Sharon Ball

Hi everybody I'm Sharon Ball and I'm a Councillor in Westmoreland in Bath. I am married to another Bath Councillor, Tim. We have five children and with also five grandchildren now.

 I'm on planning, housing overview and scrutiny and also vice chair of standing committee of the Charter Trustees of Bath.

I've been a Councillor for 11 years now and this is my first blog entry. A big issue in my ward is Lower Bristol Road.

LOWER BRISTOL ROAD

The lower Bristol road is the A36 east to west of Bath going through Westmoreland from Victoria Buildings. There are three car showrooms along one side whilst on the other side is Bath Press. Then we have Royal Oak pub - a great new pub with two enthusiastic young landlords - selling a range a cask conditioned beers. Great for all you CAMRA fans. Along further if you cross over we have new student accommodation and further again we have Herman Millers, another pub the Golden Fleece which has been part of the community for decades and where I worked for a while a few years ago. Then MacDonald's and then we get to Twerton Ward.

This is one of the busiest roads in Bath and is a major highway for lorries, bus routes and commuters.

Our recent success was to create a third feeder lane at the Windsor bridge junction which allows the traffic to flow easier and turn left without quite so many hold-ups.

However the main problem is the safety of pedestrians crossing over the Windsor Bridge. All ways across this intersection are worrying for pedestrians with vehicles coming from all over and no clues to help cross. I consider it to be dangerous. After a first meeting with highway engineers they went away to look at solutions. Last week they reported back to a meeting with me and some members of a residents assosciation a solution. We are going to change the lighting sequence to make it safer for pedestrians.