I was told over the weekend that buses to Foxhill 20a, 20c and number 13 would not be going into Foxhill during the period when works were taking place on the 20 mph speed limit.  However, following some feverish activity today by highways officers, Service 13 will be revert to its normal route from tomorrow, Tuesday 23rd August until Thursday 25th August. Services 20a and 20c, which need the whole length of Hawthorn Grove will continue with their diversion

Works at the junction of Queens Drive and Hawthorn Grove will take place on Friday, when a diversion will need to be in place for just that day.  What that diversion is has not yet been decided, but keep an eye on this web site for latest information and look for a notice on bus stops.

I could not believe that the Council’s contractors could not work around the buses and this proved to be true.  I am very disappointed that buses were quite unnecessarily diverted over the weekend.

The next phase of 20 mph speed limits is due to start, which means that almost all of Foxhill will be covered by a 20 mph speed limit.

The eastern part of Hawthorn Grove, Down Avenue, Quantocks, Porlock Road, Sedgemoor Road, Exmoor Road, Oakhill Road and Drake Avenue if approved, will be completed by the end of March.  This will leave only Foxhill Road and Bradford Park without a 20 mph limit.

Justification (it’s what most people who use their common sense know) has recently been published in a North West Public Health Observatory report, which concluded that,  “140 killed or seriously injured child casualties could have been prevented each year between 2004-8 if 20mph traffic speed zones had been introduced in residential areas (other than main roads) across the North West.” Dominic Harrison  Director of Public Health Blackburn and Darwin Council said:

“Most children will live and recover if hit by a vehicle travelling at 20mph whereas most risk a lifetime of disability or death if hit at 30mph”.  

The Foxhill estate will be the largest local area, apart from the city centre, with 20 mph speed limit cover in B&NES.  This new report demonstrates the value of 20 mph speed limits and shows how they can save lives.  We are pleased with the progress made her in Combe Down, but we would like to see these speed limits in all residential streets across the Council area. We have long campaigned for 20 mph speed limits in Foxhill and we are almost there. 

Dealing with speeding traffic and making the roads safer was listed In our Six to Fix pledges made before the last local elections in 2007, after residents told us that these issues, were high on their list of priorities. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12481423  gives more details about how speed limits can save lives.

Combe Down’s Excellent Shops and Businesses – the Social Heart of the Village

Part of the reason people like to live in Combe Down and relocate here is the Community feel, with a great selection of local businesses and shops. This provides a real hub, and social heart to the village, as well as excellent personal services for local people. However In these financial times, our local businesses are feeling the squeeze, and it is vital to keep these small areas alive and vibrant, by all of us being conscious of the benefits in shopping locally. It can often lift the spirits to get out and about, visit our shops and have a chat with people on the way.

We have been talking to the Combe Down shops about the challenges they have, and we have raised the issues in the Press. We have also met with Bath’s Small Business Focus Group, and hope to have a meeting to see how further support can be given. Perhaps we could have an open week whereby people can come to the shops and businesses and find out more about the range of services which are there, and take away a leaflet, and chat to the traders.

Jacs from the Avenue Newsagent ihas been very proactive, and is now doing new “Sweet Bouquets” for special occasions, gifts and parties, or however you want to use them. They look really great. As a result of our Press release to the Chronicle, Sainsburys at Odd Down have offered to put up signs about the local shops in their foyer, and appear to want to help reduce the adverse effects they have had on nearby small shopping areas. We will keep you posted on developments, and let us know what you think. We would love to hear from other businesses and Combe Down People who work from home.

Free access to a Variety of Different Heritage Sites

There will be the Heritage Open Days happening next month, and I have always found getting along to them really worthwhile, and usually come away having discovered something new.

You can take a tunnel tour at the Roman Baths on Thursday 8^th or Friday 9^th September, visit the local history store at St John’s on the corner of Locksbrook Road and Upper Bristol Road, in Bath, on Thursday 8^th or Saturday 10^th September. There is a wide variety of sites across the area providing local residents with access to places which are not usually open to visitors.

 Other sites open as part of Heritage Open Days 2011 include:

•  Bath Masonic Hall
• Central United Reformed Church
• Cleveland Baths
• Museum of Bath at Work
• Nexus Methodist Church, Walcot
• No 4 The Circus
• Roman Baths – Exploring the Periphery talk and tour
• St Swithin’s Church, Walcot
• Southcot Burial Ground
• Claverton Pumping Station
• Cross Manufacturing Co Ltd, Midford Road, Bath
• Englishcombe Tithe Barn
• Eyre Chapel, Perrymead
• Prior Park Landscape Garden
• Saltford Brass Mill
• Somerset and Dorset Railway Heritage Trust, Midsomer Norton
• May Gurney Recycling Depot, Keynsham
• Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
• Widcombe Open Chapel Trail

 For more details of Heritage Open Days 2011, including listings and the online leaflet, visit Bath & North East Somerset Council’s website www.bathnes.gov.uk/heritageevents.

