Hundreds of people turned out for a protest march through the city streets on Saturday, to demand the leadership of Bath & North East Somerset Council attend a public meeting.
Photo courtesy of Bath Deserves Better (@bathdeserves)
The protest, organised by a new umbrella group Bath Deserves Better, which unites several of the leading campaign groups in the city, wants a meeting chaired by an independent moderator and for the Council to answer residents’ questions regarding cuts, the Bathampton Meadows park & ride scheme and the future of Bath’s Central Library.
Those attending the protest marched from the Circus down Milsom Street in the city centre.
Protesters, who included arts funding, Bathampton Meadows park & ride and library service campaigners, were joined by other groups in the city including the newly-formed campaign against a proposed cable car across Bath.
Save the Library campaigner, and one of the protest organisers, Dionne Pemberton, said: “We are marching to demand that council leaders stop evading our questions and begin providing honest answers.
“We want a meet face-to-face meeting to discuss these controversial and expensive changes that council leaders are pushing through despite huge public opposition. We believe that many of these changes won’t help our city; they will harm it.”
Photo courtesy of Bath Newseum (bathnewseum.com)
“But instead of engaging with the people who elected them, the leadership of this council tries at every turn to obfuscate and mislead. Their continuing refusal to provide well-thought, well-evidenced arguments for these plans, several of which will change the face of our city forever and put at risk our World Heritage status, leads us sadly to the conclusion that they can’t be justified.”
Councillor Tim Warren, Leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council, said that the council is taking “difficult decisions in order to balance the budget” and that “most residents recognise that we are dealing with a challenging situation but trying to do so in a way that protects as many services as possible whilst continuing to invest in the future.”
The group Bath Deserves Better delivered a petition to B&NES Council last Monday signed by more than one per cent of the Bath and North East Somerset electorate saying they have no confidence in the current leadership.
Under the council’s constitution, this should automatically trigger a debate at full council or the local authority can choose to host a public meeting or an enquiry.
However, campaigners say they’ve been told by the council that the earliest they can meet is July, at a council meeting.
Photo courtesy of Save Bath Library (@SaveBathLibrary)
Campaigner Emma Edams, of the Bathampton Meadows Alliance, said: “We are very disappointed by the council’s response, and have written to the council leader Tim Warren asking them to re-think. We need this conversation to happen now.”
Bath Deserves Better have said that Mr Warren has offered to hold a private meeting with each campaign group separately, however Ms Adams said campaigners had rejected that offer.
She added: “The petition clearly calls for a public meeting, which all those concerned about Bath’s future can attend, and where council leaders can be held to account publicly for what they’re proposing for this city.
“We will not settle for anything less, and have asked Mr Warren to provide us with dates that he can attend this month.”
