ready to start ladies and gentlemen we are actually on live television uh so it’s probably a good idea to um make yourselves look respectable or whatever I don’t know um anyway welcome to the meeting of the climate e scrutiny panel we have uh members of the public as and uh we have four sets of questions uh we uh we will only ask factual questions to the statements that come back from from the members of the public welcome to Kum it’s a lovely view here I always like coming here but then I live here so I might be biased um we have a number of substitutions we have sha Hughes who’s substituting for June player we have Toby Simon who’s substituting for John leech and we have Hal M Fe who’s substituting for Alex Bowmont and we also should give a special mention to Ian H who has done yman service while Anna is on maternity leave I’m sure she’s done yman Service as well in a different sphere um and thank you for all your contributions and we hope to see you again as a substitute uh in the future so we’ll move on now to the emergency evacuation procedure when the continuous alarm bell sounds you must evacuate the building by one of the designated exits and proceed to the named assembly point the designated exits are signposted arrangements are in place for the safe evacuation of disabled people okay something else I say um you can only have one microphone on at a time so when you finish speaking please turn your microphone off although Frank I mean it’s not a big room most people have got voices enough to uh to be able to speak without a microphone but that’s the situation so please turn them off when you when you get there uh absences apology fors and I’ve done the sub you said most of them apart from uh apologies from councelor Grant Johnson yeah sorry about that sorry okay Declarations of interest is there anything on the agenda that you feel you need to have a pruny interest to mention this stage no okay that’s fine uh there are there is no urgent business so uh we move on to the public statements three of whom three of which are about school streets we are at the very beginning of our of our process for school streets so I know one speaker in particular yeah sorry um I don’t think this is a pecuniary interest but just to say that as a parent I’m involved in some school transport initiatives so have an interest in okay School Street discussion well thank you for raising it it’s it’s always good toight and I should note that I’m a governor designate for bwick um bwick St Mary primary which may well be interested in this issue okay but I don’t think any of the speakers are talking about that but thank you again for raising does anybody else wish to raise an interest other the pruny one yeah well I’m a parent as well and I’m also involved in school travel and initiatives okay also good to know okay I’m ready um as someone deeply entrenched in the study of Transport policies at local Regional and National levels it’s glaringly evident that the failures of Bara Northeast Somerset Council to deliver School streaks extend beyond mere political leadership lapses to a fundamental absence of a of a robust Road danger reduction strategy consider the debacle around surrounding the failed Mount Road livable neighborhood project where an ineffectual zebra Crossing outside round Hill Primary School was financed from Bain’s highways budget despite ample funding availability availability from west of England combined Authority for a more holistic low traffic neighborhood and School Street solution this oversight underscores the failures of deliverable neighborhoods team to consult with the road safety officer crucial for determining the safest interventions for residential roads according to the UK’s long-standing Road classification hierarchy you know the ABC um and unclassified roads by my estimation there have been 12 opportunities to deliver or begin to deliver 11 School streets yet have been and are repeatedly being squandered King Edwards bwick St Mary roundhill primary Newbridge primary kown primary path Hampton Primary the Paragon Kings was prep St Andrew’s primary St John’s primary and morand Jr have all been neglected despite the clear safety benefits such measures provide the council’s disregard for the vision zero motion passed last November coupled with the exclusion of the road sa safety offic from crucial design processes further highlight the systemic shortcomings what’s more concerning is the Stark absence of a comprehensive Road danger reduction stratey akin to those successfully imple implemented elsewhere such as in Lambeth um I have provided a link to that particular strategy even basic commitments from political leadership such as such as ensuring that a school Street will be required for all viable primary schools are comp conspicuously absent this is also um the from the Safe Streets now national campaign that is their request on all councils it is high time to recognize the urgent need for a CO cohesive Road danger reduction strategy and to Institute Council processes that prioritize the safety of our children on our streets thank you very much thank you Adam uh comments questions factual questions okay thank you very much move on to tayia Kelly please Talia Talia sorry about that no that’s fine I think this is still on is it yeah um so yes I’m Talia Kelly and I’m parent voice and safeguarding Governor at freshford church school um we’ve noticed a real increase in traffic congestion uh pool parking and a lot of growing confrontational situations between residents and parents oh should I take it off a number of near misses and incidents outside the school um particularly during school run times and we felt it necessary as a governing body and a school to initiate surveys Communications and multi- agency group meetings to identify and agree problem statements and address issues and provide a vision for all me all stakeholders of what safer streets look like in the vicinity of freshford church school um despite ongoing work to influence and nudge family behavior when it comes to active travel um the mode shift which is what Baines talks about with its mod shift Stars has been slow and there’s been quite um a poor uptake um on 22nd of March 2024 we held a playing out event um which was an experimental Endeavor to visualize what safer School streets look like prioritize children’s play and encourage a sort of enforced Park and stride option um it was a very successful event and um a postmortem survey showed that most people um felt that it did address the issues that uh were identified in our problem statement and noting how children could play and move around um the vicinity of the school much more safely um surveys uh participants were very interested in um exploring future walking bus and park and stride options and would like to see similar events in the future um we would like to move forwards with more playing out events and possible possibly um an Etro rather than a temporary um traffic regulation order um we’d like help with formalizing walking buses which are currently costly and difficult to administer from financially strapped schools um so financial support and less red tape surrounding such initiatives from the the council would ensure the longevity and success and viability of walking buses we would like some help with reclassifying walking routes as families are having to battle um poor driving behaviors especially rat running and speeding the recent Wales and West Gas Works have has meant that um lower Stoke Crow Lane has been closed since January so families have been enabled um to walk in through this route safely but most of them have told me anecdotally they will be stopping the minute the roads reop opened and they’ll be driving again so that’s what we need the council’s help with reclassifying the streets um experimenting more with school streets um outside the school and formalizing helping us formalize walking buses so it doesn’t impact on school’s budgets thank you thank you very much uh hang on there might be there might be some factual questions uh there are okay so Sask thank you for your statement um do you think your school would be interested in um triing a School Street where with the use of barriers and staff and parents to um close the road for through traffic at pick up and job off times um yes I think that we’ve definitely got um a a group of people who are willing to support that and the school is definitely um being on board with that hi thank you for coming to talk to us um I’m interested in in uh your comments about wanting to set up walking buses and that’s something I’ve been involved in locally as well uh what kind of support would you like from the council and what are the the barriers that you’ve encountered so far um so I’ve been looking at um the Banes website because there’s a sort of toolkit for walking buses um and um it seems to affect if we do it from the school it affects insurance premiums and things like that so they have to get involved with insurance um and then there’s a lot of risk assessments and um different things um so i’ I’ve tried to experiment with maybe just getting parents to do it informally rather than endorse from the school but that’s been very hard with with parents under a lot of time pressure and I can’t advertise them through the school newsletter in a formal way to sort of um encourage people to help it’s sort of got to be more of a word of mouth thing whereas if we had to do I suppose less of the worrying about the insurance and that sort of thing it might come more naturally okay so it’s kind of practical help with the insurance and setup okay all right have you had any push back from your school about that just that they are frightened of um what pressure that will um put on their budgets because um we’re already looking at a significant deficit um heading into next year anyway in terms of budget so I just need to really reassure everyone at school that any active travel initiatives are not going to hurt or be harmful to the school in any way is your parent body generally in favor of the idea do you know of a School Street the reason why I ask is because there’s quite a lot of work required in terms of Marshals and that sort of thing and would do you think there would be parents that could would come forward to do those sort of roles it’s something I need to push harder I did put another um entry in the school newsletter asking people to contact me I’d say on the whole yes I’d say we’re actually a good community that really does think about um climate and sustainability and active travel um I think what um some families are held back by is the infrastructure for using active travel because it’s quite a wide catchment area um to arrive there so I think people just they want to do it but they don’t want to it to be a highrisk activity for their or perception of a high-risk activity um I’ve got my brother-in-law to do a data analysis recently um so he’s got um some interactive um data images where um we’ve looked at the roots who plotted routs where um different po the the school’s catchment area the postcodes of all the different students and um little alterations that could be made to those routs which would en enable and encourage people to use active travel to get to the school um but we do need to do a firmer nudge and I do think that we’ve got the um the majority of parents would back it right John Taylor hello um this is a plea for joined up thinking about School Street um I live on what could be a School Street charmouth Road in bath where new primary school is situated and I’m so pleased that the council’s finally beginning to consider promoting School streets but this action is very late and sadly I think it demonstrates the lack of joined up thinking with the local Authority as part of its journey to Net Zero I worked with children for 40 years 15 as a Primary School head in two large schools so I feel quite qualified to comment on this I’m also a member of our local residents group next door to New Bridge Primary School we requested residents parking in 2018 being close to the hospital and the airport bus stop and Comm but we had to change the approach when the council promoted liable neighborhoods we submitted the pro former by Baines to our local counselors the word school was never mentioned in that Pro former nor were the words child or children um we included the school as top of the priorities in our Liverpool neighborhood bid alongside residence parking the school element of our bid disappeared without Trace as Baines evaluated that bid a golden opportunity to promote children’s needs was lost we’ve ended up with residence parking taking little account of the school 15 months later now we’ve got a proposal to take away five of those rpz places introduce a one-way system but two-way for cyclists this is claiming to be part of a liberable neighborhood but in reality it’s just increasing speed on a road where children walk to school what does this demonstrate to me and my neighbors another opportunity lost no joined up thinking no overall Vision no overall planning for school children um I really hope you succeed in promoting School streets um they sely needed and I think they’ll need some thinking outside the box to make them work I don’t think you’re going to be able to take an offer shelf solution for each location um too many opportunities have just slipped through the council’s Fingers um and I think it’s time you put children first even though they don’t have a vote thank you very much thank you John uh any factual questions Sasa thank you for your statement um so you well you said that you think local residents would be supportive of a School Street I’m just thinking out of the box here would local residents maybe be um happy to be involved in volunteering in the in a potential um through traffic closure in the mornings and the afternoons um some but when when I joined the residents parking group um which was set up that that was done by leaflets from local I was the Lone voice saying but there’s a school on the street and as we’ve gone through the liver neighborhood Shenanigans for want of a better word my wife and I both heads sorry you know both Primary School heads two lone voices saying but what about the school uh if I’m really honest most of my neighbors care about their parking space that’s what they um they tolerate School some like it because it means they live on the road and their children