New Super Off-Peak ticket will only add confusion

With First Great Western (FGW) set to introduce a new ‘Super Off-Peak’ ticket early in September, Bath MP has criticised the move saying it will only add to confusion for passengers.

Currently FGW have an Off-Peak and Peak ticket. The new Super Off-Peak ticket will be at the same price as the current Off-Peak ticket, with Off-Peak prices rising by 20%. Super Off-Peak travel will force people to leave Bath later in the morning, and also deny a return from London between 3pm and 7pm.

Don said, “Travelling from Bath to London on the train already involves one of the most expensive journeys per mile in the world. Adding extra restrictions on cheaper leisure travel is hardly going to encourage more families to use the railways.

“Moving to three types of fare only add confusion, and many people won’t even know what ticket to buy.

All not lost in quest to stop proposed-BRT

Bath MP Don Foster has vowed to continue to fight the controversial proposed-BRT route, after it passed through B&NES Council’s Development Control Committee at the third attempt.

The BRT is now subject to an Article 14 declaration, which means that Secretary of State John Denham will decide whether or not to call for a public inquiry into the scheme.

Don said, “In many ways last week saw a sad day for local democracy, the Conservative Cabinet have just forced this scheme back to the planning committee until they got the result they wanted.

SATNAV misery

B&NES councillors Neil Butters and Ian Gilchrist, together with MP Don Foster, are working on a number of ideas to reduce the common problem of lorries guided by SatNav taking bad routes through the area and frequently getting stuck.

The problem has been highlighted recently by such cases occurring in Freshford and also in Greenway Lane, Bath. When a lorry does get stuck it is not only inconvenient to the driver but also massively inconvenient to locals who may be unable to use that route for several hours.

If you have any issues please contact us at weston@bathlibdems.org.uk

Partners and Communities Together (PACT) Meeting

The next PACT meeting is 29 April 2008 at 7:00 PM lasting 1 hour 30 minutes (In 2 weeks and 2 days)
at Weston Methodist Church, Kennington Road, Lower Weston, Bath.

Priorities established on 22nd January 2008

1. Overspill parking from the RUH and rubbish from smokers not allowed in the RUH grounds.
2. Weston Park - speeding.
3. Lack of lighting in Chandlers Close.

Partners and Communities Together gives you the chance to influence what happens in your neighbourhood. PACT is a mechanism whereby issues identified through PACT meetings in your neighbourhood, are taken to a PACT partnership panel where courses of action are agreed.

Bath loses out again

Liberal Democrat Councillors have expressed their disappointment that the scrutiny call-in, which had been organised to look into the increases in parking costs in Bath, has been dismissed.

The panel voted, by four votes to three, to dismiss the call-in, with Conservative Councillors from outside of Bath backing the original decision taken by their Conservative Cabinet colleague. The Cabinet member will now be free to go ahead and implement the decision to apply increases of up to 60% to residents’ permit costs across the city, as well as a number of other changes to parking costs and arrangements. Of the four who voted against 3 do not live in Bath

The call-in panel raised a number of issues around poor consultation and excessive increases to permit costs. Although all Councillors agreed that consultation on this decision had been inadequate, Conservative Councillors appeared more concerned with the state of the Council’s finances than the issue of engaging with those who will be affected.

More charges for the elderly

A call-in on the decision to increase the cost of home care services for elderly residents has been submitted by the Liberal Democrat Group on Bath and North East Somerset Council. Members of the Labour Group agreed to co-sign the call-in. The call-in has been verified and the hearing will be held within 2 weeks.

The signatories are calling on the Cabinet member to reconsider his decision to increase the charges for a range of services to elderly people, such as:

• Community meal costs up by over a pound per meal.
• Hourly rate for home care to rise by 74%.
• Maximum weekly charge for care to go up by almost 400%.

Councillor for Newbridge, Loraine Brinkhurst, who is leading the call-in, commented:

“When we heard that Cllr. Vic Pritchard the Conservative Cabinet Member was authorising these extortionate price increases for Home Care we were incensed. The price increases will have a huge impact on our residents who so desperately need these services. My fear is that many residents may cut down or even cancel the use of home care due to this hike in charges, and this could then lead to our residents struggling to live independently in their own homes.”

Councillor Cherry Beath (Combe Down) said:

“When decisions like this are made, you have to question the focus and value systems held by this current administration. This decision is, like many we have seen in recent months, all about money, and disregards the dire impacts it will have on a particularly vulnerable group of our residents, hitting them hard at their point of need, and at a time in their lives when they are least able to protect themselves.”

The undersigned Councillors wish to support the call-in of the decision E1795 ‘Charging Policy for Adult Care Community Services’ taken by the Cabinet member for Adult Social Services and Housing, Cllr Vic Pritchard (WL 14-Mar-08). This paper is called-in for the following reasons:

· Home care rates are to rise from £8.04 to £14. This represents an increase of 74% which would seem to be an unfairly steep rate of increase the impact of which should have been given more weight in the decision making.

· Evidence is given that charges are being increased in line with those of neighbouring authorities. However no evidence is given that the difference in cost of living between authority areas has been taken into account.

· In section 6.2 pf the decision paper it is stated that only an estimated 90 service users will potentially be faced by domiciliary care charge increases. However in the same section it is stated that the Council expects an extra £100,000 of income from these 90 people. This equates £1111 per person on top of the charges they are already paying. This would seem to be disproportionate and unfair.

· Similarly, the charges for community transport are to rise by 50%, with an expected additional £133 income to the Council per user, per year. Again this seems disproportionate.

· Charges for community meals are to rise by 38% or £1.05 per meal. This will have a wider impact than some of the charges mentioned above given that 67,000 meals are served per year.

· No evidence is given that an assessment has been carried out of the impact on those residents who will be affected by several or all of these price increases. Many pensioners are on fixed incomes; with costs of food and fuel also rising, these charges increases could be the last straw.

· If costs go up residents may reduce their care. There is no evidence of a risk analysis of this possibility having been carried out.

Round and Round We Go

Plans to improve the look of roundabouts in Bath and North East Somerset through sponsorship deals have been delayed thanks to the Council's legal department say Lib Dem Councillors.

After at least 15 years of going backwards and forwards, including 297 emails from one Councillor to try and get something done, the Planning Committee gave permission for the first sponsored roundabouts last summer. It was hoped that the scheme would help make the entrances to our city more attractive and would save council tax payers money.

However, despite Councils across the country allowing companies to sponsor roundabouts, the legal department at B&NES Council is not sure whether we can do it here. Now Liberal Democrat Group leader Cllr Paul Crossley has written to Cabinet members Charles Gerrish and Malcolm Hanney asking them to take action and clear away this most recent hurdle.

Cllr Nigel Roberts (Odd Down) who has been following this issue since permission was given in principle for two roundabouts in Odd Down, said:

“It's now 8 months since permission was in theory given for these roundabout sponsorship deals. It's not as if B&NES would be blazing a trail – this is a well-established practice in many areas. You would think that the Cabinet as it has been putting up charges in so many areas would want to pursue this idea.”

Councillor Marian McNeir (Lyncombe) said:

“When you travel around the country, you see many well planted and looked after sponsored roundabouts. They can often reflect something special about the local area, for example there is one near the Eden project in Cornwall which has the same wonderful flags that you find at Eden. Why can't we do the same in B&NES? We've been talking about it for years, now is the time to act. After all it is an opportunity to save the Council money which could go towards bringing the other charges down.”