The Energy at Home Scheme

The Energy at Home scheme provides free, expert home energy advice, access to national and local grants, and support to make energy saving home improvements.

The Council currently has a very generous grant available of up to £6,000 for solid wall insulation, and up to £2,000 for other energy saving measures available through the scheme for home owners, private landlords and privately renting tenants. This grant is only available for a limited time and residents need to get signed up by the end of February 2016 to benefit.

There is also extra support available for residents meeting eligibility criteria to help cover the costs of heating and insulation improvements. This includes a voucher scheme for gas connection of up to £2,700 to help you connect to the gas grid (if feasible).

For more information, residents should contact the Energy at Home Advice Service:

Freephone 0800 038 5680 available Monday to Friday 9am-6pm, and on Saturday mornings 9am-12pm. 

Or email advice@energyathome.org.uk

Or visit the website www.energyathome.org.uk

Penny pinching Tories put up School dinner costs

It has come out very quietly that one if the first things that the Tories have done since they have been elected to power in Bath & North east Somerset is to put up the cost of School dinners for primary School children.

The cost of dinner rises from £2.00 per day to £2.30 per day. The Liberal Democrats when in control kept the price frozen for the previous 4 years.

It seems that life under the Conservatives is going to be much more expensive for hard working families.

New noise toolkit and app launched

I am pleased that with all the problems that we have had over the yeas with noise being created by som unsociable residents that the council have launched a new app to help battle this problem for many households.

Noise nuisance accounts for almost two thirds of complaints received by the Council’s Environmental Protection Team, but because it is often unpredictable and can happen at any time of the day or night it may be difficult for Environmental Health Officers to witness. 

The online toolkit and app will help people to gather evidence, so that the Council can,hopefully, help those affected resolve the issue without the need for formal action.

The toolkit includes advice on the actions you can take whilst noise is happening and afterwards. Amongst the ‘tools’ supplied are log sheets, template letters and the Bath and North East Somerset noise app.

The free app can be downloaded to your smart phone, and can then be used as an electronic noise diary, recording short audio clips, with date, and time. This information is then sent to the Environmental Protection Team who can use it to help with their investigation.

There are a number of benefits in using the app over making traditional audio recordings:

• The app provides a GPS location to pinpoint where you are recording the noise from.

• It has easy to use icons to indicate the type of noise and which room you are in when being affected.

• It means you can take action as the nuisance is happening.

• The app acknowledges that your recording has been received.

• Ultimately, the app provides a whole package to enable you to communicate easily with the Council. There’s no need to write letters or email, the app does it all for you.

To view the toolkit and download the app visit:http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/environment/pollution-noise-nuisance/noise-toolkit

Concerns about fracking raised

The Liberal Democrats on Bath & North East Somerset Council have raised concerns about fracking licences and fast tracked planning applications..

The former Liberal Democrat led council on Bath & North East Somerset previously raised concerns to any hydraulic fracking in the Mendip Hills over concerns about how this may affect the hot spa water that flows in Bath. The council were also successful in getting amendments to Somerset County Council mineral workings plan.

The concerns about hydraulic fracking were at the time supported by all political groups on the council.

The Government have announced that the will be encouraging hydraulic fracking across the country whilst at the same time putting restrictions on renewable energy.

This backward approach by the Conservative Government has led us to take action and we have written to both local Conservative MPs expressing our concern.

I would suggest that if you also have concerns that you also write to them expressing any concerns that you may have.

A letter sent by Bathnes Liberal Democrat leader to our 2 local Conservative MPs is below.

Dear Jacob and Ben,

I am very saddened to hear on the news this morning that your Governement is planning to fast track fracking planning applications.

Whilst we do not have any licences or applications at present it seems to me to be fundamentally flawed for central Government to be interfering in local affairs so dramatically. Any fracking application will generate a substantial amount of public interest and the the volume of work involved makes it very difficult to process such an application within 13 weeks.

I hope you will both be speaking out against your governments interference into local planning matters. 

It is indeed a pity that whilst you are persecuting benign forms of renewable energy such as land based wind you seem to be working hard to get fracking as quickly as possible.

Yours

Dine Romero
Leader B&NES LD

Public Consultation into proposal to close Bath Magistrates and Family Court

I am concerned at plans being put forward by the government could see the closure of Bath Magistrates court and also the family court that is important to many local people.

