Bathampton Meadows oil painting.

Local artist Jane Riley (Dolphin House, Batheaston) has painted an evocative picture of the magnificent view of the open countryside of Bathampton Meadows and surrounding Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty seen from the southern slope of Little Solsbury Hill.

Please click on the image.

The oil painting is being exhibited in The Framing Workshop (Walcot Street, Bath) from 22nd March for one month.
Limited edition prints of the painting (£30 & £40) can be purchased/ordered from The Framing Workshop,
or Jane Riley, email - georgeandjane@hotmail.com ,
or Maurdens News, High Street, Batheaston.
Payment is by cash or cheque made out to VeracityBath Ltd.

The original painting will be sold by auction in Batheaston in May 2010 - date and venue to be announced. If you are interested in purchasing it please leave a closed bid (in excess of £500) or a notice of interest and your contact details with The Framing Workshop or Jane Riley.
The date and venue for the auction will be advertised shortly in the Bath Chronicle and on the VeracityBath Ltd and Save Bathampton Meadows websites -
http://www.vcbath.blogspot.com/ , and
http://www.savebathamptonmeadows.blogspot.com/

Jane has very generously donated her oil painting to VeracityBath Ltd free of charge and Martin Tracy - The Framing Workshop, has very generously framed the picture free of charge.
All proceeds from the sale of the painting and limited edition prints will go to funding of VeracityBath Ltd’s campaign to stop the construction of a 1400 space Park and Ride facility on Bathampton Meadows.

Judicial review proceedings against B&NES.

On 19 February 2010, before expiry of the legal deadline, we issued judicial review proceedings against B&NES in respect of the Bathampton Meadows application.

This followed a shocking late admission by B&NES in legal correspondence that each of the planning permissions could be implemented separately ......... despite each element having always been described as indivisible and interdependent parts of the Bath Transportation Package.

This is particularly relevant to Bathampton Meadows, because the use of the ancient Meadows, which is green belt land, was purportedly justified as a park and ride in law by the Council based on the "very special circumstances of the Bath Transportation Package as a whole".

Sorry, but for legal reasons, full details of the claim are not included here. However, we have challenged B&NES Council to come clean on its true intentions.

We will update you when a response is received.

'Ello 'ello, what's going on 'ere then.

Here are the two different versions of a letter from Julian Abel of the Department for Transport, issued in July 2009. Please click on the above for a larger image.

After requesting the first version, which is a neutral statement of the DfT position on funding for the BTP, amendments to the content were evidently requested  by B&NES before it was presented to both the Development Control Committee ahead of its crucial August meeting, and for publication in the Bath Chronicle.

We have obtained both copies......

We invite you to spot the differences and wonder how the debatably stronger tone of the second one may have been designed to influence the planning decision made on 5th August 2009.

Hmmmm.

On other matters - some Bath Chronicle articles of interest -

http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/Row-land-shambles/article-1900716-detail/article.html

http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/MP-s-pledge-BRT-inquiry/article-1900519-detail/article.html

 

A reply from UNESCO, and other matters.

Please click on the image above to see a larger copy of the UNESCO reply to our earlier letter regarding B&NES' reponsibilities on Bath's World Heritage City status.

On the legal issues - we are now fighting on two fronts - applications are in for Judicial Reviews on the conduct of both the Dept. for Communities & Local Gov't, and secondly, B&NES themselves.

We've got 'em rattled, but it's getting expensive folks - we're doing our very best but we need your help - if you can spare a few quid, please see the panel on the right.

To the hundreds of you that have already donated - many many thanks.

Having repeatedly stated over the last two years or so that all the elements of the Bath Transportation Package are absolutely indivisible and interdependent, B&NES now seem to be suggesting in a letter to us that it was only an "intention".

Huh ?

Another issue where our council appear to be making this up as they go along, is the subject of Compulsory Purchase Orders.

The question of who is able to object 'Statutorily' or 'non-Statutorily' seems to be another moveable feast.

Please go to Newbridge Matters for more information on this.