Agenda and draft minutes

The previous Chair of Council, Cllr Karen Walker welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Parish Charter update - Alison Wells Community Engagement Officer

Chris Major, Director of Place Management welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked Parish/Town Council representatives for attending and contributing to the meeting.

Alison Wells, Community Engagement Officer gave an update on the Parish Charter:

1.  There had been some feedback from Parish/Town Councils, and an updated charter would be circulated.

2.  The refreshed charter would go to ALCA for ratification and then to B&NES Council meeting in May.

3.  The charter had been streamlined, and a lot of the information had been transferred to the Parish Information pack which was available on the Councils website.  A Word copy of the pack would also be circulated to clerks.

Richard Maccabee, Chair of BANES ALCA gave an update to advise that the Annual General Meeting would be taking place online on Saturday 25 October.  He undertook to circulate the agenda and encouraged Parish representatives to attend.

World Café discussions on the following:

-  Local Plan

-  Transport

-  WECA

A ‘World Café’ style session was held to give Parish/Town Councils the opportunity to meet officers from B&NES and the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) and discuss the following topics:

1.  The Growth Strategy, including the two regional Growth Zones in Bath and North East Somerset:

-  Central Bristol and Bath (including the river corridor connecting them)

-  Somer Valley

2.  The A4 Bath to Bristol Project.

3.  The Local Plan and the options document which was currently being consulted upon with a closing date of 14 November.

4.  The Movement Strategy and consultation.  While this Strategy related to Bath, it was relevant to anyone traveling to the city for education; work and leisure and the consultation would run from 14 October until 28 November.

Topic 1 - WECA’s Growth Strategy

Introduction

Alex Cobb gave a brief introduction to each group as follows:

1.  The Government had set a framework for Combined Authorities to develop growth strategies for their regions.  

2.  WECA had been working closely with the 4 local authorities in the region as well as other key sectors to develop the strategy.

3.  WECA’s Growth Strategy was focused on 3 areas:

a.  Horizontal priorities around growth – transport, housing, skills, green jobs and green growth and child poverty. 

b.  Five key geographical areas for growth, Somer Valley, central Bristol and Bath including the connecting corridor, Severn Estuary, North Somerset Growth Gateway and the West Innovation Arc (north fringe of Bristol).  These growth zones were the focus areas to unlock investment, but investment would not be limited to these areas.

c.  Identifying the USP sectors in the west of England region – what were the drivers of economic growth e.g., high tech businesses, creative industries and advanced manufacturing.

4.  The Growth Strategy would be a tool to leverage future investment. 

5.  The Growth Strategy would be “the guiding star” to provide strategic direction for other relevant plans and strategies and the wider work of Mayoral Strategic Authorities, their constituent Local Authorities, and local partners.

6.  Sitting below the Growth Strategy would be a Spatial Development Strategy, a high-level spatial framework.

Table 1

1.  What about the areas not in the growth zones? 15-20% of the B&NES population live in rural areas that are outside of these areas. 

Response: We need a clear strategy and an area of focus, but this is not at the expense of other areas.  There are also the horizontal priorities as well as the growth zones.

2.  There are examples of funding being promised for road improvements and then subsequently withdrawn, e.g., in Peasedown St John.  When this happens, it is important for ward councillors to be given honest answers to why schemes are not progressing so they can share information with Parish Councils/local residents. 

Response: Whilst not able to comment on specific cases, it is likely that there wasn’t enough funding.  The WECA area has not secured as much funding as other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Chair closed the meeting and thanked everyone for attending.

Proposed dates for 2026 are:

18 March 2026

15 July 2026

21 October 2026

The dates of future meetings were noted as follows:

Wednesday 18 March 2026 – at the Recycling Hub, Keynsham

Wednesday 22 July 2026 – Community Space, Keynsham

Wednesday 21 October 2026 – Community Space, Keynsham