Kilian Bourke

Romsey Liberal Democrats are campaigning against Tory plans to remove the subsidy from the 16 and 17 buses in September, which could mean the service is stopped. The 114 service is also under threat.

It is hoped that the ‘Real Time’ bus signs – which Labour opposed – will increase usage of the buses. This would make them more commercially viable and thereby reduce the need for subsidy, potentially saving our bus services.

Catherine Smart and I are going to meet Stagecoach bosses next week to persuade them to keep the service going.

The Real Time stops give reliable information about when the buses are due to arrive.

Catherine Smart commented: “I am sure that this will encourage people to use the bus service more often. We will try and persuade Stagecoach to continue the service to give the new bus signs time to have an effect.”

Glum councillors size up pothole with tape measure

Pavement repair plans not backed by Labour

A long-running Liberal Democrat campaign has secured £90 million from the County Council for major improvements to our roads, pavements and cycleways.

Since I was elected in 2008 I have been a vocal critic of the ruling Conservative group’s financially unsustainable long-term reductions to funding for road repairs, and intermittently called for a proper review of highways maintenance to take place – calls which were continually rejected.

If the Conservative approach of “managed decline” (i.e., letting our roads get worse in a controlled way) had been allowed to continue, the council’s own figures showed that three times as many roads would be in a critical condition by 2020.

Although it was not possible to get the Conservative administration to carry out the necessary review, I managed to persuade a cross-party Overview and Scrutiny committee to do the review by drawing attention to a similar review that took place in Worcestershire.

The review produced an evidence-base that back up our calls for massive investment, and the Council subsequently provided it to the tune of £90M.

It is great news that the Conservatives have finally listened to us: we have been pushing for major road improvements for years. A proper overhaul is urgently needed, not cheap patch-up jobs that need to be redone every Winter, costing the council money at the expense of proper structural improvements.

The Liberal Democrats also proposed a further £2.5m in their budget amendment to improve our pavements. Labour did not support this proposal. If they start to complain about the state of our pavements when you are talking to them on the doorstep, just ask them: ‘Why didn’t you want the money to fix them?’

City Councillor Catherine Smart said: “Now that we have secured this £90m, we need to push the County Tories to spend some of it in Romsey. If you know of a road or pavement in Romsey that is in a particularly bad state please get in touch with me at chlsmart@cix.co.uk.”

Longstanding councillor Catherine Smart will fight for re-election on 3rd of May this year.
Since her election 14 years ago, Catherine has achieved so much for the local community.

“Many local residents use the cycle bridge and pedestrian crossings on Coldhams Lane. But how many know it was Catherine’s tireless campaigning that got these put in?” asked Cllr Paul Saunders.

Catherine has lived in Romsey for 33 years. She is the local councillor that Romsey needs.
As the City Council’s lead member for housing, she spent years fighting against Labour’s ban on building council houses.

Now the ban has been lifted, and the coalition has scrapped Labour’s unfair tax on council house tenants she is pushing the City Council to build more council houses, to provide affordable housing for the City’s residents.

Catherine has stood up for Romsey time and again, whether by ensuring that the local recreation ground took residents’ preferences into account, or by voting against inappropriate developments including Tesco and the proposed development on the Royal Standard site.

The junction between Perne Road, Brookfields and Burnside will be revamped, following a successful campaign by Romsey Liberal Democrats.

Now that The Tins Cycle Path has been upgraded, the case for improving the junction is obvious.  It needs to be more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians, and I will be pushing for some tree planting as part of this.

This junction is a gateway to Romsey and Mill Road, as well as a passageway to Romsey’s green corridor and the lakes, and should accordingly be accessible and attractive.

More to follow…

Today the City and County Councils revealed that on the evening of 7 July the Olympic Torch will be going along Barnwell Road and Brooks Road at 6pm approx, and then making its final approach to the City Centre along Mill Road. Mill Road will be briefly closed to traffic to allow the torch to pass.

The Flame will then make its way through the waiting crowds on Parker’s Piece to the Celebration Stage, for the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic cauldron, launching an evening of celebration to mark the Olympic Flame’s arrival – a highlight of the City Council’s Big Weekend.

Catherine Smart said: “It is splendid that Romsey, which has links all over the world, will be able to welcome the olympic torch in this special way.”

“The Olympic Torch brings people together in a spirit co-operation across national and cultural lines, and I cannot think of a more appropriate road for it to pass along than Mill Road. The mural of different national flags on the railway bridge is at heart the same message as that of the Olympics: that diversity is a profoundly enriching thing, to be embraced and celebrated.”

Additional information and FAQs will be posted at: www.cambridge.gov.uk/olympics

Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have launched a petition to reverse the Tories’ 100 per cent cuts to rural bus services.

The petition, started by county councillor Susan van de Ven, “Stopping the cuts to bus services in Cambridgeshire” reads:

“We the people of Cambridgeshire are opposed to the Conservative County Council’s decision to scrap 100% of funding for subsidised buses, which led to an application for Judicial Review.

“Socially necessary bus services are vital to the whole of Cambridgeshire, especially for young people who need to access to centres of employment, those with mobility issues who wish to access the wider community and its resources, and for tackling the root problem of ‘rural isolation’.

“We also believe that the “Cambridgeshire Future Transport” project, to which half of bus funding has been transferred, is fundamentally flawed and not capable of delivering an adequate replacement for the existing public transport network, never mind the improved system that has been promised.

“We call on the Conservative administration to reinstate 100% of the cuts to bus funding and to conduct a systematic view of Cambridgeshire residents’ transport needs before making any changes to it.”

