Paul Crossley1

As Deputy Mayor went along to the opening of the new exhibition at BRLSI on Natural Collectors. This institute is one of Bath's hidden Gems with a lively debating society and a great collection of materials.

Our latest Southdown enews = Southdown_enews_22_9_7.doc

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Mount Road Shops - a new Traders Association ?

Southdown has a lively parade of shops but like all suburban shopping parades it faces challenges from the supermarkets, internet shopping and the Post Office closure program. We lost our post office in the last round and it has had an impact. This Labour Governement is systamatically dismanteling our social fabric by closing down. one by one. these sort of services. Yes it is now a private business ( and that was a mistake) - but if it keeps having its core business stripped out then of course it becomes uneconomic. Our residents now go to Moorland Road for the Post office and where you get your money out is often where it is spent. Dine and I got together with a number of our shops and had invited Barry Cruse, the Chair of Moorland Road Traders Association, to speak to us. He is very enthusiastic about the value of an association to promote a shopping parade and is keen to keep local shops going. We decided we want to pursue the idea and are going to hold a formal start up meeting in October. We have identified a clear set of priorities - one hour shoppers time limit to prevent it being used as all day parking - explore some extra parking spaces - get some double yellow lines at corners - explore Christmas trees and lights for a good seasonal show - explore a community day - get the VAT problem sorted on the green refuse bags from the Council. If you read Facebook, Moorland Road has a lively Facebook group called 'Moorland Road is Amazing.'

Carrswood Day Centre

Six years ago we started down the road of reproviding for our elderly residents in Bath and NE Somerset with a scheme to close down all our old EPHs and rebuild 3 brand new ones which catered for a greater range of needs and requirements and met the modern standards. The Conservatives and Labour voted against this as they wanted to either ignore the issues or privatise. As part of the project one of the new homes would be on an old day centre for Learning Difficulties. We decided to incorporate a new facility for adults with Learning Difficulties as part of the EPH reprovision. Carrswood is now up and running and strangely all the parties who tried in vain to stop this Liberal Democrat initiative are jumping on board claiming kudos as well. The only important thing though is that a very special group of our residents now have a fabulous day centre which has lots of facilities, top class hygiene rooms and wide spacey corridors for all manner of conveyances. At the open day I visited in my role as Deputy Mayor and talked to lots of residents. Everyone is delighted with the building.

Picture shows me with Cllr Vic Pritchard(Con) - current Cabinet member for Adult Services - with some day visitors

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Bath City 1 Newport 1. Went to Twerton Park for my second game of the season. A record crowd of 1618 with a lively Welsh singing contingent and a good entertaining game. The referee disallowed a goal for each side and had a good game. Our goal by Gilroy was a cracker. I took our MP Don Foster along and naturally we ended up chatting to several residents before the game, half time and after the game. If Bath continue with this terrific start and form through the season them we will be getting another promotion at the end of the season. But then sports fans are always hopelessly optimistic!!!!

St Barnabas .I had met Father David, of our Anglican Church, at the welcome service for Deacon Steph at the Methodist and he encouraged me along to his service. The sermon was about the life and witness of a famous Chinese Christian from the last century - Watchman Nee. Naturally over tea after the service many of the congregation raised issues the main one being the behaviour of a small number of young boys. I brought them up to date on what we have been doing including over the last week we have successfully issued ASBOs on two young boys. Our GP surgery has a car park covered in chippings. Over time we have asked for this to be replaced by tarmac. Now following another bout of stone throwing I shall be making the request again.

Bus routes. Several of our bus routes travel through narrow residential streets with lots of parked cars. We are starting a consultation on several proposals for double yellow lines to enable the buses to travel more easily. Of course this means loss of parking space so there are bound to be several objections. Click on documents below to see the proposals. Please let me or Dine have any comments.

Southdown Infant School governors Continued the work on our Mission and Vision statements and also elected people to positions

Charter trustees held their first meeting since mayor making. As deputy mayor I helped the Mayor with chairing duties. Bath only has Charter Trustees since the last Tory Government stripped Bath of its powers and its wealth. We created two new Honorary Alderman - John Bailey and Peter Metcalfe - both former Mayors. John lost his seat at the last election and Peter retired from being a Councillor.

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Modified on September 22, 2007 at 5:46 PM

Last Saturday at our regular surgery we were joined by our MP Don Foster. We had a number of residents through during the morning covering the normal issues we are experiencing at present. The Whiteway Road and its safety, Anti Social Behaviour by a small number of youths, lack of affordable housing in Bath and some problems we are experiencing with a pub since a management changeover.

Over the summer several residents have felt uncomfortable with the actions of a small group of young people - language, drinking, motorbikes and stone throwing - our beat team have worked really hard but in the end the kids have hid behind their gang group. Lets hope the return to school will ease the problems. The problem is getting evidence that stands the scrutiny of the court.

After the surgery we had a couple of visits to residents houses on litter and neighbour problems and then I was stopped in the street for a long conversation on the Iraq war. I had not had this for several weeks and it must have been prompted by the withdrawal from Basra. My opposition to this war from well before the invasion started is well known. And when we complain about kids lets not forget that the biggest act of vandalism and international terrorism was the Bush-Blair-Brown illegal invasion of Iraq. Our troops have served the Country well. It is the Country that has not served them well by sending them into this mess. Which also had the knock on into not being able to complete the job in Afghanistan -which did have international justification and reason.

On Monday morning Southdown Infants had an inset day for all staff and the governing body was invited along for the morning session to discuss an updating of our vision and mission statements.

Last night at our Methodist Church we welcomed Deacon Stephanie into the Community and into her new mission. Welcome to Southdown Steph. The Methodist Church are combining two congregations, selling off one building and investing into a renewal project at the Southdown Church. We wish them well.

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Modified on September 5, 2007 at 1:48 PM