Kelston View - Handrail request

Having been asked recently by local residents with assistance in making some of the steps along Kelston View safer, we are pleased to confirm we have received agreement to install Handrails.

These are hopefully going to be installed very soon, however, we will confirm as soon as we have received a date for these.

Kelston View - Rubbish Bin replacement

Last month a litter bin on Kelston View was removed without warning.  When we contacted the council we were told it was damaged and would be replaced when new bins were in stock.

Sarah Moore chased the council yesterday (04.02.2019) to see when the new bin would be replaced and received a response to say it would be installed by the end of the week.

We are pleased to say that the bin has been replaced this morning and hopefully this will help to reduce the amount of litter that has been appearing along the street.

If you have any similar issues, please do contact us.

Southside Youth Hub - Can you help?

Do you have an interest in helping to support young people?

Southside Youth Hub is looking for volunteers to help out at their evening Youth Clubs

For 11-19 years from 6pm to 8.45pm.

A DBS check and training will be given. 

If you are interested please contact:

Babs Mcphail Senior Youth Development Worker on 01225 394482 

or e-mail Barbara_McPhail@bathnes.gov.uk.

Kelston View - Success

We have today received confirmation that the money that I managed to secure in the budget for this coming year will enable the whole of Kelston View to be repaired.

I have spoken with a BANES Council officer in the Highways team and he has confirmed that the Micro-asphalting from The Hollow to North Way will take place at the beginning of April.

Junction of Kelston View & Windrush Close

We also have confirmation that, following a meeting with the contractor this week, the section of Kelston View from the junction with Wedgwood Road around to Haycombe Drive has been scheduled to be repaired in June.  

The final, and worst section, between North Way and Wedgwood Road has been scheduled to be completed in July. The work on this section will take longer to complete than the other 2 areas due to the complexity of the procedure that needs to be carried out.

All the above work is subject to weather conditions and the council will be sending letters to residents closer to the work being carried out to confirm what will be happening.

Obviously whilst this work is being carried there will be disruption and road closures necessary, but we will hopefully have a better road to drive on by mid Summer.

Kelston View - Good News

As many of you may be aware, during 2016, local resident Sarah Moore led a campaign, assisted by local Councillor Tim Ball, to make the roads across our area safer for all users.  

The campaign included surveys, petitions and numerous meetings with Council Officers and the Divisional Director for Environmental Services to ensure the issues that affect everyone in this area were highlighted.

We are pleased to confirm that we have secured £125,000 to be spent specifically on the severely deteriorating road surface on Kelston View.

We appreciate this is not enough to replace the complete road, however, we have been told that some of the road will be re-surfaced with micro-asphalt and the worst area in the middle of Kelston View will be subject to a new process of re-stabilisation and re-surfacing.

The Council have agreed to include Sarah Moore in any discussions that take place throughout this work to ensure that residents views are taken on board throughout.  If you wish to make any comments or express any views on this work, or would like to be kept informed of progress of the work, please do get in touch.

Councillor Tim Ball and Sarah Moore will continue with this campaign to ensure other roads across the area are also fully repaired and not just patched, this may take a bit longer to achieve, but we will not stop until every road in this area is sorted. 

Please contact either Liberal Democrat Councillor Tim Ball or Local Campaigner Sarah Moore if you would like to discuss this or any other issues you may have.

Safer Roads - Kelston View

We are really pleased to let you know that following our campaigning in 2016, we have managed to get £125,000 to be put into the BANES budget from 1st April to carry out road maintenance works on Kelston View.

Whilst this is no where near enough to totally re-structure and resurface the whole road, it is a great start and we have a meeting on Friday to confirm exactly what is planned.

We will then be in a position to let you all know what is happening and what the next stage of our campaign will be.  We will not stop working on this until we have all the roads in this area up to a suitable standard.

by
Sarah Moore

Kelston View ( litter and leaf cleansing )

I have asked the council to give Kelston View a good deep clean and ensure that all of the recent leaf fall is removed.

In recent years the leaf mound has been left and not cleared away properly, it is no good the council just litter picking the area and then using a leaf blower to blow away wet leaves that of course will not blow away.

I hope that the council will get on with this and remove the leaves and by doing so remove the leaf mound that is the ideal growing medium for next years weeds.

Safer Roads - Kelston View - Progress at last

Following the recent complaints raised and meetings that Local Campaigner Sarah Moore and Councillor Tim Ball have had with both Officers and Directors from Bath & North East Somerset concerning the poor state of repair of some of the roads across the area we have received the following response:

"The Principle Engineer Highway Maintenance has visited the site and identified a section of the carriageway at Kelston View Road that requires reconstruction and a section that is suitable for an overlay as part of a trial to improve the ride quality.  The general condition of most of the slabs is good but we will address the particularly bad section as part of next year's Structural maintenance programme."