can just walk easily to school but there is that conflict um the thing I didn’t talk about which I suppose is the elephant in the room is uh parking enforcement has insufficient resources to make any regulations work so every day I look out of my window and I can see all the double yellow lines there to protect children and they’re covered by parents who park for up to half an hour leav their cars there uh Wander into school for a chat you know it’s not a 5 minute drop off that people do it um which is the same issue just cropping up in the proposal that’s gone forward for the oneway system it it depends on people on people observing regulations and not parking where they aren’t meant to um and as you know if you stand by any traffic lights in bath and watch what happens when the lights turn red most people won’t follow those regulations so I’m I’m not hopeful Jess thank you um I know what you said about school streets um but do you feel the interventions that have uh been made so far so the introduction of residents parking and the oneway system are good first steps on the way to establishing a School Street the resident parking was um a oneway system uh I’m a cyclist I know as my main means of Transport uh and my wife uh because it’s easy to get around bath and try to drive um charmouth Road has a really Spade wide Junction uh it’s right next to a pelican Crossing on Newbridge primary which only went in when a child was hit and had his legs broken many years ago from the school um if people are driving out from town towards School drop their children off and those Pelican lights turn red they just just floor it and Roar around the corner uh which is why so many residents are concerned about the oneway proposal that it will probably encourage that type of behavior you you’re not very visible as a cyclist coming down you know I can wear all the hi in the world um but there are so many SUVs on the road they’re very high uh children in particular disappear behind them you know you you don’t need much space as a cyclist but when there’s a when you’re passing a tank and there’s another one being driven towards you uh I don’t feel it will encourage children to do it um I used to sit on active travel you’re wanding now away from factual statements so I’m going to have to cutch you off there may I say one it is a factual state it is a factual statement at the Active travel meeting which Mark shelford used to chare over and over again he used to say uh if we can promote children walking or sighting to school hopefully you will generate a lifelong habit well as one fellow cyclist to another I would obviously support that okay thank you very much Jim and now we come to Alice hello everyone thanks for having me along um to talk to you I’ve included a couple of resources for you to look at which is a UNICEF report called the toxic School run and um School streets to shape child friendly cities from Clean Cities um I’m a resident of b a mother of two school-aged children and a GP if you look for me on the GMC register um I use my maiden name at work so it’ll be Dr Gardner just in case you think I’m making up I’m a doctor um I’m here to urge you to view your decisions today about school streets from a child and public health perspective um as the president pres of the Royal College of Pediatrics and child health said last year air pollution is the largest environmental risk to Public Health in the UK with children being particularly vulnerable all children deserve the opportunity for the best start for a healthy start in life exposure to air pollutants during pregnancy and early childhood can have harmful and irreversible effects on the development of the lungs and other organs leading to potential long-term health effects well into adulthood a study in London discussed in the UNICEF report which I distributed to you found that children receive 15% of their daily Expos Ure to air pollution during travel to and from school children are disproportionately vulnerable to air pollution both because of their developing lungs and because um they breathe faster and are actually shorter so they’re nearer to the level of the car exhaust um studies of school streets in the UK have demonstrated reductions in nitrogen dioxide levels of 23% and particulates of up to 36% School Streets Could therefore have a positive impact on the health of children in Bara Northeast Somerset both now and for the rest of their lives as you know National guidelines recommend at least 1 hour of physical activity each day for all children but less than half of all children are currently achieving this a school streets pilot in Hackney in London demonstrated a 51% increase in cycling to school and a 30% increase in Walking as GPS we’re currently seeing both increasing levels of obesity and far more children struggling with their mental and emotional well-being a 2017 study demonstrated a positive association between active travel to school and psychological well-being um as a m of children who’ve attended local schools in alfield park throughout their school lives they used to go to alfield park infants and juniors and now they go to Hayfield I’ve seen this at firsthand um we’ve experienced the social and emotional benefits of walking to school my children have grown up within their Community rather than D being driven through it and they now walk confidently to their secondary school and they see adults and children who they know on the way there and the way back however my youngest daughter has asthma and often feels wheey and tight chested after walking along busy roads of traffic often where drivers are speeding in the years from 2019 to 2022 there were 211 child deaths in the UK due to road traffic accidents and over a third of serious injuries and deaths of children in road traffic collisions occur during travel to and from school school streets could make travel to school safer by reducing road traffic in surrounding streets and and actually speaking about our own street because I live opposite of the Park Junior School just reducing speed would be a really great first step towards that and we’re really struggling with that at the moment um so in conclusion your decisions on school stets could improve the physical and mental well-being of generations of children in Botha Northeast Somerset and you have the power to prevent potentially fatal asthma attacks improve children’s lung Health prevent future ill health improve children’s psychological well-being and prevent injuries and deaths on the roads thank you for listening thank you Alice uh factual questions SAS it thank you for your statement um would you support the school I think with school streets a lot of people think about primary schools what’s your would you support Secondary School school street as well absolutely I think that um I guess the problem with secondary schools is that people come from further away but equally children are more independent so a lot of them travel by bus and are able to travel independently so it could be a much bigger impact if you think about the numbers doing secondary schools rather than just primary any other questions okay if I can just make a closing statement you welcome to it I mean I I was in education for nearly 40 years um secondary education and I absolutely agree 100% with the concept of school streets it’s not that we are we may be we may not have been brilliant at moving forward in this Administration or earlier administrations but it’s not because we didn’t want to it’s because of financial considerations or or other pressures which um is not much of an excuse because when I was on duty outside the school uh which again was a secondary school and and I saw the risks and the pollution that was there then it’s certainly something we are very much focusing on now and hopefully as we go forward there’ll be there’ll be uh many school streets in in the years ahead so thank you very much for your contributions um we well I enjoyed listening to them I hope other people did too so thank you right okay so we move on to perhaps slightly more boring topic of the minutes oh sorry s um before can I suggest that since we’re thinking School streets we leave minutes and Cabinet member update for a bit and do the school streets item um sadly I don’t think we can because we have Manda who’s got pressures of herself okay but it’s a nice idea uh unfortunately well we we haven’t got to wait long because it’s only I say only cevet update I don’t mean that in any disrespectful way but that’s not a massive we hope not a massive J and then we’ll be on to school street so if you can stay for the school streets issue um we’d love you to but obviously you may have pressures on your time as well okay so we will quickly go through the minutes I say as quickly as we can anyway are there any issues on on the minutes that I know Michael you have one it’s fine okay any other issues any corrections uh observations okay you done a good job here Toby well done okay so do I have a a proposal for accepting the minutes somebody put their hand up thank you yes second Michael those in favor okay thank you very much we move on to the cabinet member update and uh this is when I turn around and look a bit nervous for two reasons one as the technology worked and two is Manda looking at me so Manda are you there I am here see and hear me you we can hear you turn her up see me yes morning everybody um I uh circulated my update in advance on more than happy to answer any questions uh there are three things I was going to bring your attention to and I’ll just make a comment I think someone mentioned about cabinet member and talking about school streets just just for everyone to be aware that the school streets portfolio is held by Sarah Warren um and and by um uh as a Cabinet member I won’t comment on someone else’s uh portfolio so any questions about school streets are uh my friend and colleague Sarah Warren not me um the three things that I’m going to draw your attention to are slight updates from what came out on Monday in the fast moving world of uh transport and highways um on Monday we referenced that we were going to put in um some extra ballards to stop people from driving on the pavement um for the liberable neighborhood in Sydney uh Road Sydney place um that work has been now completed uh just for the um for the panel’s information uh irrespective of where people sit on liable neighborhoods and whether or not they think it’s a good or a bad thing when a trial is in what we will not allow is people to subvert the the the the evidence Gathering and the data Gathering of the trial by trying to do something that is illegal and we absolutely won’t allow the kind of behavior that has been witnessed where cars in order to get round um the ballar have driven on the pavement irrespective of the fact that school children at the time walking to school on that pavement so uh that action has been taken um very very swiftly uh uh you can probably sense from my voice I think it’s a real shame that we’ve had to do that um and feel um I was listening to one of your speakers before who was talking about how people either chose or didn’t choose sometimes to abide by uh rules and we’ve got a sort of real live um example here uh second one I’m going to pick out is uh North parade brid um the announcement actually went out in public yesterday as well that uh we are doing the work over the summer the are separate um diversion routs going to be publicized for cars and for cyclists the diversion routs are going to be different um this is slightly different from other Bridges where we’ve been able to keep access for cyclists as well as pedestrians on them on this one it is pedestrian will be pedestrian only access for the time that the work is done we’re very confident that to do the work that we um have identified will take a period of between 6 to 8 weeks um we are less confident um as you would expect like any other Heritage asset uh occasionally when you start doing things you discover other bits but our commitment is to keep everyone as um as engaged and as informed as we can uh and we trust that that work will will happen um over the summer without us finding anything else that needs to be done final bit I just want to draw your attention to on um City Center security again it’s either just gone out or it’s just about to go out the public announcement that we are uh moving on to what is um there was a package of of activity that was agreed by cabinet to uh fulfill what the anti-terrorist squad wanted in terms of City Center security and we’ll be moving on to that next phase um over the summer period uh when the current phrase on um lower B walls will will finish on time um and that I think is a good news if you look at if you compare us with the other cities who’ve had to do this up and down the country they’ve had significant way more significant problems getting their in than us we we have a very difficult environment in the 6 Center to do anything because um I’m sure as you’ll all recall I made a commitment that I would keep uh full access for blue badge holders at all times and that um we were going to make sure that uh we we had sufficient parking for blue badge holders when they went through and every time you dig a hole in the middle of the um of the city center you come across some service or some utility that you weren’t entirely expecting to be there uh so um I am beyond delighted at the work that the the team has done in what was certainly at the start a very very challenging project but is now being delivered um within the budget envelope we’ve currently got and each phase is being done to time and very effectively so those are the three things that I just wanted to call out because they were sort of separate from what I would class as more business as usual it’s not that business as usual isn’t important because people I get you know just as many emails about people needing um double yell lines or or roads resurfacing whatever but as you can see that program is on time is on budget and is being delivered so if anyone has got any questions I would be absolutely delighted to answer them as long as they’re in my portfolio thank you Manda are there any questions for Manda Jess and hi Amanda thank you for that um and I note the report includes uh delivery of resurfacing works so I just wanted to say thank you for the work that’s been done in morland’s work recent Ward recently we had really