 Spring repairs aim to keep waters – and visitors – flowing

A precision operation to replace Bath’s “Hetling Spring” Borehole begins next month as part of the Council’s efforts to protect the heritage of the city’s popular thermal water system. This project falls under one of the sections of Cherry’s Portfolio, being to do with Bath Heritage.

Engineers from Wessex Water, working on behalf of the Council, will create a new borehole for the spring to replace the old pipework which is suffering from corrosion. The replacement borehole will drill down from a vault under Hot Bath Street at an angle of 13 degrees in order to intercept the base of the Hetling Spring at 75 metres below street level.

This is a significant piece of precision engineering commissioned by Bath & North East Somerset Council, which means drilling through 80 metres of ground in order to reach the source. This is the first piece of intervention work to be carried out on the hot springs for over a decade but it is necessary for us to maintain the sustainability of the thermal springs system.

The current Hetling borehole casing is made of mild steel which is rotting. We don’t want an unstable source of the thermal waters as it would threaten the whole spring system by affecting the hydraulic pressure that brings the water to the surface. Therefore it’s vitally important that we carry out these works to preserve the springs as an attraction for residents and visitors.

We’re putting the head gear in one of the vaults under the road so we are presently working with a team of archaeologists to explore the foundations of the vaults under controlled conditions. This is part of our commitment to not only protect the source but also to respect the vaults and the overall heritage of the city. 

How the repairs will work:

• The drilling rig will be set up in Hot Bath Street – set back a reasonable distance from the Hetling Spring to avoid disturbed geological deposits in the spring pipe – and the borehole will be drilled through a pre-formed access hole in the road.
• Steel casings will be progressively installed and grouted to seal the upper layers.
• Once the carboniferous limestone aquifer rock is reached, at the base of the Hetling Spring, a plastic pipe will be installed to bring the thermal spring water to the surface.
• Upon completion of the drilling operation, the rig will be removed and a permanent access cover will be installed in the road above the vault.
• Following installation of the headplate, twin 100mm ducts will be laid to carry the piping to the existing Hetling borehole control chamber. The existing Hetling Spring Borehole will then be sealed off.

The first phase of the works to install the replacement borehole is expected to take place from 5 September to 15 November and will require the closure of the lower end of Hot Bath Street. Phase two – the installation of the new ducts and sealing the existing borehole – is anticipated to close the upper end of Hot Bath Street from 16 to 24 November.

Bath & North East Somerset Council is endeavouring to keep local businesses around the area in question informed about the traffic situation so that they can prepare alternative arrangements for deliveries from their suppliers.

David Lawrence, the Council’s Divisional Director for Tourism, Leisure & Culture, said: “We are liaising with local traders through the Business Improvement District to explain why we have to carry out the work at Hot Bath Street to ensure that the head gear for the borehole can be placed in solid ground rather than soft sediment, as it is at the moment.

“We are committed to continue consulting with local businesses as we endeavour to keep disruption to a minimum, which is why we have scheduled these essential works to take place after the summer holidays are over and before the Christmas lights are switched on.

“By carrying out the work, Bath & North East Somerset Council is meeting its obligations under the Avon Act 1982 to protect the important source of the water whilst also promoting the use of the spring system and preserving it for future generations.”

For a copy of the Traffic Regulation Order relating to the work needed and how it will affect traffic around the Hot Bath Street area, visit www.bathnes.gov.uk/temporarytrafficorders/hotbathstreet.

Cherry and Roger outside Foxhill MOD last week

Minister for Housing, Grant Shapps announced in early June that all three Bath MOD Sites would be disposed of for development over the next few years. This was despite the fact that MP Don Foster and North East Somerset MP Jacob Rees-Mogg secured a commitment from Defence minister Andrew Robathan that they, council leaders and union officials could have until the end of June to make the economic case for saving at least one of the Bath sites.

1,200 staff from Bath are already in the process of being transferred, but another 1,400 are scheduled to follow in the next two years. Campaigners have disputed the financial figures being used to justify the move, and also raised concerns over staff recruitment and retention.

They also argue that no serious study has been made into the impact of the move, both in terms of the added pressures on the already over-stretched transport links and the damage to the Bath economy.

The three political group leaders on Bath and North East Somerset Council have already written to the MoD to raise their concerns, urging the Government to “pause” and re-evaluate the case for shutting the site.

A statement earlier this month from the Department for Communities said: “The rationalisation of office accommodation owned by the Ministry of Defence will free up three sites at Foxhill, Warminster Road and Ensleigh, which will be brought forward for disposal over the next few years.

