By being part of the Lib Dem Candidate Leadership Programme, I am lucky enough to be paired with the Rt. Hon. Don Foster, MP for Bath. This means that on Tuesdays and Fridays I spend the day with Don in the Commons and in his constituency respectively. The pairing works well on many fronts but mainly because of a) my professional and personal background is in media and sport and Don is our party spokesman on Culture, Media and Sport, b) like in Three Rivers District Council (TRDC) where I am a councillor, the Lib Dems control Bath & North East Somerset Council (BANES) and c) the Metropolitan Line and the M25/M4 make access to London and Bath easy…

As well as shadowing Don and learning how he masterly ploughs his way through his ever burgeoning in-tray of casework, I was also fortunate enough to be invited to join the Lib Dem cabinet members in their informal Cabinet meeting. Whilst BANES is a unitary authority (with responsibility for all local government services) and here in TRDC, Herts CC has responsibility for roads, education, etc, I was amazed about how similar many of the issues are. Transport is a (perhaps THE) major issue in BANES and we discussed  the bid submitted to the DfT (with the West of England region) for a major scheme within the Local Sustainable Transport Fund. Whilst in TRDC our transport links are fantastic with easy access to M25 (recently enlarged)/M1/M40, tube/trains, buses and taxis, these are largely legacy  services that have developed over decades. My time in Bath did make me think about their environmental impact and their long term environmental sustainability… I also wondered whether we have enough cycle paths that are well kept and well lit (especially as Herts CC are cutting street light illumination across the county after specified times to save money). It also made me even more determined to get a motion passed at full council to protest against TfL’s plan to increase journey times from Chorleywood, Rickmansworth and Moor Park in to and from London by eliminating the fast train at peak times and replacing it with a much slower “all stations” service (more on that in a further post).

Housing – or the lack thereof – of affordable housing is also a major issue that both BANES and TRDC have in common with both areas surrounded by greenbelt land. BANES does have many more empty houses and a much larger number of ‘brownfield’ sites with potential to convert than in TRDC, but the challenge is to make them a viable business opportunity to a developer whilst at the same time ensuring they (or a significant proportion of them) remain affordable. House prices in BANES remain way above the regional and national average, as they do here in TRDC.

Finally, I enjoyed learning about how BANES conduct their recycling scheme. All their recyclable material goes together in one “box” which is then sorted by the crews and placed by them in to the appropriate section in the vehicle. In TRDC, the onus is on the resident to sort their recyclables by type (glass, paper, plastics/metal, etc.) and place them in their own box, which is then simply carried to the vehicle for disposal in the right section. Both systems have their pros and cons, and a lot depends on the contract with the recycling company and what material can actually be collected/recycled, but it was enlightening nonetheless…

There were many other issues that were discussed such as high speed broadband links, town regeneration and public toilet provision(!) but more on those another time. Suffice it to say that the meeting, along with a lovely stroll through the wonderfully festive Xmas market meant I very much felt at home in Bath and look forward to my next trip there on Friday all the more (although I do wish that 41 years ago they had invented decent heaters to go in VW Campervans!)

My thanks go to Paul Crossley (Leader of the Council) and David Bellotti (Constituency Chair) and my other party cabinet colleagues for organising and allowing me to join their meeting.

(Top to bottom, left to right) Cllr Roger Symonds (Transport), Cllr Simon Allen (Wellbeing), Cllr Paul Crossley (Leader of the Council), Cllr Nathan Hartley (Early Years, Children, and Youth & Deputy Leader), Cllr Cherry Beath (Sustainable Development), Cllr Tim Ball (Homes & Planning), Cllr David Dixon (Neighbourhoods), Cllr Chris Lucas (Three Rivers District Council) & Cllr David Bellotti (Community Resources)