At last a city council brave enough to act

What a year of drastic changes Covid has forced upon us, separating us from our loved ones, denying us weddings and funerals and all the other social gatherings that bring joy and interest to our lives.

Now climate change demands more immediate urgent action and more changes. We’re fast approaching tipping point and most people are accepting something has to be done.

It has been over 30 years since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of hundreds of scientists from around the globe, first met and reported the likely results of climate change.

We were warned. Immediate action was required, to halve the emissions of carbon dioxide, to prevent the world being made hotter than at any time in the last 2 million years.

Otherwise we should expect changing weather patterns, crop failures, floods and droughts.

Despite the clear warning we have carried on building houses on flood plains, we’ve subsidised air travel with low tax on fuel, we’ve encouraged car ownership by building more roads and designed cars that run on petrol when electric technology has been available.

Profit making and economic growth continued to rule the roost.

Then Greta came along demanding immediate action now.

People are finally accepting we need to remove our reliance on fossil fuels. Here in Britain money has just been made available for improved bus routes and more cycling lanes.

In Bath we’ve finally got a council wise enough to acknowledge something has to be done and brave enough to start introducing a few positive changes.

Pedestrianising parts of city centres has been tried and tested effectively all over Britain and Europe.

It actually makes life easier for people with health problems, providing safer space and cleaner air for wheelchair users and people on disability scooters. It’s a godsend for parents with small children.

We’ll soon get used to having slightly less car access in Bath city centre.

The three proposed Active Travel Schemes create safe walking and cycling routes, one along Upper Bristol Road and two running from the university, with new cycle lanes separate from motor traffic.

Anyone who rides a bike in Bath will sigh with relief and tell you this is what they crave.

North Road is notoriously dangerous for cyclists and the new designated bike lane and bus gate will help solve this. Students are the ones who will inherit the problems created by previous generations so it makes total sense to involve them in the solution. Parents of children attending King Edward’s School and Ralph Allen, who have considered cycling to school too risky a business will be reassured by the new measures, as well people working and studying at the university.

There’s been a lot of discussion about why Cleveland Bridge is being strengthened, to make it safe for huge lorries, alongside money being spent on safer walking and bike routes.

People see this as a contradiction. To set the record straight, since 1939 a national strategic route has run from the north to the south through Bath, over Cleveland Bridge.

When this route was chosen by central government as a major trunk road, over 80 years ago, traffic was very different. I suspect our city council would love to ban lorries from crossing Cleveland Bridge but this is outside their remit.

It’s a Highways Agency issue not a local one. The new charge on lorries using this route should reduce the amount of traffic. It’s a start.

Our council pledged in its manifesto to tackle Bath’s transport problems and the climate emergency. For thirty years screamingly obvious problems, such as illegally high pollution levels along London Road have been ignored. Why?

When you put your head above the parapet you get shot at, and this is exactly what’s happening now.

We fight change, especially when it’s right on the doorstep, but now is not the time to fight amongst ourselves.

For the sake of our children and grandchildren we have to think about the future, so let’s support these proposed small changes and help make Bath a cleaner, safer place for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as motorists.

Kathryn Jordan Larkhall