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A project set up to restore a sense of pride and community in Whiteway celebrated the positive difference it has made with a neighbourhood event this week.

Residents in the area got together to hold a celebration in Rosewarn Field on Bank Holiday Monday.

The group behind the event, called Changes, was formed as part of the Regenerate project, which aims to encourage people to take an active role in their community.

Changes is made up of residents who are developing initiatives from music performances to environmental work and held the event to raise money for them.

Monday's celebration, which attracted more than 300 people throughout the day, went some way to helping these smaller initiatives by raising more than £800.

Regenerate project director in Whiteway Nick Gardham said: "Residents have been developing projects for the past 12 to 15 months and have now decided that they wanted to work together.

"It was a really good, successful event.

"They want to develop some kind of sustainable enterprise and overcome some of the issues in their area by creating a sense of pride and interest in the community by promoting active involvement."

Elaine Thomas, who lives in Rosewarn Close, is vice-chair of Changes and also helps to run the environmental group Proud of Your Doorstep.

She said she had noticed a big difference in the area since Regenerate started work more than a year ago.

The 34-year-old mother of three, who has lived in the area most of her life, said: "There are more activities now for the children and we are trying to do something with the park now to keep the children off the streets.

"There have been lots of changes since Regenerate have been working here. The place has been a lot cleaner and there is less anti-social behaviour."

She added: "The community is getting together a lot more."

Monday's event featured games, a barbecue, and a bouncy castle and could now become an annual event.

Chief executive of Regenerate Stephen Kearney, who attended the event, said he was impressed by the progress being made in the city.

He said: "I was extremely pleased to be able to attend the event and see the process in action.

"There were hundreds of people at the event and it gave people the opportunity to talk more about projects that they want to do in the area."

He added: "I'm really pleased at the way young people have been so involved and it is really encouraging.

"If everyone listens to each other, we get amazing results."

Retired diplomat and high-flying civil servant Sir Donald Maitland has died at the age of 88.

The onetime press secretary to '70s Prime Minister Edward Heath lived near Bradford on Avon and was involved in the life of a number of charities and groups in the Bath area.

The Scotsman ended his national public life as chairman of the now-defunct Health Education Authority (HEA), steering a campaign for greater awareness of Aids and HIV.

Sir Donald served in the Army in the Middle East, India and Burma, with his knowledge of Arabic leading him to the Foreign Office and a post in Iraq.

In 1960, he became deputy head of news at the Foreign Office and after a spell in Egypt returned to London in 1965 to head the FO's news operation.

Sir Donald, who was just 5ft 1in tall, had a tempestuous relationship with the new Labour government's Foreign Secretary, the volatile George Brown.

After one particular Brown eruption, he replied: "Secretary of State, you don't think somebody my size has got where I am by kow-towing to bully-boys, do you?"

Sir Donald was later appointed ambassador to Libya, which coincided with the rise to power of Colonel Gaddafi. During one meeting with the eccentric leader, an unflappable Sir Donald nonchalantly pushed away a pistol pointed at his stomach.

When Mr Heath won the 1970 election, he made Sir Donald his press secretary, and three years later Sir Donald moved to New York to be Britain's ambassador to the UN.

Two years later, with Labour back in power, he was in Brussels as ambassador to the then EEC. In 1979, he returned briefly to the Foreign Office, only to be promoted by Margaret Thatcher in 1980 to permanent secretary at the Department of Energy.

After his retirement in 1982, he became a government director of Britoil, deputy chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority and chairman of the Independent Commission on Worldwide Telecommunications Development.

A qualified pilot, he was made an OBE in 1960 and knighted in 1973. His leaves his widow Jean, a son and daughter, and two granddaughters.

He was a onetime pro-chancellor at the University of Bath. Vice- chancellor Professor Glynis Breakwell said: "Sir Donald brought energy, enthusiasm and an immense wealth of experience to any activity he undertook on our behalf. His international expertise was an immense asset to us."

He was closely involved with the city's Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases and was president of the Bath Institute for Rheumatic Diseases (BIRD) charity for 10 years.

Ali Taylor, executive director of BIRD, said he had been a "much-valued supporter".

"I didn't know him, but people who did said that, although he come across as a bit scary on first meeting him, he was a very astute, warm and thoughtful man."

His family will be organising a thanksgiving service on a date to be arranged.

A postgraduate student from Bath has become the fastest person to cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats and back again.