The petition can be found here: http://epetition.cambridgeshire.public-i.tv/epetition_core/view/Buses

A section of the revised plan showing the 45cm strip of "pavement"

Thanks to pressure from Petersfield Lib Dem, Sarah Brown. over questions about the accuracy of their drawings, Sainsbury’s have issues updated diagrams showing their proposed Mill Road loading bay.  The loading bay was part of the planning application for the Mickey Flynn’s site on Mill Road, which Sainsbury’s wanted to turn into a metro-style supermarket.

At the planning application, which was rejected by a majority of councillors, Sarah highlighted inaccuracies in the drawings and described the proposals, which could obstruct the pavement, as being dangerous for pedestrians including wheelchair users and those with pushchairs.

In addition to the planning application, Sainsbury’s need the City Council to agree for land at the west end of the proposed layby to be designated as public highway. That land is owned by the City Council, which is currently running a consultation about the issue.

“The same drawing was used in the consultation”, Sarah said. “I wanted one which fixed the problems I identified; the east end was simply wrong – it showed the pavement being wider than it is, and the whole diagram didn’t show where the extent of the new pavement would be.”

Now, after pressure from Sarah, Sainsbury’s have released updated plans, which show the land to be designated as pavement as only 45 centimetres wide!

“I was astonished when I saw the new plans”, said Sarah. “The strip of land they want designating as highway from the City’s property is part of the new pavement, which is only 45cm – that’s a foot and a half.”

“Sainsbury’s planners seem to be suggesting that the layby would double up as footway when it’s not in use for loading. It seems to me they’re asking people to step into the road. What about when the bay is in use? The ‘pavement’ would be blocked. Would this require wheelchair and pushchair users to cross the road to the other footway at this point, from behind a parked lorry?”

“We were told this is one of the worst blackspots in the county for accidents – what’s being proposed here is completely unacceptable to my mind” Romsey Lib Dem and deputy leader of the City Council, Catherine Smart, described the idea as “completely impractical”. A copy of the updated plan can be downloaded here:

City Councillor Sarah Brown

Dear Romsey resident,

Good news! Your Lib Dem city councillors have made a bid for funding for new heritage street-lamps on Mill Road, hopefully bringing to a close a long-running campaign to secure improved street-lighting for the area.

One of the heritage-style streetlights we hope will be installed on Mill Road

Because of the number of accidents on Mill Road County Councillor Kilian Bourke had succeeded in making it a top priority for new street lights, but when the County Council’s contractor ignored his request to discuss details of the scheme he intervened and stopped the project so other options could be looked at.

Catherine Smart, your local city councillor, felt strongly that it would be better to use Victorian-style streetlights like those on the other side of the bridge. These were more appropriate to Romsey’s railway town heritage, and would ensure visual continuity between the two parts of Mill Road. City Councillor Paul Saunders felt that having made Mill Road a Conservation Area we had to fight to conserve its character.

Councillor Smart has persuaded her colleagues to put in a bid to the City Council’s budget for an upgrade to a higher standard of column and this has been accepted. The picture above illustrates the type of street-lamp that we are hoping to get for the entirety of Mill Road, all the way down to Perne Road.

We hope you support our proposal. Although budgets are tight and it will not be cheap, the visual impact of this scheme will last for 50 years, so we felt that getting this right had to be a top priority.

To have settled for less would have been a missed opportunity for Mill Road – especially when we have fought to make it a Conservation Area!

Happy New Year from your Romsey ward councillors,

Catherine Smart, Kilian Bourke and Paul Saunders

At the last East Area Committee councillors were invited to comment on local transport projects that developer contributions could be spent on.

I suggested that we should invest some of this money on improving access to the Tins cycle path from Mill Road.

Not everyone is aware of it, but if at the bottom of Mill Road (technically Brookfields) you cross Perne Road and carry along down Burnside you quickly come to the Tins Path and Snakey Path, which link Romsey to Cherry Hinton.

These are great commuter routes for cyclists coming from Cherry Hinton Rd, but also give Romsey residents immediate access to green spaces that are very different to those in the city centre.

The reason many Romsey residents don’t use this route more often is that the junction in question basically does its level best to hide the existence of these paths from human consciousness, while making it difficult and even dangerous to reach them.

The crossing is intimidating for cyclists and pedestrians, and especially off-putting for families with young children on bicycles.   This is exactly the opposite of what should be happening – we should be promoting our green spaces and cycle routes – so I am pushing for the council to expand “The Tins Phase II” project to fix this situation.

Lots of money is being ploughed into the Tins Path project to improve a strategic cycle route, and rightly so; but surely it makes sense to invest a bit extra to make that cycle route and green corridor accessible to the wider community?

There has been considerable local concern about Tesco’s request to deliver to its Mill Road premises by making part of Sedgwick Street two-way.

Personally I don’t think the council should be going out of its way to help a company that has appeared to consistently disregard local opinion at every turn, but as a very local issue it was obviously important that we consulted with local residents.

That is why Romsey city councillor Catherine Smart conducted a street survey which she addressed to residents on the streets that make up the current Tesco delivery route.  This was the right thing to do.  When there is a local problem you start by consulting with those most directly affected by it.

Having considered the responses to her street-letter, Catherine has explained on the Romsey Lib Dems’ web-site that the majority of people who would be most affected were resolutely against these changes.

If Tesco chooses to submit a formal application she will therefore oppose it, and will inform the County Council’s officer to that effect.  I fully support her position on this, as does our other city councillor Paul Saunders.