Paul Crossley

Here in Bath and NE Somerset we have now had 5 years of increasing bus passenger numbers. This last year's growth was 5.5%. And since April we have also had the free bus scheme for residents aged over 60. This growth is directly attributable to putting in the bus gate at the Guildhall in 2002 which enabled buses crossing time to keep to schedule. It also enabled the Pulteney Bridge bus gate to become effective which enabled routes from Wiltshire to keep to schedule. Because of the commitments from the Council the local major bus company First have invested £14M in new buses. Now with continuing growth through students, Park & Ride, commuters and the elderly we need to improve the experience for more users. To this end I have met with the managers from First and others to discuss ticketing, routes, shelters and bottlenecks.

In addition West of England Partnership has just won a bid from Government of £42M to implement a number of quality bus routes across the Bristol-Bath region. More people choosing the bus option relieves traffic jam and congestion problems and leaves the roads clearer for those who have no option to their car.

And then there is the bicycle. I am a great fan of cycling. During July we have done lots of bike promotions to get people commuting on bike and to encourage schoolchildren to cycle to school. We had a special prize from Raleigh to offer a draw for all youngsters who made 9 bike journeys in the bike week. On Friday I presented the new bike to the lucky winner at St Mary's Primary in Saltford. Naturally I cycled along the Bath - Bristol cycle path on my trusty Brompton. Giving out all the certificates it was heartening to hear how many kids had turned the week into a family cycle to school week. Much better for all than simply turning up in the convoy of cars to the school gate.

One lucky guy with his fabulous new bike

Also this week Southdown Environment Action day, Southdown Community Safety Action Group meeting, Meeting with Erica Draisey , Head of Haysfield , to discuss her plans for the future of her school and how she can realise the schools ambitions, meeting of the Equality Advisory Group, Nottingham Declaration and Development Control meeting.

Lots of interest on that with a first hearing of the Charmy Down Park and Ride proposals. This is part of the controversy about the location of a Park and Ride site to the East of Bath with 2 locations now being considered and both with supporters and opponents. Charmy Down is a disused airfield. Also a new scheme at the Royal United Hospital and a planning modification to the bat tunnels which are an important part of the Combe Down Stone Mines project. The Government has given us a vast amount of money to infil the holes and mineworks under Combe Down where all the Bath stone was mined over so many years.

In looking for interesting web links for Charmy Down I discovered this super walking web site.

Bath and NE Somerset were the 100^th Council to sign up to the Nottingham Declaration when we signed at the December 05 Conference. This week the movement launched its action pack to enable Councils to deliver on the sustainability agenda by addressing the problem in bite sized chunks. Follow this link to read the declaration, check out the action pack and get your council to sign up at http://www.est.org.uk/housingbuildings/localauthorities/NottinghamDeclaration/  . It is a very good action pack that has been developed. As the 100^th signee I was asked to be at the launch to feed back on what our Council had been doing on this agenda and give our views on the action pack. This was held at parliament and we were lucky to have the minister Angela Smith at our launch and say a few words. The launch was sponsored by the all party sustainability group chaired by Colin Challen MP at Portcullis House. Also present amongst sponsors and public were the Liberal Democrats Lord Redesdale, Barronness Maddock and Andrew Stunnell MP.

Myself and Cllr David Sparks, chair of the LGA Environment committee took part in the photo opportunity posting a large declaration card to all Council Leaders.

Angela Smith said of climate change - its real, its happening its right now. She welcomed the Local Government efforts to tackle climate change via the Nottingham Declaration and its new Action Pack. She cited the example of Woking who have reduced energy consumption by 70% and she mentioned that Beacon Round 9 will have a climate change challenge.

My speech at the launch :

Bath and NE Somerset were the 100^th Council to sign up to the Nottingham Declaration at the Nottingham Conference in December 2005.

Why we signed up?

• Because Climate Change is the most important challenge facing all our communities here and around the globe
• Because we have decided to make climate change our sustainability priority and because we have now started to put in place the necessary people and initial projects - so that signing it was not an empty gesture but a real commitment to action

What have we done so far?

