Paul Crossley

A busy week - getting behind on mail, email and telephone calls.

This week meetings on our Elderly Peoples Homes project, Equalities policy, planning and tarrif policy, procurement, Commercial Estate, Rugby Club, Bath Communities Partnership amongst others. Also as Leader meetings with individual mambers of the group to go over problems and issues.

Over the last 5 months I have been doing a BTEC qualification for Councillors on the pilot project with Bristol City. It has been a very good course and this week I had my 3 hour interview-exam-work appriassal with the course tutor Linda James.

However the most interesting session was a long discussion on zero waste and how we as a Council work with communities to deliver this goal and raise the issue of climate change with residents. Bath and NE Somerset was the first Council to adopt Zero Waste as its waste management strategy. Zero waste is about seeing 'waste' as a resource rather than something to dump in landfill. Not for us any incinerators.

During the week our replacement freezer was delivered but they wouldn't take the broken one away!

Saturday - rugby Bath lost to London Irish. We had most of the play but they had 3 lucky breakaway tries in the first half. Second half was much better. Luckily for us Leeds lost on Friday so we currently have a 7 point buffer from relegation.

As a Stones fan I wish I had been in Brazil for the free concert this weekend - I do have tickets for the Cardiff Concert though.

Today delivered some of our latest Bath News political newspaper and called on some residents who had contacted me during the week with problems - mainly housing and traffic.

What a week this has been for the Liberal Democrats. Dunfermline now has Willie Rennie MP in an amazing result. Well done Willie. And Cameron's Tories nowhere to be seen. At least Gordon Brown will be able to get some good economic advice now from his own new MP!! 

And today I went to Chippenham for a leadership meeting to listen to Chris Huhne. I am already a registered supporter of his on his campaign website. I think Chris will provide us with the economic rigour needed for public confidence. Added to which I think his green agenda is right for the times. So for me its 1 Chris 2 Ming and 3 Simon. But its great to have a contest between 3 such good candidates.

Lots of work from the ward this week ranging from planning problems to hospital waiting lists. Plus also starting to get out our constituency newspaper.

On Wednesday we had our monthly Executive. Main item was the setting of the Council Tax for this year. We are proposing a rise of 4.95% which is line with many Councils. The Executive comprises 4 Liberal Democrats, 4 Conservatives and 1 Independent. We have been working together for three years now. This is the third joint budget we have put forward and balancing the competing needs of service delivery, Government expectations with the requirements of the residents and business is a tricky task not to mention meeting the aspirations of 3 groups of Councillors. Bath and NE Somerset is a good Council and even with the new Audit Commission harder test I think we will stay at 3 star. We provide a good range of services and combine that with an ambitious Capital program and ambitious regeneration projects. The main debate of the session was though on Council's plans to move to 'edge of property' collection. At present our household waste is collected from a variety of locations around properties. Dry recylclables and gardenwaste and cardboard are only front of property though. We are the 3rd best Unitary Authority for recycling and we need to make a step change to increase this to over 50% from the current 36%. This will be done by a variety of methods but one aspect of this is the move to 'edge of property' collection for all collections. However we need to improve the way the message is delivered from the way this was done in one area recently which has caused a lot of bitterness and complaint. 

As a Councillor who wants to see Local Government standards rise I have had training from the IDeA (a government development agency) in mentor support and over the last few months have been helping out Lincolnshire County Council Liberal Democrat and Independent groups improve the way they work as a group and to develop their confidence in working within the County Council system. Lincolnshire CC has had a period of turmoil over the last few years with the former Conservative Leader getting himself into a mess. The new administration is trying to redress the problems inherited and it is my job to assist the LD and Ind groups in delivering well for their residents in the face of a large and dominant ruling group.

Our local Bath newspaper, The Chronicle, runs a very vigourous letters page. On Saturday from one of our car brigade there was a tirade against the train as unreliable. All I can say is I have caught 14 trains this month so far and they were all on time.

A great result for Bath Rugby today - but what went wrong in the second half!!! 31 - 3 up only to finnish 34 -29. Shades of France Ireland the day before I think. Still with 2 wins in the last 2 outings we are moving up the table at last.

