SouthdownBath

Planning application for land next to Beehive. Any comments?

Ward: Southdown App Ref: 08/01781/FUL

Registered: 16th May 2008 Expiry Date: 11th July 2008

Location: Land Between Beehive Surgery And 129 Mount Road Southdown Bath

Proposal: Erection of pair of semi-detached 3 bedroom dwellings

OR on this one?

Ward: Southdown App Ref: 08/01669/FUL

Registered: 8th May 2008 Expiry Date: 3rd July 2008

Location: 92 Mount Road Southdown Bath BA2 1LH

Proposal: Conversion and extension to form 3 two bedroom flats

OR on this one?Ward:

Southdown App Ref: 08/01512/FUL

Registered: 8th May 2008 Expiry Date: 3rd July 2008

Location: 1 Englishcombe Rise Southdown Bath BA2 2RL

Proposal: Erection of a new dwelling attached to terrace

During this last week case work has ranged from poor quality workmanship on a slurry seal of pavements to homelessness issues. From anti-social behaviour to the loss of a waste bin - taken away without consultation. And of course the inevitable parking and traffic concerns of trying fit all the cars into a limited space.

Met with the Business Link representative who is advising on the setting up of social enterprises. We are planning to set up a local community association and want to get the right vehicle to enable us to deliver a series of objectives for community, traders and interest groups alike.

Next meeting was the pre-pact meeting to set the agenda for next week and check that all the people making reports are briefed on what is expected and the agenda sequence. We are now onto our third PACT meeting and so have already two sets of issues raised - some solved, some continuing and some just plain difficult to resolve.

And finally - at the Southside had a presentation from a group of youngsters on the exchange with german teenagers from Braunshweig. They had a grant from the YouthBank to enable them to host the Germans on their return trip to Bath. For our teenagers the trip to Germany was for many of them their first visit to a place outside the UK. They are maintaining penpal links and one is now learning German.

Today was my final moment as Deputy Mayor of Bath. It has been a great privalege to serve the People of Bath and support the Mayor Cllr Sharon Ball during this last year. I have done around 50 engagements over the year meeting many groups of residents working in various ways for communities and charities. I have visited Wells and Bristol on behalf of the Mayor. Bath is renowned for its History and its Rugby but in reality it is its people that makes a place a good place to live and Bath is a great city and place to live. Over the year there have been two things that have linked together in my mind - the residents and the number of choirs we have. Bath is a great singing city as well as an historical and sporting one.

Today at the Southside Centre we had the first meeting of the Whiteway Community Respect Partnership. This is the coming together of a number of residents who want to stand up against the anti social behaviour we have suffered from over the last few months. It was a very positive nmeeting with a good number of residents turning up and volunteering to get involved.

There are a number of activities for the area planned over the coming weeks and the start of several new activities.

One of those is the Southside Pig - part of the King Bladud's Pig public art project going on around Bath this summer. The 4 Liberal Democrat Councillors of Twerton and Southdown - Tim Ball, Gerry Curran, Dine Romero and myself have sponsored the purchase of a pig which we have given to the yound people at the youth centre. They have had help and advice in turning it into a work of art and it is coming along nicely now.  

The annual Student Union reception is always a good event where the retiring sabbatical team celebrate their year's achievements and hand over to the newly elected team. This year I was invited as Deputty Mayor - my last civic engagement of the year.

Bath has a very high percentage of students because it has two successfull universities. This brings problems as well as opportunities. Tonights event was to celebrate all the positives. The Students do a lot of fundraising and community work for both local and international causes.

The new president, Alexa, took me round all the stalls and we talked a lot about the volunteering side of student life.

Students today certainly work harder than when I was a student in the early 1970's. The Student Union also has changed and is now a business as well as providing pastoral and leisure care to students. One example of the Sociakl enterprises created is SIFE.

Well done to Dave (retiring president) and good luck to Alexa (new president).

The Bath Communities project - a single regeneration bid for the SW regional development agency - has now formally come to an end. By way of celebrating some of the projects funded over the last 6 years we had a celebration night at the Fashion Museum in Bath. Over the time of the scheme many innovative projects have been funded and supported for the two target communities of the SW corner of Bath and Bath's ethnic minority communities. Although I have chaired the SWT sub group of the scheme over some of the years, I attended the event as Deputy Mayor of Bath. It was really good talking to so many satisfied customers from BEACH (Bath East ASian and Chinese Freinds) and Percy Centre to TimeBank and City Farm.

Over the 6 years the project has delivered many positive outcomes. It has also had its problems. Most notably from the beaurocracy placed on it by the grant body in terms of restrictions and objectives. The grant was for economic outcomes when what we really required were social outcomes. Despite the problems the opportunities outweigfhed them and we outperformed on our target outcomes and in the end even returned a small amount of the money which remained unused.

Attended a Community meeting of many residents of the street concerning anti-social behaviour from a small number of youngsters. It was a very sad meeting in terms of the impact one household is having on a number of residents. Also in attendance were the local beat officer and a lady from the Children's society.

We have to now look at ways of addressing the issues raised to solve the problems. Not easy.