Paul Crossley

Monday 28 double bill at the Forum with Mavis Staples and Jazz Jamaica All Stars. Great night out. The festival was restructured last year and this - although the second year of the new team - is the one that they have put together. The opening night format was dramatically changed last year from a picnic-in-the-park concept to a city centre multi venue concept. Last year there was uproar at the change.This year it was much more accepted. However I feel that it still isn't right. There needs to be much better signage between all the venues and what's on at each.

The Forum is a great venue and is now the home for Bath City Church. In a previous life it was a cinema. When it became available for purchase in the mid 1990's unfortuneately the Conservatives were in charge of Bath and decided not to buy it for £400K. It would have made a fantastic concert hall for the city and was a bargain price. The Liberal Democrats were then in opposition and tried to pursuade the ruling group to buy but sadly they would not listen. The City Church have though turned the building into a thriving and lively Church.

This concert was another eclectic mix put together by the new artistic director - Joanna McGregor. Mavis Staples did a tribute set to Mahlia Jackson whilst the Jazz Jamaica did a Motown set. Gary Crosby, their leader, certainly varies the styles from Jamaica to Motown and back.

Today was interviewed by Scott Wright from De Montford University doing a study on civic blogs and their effectiveness and impact. I am not sure how effective these things are. From my experience I get case work and people contacting me about it - but there seems to be a reluctance for people to leave comments which are then available to the world. However I have noticed that when I am asked to speak at public meetings the Chair has often got information about me from the blog. And of couse the opposition monitor these things for gaffs. I regularly read about six other blogs but have only ever commented on one of those.

One of the jobs I have been engaged on over the last two years is providing mentoring support through the IDeA to Liberal Democrats on Lincolnshire CC, Chesterfield BC and also to the Independents on Lincolnshire CC. The Lincolnshire LD group have just changed their leader and after the local District elections had an awayday which they asked me to facilitate. We covered a range of areas from group work to budget monitoring and setting.

Followed this with a few days break in Lincoln and Lincolnshire. The Cathedral in Lincoln was the world's tallest building for 350 years - some record and an amazing cathedral. It was also the setting for some of the Da Vinci Code film with Tom Hanks who stayed at the White Hart Hotel which is also where I stayed with my wife. Also visited Gainsborough Old Hall, Lough, Boston, Belton Hall and had a whole day at Gibralter Point. The Wash is a major bird migration staging post and this site is a wonderful wildlife site complete with lots of hares. Well worth a visit.

The White Paper also seeks to undermine attempts to promote town centres and make it harder to promote sustainable forms of development leading to increased reliance on car-based shopping by bringing back the out-of-town shopping centre again.

So they have it wrong on public consultation but more frightening is the thrust to develop airports, roads and a return to out of town shopping. And most frightening of all is the reinvention of nuclear power as benign. The solution to overuse of energy is to reduce consumption, change lifestyle habits and use planning to develop carbon neutral housing and invest the money that would be wasted on nuclear power by developing renewables and by grants to homeowners to make the existing housing stock energy efficient. 

Along with several thousands of the Blue Black and White army from Bath went to The Stoop to watch the ERC Challenge Cup Final. The French were very powerful and complete side with great attacking backs. Malzieu and Rougerie were awesome. Bath played on the defence for most of the game but the last 20 minutes were great and Bath stormed back at the Clermont team. Maddock's try was great.

For full match report check out BathRugbyEre.

What Bath needs now is a new stadium. It is time for the Charity Commission to stop messing us all about. The strategic review has reported and every indicator show what we all knew - that 80%+ of Bath want Bath Rugby to remain at the heart of Bath playing in a better stadium. Everyone is a winner so come on Charity Commission - get real - lets get new facilities on the REC - after all the original donors, when setting up the Charity, were trying to ensure that Rugby would always be played there.

At the end of the season the highlight was the seven try demolition of Bristol - see YOUtube video1 and video2. I have only just got into YouTube - the internet has some great features. Well done to F1357 for these postings - really enjoyed reliving the moments.

Its not just a better stadium we need for Bath Rugby though. We need a new improved Twerton Park for newly promoted Bath City and better facilities at our racecourse. This was my first trip to the Stoop and it is a good ground with good facilities. As all the premiership improve their facilities Bath needs to keep abreast of them. Doing nothing is not an option.

Full Council AGM tonight saw the Conservatives take control of the Council with a Conservative Executive and also chairs of O&S and other committees. We argued that O&S should be chaired by non-administration parties. They rejected this idea. We argued that more work needed to be done locally. They rejected this idea. They also scrapped the highly succeessful Student Liaison Commiittee. They also reduced the number of Full Council meetings and the number of times the Exeecutive will meet in public. The new administration certainly does not want to be inconvenienced by listening to the public!! In the end we have two O&S panels and one licensing chair. One of our Councillors accused the new administration of already 'Retreating into the Guildhall'. With the three Independents voting with them  they were always going to win the votes. Labour only supported us on our attempt to save the  Student Liaison Committee.

