Twerton Bath

A photo call will take place for residents concerned about developments on the Hollow with local Councillors Tim Ball & Gerry Curran.

On Monday 3^rd March a press photo call with the Bath Chronicle will take place at 9.30am.

The meeting place for both will be on the corner of Cotswold View.

Please come along this Saturday and see us at the monthly surgery form

10am till 11am at the Hut Hinton Close off of Newton Road.

No appointment is required.

Both Councillors Tim Ball & Gerry Curran will be in attendance.

Local residents in Twerton are outraged at the proposal to develop a small piece of land between Cotswold View, the Hollow and Bath City Farm.

Twerton Councillors Tim Ball and Gerry Curran have launched a web petition to allow local people to register their objections.

Somer Housing has submitted a planning application to build 24 houses and 6 flats on the piece of land, although it does not currently own it. The Councillors have requested that the scheme should be considered by the Council's planning committee should planning officers recommend approval of the application.

Councillor Ball said:

"This hillside is visible from all over Bath and any development on this site would be very unwelcome to residents all over the city. I believe it would be a blot on the landscape.

"We can't allow development to creep onto our open spaces."

Councillor Curran added:

"There are other causes for concern about this planning application - 30 housing units is a lot for this small area of land, and the proposal includes access via Cotswold View, rather than directly onto The Hollow, which will change the nature of what is currently a quiet cul-de-sac.

"We would encourage all residents who object to this proposal to visit the petition site and register their opposition. We will be submitting the petition responses to the committee as official objections."

Text of the web petition and link,

"We the Undersigned do not want to see any more building on the important hillside at The Hollow in Bath. The land above Cotswold View and adjacent to Bath City Farm should be protected and preserved for future generations. The hillside is visible from all over the Bath area; any further building on this site would be a blot on the landscape. We call on Bath & North East Somerset Council to reject any planning applications to build on the land above Cotswold View and adjacent to Bath City Farm and to take steps to ensure that the land is protected for the pleasure and enjoyment of all Bath residents, now and in the future."

http://ourcampaign.org.uk/protectourhillside

We are pleased to be able to tell you that both our Post offices have survived this round of the governments closure programme although we are concerned that this may not always be the case in the Future.

We will continue to campaign to keep all our Post offices open as we feel that they are a valuable part of our community.

If you want to see what Bath Post offices are being considered for closure or want to see what the council are proposing to do about this. Then please visit www.readmyday.co.uk/timball .

We had a good session in Redland Park and Carr's woodland on Saturday and with the help of local residents we were able to remove a lot of litter and even more rubbish out of Carr's woodland.

Many thanks to the young people who lent a hand and Richard Wilson and Joe who spent hours working with us. A special thanks to the Mayor for her visit & to our local MP Don Foster who spent an hour of his valuable time helping out.

The Pictures show some of the rubbish that we have removed today.

We Plan to organise another day in the Autumn and will let you all know the date nearer the time.

If you are just logging on this morning and thinking of that Lazy Saturday or want to get out for an hour then its not too late to join us in Redland Park this morning and to help us clear up this local estate with a though litter pick.

We are meeting at Hinton Close at 10am but don't worry if you are late as you will be more than welcome any time up till 4pm just call 07970461674 and we will come and find you.

Please help your local community in this very important event.

Below is a press release that has been put out by the Mayors office and as you will see both Twerton Councillors will be taking on the office of Mayor & Deputy Mayor this coming year.

It will be a family affair at the Mayor Making Ceremony in Bath Abbey on 17 May this year as Councillor Sharon Ball hands over the chain of office to her husband, Councillor Tim Ball.  Sharon will then be a record breaker having been Deputy Mayor in 2002, Mayor this year and, when Tim takes over, Mayoress.

The Mayor's theme will be ‘Charity Begins at Home' as Tim is keen to support those facing hardship in the City by raising money for The Mayor of Bath's Relief Fund and ‘Change' the Charter Trustee scheme which collects money for the homeless in Bath.

"Sharon's theme was ‘Caring' and I wanted to continue to work for the under-privileged in the City," Tim explained.  "I also want to thank all the supporters of other charities by inviting them to Civic Receptions and visiting them in the community to publicise the work that they do.  I will be very proud to be the 781^st Mayor of Bath and the first from Twerton Ward for 31 years," he added.

Tim is no stranger to high office, as he was Chairman of Bath & North East Somerset Council in 1998 and has been with Sharon every step of the way acting as Mayor's Consort during her Mayoral year.   He is an experienced Councillor with 17 years service representing Twerton Ward first on Bath City Council and then on Bath & North East Somerset Council. He also served on Avon County Council from 1993 until its abolition in 1996.

