WECA Mayor’s First Public Meeting:

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Mayor Dan Norris

I attended and spoke at the first public meeting of the new Mayor of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), Dan Norris, on 25th June.  I said that we thought JLTP4, his current regional Transport Plan, was a great improvement on its predecessor, and were also pleased that B&NES is now developing a transport plan too.  We hoped that it would be ambitious enough in tackling the traffic congestion that blights the historic heart of the World Heritage Site and reducing the amount of traffic passing through the city as a whole.

I reminded him of three most important and relevant initiatives, which I had discussed with him before the Mayoral election.  These are:

  • The need to take charge of the public transport agenda (which, in Bath, means buses at present) and commended to him the guest blog on our website by James Freeman, lately the MD of First Bus SW.
  • Secondly, the need to create some facility to the east of Bath where drivers coming from that direction can leave their cars and shift onto some other form of transport if we are going to stand any chance of achieving carbon neutrality and of reducing overall traffic, pollution and congestion there.  This used to be in JLTP4, but seems mysteriously to have disappeared!
  • Lastly, limiting the amount and weight of traffic crossing Cleveland Bridge after its repair.

In addition, I said that, in a project of this size, complexity and controversy, a permanent stakeholder consultation body must be established, both because this would ensure some ‘ownership’ of the solutions, but also provide a better result.  This applies not only to B&NES Council but also to WECA, as both have executive authority in their respective fields.

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1 Response

  1. Catherine Le Grice-Mack says:
    July 1, 2021 at 3:46 pm

    The congestion in Bath on weekends is causing ever increasing problems for those dependent upon public transport.
    The key to this is not to damage our – largely protected status – surrounding landscape with park and ride facilities. Instead have a better network of quality, regular bus services with stops at convenient places for people to park a car if they need to use it for the first leg of their journey. Then there will ideally be a coordinated system of goods deliveries, that picks up from many retailers.