More New Housing including Social Rents

New figures show Bath & North East Somerset Council is exceeding the targets set in its Local Plan to deliver new homes for residents. In the past three years 3,100 new homes, including 700 affordable homes have been built across the district. The figures are revealed in the Government’s annual Housing Delivery Test (HDT) which assesses whether the number of houses built meet the district’s housing needs identified in the Local Plan. Across Bath and North East Somerset 184% of the required new housing has been delivered, almost double the target set in the Local Plan Councillor Tim Ball, cabinet member for Planning said: “This is great news for residents as it shows we’re delivering on our commitment to address the housing crisis and meet housing needs across the district. It highlights the importance of having an up-to-date Local Plan in place with sites allocated for new housing and shows just how well our Planning team is performing determining applications quickly and efficiently.” Councillor Tom Davies, cabinet member for Adults and Council House Building, added: “Having confirmation that we are exceeding the Housing Delivery Test target is great news but we know we still need to do more. This year we’re on course to deliver even more affordable homes as we begin our first council house building programme for a generation to provide much-needed social homes for rent to meet demand.” It is important that the council performs well in the Housing Delivery Test and can demonstrate it has enough land supply to meet housing needs for the next five years to ensure it remains in control of housing development across the district. If the council cannot meet the Housing Delivery Test the government can place sanctions on it to try to facilitate housing delivery. That can mean a council is forced to grant permission for housing developments unless there is substantial harm that demonstrably outweighs the benefits of providing more housing. In reality that means the council loses control over the location of new housing and becomes more vulnerable to speculative applications in less sustainable areas.

Twerton High Street

The ongoing condition of Twerton High Street is causing some concern and so we have asked for increased cleansing of this area. We used to have a daily litter pick and we have asked that this is given consideration to being reinstated. Looking Forward we have secured money in a bid to the West of England combined authority in February for increased street cleansing and for maintenance of the High Street. This will be on top of improvements that residents have already given their views on and have made further suggestions that have been incorporated in the bid.

Whiteway Green - new bin

We are really pleased to see the new bin we asked Curo to install next to the MUGA on Whiteway Green has now been installed.

Curo have confirmed that this will be emptied weekly.

We have also asked for an update on the play area. 

New Grit Bin Requested Innox Road

We have asked that a new Grit Bin is placed towards the top of Innoox Road by Northview Close. The Council do not normally grant New Bins but we feel that there are exeptional circumstances that make this a need at this location. This is a very steep hill and very slippery.

First Bus service and price changes

First Bus are making a few changes to some of their services on 30th January 2022, the only service that affects our are is the number 12, where there are going to be minor time changes.

Full details of all the changes can be found here.

There are also changes to some ticket prices which will come into effect on 23rd January 2022, the full details can be found here.

BANES tree sale this weekend

Bath and North East Somerset Council are running the event on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd January, as planting trees at this point during the winter will allow them to best establish themselves for next year's growing season.

The trees have been selected to fit into the average domestic garden and this will help us increase urban greening which will help us capture and improve air pollution, increase wildlife opportunities, reduce future heat island effects and just simply make urban life better for everyone.

A 2.5m pot grown tree would normally retail @ around £50 and we are selling them for just £10, a 1.5m pot tree would be around £25 and we are selling them for just £5! – so order your trees online here (to a limit of 5 trees per household) and fill your boots (of your car) in your positive action to fight the climate and ecological emergencies with us.

These are collectable from Radstock Road Collection Depot.

Dangerous Footpath Connection Hill

We have asked for the footpath that runs from Twerton High Street to the Lower Bristol Road Via Connection Hill be cleared of we leaf's as soon as possible as we have had several reports of people slipping on this steep path.

Wedgwood Road resurfacing

Another road in Twerton is to be resurfaced.  Wedgwood Road will be closed for 3 days (between 7am and 7pm) from Monday 10th February, to allow resurfacing to take place.

This will have an impact on the bus services and we will confirm exactly what will be happening with the buses closer to the time.

New Light installed at last

A replacement lamp post has at last been installed at Dominion Road in Twerton. The old post that had been hit by a car last year has at last been replaced this area was rather dark and it will be good to be able to see properly again in this area.

Newly registered Footpaths

Last year a number of footpaths in Whiteway and Southdown were identified as missing from the legal public right of way listings.

This has now been corrected and the footpaths in Haycombe Drive, Rosewarn Close and Blagdon Park as well as other roads in other areas have now been registered.

There is a legal record as well as a map showing the specific footpaths and these can been seen on the BANES website by clicking here (specifically item 18)

New Planning Applications - 10.01.2022

 We have 2 new planning applications for Twerton & Whiteway this week -  

Ward:               Twerton                                    App Ref:            21/04904/FUL

Parish:             N/A

Registered:      4th January 2022                                  Expiry Date:     1st March 2022

Location:         73 Cameley Green Twerton Bath Bath And North East Somerset BA2 1SB 

Grid Ref:          (E)372005 - (N)164575                          LB Grade:            N/A

Proposal:         Construction of a new dwelling with lower ground floor and upper floor at street level.

Officer:             Hayden Foster

Applicant:      Ms Lisa Morris	Agent:    Mr Philip Thorpe
73 Cameley Green Twerton Bath BA2 1SB	Pelham Cottage Wheatstone Lane Stowfield Road Lower Lydbrook GL17 9DP

click on the link here.

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Ward:               Twerton                                    App Ref:            22/00052/TCA

Parish:             N/A

Registered:      6th January 2022                                  Expiry Date:            17th February 2022

Location:         Twerton Sluice Gate Weston Island Newbridge Bath Bath And North East Somerset 

Grid Ref:          (E)372442 - (N)164899                          LB Grade:            N/A

Proposal:         3 Ash (Trees 15, 16 and 23), 3 Maple (Trees 14, 20 and 21), and 1 Horse Chestnut (Tree 22) - All to be removed to facilitate works to Twerton Sluice Gate.

Officer:            Jane Brewer

Applicant:     Environment Agency	Agent:    Mott MacDonald
Rivers House East Quay Bridgwater TA6 4YS	C/o Miss Rebecca Booley Mott MacDonald 10 Temple Back Redcliff Bristol BS1 6FL

click on the link here.