By John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter: A member of the public was blocked from addressing Bath and North East Somerset Council’s cabinet about a liveable neighbourhood in their area.
The controversial closure of Winifred’s Lane to through traffic was made permanent earlier this month. But a local who wanted to address a cabinet meeting on February 12 was told they could not as the decision had already been made and they would need to find alternatives.
Independent Group councillor Shaun Hughes (Midsomer Norton North) said: “There is always an alternative to speaking at the cabinet or at the full council. So if you were to use this narrow interpretation, practically all public speakers would be told to go and find an alternative way of contacting the council.”
Mr Hughes is one of nine councillors who have signed a call in of the decision. It will now be scrutinised by a council scrutiny panel on Monday February 23.
The person who requested to speak at the cabinet meeting was told they could speak at a call in or a judicial review, but Mr Hughes said that neither of these were practical as a member of the public cannot call in a decision and judicial reviews were expensive. He said: “[It] is not within the finances of the majority of residents to find thousands or even tens of thousands of pounds to take this council to a judicial review.”
The council’s monitoring officer Michael Hewitt, who is in charge of advising the council on the correct way to operate, said: “In this instance the decision had already been taken, so if that individual wanted to make representations that were going to be effective then the alternatives were set out. They might not have been perfect world alternatives but that is what officers did.”
He added: “Subsequently there has been a call in and people have been able to register to make statements at that.
He said the decision had been challenged but the chair of the cabinet meeting, which is council leader Kevin Guy (Bathavon North, Liberal Democrat) had upheld it. Mr Guy said: “Anybody is allowed to come and ask any questions or make statements. This individual wanted to come and lobby the cabinet on a decision that was already made.
“Absolutely, if a decision was being made in this room now they would be allowed and they should be allowed to come and talk.”
Liveable neighbourhoods (also known as low traffic neighbourhoods or LTNs) are often controversial in Bath. They are intended to reduce traffic in residential areas and create safer, quieter routes for walking and cycling but locals have warned that closing Winifred’s Lane, the steep narrow lane at the top of Cavendish Road in Bath, actually puts schoolchildren at risk.
Although traffic has reduced on Cavendish Road and several others since Winifred’s Lane was first closed as a trial, traffic has roughly doubled on the lower part of Sion Road, which goes past a primary school. Before the trial Sion Road carried around 1,022 vehicles per day, but during the trial it saw on average another 887 to 1,174 a day. “Poor driver behaviour” was also noted by the council. The council said it would make “mitigations” on the road.
In a public consultation, 84% of people, including 72% of those who live in the trial area, were opposed to Winifred’s Lane staying closed.
The council’s climate emergency and sustainability scrutiny panel will meet at 10am on February 23 in the council chamber in Bath’s Guildhall to discuss the call in.
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