good feedback about the contractors and how they engag with residents um my question was about our level of enforcement for parking I know that’s an issue that you know continues to be a concern for residents whether they’ve got residents parking zones or not so for example in Morland Ward as aware we’ve got an area of significant overspill uh where there’s a lot of Park parking up parking problems um uh outside the park so I I wanted to get some feedback from you about where we are in terms of our our level of enforcement officers have we got all the jobs filled are we still looking to recruit um and uh whether there’s any data that you could share with us so um thanks for that uh councelor David we um uh we reported at the last meeting if you recall Andy Don was there about the fact that we had more or less got up to I think I think we peaked at about 90% um of of roles filled um but it’s always a bit of a moving Feast so I don’t want to give you a date a number as of this second because they are sadly roles that sometimes people take on and they find they’re not for them or they find they do well and they’ve got aspirations to do other things in the council and apply and move on we’re in a what I can say is we’re in a much much better place than we were earlier uh earlier on um and a lot of that is thanks to working closely with HR who um we we we went through a phase a couple of years ago where we just kept getting reports that said oh we haven’t got enough civil enforcement officers and there’s no civil Enforcement Officers throughout the country um and that’s good enough and I said you know along with the team we all said well actually it isn’t good enough um I if that’s a known problem we can’t keep saying well that’s just a problem so we changed the shift patterns so um people who’ve got children find it more easy to be able to do the job and fit it around their um their child care responsibilities we advertised in places that we hadn’t particularly directed adverts to before and got some people um that way we did a video about what the job entails um we worked with people and we put in our um absolute zero tolerance to any kind of abuse policy because we had found some people were finding that the actual job was causing them stress so as a considerate employer and as someone who was trying to attract people to that role we did everything we could and we did absolutely see a huge um increase in people applying um I get monthly figures about where we go um how many uh how many transgressions that people witness how many of those last long enough for a um ticket to be issued and we are doing the best we can it’s one of those things if we had more people we would be in more places but frankly the position that we’re are now um I would be I would be surprised surprised if we had more than 10% vacancies now but please don’t hold me to that specific figure position we are now is is probably As Good As It Gets and again it’s going back to the to the to the speaker who we heard before a lot of this is people knowingly doing things that they shouldn’t do so part of our role I think as a council is is to try to get to a place where enforcement is almost seen as the last resort because someone has you know deliberately fed the rules as opposed to people you know thinking they’re going to be able to get away with it so I have a lot of sympathy for people who say we’d like to see um traffic enforcement civil Enforcement Officers more regularly um in the same way as a lot of sympathy for people who say I’d like to see police more regularly they are doing the rounds that they meant to do and anyone who wants to get access to the world’s largest spreadsheet is more than welcome um within the council to see where they go and and what they and what they issue s hi Amanda thank you for the update um I’ve got a question on Lime Gardens charmouth Road so we’ve heard from a local resident um I believe there’s been a public meeting um yesterday or earlier this week um I I have to agree with some local residents I don’t think this scheme will create a safe environment for walking wheeling and cycling and I believe it fails minimum criteria for the City Regional sustainable transport settlements um funding crsds that we so desperately need so removing parking to improve visibility and creating short sections of cycle waste isn’t going to achieve the modal shift that we we want and need um a couple of signs to warn motorist of oncoming cyclist isn’t going to keep those people on cycle safe or people walking to school um I guess I would like your comment on how you think this scheme will enable a modal shift thank you so um uh I think you’re probably referring to there was a an open meeting uh last night uh I haven’t had all the feedback obviously from that meeting uh yet I think that’s the meeting you were referring to um like every other liable neighborhood this came forward as part of the when we asked for proposals for how we spent the crsds money uh on liable neighborhoods is came forward um from uh Ward counselors as a request it went through the same uh prioritization route as all the other liable neighborhood requests came came through um and we we are moving to an experimental traffic order whereby we will test whether or not we think um what what was what had been requested and what had been modeled will actually do what it needs to do you’re right to point out that there is the school at the the top of the the street and this may be a phase one towards doing something closer to a school street but it fits all the criteria for a liable neighborhood there are a couple of um specific issues that have have come up that again we wouldn’t know about had we not moved to an Etro so you know in many ways teasing out the issues are a good thing I’ll see the report from the consultation um yesterday and we’ll decide how when we move to erro um the decision to do that has already been taken it’s just the actual details we’re working on and when we move to that what if anything we need to change in the light of that in terms of very minor tweaks and of course throughout the 6 to8 month period the erro be in place we will do extreme uh monitoring and we will be asking people for their local Liv experience and we’ll see um if in fact it needs to stay in or come out or be replaced by something different thank you um the devire tunnel I’m not sure whether it’s you or Sarah um but can we have an update on what’s happening on devire Tunnel it’s neither me or Sarah um so all I can do is tell you what I know from a briefing that the the cabinet got as I’m sure everyone’s aware de the tunnel is owned and operated Now by sustr not by the council um however some uh you know we want to be as helpful as we humanly possibly can and it looks like some of the work that may be done to be longer term fix will need to be done on Council land um it it again this you’re getting to the to the limits of my understanding about this and my my exposure to it but my understanding is um this is not going to be a simple fix so the the current plan is that when it rains excessively and water comes in there is a plan to pump the excess water out to keep it as open for as long as possible um however that’s obviously not a good long-term fix the long-term fix is being worked on Via Council engineers and sust strands with sust strands obviously having to take the lead sorry just to follow upness I don’t know if I missed this but whose portfolio sit does this sit in I’m sorry SAS I can’t hear you sorry whose portfolio does this sit in if it if it’s not in yours and not in s ones it’s um uh it’s a corporate property responsibility so that falls I believe it’s um except some of the some of the land is Parkland it’s one of these very peculiar ones that falls between a whole heap of um uh of of uh different places I suspect Mar that question coun thank you okay there don’t appear to be any more questions so last one last one thank you um could I ask about physical barriers on public right of weight is that your portfolio again ask you when you turn away from the microphone I’m afraid I can’t hear you sorry I would like to ask looking at me but I can’t hear you yes I think you can hear me now because I sound very loud in here physical barriers on public right of weight does that sit within your portfolio it does yes um is there a commitment from the council to remove all physical barriers on public rightous way to allow exess for all so there’s a um a program of work being done on public rights of way currently um we have one only public rights of way officer who covers the whole of the authority so what we need to do is look at the asset overall see which one ones are still enforcable which ones aren’t still enforcable see which need work see which don’t need work and part of that that that program of work is to look at the accessibility to see which um if any are being um uh in any way uh made inaccessible in a way that we can change so um I can’t give an absolute commitment that uh you know immediately we’re going to put all these things right but I can give the commitment that we’re looking at getting together a program to make sure that we address all the issues as speedily as we can thank you thank you for being tolerant Manda okay if it’s okay with you chair I will I’ve got another meeting I need to go to so thank you all very much your meeting and I’ll drop off now than bye right so we move on to Sarah um who has made the journey to Kum [Music] do you want to start with a Cabinet member update yes that would be that would be lovely okay so I’ve circulated it in advance so I’ll just um go through some highlights um so on green Heritage homes um so there’s been some training delivered to our Council conservation and planning officers on retrofit and historic buildings um there’s actually a um a webinar coming up that people can um residents owners of historic properties can log on to which will be held on the 15th of May so go to the council website if you’d like to know more about that um we’re looking at a power purchase agreement for solar um photovoltaic at um the proposed fery Hill site in Compton dando which is still subject to planning approval um we are participating in the local area energy plan which will provide evidence to underpin the strategy for 300 megawatts that we’re looking to install by 20130 um working closely with colleagues in Bristol and across the west of England on that and both Sports and Leisure Center uh will be installing a rooftop solar PV um using £173,000 from the government swimming pool support fund uh which should generate up to 212 kilowatt peak hour capacity um which will provide more than I think the electricity needed for the swimming pool um uh so then moving on to um rural communities uh climate and nature project projects we have nine parishes that have been awarded money from the west of England rural fund including farra Westfield East Harry Bishop Sutton peasedown St John Compton Martin chelwood to Magna and they’ll be doing most of them I think we’ll be doing Works to their buildings to improve the Energy Efficiency to retrofit um uh renewable uh Technologies um and in terms of um Community conversation we’re actually working towards a pilot uh Community conversation around climate change uh which potentially could form the basis for future conversations that will inform the update of the climate emergency um strategy which I think is due next year and might also provide a format for a new type of uh neighborhood for if they go well on nature um we’re receiving quite um a bit of a claim actually for our biodiversity net gain um program so we actually implemented 10% biodiversity net gain a requirement for 10% biodiversity net gain in planning a year ahead of mandate from government which means that we’re a bit of a um a Pathfinder a Trends Setter um nationally now and um various uh locations are coming forward as sites where we can can accept contributions from developers and use them to um promote biodiversity so that’s really positive and exciting thing to be part of [Music] um we are we are going forward with the Summer Valley redis discovered project through wer funding and working closely with Bristol water to deliver phase two of the CH Valley recreational trail um on a transport side of things we are working towards painted parking Bays for our e scooter trial um which we hope will be forthcoming this summer I believe and then later in the year we’re looking towards some on-road spaces um bike hangers um so we consulted fairly recently I think on locations that residents would like to put in back hangers um working towards installation of at 20 locations later this year we’ve been surveying um commuters within Bar Northeast Somerset and um we’ll be progressing to the next stage of the full business case uh on the Summer Valley link sustainable transport Corridor um for sustainable travel routes along the a37 and a367 uh we’ve been waiting for wer to release the West vland combined authority to release the consultation findings of the A4 Bristol Bath Route uh through that scheme and we can expect those to be released um later this month now um aside from that then as part of our local plan uh which we are working towards so we’ve recently had an options consultation uh we’re looking towards um uh creating transport strategies for our towns um that will set the vision for the transport system for the next 20 years and we are compiling an active travel master plan so of course if anyone has thoughts on that please do um send them in uh they and there will be consultation on those um schemes later those plans later in the year that’s it for me for now and I’ll have to answer questions about those um thank you Sarah are there any questions for sasia and then sh thank you for the update I believe there was an update on tier in the in your report wasn’t there well I just want to ask about um if there are plans to expand it to cover all of baths including twerton I think there was mention of expanding it to South and East um there are plans to expand tier um the tier Zone and uh we’re waiting on um both here and the west of England combined Authority and um Council officers having capacity to progress that but um that’s certainly within our plans thank you hi s um okay a simple question to start with is there any ends to a e scooter trial what was the question is there evidence is there any end to it will