Ben Rockett lived up to his name and completed the 1,781-mile challenge in just five days, 21 hours and eight minutes, smashing the previous record by almost a whole day – and proving the strength of the human spirit to overcome adversity.

The 23-year-old was born with dysplasia of the hip and learned to walk in a frame. Then in 2006, he was struck by a car and the damage to his leg threatened his ability to walk properly ever again.

He was working with a support team of seven fellow students and close friends, who helped keep his spirits up and made sure he was on schedule during the journey.

Ben, who is studying for a PhD in education, researching children's mental health and animal assisted therapies at the University of Bath, likes to set himself challenges.

Writing in his blog, he said: "With enough effort and determination, we are all capable of achieving exceptional feats. Sometimes people just need a little extra encouragement."

An ecstatic crowd welcomed him back to Land's End as he finished the last 12 miles at a sprint supported by team riders Dan Tudge and Tony Solon along with Simon Williams, brother of Olympic Gold medallist Amy Williams, who had joined Ben for the ride at Exeter.

There had been drama from the start as the team physio had been admitted to hospital and was unable to start the journey, the support vehicles had suffered punctures and a blown exhaust and torrential rain sapped both energy and spirit.

Thousands of people had followed his progress on the internet, inspired by his story.

After the ride, Ben went to hospital in his home town of Taunton for precautionary checks. He has had a lot of fluid removed from his knees and is also nursing a possible broken foot but is otherwise none the worse for his ordeal.

Ben has always been interested in physical challenges and adventures and is also a keen cyclist and deep sea diver.

One of his lecturers, Dr Eric Anderson, said his latest challenge was typical.

He said: "There is only one phrase to describe Ben Rockett and that is "absolutely driven", in everything he does, especially his postgraduate studies.

"His crazy idea of cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats is an example of that."

The previous record of six days and 20 hours had been set by Bobby Brown in April 2000.

Ben was raising money for Cardiac Risk in the Young, a charity which helps raise awareness of heart disorders and encourages young people to have heart screenings.

It also researches the symptoms and treatment of cardiac arrest.

Ben has already raised more than £3,000. To support the charity and sponsor him in his challenge go to www.justgiving.com/rockettrides.

To find out more about his ride, go to www.rockettrides.com.

Campaigner June Player is trying to mobilise opposition to plans to convert a shop into an estate agency office in Oldfield Park.

But the firm behind the plans insists the move will not damage the area's retail heart – and that it is itself a vital part of the Moorland Road community.

Pullin Knight, which already has an office in the street, applied for planning permission earlier this year to take over the shop.

The application was rejected by B&NES Council because of the adverse effect the loss of a shop would have on the vitality and viability of the road, but Pullin Knight has now appealed.

Mrs Player, who has long campaigned to protect the shopping area, believes that the make-up of the street was finely balanced.

She said: "The last couple of years have seen change in the balance of shops, but it does still manage to flourish and attract locals and non-locals alike.

"However, should this balance be tipped any more in favour of professional and financial services, then Moorland Road will lose its attraction and the footfall will reduce to the extent that more and more traders will be forced out.

"There are already a lot of estate agents in this row and there is absolutely no need to have a shop changed to become another one."

She said the section of the road was already quieter: "Once this section dies off to shoppers, it will then affect the footfall further up the road and so Moorland Road as a shopping area will cease to be."

She has urged residents who share her views to object to the appeal.

However, Pullin Knight director Adam Knight said the business whose store it wanted to take over – gifts and craft shop Bizzy Fingers – was relocating to another spot in Moorland Road, and that the new premises would be a replacement for its existing office which would be closing.

He said the firm agreed that Moorland Road should remain as a strong shopping centre.

"We are lucky in Moorland Road to have some very good shops that only survive by offering a first-class service and an excellent product.

"However, supermarkets mean that centres like Moorland Road have seen a reduction in retail uses and more cafés, bars and offices appear. This trend has kept people coming to Moorland Road."

He said most people now did their main grocery shopping in supermarkets and visited Moorland Road for the range of speciality facilities and shops it offered, a trend likely to strengthen if Tesco gets permission for a supermarket at the old Bath Press site.

Mr Knight added: "Most traders in Moorland Road recognise the huge challenges we face. As a local family firm, we have worked hard in the middle of a recession to build a successful business. More than 50 per cent of the people we employ live within two miles of Moorland Road, and our customers certainly do.

