| Petition and discussions over 4 years yield no result - 7th July '09 |
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Four years ago residents of Eckweek Gardens approached their local Banes councillor for help after a series of drug related incidents near their homes. Cllr Sarah Bevan alerted police and drew up a petition to appeal to council finance bosses to provide some lighting for the street, situated near a disused car park, regularly frequented by drug dealers and users.
A series of discussions followed with representatives from Peasedown Parish council and officers from Banes council, but no commitment was made to address the lighting issue although residents were reassured that reserve funds were available. Having heard nothing more Cllr Bevan ran out of patience and submitted a question to the Conservative run cabinet in Bath last Wednesday, only to be told categorically that money was only available for maintenance of existing lighting, not for new columns. Despite this, residents had also reported that 4 lights some distance away from the area were broken, and that lights in nearby Gordon Road were on all day. These lights remain unmaintained. Anonymous letter Cllr Bevan recently received an unsigned letter giving details of registration plates of cars owned by people the writer knows are actively dealing in drugs in the area. Cllr Bevan immediately passed the information on to the local police team but no response has yet been received a week later. Cllr Bevan said: "Apart from the Victorian quality of life these residents have to live with, we work hard to try and knit our two communities together, and lack of lighting of any kind here discourages people from walking from the original village where the bus stops are to the new estate where many live. This road is strategic to this aim and left in its current state after dark, it is fast becoming a no go area." Resident Steve Pillinger said: "I don't know what else I can do now after this result. As the presenter of the petition to council 4 years ago, I've now got the unenviable task of going round to all the signatories to tell them the bad news. It doesn't say much for the people on the council who hold the purse strings - they're totally ignoring the needs of local people." Exposed wiring Cllr Bevan added: "On my recent tour of inspection in this area, I also noticed that protective casing on one of the lighting poles in a well used shopping area has worn away, leaving wires exposed at waist level. For the cabinet member to assert in his reply to my question that 'all current funding....is committed to meeting our duty to maintain existing lighting and ensure that columns remain safe' is at best grossly misleading for council tax payers and at worst positively negligent".
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