it finish the trial ever uh I believe so at the time it came in it was a trial which and what it was thought likely if I’m I maybe if I’m if I um it’s up to the government uh so that they set out the terms for the trial they have um uh extended it three times the current extension is until uh end of March 2026 the contract that we have with wer and tier through wer with tier um takes us uh a little bit beyond then I think to possibly the start of 2027 um we don’t know it really depends on what the government does in terms of uh legalization of private E Scooters the it started out being um a support mechanism for um transport during covid and now it’s moved on into Gathering as much evidence as they can wer have um in the first set of Trials uh published now an independent report review Into the operation across the West ofan combined Authority it’s available on the wer website that was done independently by the University of West of England very thorough we will be doing more of that um but it’s really about taking the opportunity to uh gather evidence in our area so that the consideration and and decisions that the government take includes our evidence into it so uh March 2026 but but could be further we’re not sure can I remind Sean and others that I don’t believe that’s part of the update so I don’t think think you should have asked that question am I wrong well there’s a they’re expanding the es scooter trial in the updates mine’s on E Scooters as well well I’m glad we clarified that just to say I really welcome the um plan to put in some uh pavement parking well to put in some parking spots and some painted in parking spots um Jessica thank you for your engagement locally you know um it’s been quite an issue people there are some real uh enthusiasts for E Scooters and the ebikes which is great but there also some people who are really upset about them being parked sloppily across Pavements and obviously blocking uh walkways and space for people with buggies is not a good thing so my question is really about funding for putting in these parking spots it’s great that you’re doing 10 and have plans to do 10 more but obviously there’s many many scooters need bikes all across um bath um are we looking at other mechanisms for fun them does it just have to come from wer or can we use things like still or um other pots of money to pay for the parking spots when we know how how well they work um what um I can say is that we are hopeful I think um that with the west of England combined Authority that we may be moving towards a place where we um as both Northeast Somerset Council have a share of the um income that um tier is bringing into the west of England combined Authority so that would then give us the opportunity to you know in first instance I imagine the first call on that money will be to support the scooter scheme and then there may be more and we can spend it on um other other areas okay Ian thank you um hi Sarah thanks for your update um just want to go back to the retrofitting for historic buildings um you said that um uh officers uh planners and conservation officers have been subject to some training on this um how um Are the officers going to overcome you the the legal issues of um the fact we’ve got so many um Heritage assets within in the city in particular um how are we going how are they going to be able to overcome issues such as L building consent and what national planning policy says it’s an ongoing challenge for us I think in in bar in particular um but I think if we can go forward with Pro projects like this one the you know the lead project from Green Heritage homes um you know we can we can be in the Forefront of of addressing these and taking them up with national government and um and and trying to find a pathway through because as a world heritage um site if we can crack those issues in bath or at least bring to them bring them to the you know to the Forefront of the attention of national government then um you know we have a chance uh perhaps of of you know leading the rest of the UK but it’s an ongoing challenge for us okay thank you everyone for the questions um thank you Sarah for your very detailed outdate so detailed I missed a bit so uh very good and uh we now move on to item nine which is school streets and I understand Jessica you’re going to do a presentation we’re doing it together are we so like the two Runners is it okay um there will be 40 minutes and I Am timing so please keep questions brief and comments I’m not talking to necessarily to you but I am everybody so we can get as much points the presentation question lovely okay then over to you yeah so just to emphasize of course as you’ve gathered our school streets program is at quite an early stage so we’ve brought this to you as a item of um policy development um so really it’s a question of telling you where we are with our thinking and and getting feedback from you in terms of how we you know how how happy you are with that and whether there are changes you’d wish to see so cleaner Greener School travel is obviously a plank of the council’s um journey to Net Zero um strategy and a key part of our um approach to mode shift um so in terms of the school run we know we that the school Run related traffic accounts for a quarter of cars on the road at school runtime and statistics show that 14% of children who are killed on Great Britain’s roads in 2018 um it was during this morning School run and 23% it was during the afternoon School run and we know so there’s been a report from insur Admiral which shows that a there’s a 43% of Road collisions during the holidays at School run time of day engagement when it’s carried out with school children shows a strong demand for improved road safety and preference to travel to school by active modes of Transport specifically for school streets it has shown that peoples are supportive of restrictions and wish for more extensive changes that reduce the dominance of Motor Vehicles um we also know as we’ve heard from some of our speakers today that children in the UK are amongst the overweight most overweight in Europe and that the journey to school is an easy way to increase exercise um and we know that physical activity amongst 5 to 18 year olds has reduced over the last 30 years so that’s just some of the background of why we’re looking at this policy um so I mean I’m very um delighted really that we have been able to allocate this year through budget setting £250,000 of income from the Clean Air Zone for some Pilot School streets so School streets were first introduced in the UK in 2015 and have been expanded rapidly in um recent years um it’s very helpful to us that Bristol local to us has several so we are working closely with them and hoping to learn from their experience so what are the aims of a school street I mean the overall objective is to create a safer and more welcoming environment on roads directly outside or leading to schools by reducing the dominance of motor vehicles uh to support parents pupils and School staff to all travel to school by more active mode of Transport so traditionally um they tend to involve a timed motor vehicle restriction during school drop off and pickup which might be might be between 30 minutes and 2 hours in duration and there are often exemptions for residents for blue badge holders for emergency services and for other statutary surface Services um they can also be developed into wider measures supporting active travel and improving the public Realm such as improved Crossings pavement widening bike parking Street Greening and so on so in terms of the policy basis that we have to do this um at government level uh We’ve Got Gear the gear Change Report which lists um them as a key intervention improving road safety and increasing activity levels government has set a Target through it cycling a walking investment strategy to see 53% of school children walk into school by next year locally many many of our policies already mention School streets as uh potential interventions so it’s mentioned through the joint local transport plan 4 which was the west of England’s document um of a few years ago our own B and Northeast Somerset journey to Net Zero strategy our liver neighborhood strategy as well as our corporate strategy policies and principles so having a policy gives Clarity to schools seeking to implement a School Street and potentially provides a legal position with which could in future require um uh permit us to require developer Financial contributions for for these streets through the planning process delivery of some pilot schemes now will allow us to learn um what goes what works what works less well um and um to support real learning and to inform future schemes and potentially in future to bring in a a School Street specific policy so it will put us in a good position of of course to bid for funds further funds um for more at a later date thank you um I’m going to talk very briefly about two key Concepts that are really important for um modal shift or changing how we travel um that is the stepped approach and disruptor events and you’ll see by the end of my talk why um I’m putting play playing out up there I’m really happy to hear Talia coming and speaking about um playing out events in freshford so a Ste approach uh is supporting small changes is understanding that people don’t usually make a very large change in their lives in their life around uh transport so allowing and supporting those little changes traveling to school once a week making short Journeys to your local environment your local High Street via um cycle or while walking things like that they all together create those big changes uh and and supporting that are a bunch of other things that we’re doing around the council the active travel social prescribing program we were one of 11 councils that were successful in um bidding in securing funding from active travel England for it is based around the Summer Valley area but we do we are already um expanding a little bit our scope there to deliver adult cycle training out of the area so that’s about um realizing health benefits of um sustainable transport active travel rather which then allows people to to make those changes more generally in their life around sustainable transport the mod shift Stars School travel plan accreditation scheme that we are a part of and specifically within the council we have moved from a position of supporting the school travel plan office post from grant funding where it’s always looking for the next Grant coming to being a permanently a permanent position in our structure now which gives us the longevity um to provide support ongoing for support for schools and also to tie over with the ongoing Capital program it’s very hard to plan for big schemes several years down the future when you’re not sure if you’ve got that officer next year or the year after uh we have increased provision for bikability bikability is the National Standard for cycle training within usually the school age um we have massively increased our capacity we’ve just finished uh training up the newest set of recruits it takes a long time it takes back about 6 to 9 months total to recruit and train up to to get to a point where we then have instructors that are able to go out and deliver so we’re we’re now in in that point and we’re now doing some really um uh aggressive feels the wrong word but um promotion to get more schools to come on board with us and this brings us back to to playing out really it’s another step approach that we see ties really well with school streets all of these things the mode shift Stars bability playing out there ways that um schools and school communities can make a step approach which then it may be that school streets is the next step that they do and progress on and school travel plans we see as the um method by which they are uh maintaining that and keeping a record a dynamic uh record that they will continue going forwards with disruptor events those are major life changes are the most effective time um for us targeting um modal shift people changing how they travel that’s things like changing job changing house um uh sorry yeah changing job moving house and moving schools so that brings us back to the policy provision in terms of when we have a policy that we can then leverage against the in the planning process that allows us to make sure that as developments come on stream they are doing so in a way that is in line with school streets so that when people move into those new houses and start going to those new schools they are doing so with this at the Forefront and that’s the Habit right from the word go we’ve already got playing out we had 11 events this year this calendar year we’ve done uh Brookfield park Linfield Park um in the past in previous years as well as py Grove prior close freshford lane um I do note that they are all fairly bath Centric and that our anticipated um scope for school streets is not going to be restricted to Bath we want to move move uh out Beyond it so these are the objectives and benefits we see school streets will give us it will allow enable support more walking cycling and scooting to school naughty scooters just the the normal push scooters for kids and see uh hopefully in accordance with that less single car occupancy we see there being that tie between less cars means more safety more active travel means improved Health outcomes for children and parents by embedding regular physical activity on the school run um walking also gives better mind mapping of local areas for children so it’s very important there we’ve got good evidence it gives better concentration for children when they are in school as well so it helps make use of the school day better Independence feelings of well-being reduces conflict between parents on the drop off and with residents so that’s with each other sometimes and with residents of the area um uh as the doctor mentioned earlier as well by reducing the car traffic in in those areas we will be improving the um uh pollution or reducing the pollution which has health benefits as well and wider than that improved capacity on our road networks elsewhere which is a major Financial economic consideration for us so here’s our first point of uh questions opening up to you the panel do you agree with our approach on delivery policy what do you think of the objectives and I can put them back on screen if you want what if anything