"It is a shame that a growing local business has not received the support it might expect to maintain and grow in Moorland Road."

When you launch a competition in the paper – particularly one that has never been done before – it is always with a certain amount of trepidation.

Will anybody bother entering? Will people take it seriously? And if nobody enters, is there a big enough cloth to wipe away the egg from my face?

All of these went through my mind when we launched our short story competition as part of our 250th anniversary celebrations.

I came up with the idea of getting readers to write a story about The Bath Chronicle in exactly 250 words – it is not an easy task, not one that wouldn't require a good amount of thinking and planning and certainly not one we had done before.

Would this be an idea like the Sinclair C5 or playing Emile Heskey up front – ideas that were just not meant to be?

Well, I need not have feared. When we closed the entries earlier this week we totted up that we had received more than 150 – a remarkable figure in my opinion as each entry took time and thought to produce.

What has particularly pleased me is the wide range of ages of those who have taken part. It is said that there is a good book (and presumably a good short story) in everyone and clearly age was no barrier in this context.

We have received entries from people of all ages – schoolchildren, students, those in their 20s, 30s and 40s, a big batch from those in their 50s and 60s and then plenty in the 70-90 brackets too. We deliberately asked for ages on the entry form to get a flavour of who enters and it was amusing to see how many people qualified their ages – ie, hello Dean Gallagher of Odd Down who is nine years AND ten months and also to Suzanna Mead of Southwick who is 41 but was keen to tell me that her son says 'she looks 35'!

One of the other things we did was to make the subject matter for your story completely open and we've been astounded at the variety of subjects covered.

We have seen stories set in the past, set in the future, set on the day of Armageddon and set during a number of major historical events including the Second World War.

In addition we have seen all manner of odd chracters entering The Bath Chronicle newsroom with King George III, Beau Nash, Roman soldiers, talking lions and even the odd gull muscling in as our readers let their imagination run riot.

And now comes the tricky bit. Along with a number of my colleagues (who unwisely agreed to help me judge!) we've got to try to whittle down this amazing collection of stories into a shortlist – and it really won't be easy.

There can ultimately be only one winner but I have been so impressed with the quality and breadth of the entry this year that I'm very tempted to make this an annual contest because clearly we've got some very talented story writers out there and it would be great fun to have this battle every year.

251 words next year perhaps?

Council chiefs have been urged to ensure they back a series of plans to safeguard Bath's World Heritage status with hard cash.

Bath and North East Somerset Council has just launched a consultation exercise over a 122-page blueprint for the future of the city's sensitive buildings and heritage setting.

The document – which stresses the need for a balance between conservation and the demands of a busy living city and would-be investors – includes 75 action points for the next six years.

But a number of the proposals – ranging from the development of a tall buildings strategy to training sessions for councillors – have no extra money allocated to them.

Bath Preservation Trust chief executive Caroline Kay said the council needed to keep things simple – and make sure its proposals were properly resourced and backed from the top of the organisation.

"It's better to have a few action points with absolute commitment to implementation than 100 actions that depend on so many partnerships that they get dissolved in the process. Unless and until there is proper resource and proper senior management direction, the impact will always be partial."

She said there needed to be dedicated officers and budgets for the priorities established in the document, the revised Bath World Heritage Site Management Plan, which has been prepared by the World Heritage Steering Group with the support of the council.

The council is required by the international body Unesco to update its management plan, which sets out why Bath is a World Heritage Site, the opportunities and pressures facing the city, and how heritage issues will be managed over the next six years.

The council said, however: "Although it contains sound aspirations for the future, the timescale for implementation of individual actions will depend on the availability of both public and private resources."

The public consultation will run until October 7 and the council is asking people to answer three key questions:

Are the main issues which affect the site correctly identified or are there others to be added?

Do the actions proposed address these issues or are there other actions required or under way?

Are there any further opportunities to benefit from World Heritage status?

The document is on the website www.bathnes.gov.uk/worldheritagesite and at public information points.

Mrs Kay, who stressed she had not yet read the whole of the final version of the consultation document, said the principles behind the city's World Heritage status should be "inscribed on the heart of every councillor" – and that it was often the smallest details which were the most important.

She said there ought to be "absolute and clear" policies about "nitty-gritty" issues such as the design of shopfronts and street lights.

The city's other high-profile conservation campaign group, Bath Heritage Watchdog, is studying the document and said it was too early to comment.