“Subject to planning, the 36-hectare sites have the potential for over 1,200 new homes. Bath and North East Somerset’s core strategy is going to enquiry in public in September and it is anticipated that the inspector’s report due in spring 2012 will confirm the allocations for development.”

The closure of all the sites would end the MoD’s 72-year association with Bath, having had offices in the city since the start of the Second World War when the old Admiralty was moved out of London.

Don Foster has argued that not all of the Ensleigh site can be disposed of because computer systems cannot be moved.

Roger and I will be closely monitoring the future for these sites, and especially for the substantial Foxhill Site, and plans there.

Roger and Cherry in Foxhill

With this next phase of 20 mph speed limits, which will soon go out for consultation, almost all of Foxhill will be covered by a 20 mph speed limit.

The eastern part of Hawthorn Grove, Down Avenue, Quantocks, Porlock Road, Sedgemoor Road, Exmoor Road, Oakhill Road and Drake Avenue should be completed by the end of March.  This will leave only Foxhill Road and Bradford Park without a 20 mph limit.  We have asked the Council to extend the 20 mph speed limit to these last two roads when there are funds available.

There has been evidence, and a high impact TV advertisement in recent years,  about how lower speed reduces the risk of death of children in collision with motor vehicles.  This has once again been been highlighted in a new report.

The North West Public Health Observatory concluded that “140 killed or seriously injured child casualties could have been prevented each year between 2004-8 if 20mph traffic speed zones had been introduced in residential areas (other than main roads) across the North West.”

For the past three years or so Roger, and latterly myself, have badgered the Council, chased up, flagged up, walked round with Highways Officers, drawn up lists and so on, in the cause of the removal of the “Temporary” yellow lines installed because of the stabilisation work needed around particular areas of the village. The yellow lines were signed off to be removed a long time ago, and finally, after repeatedly raising the issue (plus a string of other highways jobs in Combe Down)  and our questions to Charles Gerrish, the Cabinet Member responsible at last weeks Cabinet Meeting, and  further contact with The Parking Manager, we have  now been told the work will be scheduled for August.

Seeing is believing of course… but one of the big hold ups was that a Traffic Regulation Order had to be advertised, which included other parking changes in other areas, and objections to those meant a further delay. The removal of these lines will allow a few more parking places along from the School towards the Summer Lane junction, and one or two elsewhere.

Residents from Hawthorn Grove presented a petition to Full Council on May 8th, calling for traffic calming measures to be put in place. This is in fact the second petition signed up by an overwhelming majority of  residents living in both Hawthorn Grove and Sedgemoor Road. 

Well over a year ago a petition was accepted and works agreed at The South Area Committee,  Since scrapped by the present Council Administration, and the promised works have subsequently failed to happen. 

Southstoke Road residents are in the same position, having presented a 100% sign up requesting 20 miles an hour signage, well over a year ago. I have lost count of the number of times we have agitated for these works to begin, including questions to Charles Gerrish, the Cabinet Member responsible. There is little doubt that the managing of resources and highways by the Administration leaves a lot to be desired, and yet it is these areas which have a real impact on residents daily lives.  

 I have now secured  a meeting with Charles Gerrish set for June 10th, to come up to both Hawthorn Grove, Sedgemoor Road and Southstoke Road, and see the situation on the ground. We are pleased he has agreed to come, and Roger and I will also ask him up again to address a long list of outstanding promised highways works, that yet again as we move further into this next financial year have failed to happen.  Not to mention sorting out of the removal of yellow lines around the village following areas of mine stabilisation, overwhich there has been unacceptable delay.  

My sister Blanche Lytle came back to Bath last month with Lynda and Ron Erfurth, her daughter and son in law. Blanche left for California in 1946 as a GI bride to join Jim Posten, who she had met when he had been posted to Bristol during the war. Blanche, at that time in the WAAF, was also posted to Bristol.

Blanche has had a full and interesting life in the USA, not without its tragedy and sadness. Jim died of a respiratory disease, after being ill for years in the 1960s and then soon after in 1969, Blanche’s second son Gerry stepped on a mine in Vietnam and died weeks later in Oakland California.

Blanche then to set about bringing up her two youngest children alone. Mike, her eldest son, who also served time in Vietnam had left the family home by this time to get married.

Blanche married again in her 60s and spent 20 or so happy years living in Idaho with her husband John Lytle. Blanche has visited Bath a number of times over the years, but vowed in 2001 never to come back. She had returned to Los Angeles as 9/11 unfolded, leading to a nightmare journey home.

However, she changed her mind after John died last year and has just spent 10 days with family here. She did manage to look up old friend Kathy Cannon, formerly Kathy Self, who now lives in Combe Down.