needs changing or adding and are there any issues that school Streets Could address or benefits that they could bring does anyone wish to respond to any of those questions yeah Sean and then s yeah I mean firstly I I mean I guess we’re not restricted to these questions I mean we’ve got another I’ve got a few more slides to show in another bunch of questions but this was we felt that these set of questions was um appropriate with what you’ve shown so far but if there’s something that you a burning question that you have but I’m just trying to get I mean I understand the concepts um and I’m I’m disappointed that to be honest is quite important I’m disappointed that we we only received data a day ago for this scrutiny um I think I would have expected to receive information to be to be a to scrutinize in advance um much longer than than one day before a scrutiny panel um if I could respond to that we’re doing policy development today not scrutiny um there aren’t this policy is at an early stage of its development and we don’t have a lot of paperwork um ready to go so I you know apologize it’s only one day ago that I sent you a number of links or perhaps two days ago I’m not sure but anyway I did send some links as background information so that you could read up about it but really the the objective here today is to consider you know what is it we’re trying to achieve and are we going about it in the right way okay so then what I’m trying to get my head round is um obviously we’ve got low tra low traffic neighborhoods and we’ve got um we’ve got um School streets and I’m just trying to see what they sit at the moment they seem to be sitting separately from each other and they obviously shouldn’t be they should be part of the same the same projects um my concern is that it’s it’s it’s funding Le so Liberal Liberal neighborhoods um tend to like to get priority because they’re funded um whereas traffic calming measures tends not to be funded by wer so I’m just wondering how we make sure that this gets a priority um within the livero neighborhoods projects um so I mean so the liable neighborhoods has the ability um if if uh if a request for School Street comes forward through a neighborhood through the consultations that we’ve done um there is there would have been the scope to have have implemented a School Street as part of the liable neighborhoods program I don’t I mean I’m not currently leading on that program but I don’t believe one has come forward at this stage I could be wrong um uh through that route but uh in terms of funding for school streets specifically we have now allocated a pot of funding through which is um it’s actually come from the income through the Clean Air Zone um route and that is allocated in this year’s budget so we have a definite uh fund from which we can Implement some Pilots this coming year of school streets um thank you um could I go back today yet objectives I was just thinking that something about the kind of social um and community aspects may be missing from this so I think it it um as a secondary benefit of having um lower noise and lower pollution and no danger from motorized vehicles you get a really nice and welcoming community and this could really be a very you know USB unique selling point for the community especially so I think we should highlight this um just coming back to what Sean was been say has been saying I think saying that no school street I mean obviously there are no School Street within the current 15 liable neighbor neighborhoods but I guess the question is why not because if they would have been kind of presented as a really good option then they may have been so I guess we may have missed a trick there and I am concerned that we may miss a trick again the next time so I guess um yeah will we be seeing School streets in the next lot of liable neighborhoods um because that would be a great way to to to uh get the funding um I can’t say what will happen in um future liveable neighborhoods rounds uh I mean I think in the the the principle by which we’ve gone ahead with the Lial neighborhoods to date has been that it’s been about Community design um so I can’t say what will happen in the future of course but um what one hopes I guess will be that if we have some Pilots uh of school streets through the current um you know this particular funding part that we’ve allocated and they go really well then all the communities will want want one so it’s really helpful to have your feedback about social and Community aspects because if we can um incorporate them into our OB and prioritize them and perhaps more communities will want one more uh yes I mean just following up on the difference in livable neighborhoods and school streets I’m thinking of um uh bwick St Mary where Darlington Road is is no trouble at all and is a liveable neighborhood except at school um School run time so the interventions required are about school run not about the overall environment of that street and I think it’s a question of design identifying which policy interventions you need at for which time for what problem um in that sort of context um yes and to come back on because I think we’ve had some mention earlier today of is it chouth Road and lime road which um are implementing a one-way system and actually um you know what I’m I’m hearing from um colleagues who’ve imp mented School streets elsewhere is that actually a oneway street is an easier Street on which to implement a school street so it’s very possible that that could be a precursor to you know moving in this direction it is fair to say that one does not does not eliminate the other one does it they can work in unison uh going forward so we may not have missed a trick it’s just that we may be at the first stage and a second stage may follow afterwards possibly Jess thank you um chair if it’s okay the got a a comment a question and a suggestion if that’s all right um so comment um yes the objectives and benefits I agree with um I’ve been involved in some initiatives at whitcom school where we did a a carfree day and then followed that up a term later with a car free week which was basically like a voluntary School Street so we asked the whole school Community not to drive within the immediate vicinity of the school and not to drive through the road that that went between the two schools um so as part of that two points to emphasize there was some Community engagement so working with the local VES Association we sent them information beforehand made sure they understood that they would be able to drive you know as normal but it this was about you know asking the school Community to behave differently so they should see some benefits um and some several of them did report back that it was a lot better for them because they didn’t have parents kind of slamming the doors outside their front door and you know parking on the double yellows and you know kind of taking over the area um and then another key part of the scheme was that we um worked with a couple of local uh businesses a garden center and the Cricut ground to provide locations for Park and stride so that people who had to use their car for work or for other stuff that was going on had an option to be able to drive reasonably near to the school and still you know carry about their day there wasn’t massive takeup of those offers but I think it was really important in terms of acceptability so um in terms of the objectives and benefits here I think you could probably talk a bit more about the the benefits to communities around schools um then the question I had um is really good that we’ve made a permanent position for the school travel officer because you know that wasn’t the case before you know when we when I first became a counselor and funding was coming to an end for I think it was called safer roots to school um so it’s really good that that’s now a permanent post um to to follow up on um talia’s comments earlier on do you think we could ask for a bit more support from that officer to help with walking buses I know we have got some examples of walking buses in Baines that are working at the moment and people have been able to get around some of the obstacles so if we could just share that best practice or perhaps Advocate with schools that would really help parents to get them off the ground um and then lastly my suggestion was about obviously as a local Council we have a role in schooled admissions as well as in transport and is there some messaging that we can work into the admissions process about thinking about how you travel to school so that when you get your first child into Primary School you’re already being given a message about trying to carare trying to walk to school where you can here are the resources that are available to help you here’s your walk to school map that kind of stuff so that from the outset people are thinking about sustainable travel and not assuming they have to drive to school and back every day thank you those are are great suggestions and um we’ll see whether we can get our school travel officer taking a look at them and perhaps picking up on what um I think was Talia who said earlier um maybe we can get him to look into whether there’s any any way in which the council can facilitate that insurance um issue I have no idea whether there is but look into I can talk to that briefly if Talia is thank you Talia so um we do have as you mentioned the um walking bus I’m sorry I’m going to have to so we’ve got the walking bus tour kit that we put together it does mention the need for schools to look at their insurance the reason is uh mostly they will find out there is no additional premium to pay but they need to make sure that they have um uh gone through the process so that it is covered the schools’s insurance will um will be very likely to cover things like doing school trips and it’s under that provision the walking buses can be covered as well um but the school needs to do the the processes the risk assessment and part of the toolkit is helping the school Community go through those we’ve provided some templates we’ve provided generic risk assessments for to to get to understand the operation but there need to be specific ones to site that the school needs to take ownership of and I think there’s some really good overlap between um walking bus and playing out and School Street streets here and um demonstrators in which one can be used as a step approach to the other but also they they all three somewhat have the same um issues in terms of uh sustainability where they often comes down to a few individual parents to to provide the the the workforce as it were of people to keep things going and that’s where the school travel plan officer and Moi stars as a system is about embeding all of those things within the school ethos so that the school is looking to replace those people either from the school’s um staff itself or uh canvasing new people who are coming into the school to take on those roles because they need to keep that going and it needs to continue otherwise we just have this sort of um jump up in terms of sustainability around schools for a while we’ll put money in we’ll support things and then it drops off and it’s gone again and we want to avoid doing all of that so all of that active travel social prescribing bikeability cycle training we are working towards a position of ideally 80% of um year five and SK six uh pupils across the whole of Baines having done level one and two bability um and that’s the real driver behind why we have massively increased our capacity there and once we fill that capacity we’ll do it again and the next step we talked earlier um about secondary schools and again the change from primary to secondary is a natural disruptor event but it’s not well secured um into Secondary School the that independent travel of walking and cycling and so we were looking previously about a year ago to start doing level three um bikability at secondary schools but active travel England have given us this priority and target of the 80% for level one and two we want to go back and do that we want to to see um having done that mass uh provision of skills with level five uh year five and six kids we want to see that embedded into secondary schools but we H we have to do a stepped approach in the council as well to make sure that it’s sustainable for us so we’ll definitely get in touch with the yeah okay um I have a question and I think it’s to do with the objectives I think during the conversation that we’ve had another objective seems to me to be improving School Partnerships uh a lot of that stuff out there there is about what’s happening around the school but it’s been talked about um cycling Improvement which is done prly within the school school travel plans which you’ve done within the schools and uh walking buses things like that which are linked closely to the way schools operate so my suggestion would be that improving school um Partnerships with the local Authority would be a good objective to include should we go on to the yes we’ve got more oh perfect perfect so um recapping what we’ve done where we are and where we’re going so we have £250,000 of CAS Revenue allocated to the program it’s allocated for this financial year but it can as it’s our money effectively and not grant funding we can carry it forwards into next financial year that doesn’t mean that we’re going to be uh sitting on our hands and not getting on with things it just means that we we’re not in in a rush to to to throw money at things we want to get this right so this is the areawide um assessment uh criteria we think we’re going to use and I’m going to take you a bit over um how we we came to that these are the things that we think will be um our sort of prioritization criteria um and we also want to expand out the provision not just for urban schools which has been the tendency across the the nation in the move to school streets it has more often been provision of urban schools we want to make sure that we’re not leaving our rural schools and Northern Northeast sumerset area of veins behind so that’s where we want to widen out and think consider things like quiet Lanes the enforcement um options are barriers with Marshals signage only uh automatic number plate recognition and that would be with fines along it as well we are proposing in this first phase to do the barrier option um that’s not ruling out all others it means that that we