrats funded a Countryside Management Officer to bring the communtity together the set up a Friends Group for the Meadows, we now have regular activity and we worked with young people to apply for funding for goalposts, which are now in place and a free coaching session will take place in June.
• Snow Hill
  Working with Somer Housing we have two new play areas, a new community resource centre at the old Dover House laundry, a new road layout and crossing as a reult of consultation with local residents in 2003.
• Bathwick Estate
  New trees for the area which replace those which have been removed over time, we hope to have more soon. Cleveland Pools has not been sold off to a private developer and we are working with an active Trust Group to look at how we can bring them back into public use while respecting the views nd needs of local residents.
• Sydney Gardens
  We are now working with te Sydeny Gardens Residents' Association to bring into action a plan for improvement. We will next be looking at applying for funding to replace dated play equipment. Working with the police to step up patrols to reduce anti social behaviour.
• Southbourne Gardens Allotments
  Colin has worked very closely with residents groups to help fight off a planning appliaction here for 12 houses. We have officers working on a plan to compulsary purchase this land and hand over to the residents to use a allotment land and open space.
• Parking
  Working with residents from Camden down to the London Road we are close to having a workshop led by the hoghways department to look at the advantages of a scheme in this area.

These are just some of the highlights add in to this over 600 individual pieces of casework for local residents, including having potholes and roads repaired, helping residents through the Council's planning system, general enquiries, litter and street sweeping issues and helping get backlanes cleared. We believe that we have a good news story to give in every part of the ward.