Paul Crossley

In Bath and NE Somerset we started our Learning Difficulties Partnership Board 18 months ago. I have just been appointed as Chair for the coming year. I will have a co-chair and together we will launch the years work at our Bath & NE Somerset conference for the partnership in early September. To make a success of the board we will need to get our three networks more actively involved and ensure that the board meetings are genuinely inclusive and that all board members feel their views have been properly heard. So over the next month I will be getting to meet the organisations that we work with and hopefully all the three networks. In addition I will need to have some chairing practice in operating a joint-chair role.

For the weekend visited my birth town - Gosport - to see my mum and also have a first visit up the Spinnaker Tower. Another Millenium Controversy. However its up and running now - though the outside panoramic lift is still not operational!!! It is certainly an iconic tower and the glass floor at the top is impressive. Looking at Gosport from that height made me really realise how flat and low Gosport is and its close relationship to the sea - despite having lived there for so many years and crossed the harbour on the Gosport Ferry so many times. But how things change - in the 1960s the Submarine base in Gosport had always 30 or so subs - now its a marina and a submarine museum. The Portsmouth Dockyard used to see thousands of men cycling into work each day - so different from today.

Looking down from the Spinnaker glass floor 

On Monday 23 train to London (on time) for the LGA Urban Commission. Good meeting and a good forum for local government to discuss the many issues around urban regeneration and housing need. The main issue in our authority is building houses that the vast majority of the population who are not in social rent or already on the property ladder can afford.

On Wednesday we considered the planning application from the Holburne Museum. As I am on the planning committee I could not comment on this before however we have now had the meeting. As with so much development in Bath it is very controversial. It was also a large modern extension on the back of a grade 1 listed building. The Holburne is a musuem that needs more space to show its collection to attract more exhibitions and to expand its educational outreach program. Before the meeting we all had a site meeeting to look at the application from all angles and see at first hand the issues.

After hearing the presentations and the comments for and against the Chair called on the debate to start. Silence. No-one wanted to be first. So I ventured in. The extension had English Heritage approval. It also had support from a great many other influential bodies. The building itself has a special relationship with Sydney Gardens which surround it. These gardens, first opened in 1795, have changed and evolved over their lifetime. Now is the time for another change. I moved the recommendation to permit this scheme. The extension is a dramatic extension which takes the visitor from the formal front through to the pleasure gardens behind. I felt the new extension met the challenges in addition to providing disability access to all levels and also would enable the museum to fulfill its aims to serve a wider community. My motion was seconded and then the committee one by one spoke against the scheme. The dramatic nature of the extension and the non-use of Bath stone was just too much for them. I lost 9-3. I think the committee made a big mistake on this one.

As a keen cyclist I have done quite a bit of cycling to and fro in recent weeks. Went to the latest Two Tunnels meeting. This is an exciting bid that is being put together by the Two Tunnels group in partnership with Sustrans and the Council. It is to extend our cycle netwrok out of Bath using the old Somerset rail line which passes via two tunnels out under Combe Down and into NE Somerset. The project will cost about £2M and will be one of the longest cycle way tunnels in the country. The bid is part of Sustrans Connecting Communities bid which will be put to a television vote in the late Autumn. So everyone Vote Sustrans.

The main item on Development Control was a change to the Bat chambers in the Combe Down Stone Mines(pictures from Sam Farr blog) Project. There are a lot of bat species in the mines including the Greater Horseshoe. The project is £160M infill project to stabilise the housing above. A key part of the project is ensuring the long term future of the Bat colonies as well as making Combe Down safe.

Entrance to the mine at Byfield. 

At the BathNES Race Equality Council AGM the guest speaker was unfortuneately unavailable at the last minute. So instead we had three personnel testamonies of racially motivated bullying that three residents had experienced in Bath - one in health, one in a supermarket chain and the third in a neighbour dispute. They were powerful presentations and made us all realise that we have a long way to go in creating a society at ease with its diversity still.

Went along with Cllr Roger Symonds - another keen cyclist - to meet Cyclescheme . A Bath based company to provide employees with tax free cycles. It is an excellent scheme and we are going to try (again) to pursuade our Council to adopt it. Then cycled to Keynsham along one of the original Sustrans cycle paths to attend some training on the new Councillor code of conduct and standards.

Simon Hughes gave a very good speach on the Wednesday exploring the role of Local Government and Place Shaping - this years theme.

Hazel Blears announced her Power to The People initiative. However giving away assets does not address the shortage of funds available. If the Governement is serious about democratic renewal it needs to be far more radical than simply messing with County/District to Unitary here and there. It needs a debate about the role purpose and community of local government at a national level with real devolution of power from Westminster down. While they are at it Parliament can be downsized and given fixed terms and an election under fair votes. And the Houses of Lords can be replaced by a wholly elected chamber.

The Government response to the flooding crises is simply wholly inadequate. In some areas it is a major disaster. Hull City has suffered appallingly along with other towns and cities in the recent deluge. As with every disaster around the world it is always the poorest who are hardest hit. It is the poorest who are most likely to have inadequate or even no insurance and who loose everything. If Gordon Brown really wants to make a difference at the start of his premiership then he needs to be generous in assisting the flood victims now and in changing Government policy for the future to reduce the chances of this happening again. But then he would have to really address climate change and stop forcing housing onto high risk flood areas.

Laste week the Taste Festival came to Bath for the first time. It was really good in featuring a range of products and restaurants from around the South West. Venues are chosen because of the excellence of the restaurant culture and the availability of good food locally produced. Bath has the first and the South West provides the second in abundance.