see that as the best first phase for us because it is lower cost to do it’s quicker to do it requires the buying from the school um to operate we aren’t going to be able to um bring on a load more uh officers to go and police these uh every day so it will need School staff or School Community people to come and and do that it also builds in monitor um and compliance opportunities for us so you pop a sign up we don’t know how many people are obeying the sign we don’t know how many people are um uh driving or not driving as part of it but when you’ve got people there they can do counts they can also be there to first see issues as they pop up because if you don’t have a person there very often the issues boil up and it’s only when they boil over that we as a council realize that there is a problem we have to get involved again so we think that that is the right way and also we think that physical barrier not just relying on signage but that physical barrier barrier to um enforce instruction uh restrictions lower the speeds only let through those people who um are allowed to be let through is important there we also um I would say the most effective uh persuasive power for modal shift comes from what everyone else is doing around you not from a fine not from um benefits in terms of something extra we can we can offer Financial uh bonuses or whatever it may be that you can get it comes from what is happening that that nudge uh or Pest of power we know that is how people change what they’re doing and adhere to rules as well we talked about people jumping red lights Etc people are less likely to um um flout rules when they think that everyone around them will judge them for it much much more so than when they are worried about getting a fine or something else for it um we have uh employed a consultant to do some very preliminary um policy review for us that’s looking at our policy looking at National policy and suggest how we move forwards this is the qualifying criteria that they um gave us which would be this this is the schools that that can or can’t out outright and be part of it and already for example we can see some issues in going with such a restrictive approach for example freshford school would not be able to be um part of a school streets because the third one on there no bus stop within prospective restriction area means that that wouldn’t um that would disqualify them we don’t want to be that restrictive which is why we want to do this pilot ahead of policy or merging the two together as we’re moving forward so that we can test what does and what doesn’t work and where we need to be restrictive of elements and where we need to actually allow it out a little bit more they’ve also given us um a set of criteria for prioritization so that’s having identified whether a school can or can’t outright how do we then um float those that come to us um and take the ones that we can afford to within that Financial year going forwards and I’ll quickly whiz through these so another primary School within 200 MERS Secondary School uh again close by whether there is a livable neighborhood scheme so that’s that over lap between livable neighborhoods there is obvious benefit if we’re doing a school streets and there’s a livable neighborhoods that the two should work in Partnership um but all of these things should not be a yes no it should be together they provide an um a an opportunity for us to know that um it is more likely to work and it is more likely to have a larger impact whether there is cycle network connections already around where they are with their mod shift Stars award are they engaged do they have um a green bronze silver or a gold accreditation how many students there are because again larger schools mean that we are going to um impact a larger number of effectively cars on the road getting them off whether there are primary school age children living nearby so that’s talking about the catchment area are we expecting it to be able to um work because there is a a large proportion of people within a short distance or is it an enormous catchment area where we could spend a lot of money putting in ampr to do a school streets but people are still going to keep driving into the area considering the um safety record accidents um occurring near the school traffic levels um by which we mean if there is a high volume of traffic it is going to be much harder it has a lot of other KnockOn effects to do so that counts against it when there’s a smaller level traffic in the area it is going to be easier to to do and then linking with indices of multiple deprivation and is there an air quality management Zone because again that is an added benefit if we’re getting traffic off of the road so again we’re coming back to you in terms of questions none of these are set in stone this is where we are so far what we’re looking at our approach is going to be that we want to run a few Pilots we think I’m going to whiz on and come back to the questions this is our outline program in um uh may now we will be um taking expressions of Interest survey to all schools in the in the district we’ve got that survey ready to go it’s ju it’s just with information governance the check that we have everything um crossed and dotted as needs to be June we will be reviewing the responses coming back from schools and completing a single member decision this summer we will be creating a web web page to explain our approach to uh um advertise what it is that we’re doing how it links with our policies and how schools can get involved we will be looking to um appoint a consultant designer and start to do initial design work um by the Autumn we’ll be looking to collect monitoring data um and installation of air quality mon monitoring engaging with the local community and doing further design work and response to feedback with the communities themselves and then we see um by early 2025 buying the materials that we need such as barriers hi doing the training of the marshals and the actual installation of the the schemes and we see this being the start we don’t have a a definitive number of how many we we think we’re going to get done we want to make the the best use of the money and get as many as we can done but we want them to be really good ones so that they stand up as um exemplars for other schools to say we want to do that how do we get involved with that too so is there anything else you think criteria wise we should be considering do you have any ideas for changes for schools that are not suitable for a timed motor vehicle restriction and are there any other good examples of innovative schemes in other local authorities that you’re aware of that you want us to pay particular close consideration to can I just make an observation about your your outline Pro program um I would suggest that a good time to start this scheme would be after Easter um because if it’s a secondary school there are years that are phasing out anyway and the weather’s better and all that sort of stuff I wouldn’t recommend September as a start because I can imagine that would be quite difficult for Fairly obvious reasons so are there any questions yes ask you thank you in terms of criteria um deprivation seems to be uh clear one that we need to look at are very important because obesity levels will be potentially higher so I think that that one would be really really good to add um can I in terms of the expression of interest I’m quite we’ve heard about schools and obviously they’re under resource they’re under pressure they are worried about recruitment um I think asking schools if they’re up for this is actually quite uh tricky if they don’t know what our plans are so um I think it’s important for schools to know what our ambition is and what our vision is in terms of like really tell them what the number of schools will be by what year so that they know that it’s not if but when because otherwise if they know that there will be three School streets in Baines in the next three years they will probably be quite hesitant because it is is it requires resources it requires uh bravery basically from the school uh leadership so so yeah I would like us to to go out with a Clear Vision that is publicly available ideally before we ask them if they’re interested um that’s an interesting point which we will um we we’ll consider and um see whether we can include it in our timeline in our um uh communication with schools but just to say we are in dialogue for with a number of schools we so we do know that there are a number of schools who are interested and up foret but we want to make sure that other schools who might not have previously considered to have the opportunity to consider equally to um I think it would be hard to impose a scheme upon a school who you know whose Community was simply not engaged at all I think that would be very hard so I think that in the first instance we do need to work with those who who who are keen and and we know that there are some out there so that that’s really positive yeah firstly just to pick up up on that point um I agree that we should make the call go out as widely as possible so directly to schools but also make sure that the parent communities are going to pick up on it as well because I think it it requires a partnership between the school and you need an active group of parents who care and want to take these things forward and actually take on the work of marshalling and all of that I mean that’s that is quite an askk um in terms of the criteria I really agree with the point that Jessica made about buses so for example in morans we do have a bus which we’re desperately hanging on to but it’s only every 40 minutes and I don’t think that should preclude a School Street going in if that was something that the school wants to you know to bid for I’m sure we could work around the timings um likewise I noted one of the criteria is engagement with modeshift you know I get that because modeshift provides a framework for people to engage in to to create a school travel plan and then to do the initiatives however I am aware of schools that are doing significant initiatives that are not engaged with Mod shift because it’s quite administrative and it it requires again somebody to sit down late at night and look through the things and enter onto the system so perhaps it you could have engag with motive as as a criteria or evidence of other significant School transport actions um so thinking again in terms of Morland school for example there’s engagement going on with basille’s gym and the local community about the private road that runs down through the park and how to dissuade parents from using that to drop off so there is activity going on already which is School Street like even though it’s not public Highway um and then also another suggestion for the criteria is about nurseries as well often nurseries and preschools are collocated near schools and then you’ve got parent parents with toddlers unwieldy toddlers on a scooter and then you really want a safe road environment to be able to uh help the school community so perhaps that could be another part of the criteria can I can I quickly sorry sorry I I think really great idea about um nursery and preschools um in terms of mode shift Stars just to highlight that um the consultant had made a suggestion in terms of um How We Do the prioritization but as we’re currently proposing it I’ve just popped it up on the screen again we’re simply saying engagement with Moi star so they don’t have to have reached any level um but we want to see all the those schools that are doing really good work around there get it down into the plan so they don’t we we we we don’t think at this stage we want to require that but we want to know that they are engaging with it because that means that um going back to something you said earlier about admissions it’s it is really important that is a really um key point and time to do it the other side is um the welcome packs the schools give so yes I think that’s a really good idea we we will go away and look at um um admissions policy and if there’s something that we can do there but one of the things that we encourage schools to do with motive stars is to create a welcome pack so that every new family coming into the school knows that it’s part of the school ethos right from the word go thanks combination of of both secondary and primary schools and I’m just wondering what engagement work this has been done in terms of if you want to talk to schools about a program like this that then they may get involved on a bigger level than just individual schools I don’t know if that’s uh practical or not and whether it would help um that’s an interesting point and we we’ll consider that as well um I suppose thinking of a big uh partnership trust like the mid n um schools partnership trust I suppose that they they operate across more than one unitary Authority don’t they so I suppose from their perspective we’ll just have to we can we’ll consider it and we can speak to our colleagues in in in in the schools team and try to work out whether that’s that’s that’s a helpful way to go thank you yes I just I just want to be be aware that um there’s OB quite a lot of difference between um Urban environments like bath and our sort of mid some nor rural and semi- rural environments and the criteria quite different um car dependency is completely different out in places like Ms oron we have high car dependencies for numerous reasons whether that’s public transport whether that’s just living in a rural environment where you just can’t access easily so whether whether you need to just be aware of that in your qualifying criteria thank you U and we would certainly um not look to restrict the scheme to the city or to urban areas only um so um rural schools are very welcome to come forward I mean if you as a panel either now or later on go when think about it if you want to come back to us and tell us um if you’ve got any other thoughts of how we could approach it in areas outside of the city that would be really helpful e progression of the the moment but I’m strugling right okay Sam okay thank you for coming Sam I assume you’re going to present the findings of the of the panel and you have with you members of the panel in the group so I assume it’s going to be a sort of discussion to some extent um and I’m looking forward to what you have to say thanks thanks chair um first of all I’d like to