Airport News: The cost of a drop off or pick up at Bristol Airport has risen to £8.50. The hike in prices is in line with the rise of drop offs at other UK airports with Gatwick’s the highest at £10 for 15 minutes. Bournemouth and Birmingham – two airports used by residents in Bath are £8 and £7 respectively while Cardiff charges £4.50 for the first 10 minutes.
Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport and they charge £7 for the drop off and pick up while the ten most busy EU airports don’t charge.
Despite the cost increases and the debate over enlarged carbon footprints due to air travel the airport remains popular with many who use it as the take off point for their holidays.
The airport is currently planning to increase the number of flights to allow 15 million passengers a year by the 2030s – rising from 10 to 12 million currently if the £500m plans succeed. Those plans also include a longer run way which is difficult as the main way to make this happen is to take over part of the Felton Common – a favourite place for walkers and a haven for wildlife. That has sparked a campaign to stop the take-over of common land by a private company.
The proposal includes extending the runway to allow long-haul flights to America and the Middle East. Visitors to the airport this summer will have seen major building work going on with an extension to the terminal building, a hotel and new carpark. A consultation on the plans ended in June.
The airport began life 1927 as a flying club before being used as an RAF base in the war. After 1945 it reverted to being a club base for light aircraft and gliders before becoming Bristol Lulsgate Airport in 1957. Since then, it has been slowly upgraded from an annual passenger count of 33,000 to today’s millions. Initially it was owned by the Council but became a public limited company in 1987 resulting in a further upgrading – and an end to the A38 traffic crossing the runway in between flights.
Since then it was privatised and after various owners it is now in the hands of Macquarie Asset Management with a 55% majority stake plus the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan along with other co-investors, including LGPS Central Limited.
Holiday lets. By John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter: Bath is trying to tackle waste from holiday lets but does not know how many are in the city.
Uncontained waste from holiday lets is a “key issue” for Bath and North East Somerset Council, but its street cleaning teams are having to go street-by-street to identify them. There is no central register of how many there are in the city.
Waste strategy manager Lisa Gore told a council scrutiny panel on July 9: “At the moment we tackle it street by street, so as they are identified the team will do a lot of research into the background to work out if they are paying business rates/council tax and approach any lettings companies — but it is a lot of work behind it.”
The scrutiny panel was discussing the first six months of the council’s new evening business waste rules, which say business waste must be put in gull-proof sacks and cannot be put out until 6pm. Asked about whether this should apply to holiday lets too, council cabinet member Ian Halsall (Oldfield Park, Liberal Democrat) said: “There is an argument as to whether they should actually be registered as businesses and we should be charging them accordingly but its definitely something we are looking into.”
He said the council had been making an assessment of what the appropriate action was on a case-by-case basis for each holiday let it found. He said: “In some instances we have taken direct action and served fixed penalty notices, other times we have just been politely asking them to get their guests to put their rubbish out on the appropriate collection day.”
Mr Halsall said the council was campaigning for there to be a national register of holiday lets. The meeting heard that there are 1,850 holiday lets in the greater Bath area listed on AirBnb alone.
41 fines were issued to businesses in the first six months of the new evening evening business waste rules, which came into effect in October. The council’s figures show that there was initially a large number of breaches of the rules, but they quickly reduced. In the first week of the new rules in October, 61 businesses put their waste out without their name on it and 43 businesses put it out at the wrong time. By the seventh week, there was only one instance of each breach.
The requirement for businesses not to put their bins out before 6pm was highly controversial. Shops could previously put them out from 5pm and the council’s own analysis warned that it could cost shops which shut at 5pm over £3,000 a year in additional wages for someone to stay for another hour just to put the bins out.
Two of the businesses which ended up receiving fines had previously formally complained about the 6pm rule. An estimated 1,126 businesses are within the central Bath area affected by the new rules. Eighty businesses objected to the rules before they were introduced and 21 businesses have complained to the council about the policy since.
From the Council – City Centre gets TLC: Bath city centre has been brought to life this summer with striking street dressing designs created by local school and college students, as part of a creative initiative led by Fashion Museum Bath and Bath & North East Somerset Council, in partnership with The Holburne Museum.
Installed in July, the banners and bunting feature original designs by students from St Mark’s School, Hayesfield School, LIFT Broadlands and Bath College. This vibrant installation shines a spotlight on the city’s next generation of creative talent, placing young artists and designers at the heart of Bath’s public spaces.
The designs were created through a series of hands-on workshops, made possible by initial funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and inspired by A Life in Print, The Holburne Museum’s exhibition celebrating the bold and influential work of British designer Zandra Rhodes. Students explored Rhodes’ distinctive creative approach during a guided visit to the exhibition before taking part in artist-led printing and design workshops, where they experimented with colour, pattern and personal expression to develop their own original designs.
It provided students with a rare opportunity to engage directly with professional design processes and inspiring those interested in pursuing further study or careers in the creative industries.
New editor: After more than five years in the hot seat I’m leaving Bath Voice – a newspaper and a city I love. It’s partly due to reaching 70 years of age in September and partly because I want to continue writing plays and the yet to be completed novel for which I seem to never have time to do!
The other factor as a freelance journalist is Bath is 30 miles away from my home in Axbridge in Somerset and so it is time to hand over to someone who lives nearer.
Gianina Turner has written for Bath Voice in the past and for other Voice titles and is perfectly qualified to take on the role – and I will help with occasional contributions. I can still be contacted at harryfmottram@gmail or through my website at harrymottram.co.uk
Bath Voice and Local Democracy Reporters
The journalists are funded by the BBC as part of its latest Charter commitment, but are employed by regional news organisations. A total of 165 reporters are allocated to news organisations in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland including Bath Voice. These organisations range from television and radio stations to online media companies and established regional newspaper groups. Local Democracy Reporters cover top-tier local authorities, second-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
Bath Voice Monthly Newspaper is distributed free to thousands of homes and some supermarkets – distributed from the first of the month. Gianina Turner is the News Editor
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