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Ambitious proposals to create liveable neighbourhoods in Bath and North East Somerset will be examined at a webinar next week.

Bath & North East Somerset Council has developed three strategies to achieve liveable neighbourhoods, which aim to improve air quality and health, encourage more walking and cycling and reduce vehicles in residential areas.

Residents and businesses are invited to join the webinar via Zoom on Wednesday, October 7 at 5.30pm.

Panellists include council Leader, Councillor Dine Romero; Councillors Joanna Wright and Neil Butters, joint cabinet members for Transport Services, and lead officers from the council’s transport team.

The three liveable neighbourhoods strategies are:

• Low traffic neighbourhood strategy

• Residents’ parking schemes strategy

• On-street electric vehicle charging strategy

Bath & North East Somerset Council invite you to a zoom webinar which covers our ambitious proposals for liveable neighbourhoods.

Liveable neighbourhoods are an important part of the council’s plan to tackle the climate and ecological emergency and to improve health and wellbeing across the area. It has developed three strategies which it now wants people’s views on. They are:

These are particularly important if we’re to meet our climate emergency targets by 2030.

Residents are being asked for their views on Bath & North East Somerset Council’s ambitious proposals for liveable neighbourhoods, an important part of the council’s plan to tackle the climate and ecological emergency and to improve health and wellbeing across the area.

Liveable neighbourhoods aim to reduce the dominance of vehicles in residential areas - particularly through-traffic - while maintaining vehicle access to homes and businesses and prioritising residential parking. It has developed three strategies which it now wants people’s views on.

Residents are now being asked what they think about the plans in an online consultation that will run until Wednesday 14 October.

To help support the recovery from COVID-19, temporary measures were introduced in parts of Bath and Keynsham to widen pavements and remove traffic from roads. Residents are now being asked for their feedback on the changes.

Residents in Bath and North East Somerset are being asked to make sure hedges they own next to pavements are cut back to help pedestrians to social distance.

Overgrown hedges, trees and other vegetation can significantly reduce the amount of space available on footways making it difficult for people to get past, particularly people using wheelchairs who cannot step off the kerb. Hedges overhanging the pavement can also pose risks to pedestrians who have visual impairments.

Bath & North East Somerset Council maintains the hedges it owns but is asking owners of hedges on private property if they could please do the same.

From 15 June many more shops will be reopening as the government eases some covid-19 restrictions and the council’s priority is to enable shops to do this safely and in a way that promotes confidence in our High Streets and protects public health.

To help pedestrians to safely social distance when this takes place, work will begin on Monday 8 June to widen pavements in the following Bath streets: Camden Road, St Saviours Road, Manvers Street, Monmouth Place, Monmouth Street, Moorland Road, North Parade, Queen Square, Somerset Street, Terrace Walk, Walcot Street, Westgate Buildings and Weston High Street.

Temporary barriers will be placed along the roads to separate the pedestrian area from traffic, and tarmac ramps will be provided to ensure that people using pushchairs and wheelchairs will be able to get to and from the shops. In some locations, to create the space, the use of parking bays will be suspended.

Temporary measures to widen pavements, remove traffic from roads, and improve cycling, will be introduced in parts of the city to help people to socially distance and to encourage a long-term shift in the way people travel around Bath and North East Somerset.

Plans to temporarily widen pavements in Camden Road, St Saviours Road, Manvers Street/ Pierrepont Street, Monmouth Place, Monmouth Street, Moorland Road, North Parade, Queen Square, Somerset Street, Terrace Walk, Walcot Street, Westgate Buildings and Weston High Street, are under way. The social distancing measures should be in place by mid-June to support any re-opening of shops and businesses.