thank uh Kerrie for putting this together I know I can’t be here today because he’s involved in the election stuff so I should be a double act but I’m I’m on my own today um and I’d also like to thank the other task uh group members some of which are here and also all the contributors um you’ve had the uh report in the pack as to uh feedback I’m just going to do a bit of a prey of some of the over um overall highlights and then I’ll go through the recommendations uh that we came to at the end if that’s okay um so the the main idea for this local food growing security task group if you’re unaware that’s what this point is um was to explain how Baines as a local Authority can contribute positively to food security the um so we met on several dates and we covered issues such as local food insecurity and Community involvement allotment provision across Banes um including Northeast Somerset and how they differ um we talked to various groups including the allotment Association transition bath bath Growers Network grow timsbury and we also had an update from uh the planning policy team um our terms of reference were to support the development of a new local food strategy for Baines uh through consideration of allotment provision current and future within bar and Northeast Somerset Community approaches in local food growing projects the impact of planning policy on local food growing Community engagement and the role of Baines in promoting local food growing and also local food insecurity and the opportunities to promote food security locally so there was a uh or there is a local food strategy that was produced for 2014 to6 17 and that’s currently being uh reviewed um and there’ll be a new strategy coming forward so this task group review was to feed into that um but it’s also coinciding with uh land use allocations for the new local plan and what obligations developers might have to provide space uh in terms of allotments um and other food growing um spaces so um the first uh topic we looked that was food equality and food insecurity cross Banes and uh data suggests that 3% of the population sometimes or often do not have enough to eat and areas with highest food security risk are identified as white way white Way West twer and West twerton Fox Hill North and Westfield North we were told that food poverty is not Standalone and is Shand for poverty and that unhealthy calories lead to Associated public health challenges so um if we can kind of get uh one thing right then we can kind of hopefully um overcome a lot of other spending in other areas the Baine fair food Alliance um stated that 4,200 people per week in Banes are currently in receipt from food uh from food from affordable food projects um and we looked at opportunities of addressing uh the insecurity um and issues link to allotment provision and food growing across Banes so looking into allotment provision uh the parks team currently manages 160 Open Spaces which include 24 allotment sites within B there are also many allotments in parished areas but they’re managed by those respective parish and town councils both also has private lots and curo uh manages some too of those 1,200 plots in bath there approximately £75 a year but there is a reduced fee for people who are on low income um but there is also exploration about offering a diverse range of plot sizes including starter plots because we appreciate that a lot of allotments are very very big they’re about 125 square meters which can be a bit off putting if you haven’t done any food gr before the waiting list uh there’s currently 580 people within bath it’s difficult to ascertain how many there are in Northeast Somerset because they’re managed separately but that equates to a threeyear plus waiting list although it is acknowledged that some of those people may have put themselves on the list during lockdown and now no longer may be interested so it’s difficult to get a hold of them there’s a shift in Focus now from growing only which is what it used to be in the past uh to growing in health with well-being and physical health from managing allotments being recognized and also being something that’s prescribed um and can actually be of benefit to people’s mental and physic physical health the fundamental challenge is identifying additional land space for new allotment provision particularly in the city um there are is section 106 funding but it’s difficult to utilize uh with allotments sometimes also generating public opposition when they are proposed other schemes include Community gardening and uh allotments being managed as community space with Community spaces being seen as a positive initiative helping people on the waiting list and giving people a taste of food growing before they launch into it completely in terms of Northeast Somerset a lot provision we had um someone from radstock Town Council come along um the Northeast somate is generally a little bit low it’s about 25 a year so it it actually is lower than what the reduced rate is in bath there’s a lot of work um that’s often underestimated by people who take on allotments um and therefore in redot they’ve actually created an induction for new tenants and they actually take on an active uh engagement with dealing with allotments if they’ve been left overgrown when they’re vacated allotments have seen positive is a space to Shar knowledge and surplus produce is also donated to local charities such as swallow’s Charity Cafe and also the mercy in action food Club in the local radstock area there’s also a challenge here in our identifying new Parcels of land for additional Lots you might not think that is in Northeast Somerset but it is just as challenging in the city and accessing Water Supplies is often quite a challenge in rural areas in terms of planning um the current development plan for Banes requires provision of new food growing space and it also protects allotments for larger schemes there a financial contribution is mentioned typically via 10 SE 106 agreements um the allotment Act and the Town and Country planning act uh only protect Council owned sites and demand does fluctuate for sites so it’s a bit of a challenge all around as to how many are needed and when and where um the council’s Green Space strategy determined that planning gain for Lots needs to be spent within 20 minutes walk or within 900 meters of the development which is quite a big ask uh when there’s restriction on land space design codes of development in respect of local food growing um provision of land is a balancing process with completing priorities and the local plan could be refused by planning inspector if priority was given to food growing over housing POS provision so that’s another challenge town and Parish councils would benefit from some form of support because they don’t currently really receive that unlike in the city of B to help manage allotments as voluntary uh counselors don’t often have the experience understanding to manage them sufficiently and there’s a feeling that they’re underutilized as a result in these areas there’s a community involvement in local food growing uh the role of the community in supporting local food growing B allotment Association Witnesses younger people and women uh joining in increasing numbers but there’s still that challenge around waiting lists there’s a challenge uh by the lack of dedicated officers within the council to engage with to discuss progressing initiatives both within Bay bath and in Northeast Somerset and the availability of land again was was brought up as a as an issue even in in terms of growing space that benefits the whole Community the last um point we touched on was agricultural land we didn’t Focus heavily on the role of it but we do note that looking forward there’s an opportunity for Baines as an authority to link better with Farmers including specifically the the duy where there’s a considerable amount of land that’s owned by them um and is obviously the duy puts land forward in the local plan the role of Agriculture as a local employer and contributor to the local economy should be noted and recognized especially when determining development of agricultural land outside the green belt uh and protective policies should be considered to safeguard um this space so in conclusion there’s a lot of enthusiasm for local growing across the area availability of space is limited development opportunities and housing employment particularly in bath or odds with the preservation or creation of space for growing but we did identify of space to summarize the key issue and the hierarchy consists of three layers based on enhancing preserving and creating space for growing so the recommendations within the report look to support all three tiers of this hierarchy and the evidence Gathering emerg that there is still lots of excellent work taking place across the authority around food security and food growing but the activities are not centrally coordinated through a lead officer coordinating group or active strategy so we welcome The Proposal in the developing strategy to initiate initiate a corporate approach and have this reflected and have reflected this within the recommendations as well as looking internally Bain’s Council can build upon its strong community engagement Focus to take on a major coordinating role and bring together Community Partners to ensure that the new local food strategy is fully implemented in partnership with the community rather than imposed upon people so our recommendations there are eight of them better use of space to welcome the initiative of offering a more diverse range of allotment plots community garden spaces and encourage the further development of this approach to help address waiting lists the better use of space to invite a lot M holders and the allotment Association to contribute to a refresh of Banes council’s allotment rules and guidance to include the consideration of provision of starter plots introductory lessons budy system to help new tenants and varying the size of plots to allow sharing and to consider groups to be tenants rather than just individuals preserving growing space to invite the cabinet member with responsibility for planning to ensure the developing local plan and its supporting guidance complements the aims of the developing local food growing strategy while also recognizing the environmental and economic value of local grade 1 agricultural land creating new space to encourage the cabinet member with responsibility for planning to explore through supplementary planning documents the potential of putting more responsibility on developers particularly through larger developments to ensure that local food growing opportunities are incorporated into submitted plans the council to identify an officer lead for coordinating and leading implementation of the developing local food strategy the task group welcomes and encourages the proposal to create a new food partnership Council Le which brings together Community Partners to implement the no the new local food strategy the council through its Community forums to initiate a big food conversation inviting our communities to input into delivery of the local food strategy ensuring Collective ownership and the council through its Parish liaison or community area forums to facilitate support and the sharing good practice for Town and Parish councils requesting support with the management of their allotments thank you very much questions um very good uh it it’s a a huge task to actually get any sort of sense out of what food growing is in in in the town you you’ve man manfully and womanly struggled through to produce a document which is helped her overall strategy for for this area so well done and well done to the rest of the of the committee that were involved as well so are there any questions that anyone would like to pose Michael I just to to say chair the group to be honest uh yeah I’d Echo that I really enjoyed being part of it and hopefully it’s a a kind of a way of working that we could take forward to other issues um I had a question which is kind of for all of us really about what do we do next do we invite a response from the cabinet members responsible who I think are probably spread portfolio so it’s probably planning Neighborhood Services and possibly Finance as well and could we I suppose seek others advice on that do we request a written response for our next meeting which is in July or at the council meeting which is in July what would be the appropriate next step I mean I think um from our discussions it was we as a task group put it forward as a recommendation to this group and then it’s up to this group to then put forward to to if they feel those recommend ations are acceptable and that they are what are required then those should be forwarded to the cabinet and the relevant members to actually take that forward and make sure it gets embedded within that local strategy but also because it does cover the I say the local plan there is there are several kind of parts to it and all of these are ongoing currently so it’s actually a timely um report really to actually feed into that and help officers with their work as well as the the members of those portfolios yeah I’ll record that I mean that’s essentially what we have to do uh assuming we think this is a valid and helpful document then we just give it to the various cabinet members to get a response probably depends on which particular cabinet M you’re talking about because in planning uh the local plan is evolving over quite a long period so I don’t imagine you get a long response although um planning is uh has other a issues just like like the local Plan reviews that have been taking place in recent times and I think Hal may be able to help us with that so there are there are other issues that we need to do but um and the other and the other point I’d like to make is that um you didn’t mention Kum very much um I understand why because I don’t think there was anybody from Kum on the panel so it’s not a complete report um because there are things I could say that happen in k not here but that’s perfectly okay because you know as I said at the beginning it’s a big report and it’s a big area you can’t expect a small group of people to cover everything but um so you know that that I think we would all agree with uh the way forward so there I think there are more comments to be had Hal’s hovering and to’s hovering Toby can I just reply back