Agenda item

The Democratic Services Manager will announce any submissions received. The Council will be invited to decide what action it wishes to take, if any, on the matters raised in these submissions. As the questions received and the answers given will be circulated in written form there is no requirement for them to be read out at the meeting. The questions and answers will be published with the draft minutes.

Statements were made by the following members of the public;

Martin Grixoni addressed Council about its engagement with the community, expressing a view that consultation was poor and citing various recent examples where he considered this to be the case.  He drew attention to the Council’s Community Engagement Charter listing the 5 commitments within that to provide early, timely information, take into account all responses and provide feedback and urged the Council to follow its own principles and do this more effectively.  Councillor Joanna Wright asked if Martin was aware that she and officers had visited the school he mentioned 3 times in the last 3 months, contrary to what Martin had said in his statement.  Martin responded that the information he had seen from the school suggested otherwise.  Councillor Paul Myers asked Martin if had a record of the examples he had listed and whether he had submitted those to the Council already.  Martin responded that he did, and would be happy to provide any information that would be helpful.

Bob Goodman spoke to the Council about ecological issues.  He welcomed the news of peregrine falcon eggs at St John’s Church and spotting the first swallows of the season.  He was frustrated, however, with his perception of inconsistent application of planning policy with regard to a recent city farm application being refused, when similar ecological aspects were shared with the Tufa field application which was of national ecological significance.  He queried whether the latter being an Aequus development was a factor.  Councillor Tim Ball asked if Bob understood the planning process and the due diligence process that Committee members were subject to.  Bob responded that he did.

Ben Reed made a statement, as Chair of the Friends of Bath Approach Golf course, a copy of which is available to read in full linked to the minutes.  In his statement, he explained the steps taken to keep the golf course open for everyone to enjoy.  A volunteer community group – Friends of Bath Approach Golf Course – has been established with the intention of repairing and maintaining the golf greens, keeping the site clean and tidy and raising funds for future improvements.  Councillor Paul Myers asked if a Community Asset Transfer was intended for this group.  Ben replied that he was aware of those but that was not the intention for this group which would be a Friends group, as existed for other parks in the area.  Councillor Karen Walker asked Ben if a business plan had been submitted to the Council.  Ben replied that a detailed document had been submitted setting out the Group’s intentions.  Councillor Liz Hardman asked Ben if he agreed that keeping the site open would encourage residents from outside Bath to enjoy the site as well, to which he replied that he certainly agreed, and that the petition of over 4800 signatures confirmed that support came from across the B&NES area.

The Chairman thanked all speakers for their statements which would be referred to the relevant Cabinet Members.