There had been claims that development on the Western Riverside could risk the city's cherished status but two inspectors who staged a fact-finding mission two years ago raised no fundamental concerns about the scheme.

The consultation document says: "The whole of the city is a World Heritage Site, and this brings both opportunities and challenges. The city's unique and much-celebrated heritage generates the economic and cultural vibrancy that is essential for its long-term protection.

"But while heritage is one of Bath's key strengths in attracting clients and employees, this may also inhibit investment in contemporary buildings and the growth of businesses and employment."

Council officials have issued an order to forcibly buy areas of land so that children at a Bath primary school can have a playing field.

Oldfield Park Junior School has been fighting for years for green space and at the moment pupils have to travel to a public park half a mile away for games lessons.

Now Bath and North East Somerset Council has issued compulsory purchase orders on seven plots of land to the back of the Lymore Terrace site.

The authority says every effort had been made to privately purchase the sites, which are designated for educational use, but negotiations have proved unsuccessful.

The council's cabinet member for children's services Councillor Chris Watt said he was pleased that he had started the ball rolling and that the application process had now been approved by the Department for Education.

He said: "This has enabled the council to start the next stage of the legal process needed to secure the land to provide a playing field for the school."

But several of the landowners are unhappy with the way they have been treated by the council.

Raymond Mancini, of Ivy Avenue, used to run his site as an allotment with his wife Una, but more than two and a half years ago they were told by B&NES Council that they would forcibly buy the land from them within six months.

They decided to stop working on the site and have now had to watch it become overgrown and derelict.

The 79-year-old said: "It is sort of thieving, I think, and it has gone on and on. We are annoyed with the council's attitude. We used to have a little nursery up there and we could feed ourselves on it.

"But it has become overgrown now because they have taken so long to sort it out."

Lesley Hawkins, 88, and his sister Joan Hiscocks, 84, own another allotment there and although they are former pupils of the school, do not think there is any need for the playing fields.

Mr Hawkins, who lives in Manor Park, said: "It is a very old-fashioned school and I am sure it won't be long before they pull it down. In the long term I don't think it is right to sell these plots for the playing fields."

Mrs Hiscocks, who lives in Milton Avenue, added: "We have been hanging around for two and a half years and nothing has been done."

All the landowners now have six weeks to formally appeal against the orders.

Funding for a three-year research project to help find new solutions to Bath's gull nuisance headaches has been refused.

A plea for cash to investigate the living, eating and breeding habits of gulls across the South West has been rejected because of Government spending curbs.

Bristol-based urban gull expert Peter Rock applied for £500,000 from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to track urban gulls in Bath, Bristol and Gloucester, using global positioning satellite technology to work out their feeding sources and migratory movements.

He had hoped the research would go some way to finding a solution to the ever-increasing gull populations in urban areas and to reduce council and private sector spending on the problem.

However, along with most other government departments and quangos, NERC is having to cut its spending by 25 per cent, and has turned down the approach.

Mr Rock described the news as a 'bitter blow' and is now trying to explore other funding possibilities.

Bath and North East Somerset Council spends £10,000 a year using egg oiling and egg replacement techniques to try to reduce the gull population but the cost to tourism businesses of the birds will be far higher.

Mr Rock said the £500,000 he needed for the research – including specialist equipment, staff wages and use of university facilities – would be considerably less than had been spent attempting to solve the problem over the past 20 years.

He said nothing tried so far had had a significant impact on the gulls, although he rejects the idea of culling the birds – as has been suggested by the newly-formed Bath branch of the Taxpayers' Alliance.

"A great deal of money has been spent on deterrents and other bits of equipment," he said.

"We have probably spent millions on urban gulls and we haven't seen any kind of results so far. "Are we going to sit back and say it is too much money to spend because of the economic climate at the moment and we don't care if we sort this out?

"The truth is that everybody is picking up the tab at the end of the day and council taxpayers' money is being spent on the problem."

He estimates that there are now around 1,000 breeding pairs of urban gulls in B&NES, a figure which has been rising annually by eight per cent, with numbers in the city centre going up by 2.5 per cent each year.

Bath MP Don Foster, who has been pressing successive governments to take the issue of urban gulls more seriously, said such a research project was necessary to find a solution which would work.

He said: "I am very disappointed that the research grant has not been approved.

"I think part of the issue is that people, unless they are directly affected as people in Bath are, don't realise how serious the problem is.

