Paul Crossley

Here in BathNES we are one of four Unitary Authorities that used to be Avon. The Government wants local authorities to work in partnership to deliver some of the big strategic goals that are wider than a single Unitary. So the four of us formed the West of England Partnership. Any name to avoid Avon. Actually we are also know as CUBA (Councilsthat Usedto Be Avon) and the two Somerset authorities have a second name - BOSNIA (Bits Of Somerset Not In Avon) - who dreams these things up :-)

We have been working together for four years now and have got to the stage where some of the projects will be moving from planning to implementation and so we need a delivery vehicle. On Friday we had a day with partners to discuss the mechanism. I am not in favour of setting up Quangos and would like to see a Local Authority led limited Company set up to run these projects. The day was well attended by all four councils and a wide range of partners.

Areas covered - housing, strategic travel links, waste and employment.

The RSS, after much debate, saw us agree to take about nearly 100,000 extra houses. However it is looking increasingly likely that after all the debate and consultation the Government will be imposing a higher number on us.

Which leads on to planning. Our Council is currently consulting on planning call-in rights. We are currently trying to restrict call-in rights to insisting on a valid planning reason to accompany them. This is upsetting some Parishes and a few non-planning councillors. However as a member of the Planning Committee I do get a bit fed up when an application is being heard merely for grandstanding reasons. Planning committees need to be well trained and consistant in the judgements they make. With Government insisting on ever more delegation to officers it means the ones that are heard in public by the committee are increasingly the controversial and difficult ones.

Despite the horror story that is England in this years Rugby World Cup it is great to see the improving standard in many other countries. As ever the All Blacks look awesome. However on Saturday Bath kicked off its new season with an impressive 29 - 15 4 try victory over Worcester. Five points is a good start. However I have never seen so much knock on in a game in my life. Luckily Worcester seemed to fumble as much as we did. Of more concern was some poor lineout work by Bath. Still everyone I spoke to was more optimistic about the coming season than they were at the start of the last season.

Overall a good start to the season's Guiness Premiership - although not a sellout with just over 10,000 in the crowd. 

Before the game I went up to the racecourse were Dimensions put on a celebration day for its staff and clients. It is a social company housing and serving the needs of people with Learning Difficulties. It was a really good day with good shows and lots of people having a great time. I met several people who I had been talking to just the day before when I went as Deputy Mayor to the open day for the Council's new Carrswood day centre for people with learning difficulties. The improvements we have been able to give children and adults with Learning Difficulties is one of my proudest achievements of the 5 years I was leader of Bath and NE Somerset. A new school and a new day centre. Great new facilites for wonderful people and carers with special requirements and needs.  The school was completed in March and started this September whilst the day centre completed over the summer. 

The Full Council was busy - but then what can you expect when the number of meetings has been pared to a minimum. We had lots of business to cover including finally, after a journey of years, signing off on our Local Plan - just in time to immediately go to work on Local Development Frameworks - the new quicker version of local plans!!! The main arguement between the parties was whether to adopt a saturation policy or not for the centre of Bath. The Conservatives have always been keen on these seeing them as a panacea for irresponsible drinking and loutish behaviour. The Liberal Democrats by contrast are wary of drawing lines and boundaries and want to see a campaign for responsible drinking including an end to Happy Hours; an end for the 2-for-1 offers; more challenging supermarkets on their age policies and finally stopping supermarkets selling alcohol at below cost price - this cannot be right. However if we were to have a saturation zone we wanted it extended and we wanted other areas looked at. Our amendment was defeated by the Con-Ind-Lab coalition on our Council so we abstained on the substantive. We also revisited the decison on whether we wanted to keep on in our bid for a casino licence. On our Council this is a free vote for all parties. The first time it was debated it was 60 for and 5 against the second time those against rose to 16 and this time 26 voted against. Next time will be a real nail biter. I spoke in favour as I see the problem with gambling addiction not with a quality casino but with the uncontrolled Internet Gambling and the growth of fixed odd betting machines.

And now for a first - well done to President Bush for stamping out the Internet gambling websites in the USA. Our Government should follow his lead.

And finally the Lib Dems put forward an SOS our NHS motion which was again defeated by the Con-Ind-Lab coalition. Despite the huge sums of money poured into the NHS this current Government is systematically destroying our NHS through a process of constant change and outsourcing the money to the private sector.

Monday 10

Travelled upto London for my first meeting as part of the Local Government Association board on Culture etc. Its remit mirrors the Government Office and in the Liberal Democrats it is Don Foster who leads for us in this area. The main topic was a presentation from the Museums expressing concern following Bury's disposal of a Lowry painting to fill a budget deficit. Their arguement was that museum collections should be managed and changed over time but that assets should not be sold to plug other funding holes. I agree with them. Overall Local Government has a very good record on stewardship of collections when compared with other parts of the Public Sector.

