Bath City Football application - information workshops by Councillors

RE Bath City Football Club Planning application ref 19/02276/FUL

This planning application can be viewed and commented on the BANES planning web page here.

It is in the best public interest that residents are able to view the planning application and be able to make their own independent comments on the application which will make a significant change to Twerton High Street, and in that light your Twerton Councillors have enable a paper copy of the plans is available for residents to view at Rose Cottage on Twerton High Street.

We will be holding information workshops to assist residents in understanding the application and to be able to make comments, dates and places below.

Stall on Twerton High Street

Saturday 15^th and 22nd, June 10am till 12 noon

Bradburys Caff, Mount Road

29^th June 11am till 12 noon

Other times available by phoning Sarah

New Pop-up creative space for Twerton High Street

A former vacant shop unit in Twerton High Street, Bath has been transformed into a community-led pop-up creative space and workshop for Bath’s Carnival team.

The team will use the space over the next few weeks to work with volunteers and professional artists to make carnival costumes for the July carnival.

The project has been delivered with support from Bath & North East Somerset Council and funded by the West of England Combined Authority as part of the regional ‘Love our High Streets’ pilot which seeks to re-vitalise and re-think the way we use local High Streets.

Councillor Tim Ball, cabinet member for Housing, Planning & Economic Development, said: “I am delighted to champion this project which will provide a real boost for Twerton High Street. Our High Streets are changing and we need to come up with new and innovative ways to ensure they thrive. High Streets provide a focal point for communities; contributing to our health and wellbeing, reducing isolation and loneliness, reducing car dependency and promoting active travel. By creatively using vacant premises we can give our High Streets a new lease of life and help support local businesses.”

Councillor Sarah Moore said: "The future of our High Street isn’t just about shops, it’s about our businesses, community activities, services and homes. Bringing communities together is the best way to revitalise Twerton High Street and make it a thriving hub every day.”

As well as using the space to create costumes for the parade, the carnival team will run in collaboration with local charities a series of community workshops on the site to help residents across Bath prepare for the big day.

Stuart Mason, Project Coordinator for Bath Carnival, said “One of the biggest challenges we face each year is securing a safe space for our artists to design create and repair costumes This unit is a real game changer, with enough space for our lead artists to work on some of our largest structures and costumes as well as provided space for us to run sessions with volunteers and workshop participants to upskill them in carnival arts.

“Suitable spaces for the arts are really hard to come by, so we are very grateful to everyone who has helped make this happen. The results will be for everyone to see at the carnival in July, which is shaping up to be a pretty spectacular event!”

Bath Carnival takes place on Saturday 13 July and will involve a free Party in the Park in Sydney Gardens and a stunning two-hour carnival procession around Bath city centre.

Volunteering opportunities are still available.  For more information visit the carnival website:  http://www.bathcarnival.co.uk/

Voluntary sector groups or charities that are interested in using the Twerton High Street unit or other vacant premises in the area should email: environment&design@bathnes.gov.uk

Love our High Streets Pilot

The Love Our High Streets project is funded by the West of England Combined Authority.

The B&NES Love Our High Streets Pilot comprises three parts, which each focus on High Street vitality at different neighbourhood scales; city centre, town centre and neighbourhood/local centre.

The pop-up space is part of the Local High Street initiative which will deliver improvements to Twerton High Street, along with a wider Local High Street vitality health check which will assess the health and vibrancy all local centres across Bath and North East Somerset to identify how they can be supported and improved.

Bath Carnival:

Bath Carnival takes place on Saturday 13 July.

Carnival Parade | 15:00 | City Centre | FREE

Party in the Park | 10:00 – 22:00 | Sydney Gardens | FREE

Fiesta at the Rec | 10:00 – 15:00 | Bath Recreation Ground | FREE

Public donations to the Local Giving page: https://localgiving.org/charity/bathcarnival/

Sponsorship enquiries to enq@bathcarnival.co.uk

For more information about Bath Carnival visit: www.bathcarnival.co.uk or email: enq@bathcarnival.co.uk

Insta: @bathcarnival

Twitter: @bathcarnival

Facebook: /bathcarnival

Bath City Football - Redevelopment

As many of you will now know, the planning application from Greenacre Developments and Bath City Football Club have now been submitted and are open for comments from the public.

The planning application can be found here and the timeline for this application is as follows:

Date Application Received:                       22/05/2019
Date Application Validated:                       29/05/2019
Neighbourhood Consultations sent on:     31/05/2019
Standard Consultations sent on:               31/05/2019
Last advertised on:                                    13/06/2019
Latest Site Notice posted on:                    13/06/2019
Expiry Date for Consultation:                    04/07/2019
Target Decision Date:                                28/08/2019

We are aware that this application has been received well by some residents but not by the majority of others and are keen to ensure as many people put their views forward on this as possible as it will shape how Twerton High Street will look for years to come.

Both Tim Ball and Sarah Moore have great concerns about the application in it's present form including over-development of the site and lack of infrastructure, specifically how the area will deal with the considerable larger quantity of bus issues that would arise from such a large increase in student population in the area. 

We also feel that the lack of residents in the area out of term time and football season will not improve this area for a large period of the year, therefore being of no overall benefit to our area.  The inclusion of community and cafe facilities were apparently borne out of the resident consultations, however, since these were held, both Rose Cottage and the Village Hall have seen a large increase of resident involvement and this could therefore be detrimental to the already established community facilities within the village that local residents use.

As such both Tim Ball and Sarah Moore will be fully reviewing the large quantity of documentation that accompanies this application prior to making any representations to the Council about it and would urge all residents that have an opinion either way to do the same.  This re-development needs to benefit the community of Twerton and not just the developer and Football Club.

Twerton Ward issues

We have been out in every street in Twerton & Whiteway this weekend and have picked up over 50 separate issues.

In our bid to make our area the best it can be, we will be dealing with these over the next couple of weeks, however, if there is something that is specifically affecting you and are not sure if we have picked this up, please do get in touch.

We have a meeting arranged with Curo this week at which we will be raising a large number of issues directly with them and will be insisting residents are put first and our whole area is cleared up urgently.

Lower Bristol Road - Overhanging Vegetation

After raising concerns that the vegetation that is overhanging the footpath and obscuring road signs and traffic lights, we have had confirmation that Network Rail are going to attend and clear this.

The section of footpath opposite MacDonalds on the Lower Bristol Road has both shrubs and branches overhanging and obscuring road signs and the traffic lights.  It is now so overgrown that some areas are very dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists as well as almost totally obscuring the traffic lights at the junction with the turning into Twerton High Street.

Linley Close - Flytipping

This is a regular occurrence in the garage area behind the Centurian and is totally unacceptable.  Residents are fed up that just a few people still think they can just dump their rubbish and expect it to be taken away for them.

1. 

I have asked that this is removed and cleaned up as soon as possible and solutions are sought to prevent this from constantly re-occurring. 

Pennyquick Park - Issues

I was alerted to a broken fence at the play area in Pennyquick Park via Facebook today.  I have reported this to the council to be properly repaired, however, to ensure children can continue to safely play in this area I have visited the park and made a temporary repair.

I have also contacted BT again to ask that they either fully repair the damaged telephone box at the entrance to the park or remove it, as it is of little use to anyone in the condition it is currently in.