Following a recent inspection, Active4Today closed the fitness suite. The top floor closure on December 14th was needed for improvements to Fire Safety. The Town Council Trustees have ensured the appropriate membership fees were suspended while the fitness suite was closed. It re-opened on 25th January.
One week of freezing weather in mid December combined with heavy rainfall led to a huge number of potholes opening up across Nottinghamshire and, since then, the County Council has admitted it is "firefighting" just to bring the roads up to scratch.
Phase 2 of the works to improve play equipment on Norwood Gardens Play area has now been completed. The outdated play equipment has been replaced with more attractive, safer, and more child friendly apparatus. Some of the new equipment will appeal to a wider age range. This is a good example of the Town Council responding to an initiative from the local community. The Council agreed to fund the work out of Community Infrastructure Levy funds. The chair of the Town Environment Committee, Karen Roberts said "It's been quite a long wait, partially due to COVID, but we think that the end result is worth it".
For some elections, the Government now requires a photo ID to vote at Polling Stations. This will start at our local elections in May. A majority of voters already have an acceptable form of ID such as a passport, driving licence or bus pass, but not all do so.
There seems to be no progress on the Flood mitigation measures proposed for Minster and Harvey's Fields. Last February the Environment Agency asked for more information and the County Council finally passed this on to Via, the Contractor, in August. Since then no additional documents have appeared on the planning website.
News that the Conservatives at County Hall are planning a 5% tax increase couldn't come at a worse time. With household budgets squeezed, it will make things worse for people trying to cope with the cost of living crisis. Residents in band A properties will have to pay £53 more, with the top band H increasing by £159.14.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, called on the government to provide incentives for energy providers to develop solar power in the UK.
Mrs Hobhouse slammed the government for falling behind on meeting the UK’s renewable targets for solar energy capacity. The government plans to deploy 70 GW of solar power across the country by 2035. However, as of 2022, the UK had only installed 14.3 GW of solar pv.
Following a visit to a rooftop solar system installed by Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) at Beechen Cliff School last year, Wera Hobhouse is keen to encourage the development of similar solar projects across Bath. The solar system is predicted to significantly cut the school’s fuel costs and reduce their carbon emissions by 52 tonnes a year.
In the House of Commons on the 27th February, the Bath MP noted that the UK is lagging behind the rest of the world in renewable energy investment, she urged the government to offer incentives to energy providers to improve solar capacity.
However, Andrew Bowie, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Energy Security and Net Zero, ignored Hobhouse’s proposals, failing to describe the ways in which the government could incentivise solar energy. Instead, Bowie said that the government’s Solar Taskforce would publish recommendations for solar power and reiterated the government’s target to deploy 70 GW by 2035.
Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero, commented:
“The Conservatives are falling dangerously behind on meeting our targets for renewable energy production. It is no good the government setting an ambitious 70 GW solar target if they are nowhere near reaching it.
“It is clear that they have no plan to get us back on track to reach Net Zero. Evidently, they are more than happy to dismiss perfectly good proposals like incentivising solar power. That is why I am so proud that Bath is home to many community energy projects like the solar system at Beechen Cliff School, so that we can lead the way in renewables.”
“It is not just our climate targets harmed by the Conservatives’ delay. Families in Bath and across the country are struggling to pay soaring energy bills which investment in renewables could curb. That is why we Liberal Democrats would build significantly more renewable energy, aiming to generate 80% of our electricity from renewables by 2030.”
Peter Capener, Managing Director of Bath & West Community Energy said:
“Our work with schools is really demonstrating the value of community energy in both addressing the climate crisis and reducing fuel bills. Rooftop solar installed last year has already saved local schools a combined total of £134,209 and has reduced carbon emissions by 224.3 tonnes, which is equivalent to 12,173 journeys from Bath to Edinburgh by train!”
