Our next Committee meeting will be taking place on Thursday 15th December at 6.30pm at Widcombe Junior School. Important business for the evening includes voting to appoint our new Treasurer, Elizabeth Curnow. Courtenay Gardner, you will be pleased to hear, is being transferred back by land ambulance from Paris to the RUH to continue his recovery.
As previously agreed Transition Bath (represented by Funda Kemal, a Regenerative Architect)) will be coming along to this special meeting to discuss the issues surrounding sustainable retrofitting technologies for historic homes. If you have questions Funda will happily try to answer them on the evening but has offered to take those questions away and provide follow up answers if she doesn't have the full details to hand.
Because we will spend a lot of the evening discussing this issue we will keep other agenda items to a strict time limit on this occasion. Therefore both our planning and World Heritage Advisory groups have prepared reports (see attached) which should provide thorough updates, we will have some time if there are pressing questions relating to these. The transport group have taken the view that there has been no significant developments since our last report was published 6 weeks ago to require an update.
Jeremy Labram from Camden has progressed a draft map showing FoBRA coverage across Bath, there are some final revisions which we need to add and Ghika Savva and Blake Walker from Bath University are keen to show the student coverage on the FoBRA map too. Once this is finalised we will share with you all and include on our web site. This has highlighted an opportunity for FoBRA to publish more guidance on the process of establishing Resident Associations.
Finally we have attached brief updates for the Entry Hill Bike park and the High Common. Both are at a stage where more information is required to require extensive discussion. In the case of Entry Hill, plans for future use are clearly our next question. In terms of the High Common more information of the chosen operator's timings/ layouts and plans for reopening in 2023 are required.
Rachael Hushon
Chair
Update on Entry Hill
I am sure that most FoBRA members have been made aware that the planned Bath Bike Park for Entry Hill will no longer be proceeding.
The announcement by Bathnes Council on December 1 has brought relief to the Entry Hill residents who had been raising serious concerns about the project to the council for the last 18 months.
I would like to thank FoBRA and the individual Residents Associations within FoBRA who supported Entry Hill, listened and understood our concerns about the mountain bike park project and offered advice.
Our neighbourhood will be putting the last 18 months behind us and we look forward to focusing on the future and the recreational opportunities that will be possible for our green space on Entry Hill.
Katina Beckett.
Update on the High Common/Approach Golf Course
Bath & North East Somerset Council announced on the 31st October that, following its procurement process, it has awarded Swansea-based company Future Golf Ventures (who run Swansea Foot Golf) a four-year contract to bring golf back to the High Common.
This will include an 18-hole pitch and putt course, a nine-hole footgolf course, a café (unlicensed), and public toilets. Biodiversity will be increased by additional planting, with some of the site left as a meadow. The proposals submitted involve a reconfiguration of the 18-hole course to provide additional community areas.
While there is no mention of chemical use in the press release, we understand that the operator runs their Swansea Foot Golf site entirely chemical free.
The new golf facilities and café are expected to open in spring 2023.
Sylvia Sinclair
St James's Square Bath Limited