They also stated:  "As Highway Authority, it is our duty to maintain the highway for road users legally entitled to use the road."

Current condition of mid section of North Way

Whilst we are pleased our campaign appears to have made significant progress, we will not be reducing the pressure we are applying on the council until all poorly maintained roads across the area have actually been sorted.

If you have an issue in your street, please do get in touch with us.

Even More Busses through Twerton

Following my post in July concerning the state of the roads across the Twerton area, I am extremely concerned to see we now have an additional bus service running!

We now have a number 17 service being run by Wessex Connect that comes up Watery Lane, Poolemead Road, Wedgewood Road, Kelston View, North Way and then on around areas of Southdown before going back through town and up to the University of Bath.  This bus service is running from 6.45am with the last bus scheduled to come through Twerton at approx 3.15am

This now means that the above roads have almost 200 large busses EVERY DAY running on them. These are residential roads most of which are in urgent need of radical replacement as they were deemed not to be in a fit state to take the original level of bus usage, let alone the additional quantity now being run.

There is an infant school on one of the roads and large numbers of children playing near them, putting safe routes to school in danger and also increasing the risk of children not only being injured by the increased traffic, but their health will also be affected by the increased pollution being produced across this area.

I have written to the Council this morning and requested that immediate action is taken to remedy this situation.

Safer Roads - Latest

Councillor Tim Ball and I today met with the Divisional Director for Environmental Services, together with her colleague to further discuss the state of the roads in Twerton.

Whilst we were meeting, they were both shocked by the high number of large busses that use our roads and were not aware of the considerable number that travel these badly damaged roads often either empty or with just a couple of passengers.

It was agreed that we will be looking at 2 key things, the cause of the rapid decline in the condition of our roads and how the roads can be repaired.

Tim and I have already had discussions with FirstBus who have agreed to attend 2 meetings in September for residents to come along to and have their say on what sort of bus service we would all like to cover this area.  As soon as the locations for these meetings have been confirmed, we will circulate this around the whole area to ensure as many residents can attend.

We have asked the Council to prioritise North Way as an urgent need to totally repair this road, not just lay tarmac on top of the considerable damage that is there.  Then moving onto Kelston View and then other roads across this area to ensure they are all brought up to a standard that we can use safely. 

We understand there has been no money put aside in the budget for any of this work, however, this will now be fully costed with a view to get the work into the future road repair budgets and get the work completed.

We will continue to push for this work until we get the outcome we need and will not drop this until the work has been completed. 

Rubbish Kelston View - UPDATED

After receiving complaints from residents about the amount of rubbish being scattered along Kelston View from rubbish deposited outside Bath City Farm gates on rubbish collection day each week.

We are working with the farm and council to try to resolve this issue, and have suggested that the farm build a wooden containment unit outside the farm gates to keep the rubbish bags in until collection.

We will keep residents postured on progress.

UPDATE:

Since releasing this post earlier this morning we can already confirm that the Farm has acted promptly in putting this in place, as you can see below:

We would like to thank the Farm for their prompt action in building this to help prevent the rubbish bags from being attacked and for their continued great work in supporting our local community.

Bath City Farm Fun Day Saturday 16th July

 Bath City Farm are gearing themselves up for a Big Farm Fun Day, which they are  holding with Southside Family Project this year, on Saturday 16th July, 12-3pm.  The Farm very much hope you'll be able to join them for an afternoon of fun, games and entertainment and help them raise money for the Farm and Southside Family Project.  

To help make this year's event extra successful, they are asking for donations of good quality, clean teddies, bric-a-brac and unopened bottles for their stalls.  You can drop donated items 9am-5pm Monday-Saturday.  

There'll also be a cake stall on the day, so if anyone would like to make a cake to sell, please bring them to the farm on Friday 15th July, between 9am and 4pm in a container (with your name and phone number marked clearly so we can return it to you), or wrapped in cling film

They will be very grateful for anything you can donate

Hope on Drainage problems,

Bath & North East Somerset Council have responded positively to questions about drainage problems at Kelston View and Watery Lane.

We have clearly pointed out to them that drains are silted up and some completely blocked and we are concerned about low level flooding or even worse if water run offs move further down hill being unable to drain away.

We however live in hope that these drains will soon be cleared.

Kelston View Bath (Bus Shelter)

We have had complaints from residents about youths vandalising the Bus Shelter on Kelston View after school hours.

We have drawn this matter to the attention of the local Police and asked that they keep a close eye on the area.

