Paul Crossley

One of the features of a conference is all the trade and lobby stalls. This morning I wandered around collecting biros and knickknacks and talking to stall holders. Spent a lot of time at the Blackpool stand discussing their super casino bid to aid regeneration of the town. Bath has also applied for one of the small licences and got through to the short-listing stage. Gambling is a very emotive subject and certainly can cause damage to individuals. From my investigation into the subject controlled Casino environment is not the main problem for addictive gambling. Certainly if Bath is selected by the Government then a key item that we will be looking for is the social awareness of the Casino operator towards its clientele and the problems that individuals can get into. Back to Blackpool.... They are looking on this super casino as the panacea to all their woes. I am not convinced. A vibrant city needs a selection of pubs, entertainment and restaurants with a good range of hotels. As I see it a controlled entertainment zone will be populated exclusively by the large multinational chains. Pubs with the same 8 global brands are not pubs I want to be in. Blackpool has a difficult job but I suggested they spent more time investigating what makes Brighton buzz and see what they can get going in Blackpool instead of waiting for a super casino.

For the lunchtime fringe went to the Arts Council with Don Foster MP. I like the Arts Council Fringe as they always put on a good Jazz Trio for the preceding 20 minutes. Oh yes and Don was very good value to. Talking to one of the arts Council staff afterwards it was good to hear that they have really valued the work and contribution that Don has made.

In the afternoon attended Independent Living debate and watched the Ming Q&A session. The press are lampooning Ming because of his age. I think they have it wrong there. Age brings wisdom, patience and other virtues that the youthful Cameron does not have. Also the older you are the more likely you are to vote. In our leadership election I was one of the Huhne brigade and was a named sponsor on his campaign site.  I am not sure my endorsement is that good though - I backed Beith against Ashdown, Hughes against Kennedy and now Huhne against Campbell. I want Ming to be more strident on Health Issues. This Labour Government is destroying our beloved NHS with misspent money, targets, interference, change and privatisation.

The evening was taken up with CUBA drinks for delegates from the area that was Councilsthat Usedto Be Avon!!! And then onto SWRDA and the 2012 campaign for the South West - again with Don.  

Conference this year looks like being one of the best yet. Our largest gathering to date and with about 20 coming from Bath including several first time delegates.  The press desperate to get tension into the air are trying to hype up Charlie's speech and the Tax Switch vote. However wandering round and talking to delegates I do not sense any tension at all. When we have a controversial vote you get people running around dishing out campaign badges for or against the subject.  

Outside the Conference Hall Brighton football fans were protesting about their need for a new stadium which they want at Falmar. I do not know the ins and outs - however as an outsider and a rugby fan I would have thought that sharing a facility with the rugby club would have been a better site. Apparently the problem with that is that it is in the green belt. As a sports fan though I hope they resolve the issue and get their new stadium. In Bath we have similar problems with getting a new stadium for our Bath Rugby Club. 

This year the fringe is packed with meetings of interest and I am particularly pleased with the ‘hotel' themed layout of fringe meetings.

The launch of the China Group was interesting and I shall be joining it. All political parties have a range of interest groups for members with like minded interest to network and discuss problems and issues on the topic.

Launch of Chinese Liberal Democrats - Cllr Sam LF Li, Norman Lamb MP, Linda Chung, Merlene Toh Emerson and Paul Bensilum

The RSPB event was based on the environment agenda and had Chris Huhne speaking - mainly on the green tax switch.

The Rally had 4 speakers - George Monbiot, Juliet Davenport , Chris Huhne and Ming Campbell - and the theme - the environment. George laid out the evidence on climate change very starkly and the impact it is having on the Earth.

It was the environment that got me into politics in 1965 when I wrote to the Government of the day advising them to stop building nuclear power stations. The Government took no notice of me then and it looks like Tony Blair's Labour is determined to take no notice of the arguments against nuclear now. Throughout my political life I have opposed the use of nuclear power for either domestic or military reason. NUCLEAR POWER NO THANKS & SAY NO TO TRIDENT REPLACEMENT. 

My last fringe of the evening was the First Liberal Democrat Bloggers Award with the prize being given out by Lynne Featherstone. It was fascinating to talk to a range of bloggers all with different styles.  Iain Dale a top Tory Blogger has done a lot of research into blogs and has listed his Top 100 for the Lib Dems, Tory, Labour and non-aligned. He listed me at 65 in the Lib Dem group. Thanks very much Iain. I shall study the winning entries and see what tips are of use to me to improve for next year. The picture on Lynne's blog is much better. 

Lynne Featherstone MP

And the first Lib Dem winner was ...... Stephen Tall from Oxford.