Below you will find details of a scrutiny panel enquiry day and i would suggest that anyone with concerns responds as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Justice has drawn up proposals to transfer the workload of the courts to Bristol. It’s also considering closing North Avon (Yate) Magistrates Court. However, Bristol Magistrates Court will not have the capacity to support the workload from both Bath and Yate.  Therefore, the response from the consultation process will help to inform the decision on whether either of the two proposals are implemented. 

To ensure local people’s view are heard, Bath & North East Somerset Council will be co-ordinating a public meeting on the plans at 11am on Friday 11th September in the Banqueting room in the Guildhall. 

Representatives from the Ministry of Justice will talk about the consultation process and Bath Magistrates Court, to provide an understanding of how the court is used.  There will be an opportunity to discuss the potential impact of the proposal and to help formulate Bath & North East Somerset Council’s response with relevant experts and key stakeholders. 

This is an important opportunity for people to make their views known on an issue that could have an impact on the effectiveness of our local court and the ease with which Bath & North East Somerset residents can access it.”

Members of the public are invited to express their comments on the consultation to the Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel in writing or during one of the time-limited slots at the meeting.

Written representations should be titled “Bath Magistrates Court consultation”, and sent to: Michaela Gay, Democratic Services, 2nd Floor, Guildhall, Bath, BA1 5AW, by fax to 01225 477314, or by email to Michaela_Gay@bathnes.gov.uk

To respond to this consultation on line: 

Email: Scrutiny@bathnes.gov.uk

Or alternatively fill in our online pro-forma http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/consultations/consultation-proposals-close-bath-magistrates-court-and-family-court.

All representations should be received by 3^rd September 2015.

No final decision on the proposals will be made until Bath & North East Somerset Council’ collective response has been reported back to the Ministry of Justice. The deadline date for the consultation is October 8, 2015.

Note 

Bath Family Court covers the following areas of law; Bankruptcy, High Court, Housing possession, Divorce, Money Claims, Domestic violence and Children.

Rail electrification update

Network rail have issued an update today on the progress of their work in preparation for electrification of  rail network through Bath.

The update is reproduced below.

We had a busy week with several key guests visiting our sites to see the progress of the work which is progressing well to hand back the line on time at 05:15 am on Tuesday, 1 September.
Guests on site

We had the privilege of hosting the visit of Claire Perry, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport (pictured below with Andy Haynes, Network Rail’s West of England project director) this Wednesday at our track lowering sites. Our project team showed her the work completed at Box Tunnel and the current works at Sydney Gardens. She was very impressed with the scale of the programme, the amount of planning and our progress over the last five weeks. 

On the same day we hosted the One Show who came along for a second day to film a piece on Box Tunnel, its history and the challenges of track lowering. Also in attendance was the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s great-great-grandson visiting the tunnel for the very first time. The piece will be aired early in September. Please keep an eye on our Twitter account, @networkrailgwrm, where we will let you know the date as soon as it is confirmed.

Work's progress

We're happy to report that the track lowering work at Box Tunnel is finished, with just some snagging work to complete by the weekend. We will be starting tamping on the up road at Middle Hill Tunnel tonight, to finish work on this site this weekend as well.

We have finished stressing and tamping yesterday at Bathampton Junction. We will carry out signal testing work over the next few days to confirm that all systems communicate properly in order to open the line as planned on Tuesday morning.

We started track lowering work at Sydney Gardens this Monday and work is progressing well. It is of course the jewel in the crown of Brunel’s railway and as part of a World Heritage Site, it deserves a lot of care and attention to be given to it as we undertake such a large piece of work. Those of you who have been able to go to the gardens and view the work will appreciate just how constrained a site this is, with lots of men and big pieces of kit required, all contained between the high retaining wall, the low balustrade wall and 4 listed bridges!

We are monitoring the high retaining wall to ensure that our works do not disturb it or to notify us should anything untoward happen. We are very pleased to report that as we type, no movement has been detected. 
The core works are due to finish early Saturday morning but of course the fencing will remain up for a couple of days more and you will continue to see activity, as we complete all the necessary testing we have to do prior to handing the line back to First Great Western.

The last few days of a project are always the most critical and Sydney Gardens is a fairly complex site, but we are confident that we will finish on time and re-open the line as planned on Tuesday, 1 September.

Bath & North East Somerset Carers centre

The August ebriefing from Bath & North East Somerset carers centre is out now and makes some interesting reading.

If you are a carer then this is a must for you or even if you are just interested it makes a good read.

Carers centre  ebreifing