Social media guru tops Bath power list - but who else makes the top 10?
Who are the most influential people in our city? You may be surprised by some of those who made the list voted for by readers of our website Bath Live. Sam Petherick has been assessing the votes and has compiled a list of the top 100, featured here are th
1: Felix Renicks - @welovebath, founder His Twitter account @welovebath claims to be “Bath’s biggest and best online community” and while we might have something to say about the latter, the stats don’t lie as to the first. All active Bath tweeters surely follow this account which is a hub for the weird, wonderful, rants, recommendations and other posts about city affairs. Mr Renicks, who works in the media, was a Bath schoolboy and a Youth Parliament MP in his younger days. 2: Cllr Joe Rayment - B&NES Council, Labour representative for Twerton Labour may be in a minority on Bath and North East Somerset Council but Cllr Rayment is one of its loudest voices. He was a vocal critic of University of Bath vicechancellor Dame Glynis Breakwell’s pay packet and called out Beechen Cliff School for a “discriminatory” admissions policy, wants to rein in Airbnb, led calls for a big screen in case England made the World Cup final (fanciful thinking) and successfully passed a council motion banning badger culling. Appearing on Sunday Politics West, he joined Cheltenham MP Alex Chalk to discuss Englishness, Brexit and Donald Trump and in the Sunday Times he said it was “absolutely ridiculous that we don’t have a proper police station”. 3: Peter Gradwell - Gradwell, founder and chief technical officer Gradwell is best known for its innovative communications solutions that delivers cloud based telephony, superfast broadband and applications which are used by more than 22,000 businesses across the UK. The company relocated to Bath in 2004.
4: Wera Hobhouse - Bath MP
The city’s first woman MP reclaimed the seat for the Liberal Democrats with a 17.6 per cent swing from the Conservatives in 2017. Since taking the role as Bath’s top politician she came within a whisker of creating a new law - no mean feat given how much time in the Commons is dedicated to Brexit - banning upskirting. The bill should still pass despite a backbench MP’S objection which blocked Mrs Hobhouse’s private members’ bill. Mrs Hobhouse held a summit to debate Bath’s transport and pollution problem and is Lib Dem spokeswoman for communities and local government. 5: Eve Alcock - University of Bath Students’ Union, president 2018/19 In a city where a quarter of the population is made up of students, it perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise to one of them near the top of this list. Ms Alcock, who graduated over the summer with a BSC in Psychology and has now taken the reins as president of her student union. Of her place on the Power List, she said: “I’d love for this to contribute to locals not only acknowledging the density of our population, but coming to understand and
believe the value of our population in the wider community and ways we can work together to better it.” 6: Charles Curnock - Bath Abbey, director of the Footprint project Leading the £19.3 million Footprint project which is as much a reflection of the past as well as a bid to open up and modernise the stunning Abbey. As part of the project, all 891 ledgerstones on the abbey floor, bearing an inscription of the name and date of the person buried underneath, have been examined and recorded. There will be underfloor heating fuelled by Bath’s natural hot springs, a new learning centre, toilets, kitchen and song school. But the most controversial element has been the removal of the pews that were designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 19th Century. The Victorian Society mounted a legal challenge but lost after appeal. “The pews are jolly uncomfortable, especially during a two-hour concert,” said Mr Curnock “And there’s no disabled access. People in wheelchairs have to sit in a corner or at the back.” One thing is for sure, the abbey will be a very different place once Footprint has been completed. 7: Dr Janet Rose - Norland College, principal The world-famous nanny training college took on a record 103-pupil cohort last academic year, including its highest ever number of men and first set of identical twins. In this, its 125th anniversary year - “a truly historic year” - the college also opened a new centre in Oldfield Park. Prince George’s nanny, Maria Borrallo, is a graduate of Norland which is diversifying its talent pool: the number of students coming from independent schools dropped 15 per cent. Dr Rose joined from Bath Spa University where she was emotion coaching project leader in the institute of education. 8: Cerian Jenkins - LGBT activist and Bath Spa University equalities officer With more than 25,000 followers on Twitter and a Diva Awards journalist of the year nomination to her name, Ms Jenkins is a powerful leftwing voice on all things LGBT. She set up the Bath Gender Equality Network through which she led the calls for transgender woman Tara Hudson to be moved to a woman-only prison; then took the idea of the group nationally. She is also a member of the B&NES Independent Equality Advisory Group. Keep an eye out for Recharge and Resist Festival, a twoday event for activists that champions self-care and sustainable grassroots campaigning, which she is setting up. Her day job? Equality officer for Bath Spa University. Check out #Iseetara, #Notacompliment and #Selfcareaware. 9: Amanda Stone - Bath Welcomes Refugees, chair Syrian families who fled war and persecution in their homelands have been given a new home in Bath, and it’s very much thanks to the committed volunteers of this charity. The support they give is enormous and so wide ranging. It includes: finding and preparing housing, fundraising, befriending/ resettlement support, making benefit claims, taking them to the doctor, English language teaching and providing social activities. 10: Kartini Sutoto - Century Casino, business development manager One of the public faces of the new £20 million casino, Ms Sutoto is no stranger to rubbing shoulders with the influential: during seven years as a croupier in Mayfair she “saw my fair share of celebs, actors, royals and billionaires”. In an interview with The Business Exchange Bath and Somerset she said she sees Bath as “beautiful and compact, yet so cosmopolitan”. There was huge interest in the Bath casino which was more than four years in the making since the moment planning permission was granted in March 2014. But since opening with 18 gaming tables, 35 slot machines and 24 automated live gaming terminals this spring, the casino has kept a low profile and gone about its business. August will see the opening of the 149-bedroom Z Hotel, part of the Century Casino site which will surely bring more customers, so it’s possible you’ll start hearing more about it and from Ms Sutoto.