Update 17th August 2015
On the 16 July 2015 at the meeting of Full Council, Bath & North East Somerset Council agreed to establish a new Bath City Forum. Further information on the membership of the new forum are now available on the Bath City Forum Webpage.
A update on the next steps for Bath Governance was presented during the Bath City Conference on 10th July 2015. This presentations is now available through the link below:
Bath Governance - Update and the next steps
The presentation that was given by Jon Poole, Research and Intelligence Manager for B&NES Council, to the working group meeting which was held on held 19th June 2015. This presentation provided an insight into the results from the questions that were asked in the last Voicebox survey in late 2014.
Voicebox Presentation Bath Governance
A meeting was held on 22nd January 2015 that heard views from Bath resident Van DuBose on the option for a 'Bath Senate style committee'
The presentation and minutes can be viewed below:
Update 16th December 2014
A meeting was held on 20th November 2014 to look at two existing models for city governence that exist in Winchester and Weston-Super-Mare.
The presentations that were given at the meeting can be viewed below:
Weston-Super-Mare Parish Council model
Update 2nd October 2014
The Leader of Bath and North East Somerset Council, Councillor Paul Crossley has prepared a letter to the participants that have taken part in the consultation to date.
A cross-party member working group has been meeting since May to consider options to strengthen community representation and civic governance within Bath.
As part of the process of preparing a report to Council for its meeting on 11 September 2014, the group has agreed to request comments on this interim report, which reflects its work so far. Comments received will be considered in preparing the final report and will also be reported to the Council meeting.
At this stage we ask you to consider three options. These are:
A. No Change
B. A “Voice for Bath” Committee (including non-voting stakeholders as well as B&NES elected members)
C. The parishing of Bath- either as a single parish for the City or multiple parishes for different parts of the City, this would require a Community Governance Review
The key questions you are asked to consider when making your comments are:
1. Of the three options set out above, which is your preferred option?
2. For the “Voice for Bath” committee option:
2.1. What should be its role and functions?
2.2. Which stakeholders should be co-opted onto it?
2.3. Should these stakeholders have voting rights (for information about in which circumstances stakeholder co-optees are able to vote, please see Appendix 0)
2.4. How many of the 32 Bath elected members of Bath & North East Somerset should serve on it?
3. For the parish options:
3.1 Should Bath be parished as a whole (with one Parish Council for the City of Bath) or should there be multiple parishes for Bath?
3.2 If there were to be multiple parishes, how should Bath be parished?
The online first online consultation is now closed , should you wish to feedback your views to the working group, either e-mail GovernanceOptions@BATHNES.GOV.UK or telephone Mark Hayward 01225 396975
We will also be posting minutes of working group meetings on the Bath City Conference website www.bathcityconference.net and we also set out below for your information the Councillors who are members of this group.
Conservative Group
Councillor Brian Webber
Councillor Paul Myers
Councillor Francine Haeberling
Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones
Councillor Anthony Clarke
Councillor Tim Warren (reserve)
Liberal Democrat
Councillor Douglas Nicol
Councillor Paul Crossley
Councillor Ben Stevens
Councillor Cherry Beath
Councillor Ian Gilchrist
Councillor Manda Rigby (reserve)
Labour
Councillor John Bull
Councillor Robin Moss (reserve)
Independent Group
Councillor Malcolm Lees
Councillor Dave Laming (reserve)