"It is sometimes treated as a bit of a joke but the truth is it affects many people, it is a growing problem and action does need to be taken."

He added: "Unless we have the research we will continue to use measures which, on the whole, are not very successful.

"The problem is growing despite the fact that the council is taking action.

"We need the research project and we need to get over to people that this is a much more serious problem than many people believe it to be."

Mr Foster said he would continue to lobby for research funding in Parliament.

According to Mr Rock the vast majority of urban gulls have now left towns and cities. However, the next breeding season begins in November, with the majority of the gulls returning by the end of January.

He said: "We need to start preparing for the 2011 season as soon as possible."

Police believe children may have been behind an arson attack which destroyed two buses at a council depot in Bath.

Flames spread from one to the other in the fire at Windsor Bridge and a further seven minibuses were damaged in the blaze.

Detective Inspector Andy Gwyther, who is appealing for anyone with information to come forward, said: "I believe that it was probably vandalism caused by kids and it probably took more than one person.

"We were lucky that there wasn't more damage. We could have lost all the coaches.

"The schools are going back this week and we are just appealing to anyone who hears any whispers or sees anything on Facebook to get in contact."

The vehicles, owned by Bath and North East Somerset Council, went up in flames late on Monday afternoon in an incident that did an estimated £14,000 of damage.

The damaged buses were specially designed to transport disabled adults and children. DI Gwyther said the culprits obviously did not care or think about the consequences of their actions.

The two vehicles destroyed were a 15-year-old Mercedes 16-seater accessible minibus, valued at £3,500, and a nine-year-old Optare Solo 33-seater low floor bus, worth around £8,500.

The damage to the other seven vehicles has been put at around £2,000.

A spokesman for the council said the vehicles would be replaced and repaired as quickly as possible.

He said: "The council deplores the actions of the mindless vandals that perpetrated this crime."

The authority said it was aiming to have the damaged buses back in action by today and would have enough vehicles to cover journeys this week.

Eight firefighters put out the flames after being called to the car park at 5.39pm.

Anyone with information about how the fire was started is asked to contact Bath police on 0845 4567000.

The Bath Chronicle in conjunction with the LoveBath short film competition is creating an advert to be shown in the Little Theatre promoting the contest.
Do you fancy being an extra? All you have to do is sit in the Little Theatre in the city centre for a few hours tomorrow playing the part of a bored audience member. Your face could be seen in a trailer to be shown at the cinema before the films start.
Please arrive at the Little for 10am sharp tomorrow (Friday). We should be finished with the majority of extras by 11am.
Invite your friends and family - the first 50 to the cinema will be used as extras.
Meanwhile, The Bath Chronicle's exciting new competition to give local people the chance to make a short film to showcase the area is now up and running.
Last week we unveiled details of the LoveBath short film competition which invites people to make a film of no more than two minutes and 50 seconds which encapsulates any facet of life in and around Bath and north east Somerset.
The competition has been arranged as part of The Bath Chronicle's 250-year anniversary and therefore there will be a £250 cash prize for the winning entrant.
Details about how you can get involved in the competition are available on our special dedicated website at www.thisisbath.co.uk/lovebath.
There you will find not only all the rules about how to enter but also some guidelines about scripts and the sort of film you may like to make
The contest has been organised between the Little – which will screen our shortlisted films at a special event in November – the Bath and North East Somerset Council's Film Office, the City of Bath College and the Bath Film Festival alongside ourselves here at the Chronicle.
Chronicle editor Sam Holliday said he hoped that people were already starting to formulate their plans for the competition.
"The closing date for our contest is October 21 which means people have just a matter of a few weeks to think about their story, start scripting it and then getting down to the serious business of shooting and editing their work.
"We feel this is a really exciting and innovative competition and we can't wait to see the entries come in because we know that Bath and north east Somerset is an area full of ideas and it will be excellent to see them come to life," he said.

Scores of families packed up picnics and joined the fun and games when a milestone for Bath's industrial heritage provided cause for celebration.

Visitors packed into Sydney Gardens for the Holburne Museum Picnic in the Park on Sunday, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the completion of the Kennet and Avon Canal.

A selection of activities focusing on the heritage of the waterway were on offer including making hobbyhorses and sun bonnets, face-painting, dressing pegdolls, decorating flowerpots and dressing up as 19th-century characters. There was also live music from Bath band The Mandibles and puppetry from the Great Xa's Magic Show – featuring museum director Alexander Sturgis – and vintage swing boats and a bouncy castle.

