Good news for Hinton Charterhouse

The residents of Hinton Charterhouse received some good news recently after hearing that the road running through the village is to be completely resurfaced.

Cllr Neil Butters has been working with the local Parish Council, and campaigning on this issue for over a year.

He added:

"Last year I met some visiting cyclists who were also complaining about the road surface and said it was the worst they had encountered on their travels.There really is an amazing contrast in road surface quality once you get to the Somerset border. Travelling on the B3110 from Hinton Charterhouse towards Norton St Philip is like going from Mexico into the U.S.!"

The road is due to be resurfaced towards the end of September.

Neil takes it to... the Rail Magazine

The national RAIL magazine featured a local name recently, with a special article about B&NES Lib Dem Councillor Neil Butters.

Neil, who covers the Bathavon South area (villages including South Stoke, Hinton Charterhouse and Shoscombe), has a day job as the Secretary of the Railway Heritage Committee, a national statutory body.

RAIL is one of Britain's leading railway magazines. The only one to be published fortnightly, a regular feature is entitled 'A day in the life of'...'. The mid-July edition focused on Neil's work, a journalist coming down to Bristol from Peterborough to follow him around for several hours to find out what a day in life of Neil involves.

Mobile Library petition handed to deputy Chairman of Council

Gail Coleshill and Louise Bray, representing Mobile Library users across the district, handed in some of the petitions they have collected requesting that the Council retains the rural routes.

Seen here presenting the petition to acting Chair of Council Sarah Bevan, Gail and Louise are concerned many residents who use the mobile library are elderly, not car users, have young children or mobility problems.

In her statement Gail said these are the people about whom the Council should be most concerned in maintaining services in rural areas.

Gail presented the petition to the acting Chairman of Council at a Full Council meeting last night saying that she had received signatures from villagers in Wellow, Bathford, Priston, Hunstrete, Compton Martin, and Hinton Charterhouse and had had messages from people including teachers in Shoscombe, Wellow, Combe Hay and Midford.

Gail said in reply to a question from a Councillor about numbers of users:

“The numbers of users at present may be below in some villages but that is no reason to exclude those villages from the service. More use could be made of the Mobile Library to provide other Council services and to make residents more aware of the visits by the mobile library.”

Louise Bray, who relied on the mobile library service during a recent serious illness, was pleased that the Cabinet member was now proposing to consult other options.

She said:

“I am sure that many residents are relieved to know that the consultation on the Mobile Library route review will now include more options than just scrapping the village routes. I hope the Council will make efforts to consult residents and parish councils in all the villages presently visited by the library.”

Road surface ‘like Mexico’ says Councillor

Cllr Butters, Gail Coleshill and Elizabeth James inspect the B3110.

Councillor Neil Butters (Lib Dem, Bathavon South), who represents the villages south of Bath, has called for the B3110 between Hinton Charterhouse and the Somerset County Council Border to be resurfaced as a matter of priority. The road is currently in very poor condition with bald patches and loose gravel.

“I recently met some visiting cyclists who were also complaining about the road surface and said it was the worst they had encountered on their travels.”

Councillor Butters said:

“There really is an amazing contrast in road surface quality once you get to the Somerset border. Travelling on the B3110 from Hinton Charterhouse towards Norton St Philip is like going from Mexico into the U.S.!

“I reported this issue to the Cabinet member for Customer Services, who is responsible for Transport at the start of the month. Coincidentally, he will be adopting the programme of road maintenance works in the near future. However despite admitting that he himself had recently reported the problem to Council Connect, there are no plans to resurface the road this year.

“I have written to the Cabinet Member asking him to change priorities and get this stretch of road some attention. However as yet, I have not received a response.”

Local resident Elizabeth James, who drew Neil’s attention to the problem, said:

"The present road surface is bad enough in a car or a bus but absolutely diabolical on a bike where the rough, uneven surface takes away momentum as well. Between Hinton & Norton St Philip it looks and feels as though the road has been scarified and on the way into Midford from Hinton riding over the yellow ‘go slow’ strips is like crossing a cattle grid!

“I recently met some visiting cyclists who were also complaining about the road surface and said it was the worst they had encountered on their travels.”