In Bath and NE Somerset we have a very good museum section and the Victoria Art Gallery has a good range of exhibits and touring collections.

In the afternoon our new format Local Strategic Partnership Public Sector Board met for the first time. The Government is certainly overseeing a rapid rate of change in the delivery of public services and its outcome seems to be heading towards more and more commissioning bodies and less and less democratic accountability. I wonder how many people will come forward for election in the future when all they will do will be to scrutinise other boards spending priorities. But by then it could be that all local democracy is condensed down to 200 or so all powerful elected Mayors. A nightmare endgame!! 

Tuesday  11

Travelled to Taunton for the SouthWest board of the RA and LGA to discuss yet another moving target of re-organisation and change.  The removal of Regional Assmblies and the increased powers of unelected Regional Development Agencies. The Government has promised that these will be changed at the same time so we must ensure that they are democratised and accountable.  In my view they should be scrapped at the same time as the Assemblies and their functionality and money transferred to the Government Offices around the Country.  As Government wants us to work in sub-regions that would give Local Government an opportunity to build real relationships with the G.O.s  and build up structures that work at sub region as we have with our West of England Partnership and at least ensure that peoples voices are heard in the corridors of power.

I have started to learn Mandarin. My brother lives and works in Taiwan and China and the Chinese will be the dominant power this century. Our Roman Baths was the first museum to put on a Mandarin Guide in the UK.  You Tube sample of one of the lessons.

Wednesday 12

Planning heard 6 applications for sponsored roundabouts. We approved 3 rejected 1 and asked for 2 to be amended. Now this wont strike most of you as worth reporting but here in Bath&NESomerset the Conservatives and Labour groups have adamantly opposed these for several years now whilst the Liberal Democrats have wanted to use sponsored roundabouts as a way of improving the planting regimes on our roundabouts. So now within two months we have approved 5 - progress at last.

Now that I am no longer leader of the Council I can give time to some of the things that I enjoy. I have joined the board of the Fringe as I really enjoy fringe festivals with their emphasis on inclusion and the streets.

Thursday 6

Part of the political process is the re-selection of sitting MPs to fight the next general election. Don first won Bath in 1992 and has now defended the seat three times in the intervening years. Don Foster is an excellent MP for Bath and has served Bath, the party and the Country well. The vote was nearly unanimous with just one person voting against.

There seems to be a lot of hysteria about the date of the next general election - this October next May....... It really is about time we had fixed term parliaments. The cycnical misuse of calling an election by a self serving PM is part of the erosion of confidence in the system. The last election was Spring 05 the next one should be Spring 10. About the only thing that is certain is that Gordon wont go till Spring 10 before calling the General Election.

My speculation for what it is worth is that he will call it to coincide with next May's local elections.

Friday 7

Unite are a company specialising in building blocks of flats for students amongst other things. They won planning permission to build a large block on the Lower Bristol Road against the wish of the Council and won on appeal. Now they are planning another block next door on the Lower Bristol Road. More employment land will be lost if the scheme is approved. However it does ease the pressure on family housing in neighbouring parts of the City. One of the main concerns of residents is that the University does not seem to be enforcing its no-car policy for residents in these blocks rigorously enough. Interestingly in both Nottingham and Coventry residents in Unite Blocks are barred from having a car anywhere in the city. In the current Bath block the ban only covers a 3km circle around the flats.

The picture shows the river front rather than the busy Lower Bristol Road side. 

Saturday 8

Tim, Sharon and I went to Glastonbury today to help Alan Gloak in his by-election for Mendip DC. It is a difficult seat that has swapped between Blue and Gold over recent years. Mendip is a very close Council and the Liberal Democrats have been gaining on the Conservatives over recent times. At District level the ruling Conservatives have been cutting services and raising parking charges but at County level the Liberal Democrats applied for unitary status which was not received well in Somerset. It will be interesting to see the result.

Sunday 9

Cleveland Pools is an old derelict Lido in Bath. It has been closed for many years following a decline in Lido use as people started growing abroad for holidays. There is around the country a rebirth in Lidos. However Bath's is in a very difficult position with very limited access and right next to the river. It is however very picturesque. I was a volunteer for the afternoon. It was great talking to people as they wondered round this hidden gem and listened to reminiscences and stories about when the pools had been open and in use. A number recalled that the water was always very cold.

Its good to see a bit of fun in politics check out these YOUTUBES from the Canadian Young Liberals.