Cllr Nigel Roberts moved the motion on area working and Cllr SHaun McGall moved a motion on Student Liaison Committee. SO all in all quite a few of our group spoke. The Conservatives by contrast were silent by and large. 

Below is the press release I sent out.

For immediate release: 17^th May 2007

New Conservative Administration Criticised for “Retreat to the Guildhall”

Liberal Democrat Councillors have criticised the new administration of Bath and North East Somerset Council for issuing misleading statements in the run-up to the Council AGM, cutting back on democratic mechanisms (such as Council and Executive meetings and Overview and Scrutiny panels) and refusing to accept fair scrutiny proposals.

Lib Dem Leader Paul Crossley said:

“Members of the Liberal Democrat Group were concerned to see in a press report last week that the Conservative Leader had said ‘the Liberal Democrats and Labour had been unwilling to form a coalition’.

“In fact, the Conservative group did not make any contact with the Liberal Democrats and made their decisions behind closed doors. In 2003, when the situations were reversed, the Liberal Democrats recognised that residents had decided not to give any single party overall control of the Council, and so, rather than rushing to take power, we went into negotiations with the other Groups.”

Councillor Crossley also criticised the Conservative Group for voting down a Liberal Democrat motion to give the Chairs of the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny panels to nominees from the opposition Groups. This is common practice in other Councils. He said:

“It’s illogical to suggest that Conservative O&S chairs will be able to scrutinise 'Cabinet' members from their own Group. When the Liberal Democrats were in minority control in 2002-03 we ensured that these positions were all taken by nominees of opposition parties.

“I believe that good governance requires integrity and honesty from the ruling administration. Even before they officially took control of the Council, the Conservative administration showed itself to be lacking in these qualities. The Liberal Democrats intend to be an extremely hard-working opposition to ensure that the Conservative administration is held to account in decision-making.”

Councillor Roger Symonds, who also spoke in the debate, characterised this, and other retrograde decisions taken by the Conservative administration, as a “Retreat to the Guildhall”.

END

Tonight we had what is probably the last meeting of the Bath South Area committee. For the last four years of the three-party working of the Council we have had a pilot area committee serving a large part of south Bath. It has proved very popular and has often had large public attendance. However in this authority the Conservative, Labour and Independent groups are opposed to area working and devolved decision making and accountability. Following the election and the Conservative gains it is highly likely that the pilot will be scrapped at Thursday's AGM.

Nationally whilst both Labour and Conservative talk of localism and/or double devolution , locally it is not matched by their actions. When politicians talk the talk they should walk the walk. 

As our council has recently signed upto its LAA agreement which includes an element of local identity and choice we will have to find other ways of engaging in local accountability outside the formal structures of what is now a centralising Council. 

I have just started a Facebook entry - all these new e-ways of communicating are fascinating. Just got my latest e-news from the Rolling Stones and checked out www.myspace.com/therollingstones and really enjoyed the video clip of Sway. 

Positive Future - a conference for sustainable development practitioners. 

This was a conference aimed at local government officers working on sustainability and the climate change agenda. Over 150 delegates attended the two day conference at Aston University in Birmingham. Climate Change is the number one issue facing the world and we do not have long to change our behaviour and abuse of the Earth if it is to continue being this fabulous planet for our children. I was asked to lead a breakout session on the subject of 'raising the commitment of councillors and senior management'.

The session was given twice and started with a 12 minute powerpoint (available for view on the conference link above)  from me raising some ideas and approaches for council staff to consider and then into a 45 minute Q&A cum debate on the issues of sustainability and climate change and the role of local government in this agenda.

Bath and NE Somerset elections produced a few surprises. Going in the Liberal Democrats held 29 seats, Conservatives 26, Independents 4 and Labour 6. The Executive was a three group administration of Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Independent. The administration had lasted the entire four years. The election was very bitterly fought with some slanderous leaflets against Liberal Democrat candidates. In Bath there were several issues - Churchill House being the most vocal.

When the votes had been counted the Liberal Democrats were down 3, the Conservatives up 5 with the Independents and Labour down 1 each. Within those figures all four groups lost some noteable Councillors - all of whom had high profiles for one reason or another.

The Conservatives will now be forming a minority administration with the tacit support of the Independents.

After 5 years as Leader of the Council it will seem strange to be in opposition. I have been lucky to have had such a wonderful job for these years during which time much has gone well. We have had well publicised problems with our Spa and that got in the way of all the good news that was being delivered such as new homes for the elderly, new day centre for adults with learning difficulties, new school for our most disabled children, recycling rates topping 40% with the biggest range of green box recyclables in the country, great school results etc etc. Plus at last two major regeneration projects starting up - NRR and Southgate. It was however these that caused the controversy and the upsets.

On Saturday we had a fabulous Showtime concert with a range of Bath Choirs and a short set from both Jamie Cullum and Claire Teal. A fabulous night - Bath is indeed a singing city - local choirs and bands performing on the night - Silver Ring Choir , City of Bath Male Choir
, Stockingtops , Bath Rainbow Steel Band and others organised by Grenville Jones.