• Made climate change our sustainability priority during 2005, with agreement to tackle mitigation first through action in four key areas: energy in buildings, energy in transport, reducing waste (ref to existing Zero Waste approach and plans) and energy in food, within our own estate, through the services we provide and through our community leadership role
• Have set up a ground-breaking energy efficiency project in partnership with the public and voluntary sector members of our Local Strategic Partnership and the Centre for Sustainable Energy in Bristol, having secured £770,000 funding from the Treasury's Invest to Save Budget. The project runs over three years and seeks to reduce energy consumption across the pubic and voluntary sector in Bath & North East Somerset by at least 10% by 2009, through a combination of physical measures and a behavioural change programme designed to embed energy efficiency training and know-how into these organisations to ensure the process of reducing consumption continues beyond the life of the project. The beauty of this project is that it directly helps the Council to tackle carbon emissions from its own estate as well as facilitating similar action within the wider community through partnership working.
• Hoping to develop a stretch target within our Local Area Agreement, by adding further LSP wide energy projects to the above project to achieve further carbon reductions across the community (eg possible biomass project and community and school engagement projects).
• Currently undertaking a biomass heat feasibility project across the district to ascertain exactly how much waste wood could be taken out of the waste stream and used to fuel wood-burning boilers and to identify suitable sites for the installation of such boilers in the future and to identify a site for creating a central wood depot.
• This work has been undertaken in order to kick-start some immediate action on reducing emissions, in the absence of a strong energy management capability.
• An Energy Manager has now been appointed and it is hoped that by the autumn the energy management systems will be in place to enable proper planning of an Energy Action Plan for the Council's own estate, building on the work of the LSP wide energy efficiency project and looking for opportunities to install renewable energy capacity. No mean feat with our heritage buildings! But one we are determined to tackle
• We also have a current Overview & Scrutiny review underway looking at how to ensure that policies and plans across the Council are coming into line with our commitment to take action on climate change and to recommend future targets.

If the energy targets that we've drafted in the Bath Western Riverside SPD remain intact after the public consultation period has ended, and if the developers meet those targets, which they say they can through energy efficiency design, large-scale biomass CHP and some solar thermal, then we will have the largest project to implement the so called 'Merton 10% rule' - ie requiring 10% renewable energy in developments.  And we would be implementing the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy targets for the SW of England.

We recognise that our approach has been slightly unorthodox to date and somewhat piecemeal, but we felt it was best to get some real action underway through a small number of strategically significant projects, that were doable within existing resources first and worry about more comprehensive planning later - and this is why we are very pleased to be here today at the launch of the tool-kit.

How will this action pack/toolkit help us?

• We're really impressed with the toolkit - specifically we find the way it's structure easy to understand - it has a good fit with how we're thinking about moving forward. The simple step by step approach is user-friendly, accessible and practical. It's comprehensive, but breaks things down into digestible chucks, with very useful checklists - making the task, whilst undoubtedly huge, much less daunting for an authority like ours that's just starting out on this challenging journey.
• So thanks to all the Development Group for all the hard work in creating the toolkit - we at Bath & North East Somerset and looking forward to working with you as we embark on the next stage of planning our climate change action plan.

And Finally ... we recommend the Nottingham Declaration to all Councils across the UK and urge them to look at how this declaration will focus priorities and how the Action Pack can help achieve their goals.

Thursday July 13

At the Assembly Rooms we have the Museum of Costume an excellent museum with lots of fabulous clothing from the past. We are very lucky that we have been donated over 400 items by John Bates. John Bates was one of the big fashion names of the 1960 and 1970s. It was designers like John who made fashion available on the high street at affordable prices. John also dressed Dianna Rigg and other leading ladies in TV shows such as the Avengers. The Daily Telegraph did a very good review of the show. We have put a selection of the 400 dresses on show at the Assembly Rooms and it makes a stunning collection. For the official opening I welcomed John Bates and also John Siggins and Richard Lester who enabled the exhibition to happen together with our staff team lead by Rosemary Harden. Our guest speaker was the actress Sian Phillips who had used John Bates clothing in some of her most successful West End shows.

Opening of John Bates show. L-R Rosemary, John, Sian Phillips, John Bates and me

In the evening we had Full Council. For a variety of reasons all groups were down on numbers and we had some lively debate. Our motion was one aimed at supporting small shops. The independent sector is a key ingredient in our local shopping scene. However as with all towns and cities we are under threat from Identikit shopping. Our motion was aimed at strengthening and encouraging small shops. The Tories and Labour and Independent groups lined up to neuter our motion and take out the action steps and leave a motion merely supporting the idea. We lost the vote 23 -22. However on the next motion on Houses of Multiple Occupancy one of the Independents switched his vote and we won 23-22. With our growing student population comes the loss of affordable family housing to student housing.

Friday - went to London for the day to attend a conference on Local Government and the roles of Local Strategic Partnerships (LSP) and  Local Area Agreements (LAA). Over the next year the LSP will be submitting through Council its LAA to Government. It is important to get the governance structure right as it will be working across the public, private and voluntary sector to deliver improvements in a range of services for our conmmunity.  In the evening sat on the patio and enjoyed the sounds of the Simply Red concert drifting up from the Rec.

Concert stage at the Bath Recreation ground

Saturday - morning - ward work in Southdown - litter, cars (parking and speeding), homelessness and benefit issues. In the afternoon drove up to Warwickshire for a family gathering and visit to Gifford Circus. A really great little circus - suffering under the new Government Legislation on licensing and regulations.

Sunday - spent the day with 2 young activists, Armand and Nic, leafleting Bathwick with a resident's survey and Bath Echo newspaper. Then in the evening went to day 3 of our Recreation Ground Charity Concerts. Day one was in aid of Dorothy House Hospice and days 2 and 3 in aid of the Forever Friends Royal United Hospital appeal. Sunday's concert was Westlife. Very professional show and the fans had a really good evening.

