In the same week that I re-joined the Youth Hostel Association, Bathwick Hill’s very own Youth Hostel was granted a mch extended alcohol and entertainment license.

The hostel has previously had a license for the sale of alcohol between 11am and 11pm, but following their refurbishment the new license permits for alcohol and entertainment 24 hours per day. The application, 08/02302/LAPRE is at http://planning.bathnes.gov.uk/PublicAccess/LI/LiApplication/li_application_detailview.aspx?refval=08/02302/LAPRE

 The license was granted because no objections were received. Given the controversy now this would seem odd, except that none of the neighbours (or councillors) knew about the application. Rules preventing the council from ’soliciting objections’ restrict adverts to one lamp-post sign and one notice in the local paper. Following the planning applications related to the refurbishment, there have been application notices fixed to the nearest lamp post for months, so the neighbours did not notice this different notice until it was too late.

If you think that you are being affected by increased noise or disturbance, please make a record of these occurances for 6 weeks. Concerned residents can then apply for the license to be reviewed, possibly revoked, with these records used as evidence.

The wonderful Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors (ALDC) provide this website platform for free, allowing me to blog onto a professional looking site with minimal expertise or hassle. Unfortunately their computers have been ill recently and this site vanished. However, all appears to be well again now and I shall renew usual service.

One whole year after winning their planning appeal, Tesco are still unable to open their shop on Bathwick Hill. The loading bay, for which Tesco were compelled to pay the council, has nto yet been painhted outside the shop.

Design difficulties and continued staff shortage delayed the planning stages and the statutory consultation phase. As there were objections from the consultation, a report must be written for the conservative cabinet member. However, this still hasn’t been presented for a decision, delayed by another week. When the cabinet member does decide, there will be a further three week wait for ratification. The loading bay may be marked out in early August, with Tesco keen to open the moment it is ready.

The pavement of St Christopher’s Close are to be resurfaced - 20 years ahead of schedule!

When Cllr Edwards first asked for the work, BathNES highways warned that the Tory budget allowed for resurfacing every 70 years. As St Christopher’s Close, off Minster Way, is only 50 years old, there would be a long wait.

Knowing the pavement’s poor state, your Lib Dem councillors persisted until the council agreed to do the work this year. The broken top surface of the pavement will be removed and replaced with a thin layer of bitumen slurry to seal the surface.

The work will be done in August with households notified individually nearer the time.

The UK School Games are being held in Bath and Bristol on 28th-31st August. The games are the junior equivalent of the olympics for (as should be evident) UK school children.

The University of Bath are hosting the athletics, fencing, table-tennis and volleyball on their Claverton campus; swimming is at theMillford school near Glastonbury and the remaining events at UWE and Filton, both North of Bristol.

Volunteers are needed to help run the games who will be fully trained, get free access o the events and a uniform to keep! Information on visiting and volunteering is at www.ukschoolgames.com.

Contrary to popular belief, BathNES council is not run by inummerable committees with endless meetings.

Most policy decisions are now taken directly by the Conservative cabinet, which are occasionally reviewed by Scutiny panels. However, there are some remnants of the old committee structure left where legally required. These are the judicial and regulatory committees which are run non-politically for legal matters. I have sat on two of these this week, Regulatory & Access and Planning.

Yesterday’s Regs committee in Keynsham town hall created 44 new footpaths in the city centre within a matter of minutes. This is less dramatic than it seems, the footpaths are already there, but they are now formally recorded. This is part of a long term plan to record all of the paths in Bath onto a definitive map. Such a map already exists for the mostly rural former Wansdyke area. Bathwick is next to be recorded!

Today was a planning meeting, my first as holder of an architecture degree. For a few of the applications I was strongly tempted to re-design the proposals but forced to resist. It is a shame to think that something could be done better, but have to permit the development because it would be unreasonable not to. Still, the planning committee is an architectural court, we neither make the buildings nor the laws, we just examine whether one matches the other.

BathNES council insists that a zebra crossing for Bathwick Hill depends on the number of cars and people using the road and paths. We will only be given a zebra crossing if the road is ‘busy’ enough.

A twelve hour traffic survey was undertaken last week, although I did point out that this was during the University holidays. I was sent a copy of the results today and discussed them with the BathNES traffic team leader this evening at a meeting about pedestrian and cycle safety.

To our surprise, even during the holidays and before Tesco opens, Bathwick Hill is already busy enough to warrant a zebra crossing. The threshold figure for traffic volume is exceeded during both morning and evening rush hours and pedestrian flow is steady throughout the day, with an unexpected peak around 10am.

There is now clear evidence of a need for a zebra crossing from the survey figures and evidence of local demand from our protest and petition (www.ourcampaign.org.uk/bathwickcrossing). Armand and I shall be using this information to push even harder for funding for this crossing from the Conservative council.

You may find the University of Wessex surprisingly familiar; it is the fictional establishment featured in Bonekickers, the BBC drama to start on Tuesday evening, filmed on the Bath University campus. I’m not getting paid by the BBC to plug this, but I am looking forward to it, if only to see how many Bath locations I recognise and which bits of the Uni they chose not to film! It’s on next Tuesday, 9pm on BBC1.

 Also in culture news, this week is the last before the Holburne closes for their 2 year renovation and re-build process. Hurry along to see the Bath Spa University show and the Aardman exhibition.

The highways department will be conducting a traffic survey to asses the need for a zebra crossing over Bathwick Hill on Thursday 3rd July.

Cllr Coombes has pointed out that the results of this survey will soon be irrelevant as the opening of Tesco will change traffic and pedestrian patterns and more importantly the University is on Summer holidays and so the 12,000 students and 2,600 staff will be mostly missing from the statistics. The traffic team leader has suggested that another survey may be carried out in the future.

It is surprising that a traffic survey has not been carried out to date, despite the Tesco application going to a public enquiry in which the council was fighting a case to reject on highways grounds. Elgar may be gone, but the new Tory on traffic doesn’t seem to be doing any better. The department he is responsible continues to be understaffed; in the past year there have been three different individuals responsible for the Bathwick Hill crossing.

Staff shortage has also delayed the writing of the report needed so that a decision can be taken on the loading bay. It was mostly written this morning and should be going for a cabinet decision in two weeks time. This means that the loading bay could be painted, and Tesco opening, mid-August at the earliest.