Saturday 4 February

First Saturday of every month Cllr Romero and I hold a ward surgery in the Methodist Church in the Hollow. Today we covered litter, planning and carparking problems. We also had a Lib Dem member come along for a discussion on our current leadership campaign. I have decided to give Chris Huhne my first preference but the other two are still undecided.

In the afternoon watched 6 nations rugby. England were awesome. It was good to see Lawrence D playing well. Luckily last week against Bath he was rather subdued. After the rugby - catching up on emails and document reading.

In the evening I went along to a big RUH Forever Friends Burns night fundraising dinner. The RUH is our local hospital and Forever Friends its fundraising campaign. We were helping raise money for premature babies. Main topic of conversation at my table was which national team we would like to be based in Bath for the 2012 London Olympic Games. I would like the Chinese Team. We have a large Chinese student population at Bath University and I would like to encourage more Chinese tourists to visit Bath. And my prediction is that by 2012 they will be pushing the Americans for No 1 spot in the medal table as well. 

Sunday 5 February

Morning attended the opening service at Grace Bible Church in Saltford. The new building has just been completed and they are filling it up with activities for toddler, teenagers and pensioners. It was a good service with lots of hymn singing. It was very nice to be asked in celebration of the opening. Councillors are not often thanked but the congregation was very grateful for the help of the planning officers and committee in getting the problems solved to enable permission to be granted.

From there to Weston and guest of honour at the Chinese New Year celebrations. We are now in the year of the Dog. A lucky year as it has 13 months. Beach (Bath East Asian Chinese association ) is only in its third year and I have helped them in getting established. They are already providing a range of services for the Community. The festival was great fun and involved a Dragon dance.

From there to the Guildhall and the Mayor of Bath's Multifaith gathering. A great service bringing people of all faiths together for a shared celebration of faith and humanity. Understanding and tolerance is the key to defeating bigotry and hate.

Monday 6 February

Todays media interview - GWR - Great Western Radio - on the launch of our Council's new Email newsletter from the Council called Inform.

Meetings today on LAA (Local Area Agreements), With Somer CX and Chair to discuss improving the way we work with each other. Somer are our main Registered Social Landlord. Then to Bristol for a meeting of the West of England Strategic Partnership  which is a partnersip of the Unitaries that used to be Avon - called CUBA for short by some - Councilsthat Usedto Bein Avon. Bath and NE Somerset, N Somerset, S Glos ad Bristol. The partnership also includes a range of partners from outside the Council. Our main struggle at the moment is with the Region and Central Government who want to put more jobs and housing into the area than we are prepared to take. Back to Bath to discuss the Executive papers with group members. On Wednesday we will be setting our budget rise for this year at 4.95%. More of that on Wednesday. Going back to silly acronyms Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset have a dual nationality because we are also inhabitants of BOSNIA - Bits Of Somerset Not In Avon. Who thinks these things up?? 

Picture of a frenzied Dragon and the Dragon Dancers Band

Thursday 2nd February

Started the day in Southdown with a Council Highway Engineer looking at several issues round the ward. Junction of Sladebrook and Southdown Road - we agreed to a single white line to discourage cars parking right upto the corner. This part of Southdown road is a spot where accelaration starts so we agreed to a 30 circle being painted on the road and the mobile 30mph box being stationed there in the 2nd quarter of the year. We also checked on the road surfaces in Haycombe Drive and Mount Road - but the resurfacing of these could be a long way off yet. Mount Road shops is our small shopping area and has suffered since the Post Office closed down so we are going to get some 'local shopping' signs put up around the area to advertise it more.

Cllr Romero, myself, Don FosterMP mounted a big campaign against this closure with the local community but failed. It does seem that our Labour Government is determined to completely close the Post Office network with its policies of taking away all their trade bit by bit.

Paul with Don Foster MP at the Mount Road Post Office

Next had a meeting with Cllr Caroline Roberts and our media team to finalise the launch of our new Council e-news Inform which we are pleased with and think it will be among the best from any Council in the country. Click on link to subscribe. I would be grateful for your views. Launch date is end of Feb.