On a serious note on Monday we held our celebration day for our Learning Difficulty Networks in Bath and NE Somerset. We have three newtorks based in Bath, Radstock and Keynsham and they are working hard to raise their concerns and issues and get their voice heard. As Chair of the Learning Difficulty Partnership we presented an item at the day on how we will work together with the networks to work on the issues that they define as their priorities and make life better for everyone. I am now co-chair with a person with Learning Difficulties and this was our first session as co-chairs and it worked very well. The day was a great success with over 130 attendees and of these about half were people with Learning Difficulties. Our Cabinet member attended the day and refferred to how much he had learnt at the Cabinet today. The day was put together by Kirstie Mann and her YourSay team. The morning was presentations and the afternoon we split into 8 workshops to discuss the 8 priorities identified by the networks. I sat in on the Housing workshop and attended feedback on Short Breaks and Employment. A key issue that underpinned a lot of the issues was the need for the Diamond Travel card to be able to be used before 9am so that they have the opportunity to get work and attend meetings and appointments more easily. So lots to work on in the year ahead. Below is the first draft of the Co-Chair powerpoint put together by Kirstie, Nigel and myself.

Partnership_Board_conference_presentation.ppt

To day was the second Conservative Cabinet meeting. This time after some of the frictions of their first meeting the Leader allowed 10 minutes at each item for public and member input. I spoke on three items: the spatial strategy and the need to provide some permanent pitches for Gypsies and Travellers, the Local Development Framework and the need to produce a simplified document that would engage with a large number of residents and finally on the award of the contract for our recycling services. Over the years Bath has been at the forfront of the recycling movement. Our green box scheme is one of the best in the Country and has the widest range of products. We have always worked on source separation which enables us to provide the industry with good quality recycled materials. We built the system up with a local social enterprise partnership Avon FoE Recycling. Sadly they got into difficulty and we got into partnership with another social enterprise - ECT. They have been great and their ethos and attitude to recycling matches ours. No Incineration, source separation and reduce landfill by a variety of means on the journey to Zero Waste. I urged the Cabinet to adopt the recommendation and award the 10 year contract to ECT. They all agreed and were happy to announce that May's recycling had reached 43%.

My press release on the subject:For immediate release: 5th September 2007

Recycling contract decision tonight

The Council Cabinet will decide tonight which contractor will win the contract for collecting household recycling in Bath and North East Somerset. The Lib Dems are calling for the contract to be awarded to ECT Recycling, the company currently providing the service.

Councillor Paul Crossley (Lib Dem, Southdown) commented:

"ECT has a proven track record of innovation and implementing successful recycling initiatives. They stepped into the breach when the Avon Friends of the Earth partnership scheme collapsed and have served residents and the Council well ever since. As a social enterprise company ECT is focussed on getting the best environmental results rather than maximising profits."

"The Liberal Democrats in Bath and North East Somerset want to see recycling rates increase and are very keen that a food waste collection should be included as one of the streams. ECT is already running a food waste collection in Somerset and their expertise will be vital in making sure that it can be clean and convenient for residents. We are also committed to keeping weekly household collections, despite repeated, misleading accusations to the contrary."

"The new Conservative administration has to deliver continuing improvements in recycling rates to follow two decades of recycling innovation by the Lib Dems locally."

ENDS

For a healthy planet we need healthy seas. The RSPB has launched a campaign to urge the new PM to put a Marine Conservation bill in the next session. Follow this link to sign this petition.

Last Friday we had a very unfortunate incident at our city mosque. Two men went in the front door and urinated on the shoes of people who were at their prayers. This despicable act has shocked the community. The two men have been caught on CCTV - lets hope they are identified and brought to book. There is simply no room for this sort of hate in our society and it needs to be addressed and sorted. Tonight's TV news had interviews with the imam, the chief of police and the head of our race equality council. I was interviewed at lunchtime for my comments by Bath FM. In Bath we work hard on good community harmony but it is so easy for a couple of jerks to  sour feelings and relationships.

Costing the Earth 

Did you hear the latest Costing the Earth - a radio 4 program that looks at the environmental agenda? It was a real hatchet job on wind turbine energy. The program had lot of flaws in it but the underlying premis seems to be that we are being cheated. Costing the Earth program (click here to listen again)  . It is quite clear that we need a range of renewable energy supplies and wind can be an important part of the mix. Germany already gets 5% of its electricity from wind energy compared to our 1%. This program left the listener with the clear impression that this was a scam for big business. The FoE response can be seen at this link. 

It is hard enough getting the serious nature of CO2 and the problem it is causing to be seriously addressed without the solutions forever being brought into question and doubt. The science is clear - the problem of global warming is here. The issue we have to face is how serious are we going to be about addressing the problem.

Learning Difficulties 

As the Chair of our local partnership board spent some time this week preparing for the first meeting at which I will co-chair with a person with Learning Difficulties. We are both determined to make co-chairing real and not just a paper exercise. Next week we have a celebration day in which the three network groups will be presenting their work and setting an agenda for their priorities and how they should be addressed.