For four years Tim was Housing Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat Group and then Deputy Spokesperson and he also chaired the Council's Development Control Committee.  From 2001 to 2004 he took the Chair of the Liberal Democrat Council Group.  He now Chairs the Taxi & Miscellaneous Licensing Sub-Committee, is a member of the Avon Pension Fund and represents the Lib Dems on the Council's Corporate Audit Committee.

Sharon and Tim live in Twerton.  They have five grown-up children and five grandchildren.

Councillor Gerry Curran will be the new Deputy Mayor.  He has been a member of B&NES for 13 years and represents Twerton Ward.  As Chairman of the Council in 2002/03 he welcomed the Queen to Bath during her Golden Jubilee celebrations.

Since then Gerry has been Executive Member for Education, Chair of Health & Social Service Scrutiny and Executive Member for Sustainability & the Environment.  Last year he became the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Planning and Vice Chair of Avon Fire Authority.

He has been Chair of the Governors at Culverhay School for many years and is also a Governor of Twerton Infants School.  Gerry is the Chair of Trustees at Bath City Farm, a member of the Bath-Kaposvar Twinning Association, and Treasurer of Bath International Evening.  He works at Beaumonds Respite Care Home near Englishcombe and lives in Southdown with his partner Caroline and their two sons.

The Latest road reports show quite a bit of potential disruption in the Twerton area.

Please follow the Link Twerton to see the latest reports.

Your local Councillors Tim Ball and Gerry Curran have met with both Somer Housing and Bath & North East Somerset Council concerning the condition of both Redland Park & Carrs Woodland.

Both Somer & the Council have cleared up some areas but this is not enough and so we have organised a clean up day for 23^rd February for both areas.

The Clean up Day will start at 10 am and will finish at 3.30pm when the lorry will take the last load away.

We would like residents and community groups to join us on the clean up and would ask that we meet at Hinton Close at 10am any one needing more information or coming late can ring me on 07970461674.

Both Twerton Councillors Tim Ball & Gerry Curran joined nearly 50 residents cleaning up litter at Bath City Farm & in local roads surrounding the farm.

It was a great day out in which we even had a visit from the Mayor of Bath.

The whole day was a great exercise in which we managed to remove a lot of litter and rubbish.

The day was preceded by a visit to the site on Friday 8^th by Culverhay & Haysfield Schools who also picked up nearly nine bags of litter.

There are a number of road works going on in our area at the moment that will affect you our local residents.

Please follow the Link Twerton Roads to see what is affecting our area this week.

Bath City Farm is having its annual litter Pick on Sunday 10^th February at 11am.

The Farm is based at Kelston View and is run mainly by volunteers and needs your help so if you are able to help please arrive at 11am at the farm wearing waterproof boots is advisable.

Please do all that you can to help the farm in whatever way that you can?

Don Foster MP will be holding a surgery for Twerton & Westmoreland residents at Twerton Village Hall Landseer Road Twerton on Saturday 16^th February 2008.

The Surgery will run from 10am till 12 noon with no appointment being required. If you have a problem that you feel that Don may be able to help you with then please pop along and see him.

Twerton & Westmoreland Councillors will also be present to discuss any local issues with you.

Bath Area Play Project are holding their Annual General Meeting on 28th February, 6.30pm at The Hut, Hinton Close Newton Road Twerton.

If you are interested in finding out more about Bath Area Play Project who do a lot of work in the Twerton area or wish to attend their AGM then please contact Sam Francis Children and Young People's Network Co-ordinator on 01225 313946.

The calling notice for the meeting and more about BAPP is attached.

AGM_LETTER_REVISED-1.doc

Somer Housing have made changes to the way that they work on the ground they have launched  a Better Places booklet that details the new way that they will be working. In the Twerton area it means that the housing officers and their responsibilities have changed in parts of the area.

Your councillors welcome these changes and feel that these will lead to a greater understanding and a better way of working in our area you can read more about the changes by following this link BETTER PLACES.

These mornings ward surgery was a busy one we had several housing inquiries and problems with Redland Park. And it is Redland Park that we have a problem with litter a rubbish and overgrown areas that have attracted rubbish.

After the surgery we spent an hour in Redland Park looking at the problems that need to be resolved and we saw with our own eyes the matters that need to be dealt with.

We spoke to residents who expressed their concern about the amount of litter and rubbish and we agree that it now needs clearing.

We will be contacting officers of both Bath & North East Somerset council & Somer Housing about this problem on Monday morning and getting an action plan to together to sort out this issue.