Carbon Offset time again! This month's mileage for me and my wife totals 1153 miles at 32mpg gives an offset tax £2.84. So have just been online to CLIMATECARE to pay-up for this years car miles to date £8.75. My next payment will be year end so just to record car miles - mine is at 40682 and my wife's is at 28339.

Last week attended the LGA conference in Bournemouth. Very good week of seminars, networking, talking to Tetrapack and other recycling firms. Tetrapack are visiting our patch soon to discuss with us how we recycle our drink cartons. In Bath and NE Somerset we have just moved to edge of property collection for all waste streams. We had a system whereby residents place different streams in different places. Tidying it up to one collection point will help in moving to same day collection next year. However one immediate effect has been an increase in recycling rates as more goes into the green box and less into the waste. The move over has not been without its share of turmoil though. Waste not being collected for a variety of reasons has resulted in a large number of calls.

For any future waste changes we will have to improve our publicity and information and send every resident a personal letter in an envelope. This time we purchased the services of a leaflet distribution service and over a third were not delivered and a large number of the remainder must have been treated as junk mail and recycled without being read.

On Saturday we had a Western Counties Regional Conference and I sat on the Local Gov panel to be quizzed by members from across our region. Also listened to the speeches by Chris Huhne and Annette Brookes.

Monday - up to London for the launch of the Dyson School of Design Innovation in Bath. This is an exciting project to develop a national centre of excellence to promote engineering and design. James Dyson is passionate about engineering and his foundation is putting a lot of money into this project along with public money. Over the last 2 years Cllr Colin Darracott has been leading on the Council in developing the ‘Vision for Bath' so that we can tie all our regeneration sites into a coherent scheme for the city as a whole. The Dyson Centre will be next door to a new building for the Bath Spa university and the Vice Chancellor was at the launch with me and our MP Don  Foster. A new educational core in the centre next to the expanding Tech College and the University of Bath building. Growing student numbers though also bring problems as well as opportunities especially in the housing. In the afternoon back to Bristol for the West of England Partnership which I will be chairing this year.

James Dyson and me at launch of the Dyson School of Design Innovation 

Tuesday - a public consultation day on our LAA local area agreement. We will now be taking the ideas around the various parts of our authority over the next few weeks talking to residents about the priorities. It has to be signed sealed and agreed with the government by the new year for implementation starting March 07. A tight deadline. At the LSP Local Strategic Partnership this afternoon we were discussing the governance of the LAA by the LSP. Lots of complex issues. Anyone got a tidy solution?

This months Executive was lively with a good range of topics. Our new school at St Johns a RC school moved on to the next stage. The Council has substantially increased the amount it is putting into the school to get the project going. We spent five years looking for a site and ended up where we started - which ironically was where the governing body always wanted to be. At the church location. It is a small site though so we have to prove to the Government that we have looked at all options properly. Then home to school transport - we are proposing to cut back on the free element of this so a lively debate has ensued over the last few weeks. The executive vote 5 to end the subsidy - 2 abstentions and 2 against. I was one of 2 against the proposal. I would have preferred to move to a more equitable system for all our youngsters in a staged way and not by starting with the removal of a benefit that a small group were able to claim. Third education item was building schools for the future. WE have been granted up to £20M 2 years ahead of schedule. Whilst some members of the executive thought this was a cynical election ploy I prefer to think of it as recognition from the Government of the serious work we are doing on refurbishing our schools, reducing our surplus places and of course our year on year commitment to education by spending more than the Government says we should. Out of 150 LEAs we are in the bottom 20 in terms of Government funding but in the top 20 in terms of our school results. There was much more as well but that's enough for now.

Who at Ashton Gate were fabulous. I have seen the Who many times since they first started but for my wife and two boys it was their first Who concert. The crowd was a sellout, the warmup acts ‘Never the Bride' and Zutons were good but as soon as the Who walked on the atmosphere was electric. Great show.

The week started with the Core Cities conference at Bristol. It was a chance for Councillors and others from 8 core cities to get together. The message from Ruth Kelly and Ken Livingstone was pretty clear. Government is looking for directly elected Mayors of Executives. The message form Local Government was equally clear - we are looking for partnership working across authorities to deliver the big agendas. And talking of Core Cities how can such a grouping not have Southampton and Portsmouth in it?

Here in Bath and NE Somerset we are very wary of this Government agenda. Whilst they keep saying there is no pre-ordained solution there is a strong belief that the agenda is to have a directly elected Mayor of Avon. This would be another layer of representation for an area that was only abolished just over ten years ago. The government seems to be hell bent on reorganisation to create the illusion that it is doing something. It is doing something for sure - that is creating uncertainty and instability and wasting money. The privatisation and dismantling of our NHS is a national disgcrace.

Also this week PCT Integration, Norwegian MPs visit Bath, Student function, REC Business plan, Brunel celebrations, LAA  and on Saturday eve the Keynsham Festival in the Park. Following on from the dissappointing exit from World Cup it was nice to hear a local amateur orchestra play.