to that I I think yeah you’re absolutely right that I mean there there wasn’t enough people in the room covering everything um and I I think you know from my own perspective I felt like I I understand a little bit about rural um allocation of allotments but I don’t know about all Villages around so I think yeah there is that I think generally it was um understood that it’s it’s a difficulty to get new allotments wherever you are in Baines it’s obviously more of a restriction within the city boundary because of um land and that need for it to be kind of used for housing as much as anything else but there’s also issues outside um within Baines because of uh both Green Belt issues but also again those kind of restrictions on what’s needed for providing rural housing so there are a lot of and I think kin probably would fall into many of these issues that we’ve got here so unless there’s anything specific that needs added in and I don’t think it’s an an inexhaustible um list of things um then I think there should be feedback on that and some additional consultation maybe yeah for example I’m surprised there no well since kum’s come up uh I’ll just uh carry on with a couple of points we only really have one big set of allotments and if you look at the size of K versus bath and you see all the areas you’ve got in bath something’s obviously gone wrong here and we are getting more allotments but it’s coming through the building developments we have two that haven’t started yet but I can take you there it seems like people are not too interested but I since we’ve got the chair here uh is is allotments conditioned that they should be supplied with every uh development of over 10 houses or something like that we I would have expected it and well I mean in general with strategic um uh developments there is usually a requirement under the policy to provide um areas for growing um you know whether they they like a location or not in the site or they just sort of um retrofitted in I don’t know um but yeah usually we we would be encouraging any developer of a large housing scheme to provide suitable accommodation for I could probably answer that one it is in in the report here in that um large developments it’s the section 106 funding is usually required but it’s not necessarily required within that development itself at the moment it needs to be what did I say it was something like 900 M from the development or within 20 minutes walk so I mean that’s quite considerable I mean I I used to have an Al which was 10 minutes walkway and that was quite challenging if you’re trying to get once you’ve grown somewhere else up there there’s no way you can actually walk that so I think the the the recommendations are that we consider changing that slightly so that it requires it to be within the development and not just something which kind of is an afterthought that the council has to find the land for so it’s a case of if you’ve got the land and it’s going to be developed there needs to be a proportion of um Lots within that so that would affect obviously kanum as much as anywhere else because it would be within your General policy so I think we need to strengthen that and it’s a question that we would obviously we got the um we’ve just had the issues and options um consultation um so hopefully there’s um something that’s going to come out of that where we can start to establish um a policy that can go forward to the new local plan no no that’s fine it’s good to do all the canum stuff together together um if I I think it’s an excellent report and I’m very happy to sign up to the proposed um Way Forward um if I was looking at one thing that’s not in there it’s commercial allotments I on the bus coming up here I went past a very vibrant commercial um development uh in Newbridge uh and that works well but um my understanding is that there are a lots up at Kum down that are under threat and I think in our request for comments from cabinet members we should ask for specific comment about what the council’s doing to ensure that allotment provision in down is retained I mean I can comment back we did actually touch on the commercial allotments um that are such as those down at um Newbridge but it it’s it’s to be REM remembered that they’re very expensive they’re not in terms of like allotments that could be provided by either Council provision or or or parish and town councils they’re relatively inexpensive £25 a year is relatively um affordable even if you’re like on low wage and and in Parish Council I’m assuming through the through b as well there would be an opportunity to pay that buy installments whereas I know that the the commercial ones they’re in excess of like £600 a year so they’re not really something which if you’re trying to encourage people to get out and and help themselves mental health physical health they’re not really there for that kind of thing so while we welcome them being there and they have their place for people who can afford them they’re not they’re not accessible for everybody and that’s not their intention um in terms of those other privately owned allotments that is a challenge um that was noted but I’m not sure how much currently the council has control over that other than what the current planning system actually allows them to sort of do yeah but yeah worth worth reminding yeah might be worth looking at asset of community value um and other options in that context are there any other questions or comments anyone M Shan yeah I think I me certainly from a from a a Town Council or Parish Council point of view this is quite challenging um I mean the funding stream is critical to expanding any type of scheme um for a Town Council or Parish Council uh allotments have to be self-sustaining financially and they can be quite expensive in terms of maintaining the communal areas I know the allotments that we manage it’s quite expensive to have our Warden maintain those areas so if you’re going to and it’s and it’s they have to be self- sustaining because we so few people actually have access to them you can’t put a effectively a tax on the entire Community to pay for a small amount of allotments for a small amount of people so I think that’s very important to get that that figure right yeah I totally agree with that um um in terms of I know that our Parish Council and farm we actually ring fence that money that it makes sure it’s only spent on allotments as well because I know in the past that hasn’t been the case but also we we are not um we are mindful that we can’t increase the precept for to manage allotments on the basis that our allotments also are taken on by people outside of the parish so therefore we want them to be paid for maintained but yeah that is that is an issue and obviously the there is also um within the allotments ACT there’s also that ability for a local community to to basically demand more allotment spaces if there aren’t any and that’s a real worry I think for a lot of town and Parish councils because they have to do that with limited even more limited resources yeah worth bearing mind thanks Sean right Ian yeah thank you yeah it’s just a point um I think it’s an excellent idea that um you know the existing H toone allotments that we have in in bath that it’s great that we should look at um uh creating more diversity in terms of the side and in terms of also you mentioned about the the Tendencies and individuals and I know I know so many people in my War do because we’ve got quite a larger lot mon site in Bloomfield and you know neighbors get together and P one person has it in their name but everyone chips in and there’s a there’s almost a a communal side to that um there are people who’ve got plots are far too big and can’t manage them so if we can then maybe consider splitting them up um there may even be a opportunity obviously there’d have to be a variation in um in the sort of rental tariffs that were are there may be some opportunity to increase um fees on slightly smaller pots on you know on a proportionate basis um so I think it’s really good that yeah we can look at um yeah not just having like one person being responsible for their plot but you know it is to should be more Community Leed and I think you know various organizations communities neighbors friends um you know try and get the students involved maybe get them to um um take interest in in having a um you know you know student Community plot or something so I think um it’s a really good way to go forward with this yeah I think a a lot of that comes back down to Staffing within the council as well and having somebody’s dedicated looking at allotments and how they managed because at the moment it falls under the general Parks team and it’s just one of the general maintenance so I think it’s a bit more like fighting fire rather than actually having a dedicated member of Staff it looks specifically at lot provision and how each site varies in in terms of its needs because some may do very well with rather large plots and people having one but Others May benefit from them being split up and how do you best manage that because you’ve got to roll that up o over time as plots become available um and making everyone aware that that’s what’s happening so people don’t feel like they’re being disadvantaged as as like plots get a little bit smaller and how that affects waiting lists and who’s on what and it’s a complex issue that somebody’s got to take control of yeah break with protocol cuz Adam’s got his hand up and although I’m not supposed to because he’s only he’s only a mere member of the public uh come and come and sit up here and we’re also running ahead of time right um I moved to timsbury in June 21 and um by the February of the next year I was given a plot and it has been hugely valuable connecting into that Community I have really good friends now from that not just from my road but also across the whole of that space so the availability of that plot transformed what I do you on a as a hobby as a as something and and the support that they gave and we share tools and we kind of share plants and and and and it really is it’s a really important thing and you’re right the availability of plots isn’t just about you know people on Long waiting this it’s about people coming to a new community and and then becoming connected into that Community you know there’s the gardening club and everybody knows me there and all this type of stuff so it’s all it’s a really powerful um sort of enabler of connection into into those communities for new for new people coming into that so that was it tiny comment from me um a lot of schools are involved in food growing um anecdotally I noce so is there anything that you think could be part of the recommendations that could take that forward I think schools are a bit of a challenge aren’t they because they’re what is there only seven now that are within uh local Authority control and the rest are all ummies so um I think it would working as a part of the partnership working I think which is part of the recommendations here it probably needs to not forget that partners are schools as well um and maybe that’s a an amendment to those recommendations um just to remind that Partners go beyond associations and Parish councils and and um and and other sort of community groups but yeah schools as well thank you for reminding us of that that’s brilliant what I would say about schools is I think you said earlier SES schools are very busy places with lots of pressure the only way I work is if you have an Enthusiast on the staff and then it will work very well and I can think of such individuals in my own sort of sphere of inflence um and they can do a fantastic job and fire up young people into getting into into a sort of gardening community and getting used to the basic principles of growing stuff and the joy of growing stuff I still get pleasure when a little seed pops his head through you know because it shows life exists and all the rest of it so uh yeah really good really good helpful comments from everybody so thank you for your contributions and we move on to the last item slightly well been a bit behind with that but I always that’s always because it depends on how many speakers we have from outside is about that but I’m happy with the time which is important so we move on to the final work plan issue um and that’s essentially there is a work plan which is in the agenda as you can see and we have things for the next time I think the circulation plan Sarah will be overjoyed to know is in the July um is in the July meeting and I think there something else as well which we will obviously look at but does anybody have anything that they’d like I mean I think we should possibly bring back uh the food growing aspects that we’ve just been talking about at a future meeting maybe in the Autumn to come back to that yeah I agree with that it’ be good to get a response back on the report following today yeah it’s never straightforward because it doesn’t neatly fit into one cabinet member’s portfolio so I think we should send it to anybody we think has an has a an aspect of their work which is part of this activity and ask for an appropriate feedback when when when they can do it really and yes Sam you want to come back okay sorry yeah I just meant to stay on that point I think it was mentioned with krye that he did suggest that it that if this uh committee was um supportive that the group would actually reconvene just for one more once the report had been complete you know the strategy and everything been done so we could actually look through it and actually make sure that it’s actually covers what we actually think so you’re saying when the C when well not when it’s probably not it’s done but when it’s kind of like almost when done so we can just make sure that it does cover all the views I I think it was Autumn was it yeah I think so okay so I think that falls in so I mean if we can ask Carrie what the time frame is and then when the group will kind of reconvene that task group for that one last thing and then that will feed back into the panel following can put in the minutes Michaela that yeah uh at the next meeting Carrie will give us an update as to what the progress has been and and when would be be a sensible time to meet thank you right so at 9 Minutes 12 by that clock anyway we will close the meeting thank you very much for your attendance
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