Dear Tim,
It seems to have become fashionable to send you letters
critiquing the performance of the council. We have joined this trend because we
think it is important that you get a wider and more represented set of views
than those expressed by the rather narrow range of special interest groups who
have written so far.
Looking at the correspondence that you have received we were
surprised to see that their principal criticism seems to be you and your
colleagues lack of willingness to meet and discuss issues with residents. We
were surprised at this both because our experience has been entirely different and
because we have seen and heard many of these groups at a number of discussion
forums organised by BANES and attended by yourself and members of your cabinet.
On the substantive issues raised by groups like Bath Deserves
Better:
As you know we strongly support the development of an eastern
park and ride. We are primarily concerned with the real and serious health
threat to city residents created by pollution. A key part of any pollution
reduction strategy is implementing the Bath Transport Strategy. This strategy
has taken many years to create, cost considerable amounts of money and been
developed in conjunction with some of the county leading experts and has always
included an eastern park and ride. While it was entirely appropriate to hold a
detailed discussion on the choice of site the time has come to stop talking and
put peoples' health first.
We are delighted that at a time when many councils are
withdrawing from the provision of professionally managed libraries BANES are
investing in the city centre library service and in particular its increasingly
important and popular IT facilities. We are particularly pleased to see that
you are merging the management of the two important historic archives and
upgrading the facilities for accessing them. We understand that people have an
emotional attachment to the old premises and that some user groups might have
specific concerns which need to be addressed and look forward to participating
in further discussions about how various needs can be and perhaps should be
met.
As you are aware we are keen to speed up progress on a number
of issues affecting city centre residents and in particular:
• Improving the
quality of formal consultations
• Creating a
more consistently customer focussed organisation
• Removing
unauthorised trade waste dumps
• An improved
dialogue with Universities about their impact on the city
• Stalled
traffic management projects
• Reviving the
vital but moribund Public realm and Movement Strategy
• More
effective measurement of the most dangerous components of city pollution
• Short term
pollution reduction strategies
• Addressing the
challenge of rough sleeping and begging
• Improving
policing and enforcement
• The problems
created by various forms of short term letting
• The better
management of building projects in the city centre
We look forward to a continuing constructive dialogue with you
and your colleagues about how this can be achieved.