Bath & NE Somerset UA is due for its Comprehensive Perfomance Inspection from the Audit Commission in 2008. However to help us prepare and to have an independent assessment of the services we deliver to citizens we have commissioned the IDeA to give us a performance check this week. It is a high powered team they have assembled and they arrived on Monday. I had my first interview from the Conservative Leader of Isle of Wight and the Liberal Democrat Leader of Southwark. After lunch I acted as the compare on the afternoon tour of the authority area. Starting at Keynsham - looking at the park and High Street we drove via Paulton - taking in the closed down Polestar factory - through Midsomer Norton industrial area, the Norton Radstock Regeneration site, one of the 2 new schools in Radstock, Odd Down Park and Ride, Haycombe Cemetry, Carrswood EPH and new Learning difficulty Centre, Bath Western Riverside site, Royal Victoria Park, Midland Road Civic amenity site, Southgate, Busgate and to the Guildhall.

So the tour showed them some of our industrial problems (one print factory a week is closing down around the UK at present), our regeneration sites, new buildings in schools and Elderly Peoples Homes, traffic problems and solutions. The busgate has been a huge success in enabling buses to travel to schedule giving BathNES 6 years of continuous bus passenger growth, leading to a brand new fleet from First with low floors and easy access. This has meant we were in a great state to really make a success of the new free travel fro the over 60s. Gordon shortchanged us by £110K and our scheme is so successful we will have to put substantially more in. But it is being well received. We have also extended our Ring-and-ride schemes and are introducing one for Bath in October. 

In the evening a group meeting to discuss this Thursday's Full Council. We are in the final stage of the Local Plan and also in the final stages of the Regional Spatial Plan. The Government Inspector has made some controversial amendments to our local plan following her inspection and consultation. We have rejected some and now have to consult with the public on those we have not rejected. The Local Plan process is incredibly complicated and time consuming. Hopefully we can conclude this by January and then move onto the new LDF system. 

Tuesday morning - neck still stiff from my Sunday fall. Visit to GP and referred to our local hospital for an x-ray on my neck. The Royal United Hospital is an excellant hospital providing good service. It is clean, tidy and efficient. Over the last 12 years - I have been a customer from 2 dog-bites, a meta-tarsel injury and now this neck problem. Was in and out in just over an hour. Very Good.

Dog-bites - one of the hazzards for local politicians from all the bits of paper we have to deliver to our residents.  

Sunday morning so planned on doing some garage tidy work and trimming the hedge at the front garden. Our Yew hedge is getting quite tall now so I need to use the step ladder. Fell off and went head first into the soil. Ouch! bit like a rugby crunch tackle I used to give and take - however now in my mid-50s it shook me up bad. So had a long bath and then slept. Sadly missed the RNLI charity concert I had brought tickets for and was planning to go to after lunch.

I wont be going up a step ladder or ladder again without someone holding on to the thing. Lesson Learnt.

However yesterday was Rugby From Heaven. To beat Leicester is always good, to beat them 4 tries to 1 is glorious but to beat them playing the type of rugby our Bath boys were playing with interchange, variations, passing back and forth, great solid pack play. In fact all the players played to the top of their game. The game was a real sizzling advert for rugby with the lead changing hands every 5 minutes till the last quarter of the game when Bath pulled away. Difficult to choose a man of the match with everyone so good - but a tie between Gareth Delve and Zac Fenauti I think.

Indian Movie Icon Amitabh Bachchan spent one day in Bath filming scenes from his latest movie due for release at Christmas with co-star Tabu.  The stars and the crew were great fun and were enjoying the visit to Bath. The production style of Bollywood is so different from Hollywood and UK films. It is really fast and use the scenery as they find it. The argument scene outside the Huntsmen was done in two takes in front of surprised lunchtime drinkers.

It would be really great if we could do a regional launch of the film at our Bath cinema as we did for Vanity Fair.

Cllr Brinkhurst, Amitabh Bachchan and me in the Abbey square

Also this week the development control committee had its site visit to look at the planning application for a park and ride site at Charmy Down. No Comment - I might be on the committee.

Visited the new amenity group that is hoping to restore Bath's Jewish Burial Ground. It is a lovely small secluded site and an exciting project. Unfortunately this week I spotted the first piece of Anti Semitic Graffiti in Bath - immediately informed the police who were excellent about and arranged for it to be removed the next day.

Also this week we launched the new extension to our Mosque in Bath and also unfortunately a week ago we had our first piece of anti-Islam graffiti in the Wansdyke part of the authority that I had seen. Again the police were excellent and we got it removed immediately. Relations between communities are very good in Bath & NE Somerset, but obviously we will have to keep an eye open on this and keep on top of the problem.

This month's open executive was the longest of this administration lasting from 10 till 2pm. We had a controversial response to the Government Inspectors report on our local plan amongst other things.