Residents have told us that some of the youths have been verbally aggressive and we advise that people keep away from them and inform the Police of any problems of vandalism.

Kelston View and North Way

Councillor Tim Ball raised formal questions at the Conservative Council Cabinet meeting last week concerning the condition of North Way and Kelston View.

We are a little concerned that the seriousness of the condition of Kelston View and North Way has not been taken very seriously and will continue to pursue this matter.

The questions and reply are given below.

M		Question from:	Councillor Tim Ball
Kelston View and North Way Over the past few months the condition of these two roads has become so bad that I have visited the area with Highways officers on several occasions. It seems that the whole substructure of both of these roads has become unstable and the concrete plates that form the road are cracking and in some cases have badly subsided and are visibly rocking. It seems that these two roads are in need of a complete restructure. 1) Will the cabinet member for Highways and Transport confirm that if officer reports identify that as I suspect a complete restructure of the road is needed make the sufficient funds available for this work to be done? 2) Will he also confirm that he will ensure that temporary repairs will take place with Immediate effect to return these roads to a reasonably safe condition? 3) Will he also acknowledge that as these roads are part of a Major Bus route that their condition should be kept in a condition that allows buses to operate with knowledge that the roads are safe for them to use and deliver the comfort that their passengers expect?
Answer from:			Councillor Anthony Clarke
1) There is an approved programme for Capital Improvement works for 2015/16.  Officers will assess the condition and if substantial reconstruction works are required, they will be considered for inclusion in a future programme of work. 2) Highway Officers have been asked to inspect the roads reported by Cllr Ball and undertake any essential safety repairs ensuring that the road remains safe and comfortable for all road users. 3) As above.

Resident Survey - Update

Following our recent residents survey along Kelston View, one of the issues raised was the loss of the fencing along a stretch of The City Farm that has posed a safety concern.

Councillor Tim Ball and Sarah Moore
by the newly erected fence

We are pleased to see that The City Farm have now replaced this stretch of fencing making this footpath safer again.

We will continue to pursue the other issues that have been raised with us and hope to provide further updates over the coming days and weeks.

If you would like to complete our survey an on-line copy can be found here.

If you have any issues or concerns, please do get in touch.

Bath City Farm - Summer Plant Sale

Saturday 27th June 11.00am - 2.00pm

Bath City Farm, Kelston View, Bath

Do you want to give you garden a summer makeover! Good value perennials, herbs, vegetable seedlings, annuals, cut flower plants and soft fruit will be available to buy, as well as crafts, chutneys and produce at Bath City Farm 

There will also be a Bouncy castle and the café will be open as usual.

Kelston View & North Way

Due to the severe conditions of the road surface of Kelston View and North Way and with the structure of both roads being in a very poor state.

Councillor Tim Ball has raised formal questions for the Conservative cabinet member for Highways and transport to answer.

Cabinet member for highways & Transport

Kelston View and North Way

Over the past few months the condition of these two roads has become so bad that I have visited the area with Highways officers on several occasions.

It seems that the whole substructure of both of these roads has become unstable and the concrete plates that form the road are cracking and in some cases have badly subsided and are visibly rocking. It seems that these two roads are in need of a complete restructure.

1) Will the cabinet member for Highways and Transport confirm that if officer reports identify that as I suspect a complete restructure of the road is needed make the sufficient funds available for this work to be done.

2) Will he also confirm that he will ensure that temporary repairs will take place with Immediate affect to return these roads to a reasonably safe condition.

3) Will he also acknowledge that as these roads are part of a Major Bus route that their condition should be kept in a condition that allows buses to operate with knowledge that the roads are safe for them to use and deliver the comfort that their passengers expect.

Southside Centre - Celebrate Sound & Vision

Saturday 20th June 11.00am - 2.00pm

Southside Youth Hub, Kelston View, Bath

Why not go along for a great day showcasing the talent and creativity of young people from the area

The event is free and will have:

• Live music by local people
• Launch of locally produced CD & Local video
• Art displays
• Free BBQ
• Art Workshops & Displays
• Mural painting
• Children's activities
• Hands on music
• Prize bingo
• Street Dancing
• Face painting
• and lots more

For more information, contact Southside Youth Hub on 01225 394482

The event is supported by: Bath Festival, CURO, DNA Arts and a host of local agencies & voluntary groups

Kelston View & North Way

A meeting took place with this morning with the councils highways inspector in which we highlighted the dangerous road surface on these. Roads.

The outcome of the meeting is that we have secured emergency repairs to Kelston View & North Way t ensure that the roads are safe to use.

We have also agreed that a report will be made for funding for a full restructure of these roads as we the highways inspector acknowledged that many of the concrete slabs have become badly broken.