In the evening we had a seminar on Local Area Agreements with a guy from Dorset to share his experience in develping one of the current pilots. I think they are a bit beaurocratic and do not seem to deliver the local choice hailed for them. Still we have a year to develop ours now so I will reserve judgement.

The freezer engineer came back today. The compressor has completely packed up - so we are being offered a replacement.

Time for my car mileage Carbon Offset calculation for January. 640 miles at 32 mpg gives a carbon offset of .21 tonnes and an offset fee of £1.36. I will wait till the end of Feb and send of 2 months together. My offset will be to our local Trafalgar wood - Sirius Wood.

Friday 3rd February

Travel by train to Taunton for a meeting of the South West Regional Board. A management meeting where the needs of the Regional Assembly, Local Government Association and the Provincial Employers for the SW are discusssed. A dry meeting!!

We have now published The Executive Budget proposal for Bath and North East Somerset. We are setting an increase of 4.95% which seems to be where a lot of Unitary and County Councils are setting this year. We had several issues to address this year. However we have managed all the competing pressures and aspirations and are setting this rise with difficulty. Our Council Tax should still be the lowest of any UA around here. All that whilst still delivering locally the best school results and recycling results. Ben Murch from the Chronicle phoned up for a long interview on our budget proposals.

Bath and North East Somerset is blessed with many fine museums. Tonight we had 2 of them opening new exhibitions. I was invited to the first as a guest - Painting the West Country House and Garden at the Holburne Museum. The museum was the main house in the recent Hollywood film starring Rees Witherspoon in Vanity Fair. The filming in 2003 was great fun to watch. The second was our Council Gallery - Victoria Art Gallery - where I gave the opening speach and thanks. Its a very fine double bill of work by William Sickert and Paula Rego.

Tuesday 31st January

7.30am start at the Bath Spa Hotel for the Bath Chronicle business breakfast and a chance to hear Bob Calleja from Bath Rugby present his views on the future of Bath Rugby at the Rec and the need for a new stadium and talk about their plans to submit a planning application by the end of the year. However in Bath nothing is ever simple and the Rec has issues around its charitable status. Notwithstanding the issues and debates ahead I am a season ticket holder and rugby fan and last weeks win against Wasps was our best home game of the season.

During the day I was interviewed by the Chronicle on the Westmark planning application on the Bath Western Riverside project.  This is a 70 acre site in the middle of Bath and over the next 25 years will be transformed into housing, offices and public spaces. Also a local radio station GWR phoned for an interviw on our 'Women who make a difference awards 2006' for our area and which the Council is co-sponsoring.

In the evening we had the budget setting for Bath Charter Trustees. This year the increase is 3%. The Charter Trustees are the elected Councillors of Bath and their role is to support the Mayoralty and choose a new Mayor each year. Charter towns were stripped of their political powers by the last Conservative Government when they were creating new Unitory Authorities. In our case the abolition of Avon was the catalyst for the change.

Wednesday 1st February

Started the day with some ward work in Haycombe Drive in my ward and had a quick visit to the newbuild and chat with the site forman. We are getting 18 new social units here and they are much needed in Bath. Main meeting of the day was with the Vice Chancellor of Bath Spa University. Bath has 2 universities and the growth of student numbers has had an impact on housing in several wards. The University has lots of plans for the future which are really exciting and I meet up with Frank Morgan every couple of months so we both keep updated.

This afternoon I worked from home on emails and report reading so that the freezer repair man could visit. We brought a new freezer for Christmas one of these new high tech Frost Free models. Unfortuneatly it broke down within a month and so we lost the contents. The freezer is in the outer room at the back of the kitchen which has no heating. The repair man said that these models cannot be kept in garages or rooms like that as they stop working in cold weather!!. I was a little surprised. Its now in the kitchen to see if it works ok in a warmer room. However if that solves the breakdown we have a problem as to where we put it as the kitchen isn't big enough.