The event was based around the canal's past, but Sarah Brice, regeneration manager for British Waterways, said the aim was to help raise awareness of the potential the route had for the future.

She said significant restoration was planned: "We are hoping to upgrade the wartime bridges and the chimney in this area of the canal. British Waterways has promised to fund the upgrading of the bridges in November and we hope to be able to raise the money to pay for the structural repairs to the chimney and, with the help of volunteers, improve the stonework and state of the vegetation. We also plan to gather memories people have of the canal from over the years and display them in the Holburne alongside heritage and cultural information about the canal and railway."

The canal, which runs between Newbury and Bath, opened in 1810 and is 87 miles long. In the later 19th century and early 20th century, it fell into disuse following competition from the Great Western Railway but was restored in the latter half of the last century and today is used for boating, canoeing, fishing, walking and cycling.

The museum and gallery, which organised the free event, had been building up to it with summer workshops in its Lodge centre looking at canal art.

The event took place as the attraction is undergoing a £13.8 million revamp to completely refurbish its interior and add a glass extension on to the rear of the building in Sydney Gardens, which is due to reopen next May.

Glen Morris, 45, from Bath, who was at the event with his two daughters – four-year-old Phoenix and nine-year-old Liberty – said: "It is amazing to think how times have changed for the city since the canal opened and what an important part of our heritage it has been."

Cyclist John Keen, 28, said: "From my point of view canal towpaths make the perfect cycling routes. I would like to see more people ditching the car and opting for the greener healthier way to travel, and canal towpaths allow people to try it out away from the dangers of other road traffic."

Six gymnasts from Bath will be showing off their skills on national TV this weekend.

The group from the Bath Rhythmic Gymnastics club will be performing live on BBC1 at the National Lottery Awards on Saturday.

The annual search to find the country's favourite Lottery-funded projects will be part of a programme fronted by John Barrowman, at 7.40pm.

The gymnasts – Helen Christie, 15, from Bristol; Annabelle Bartlett, 15, from Bath; Lynne Hutchinson, 15, from Bath; Sarah Dennis, 13, from Bath; Hannah Waite, 13, from Bristol and 18-year-old Francesca Fox from Trowbridge – are among a number of groups showing off skills developed using Lottery grants.

The club was set up 10 years ago, and more than 30 gymnasts regularly attend, ranging from beginners to those competing at an international level.

Francesca, a member for eight years, and Lynne have both benefited from a Lottery-funded scheme which identifies and nurtures young talented gymnasts and develops them for national and international competition.

Francesca, who has represented Britain at European and world championships, said: "It's so exciting to think that we will be performing on national television at the awards. To be representing my club on BBC1 is a great honour and I can't wait to show what we can do."

Club head coach Sarah Binding said she was delighted at the members' appearance: "We can't wait to showcase the work of Bath Rhythmic Gymnasts at this year's event."

Also part in the performance will be fencers, drummers, aerial performers and dancers.

Now in their seventh year, the awards recognise the difference that Lottery-funded projects make to local communities, and celebrate the achievements of the people behind them.

For further information, visit www. lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards.

The first hybrid bus to run on diesel and electric in the South West has been launched in Bath, serving park and ride passengers throughout the city.

Powered by a small 1.9-litre turbo diesel engine, less than a quarter of the size of those for conventional buses, it is serving all three park and ride sites, switching between diesel and electric as it goes.

The £270,000 vehicle is being trialled for six months by operator First in partnership with Bath and North East Somerset Council as part of a European initiative which promotes environmentally-friendly transport in urban areas.

The Civitas Renaissance project, which operates in five historic cities across Europe, aims to help cities to achieve a more sustainable, clean and energy-efficient urban transport system. The new hybrid technology will be closely monitored, with researchers from the University of the West of England conducting regular interviews with passengers to find out their views.

Engineers at First will assess the vehicle's performance, fuel consumption and emissions in comparison with conventional diesel buses.

The battery draws energy from the engine and from the vehicle's braking system and is in turn able to power the vehicle, maximising efficiency and reducing emissions.

The system is expected to be particularly effective in Bath where braking on the hills of Lansdown and Wellsway will mean the vehicle can draw enough energy to run almost entirely on battery power while in the city centre.

John Birtwistle, projects director for First and the person responsible for the trial in Bath, said the firm was delighted to be able to test such new technology.

He said: "We will be watching the trial carefully to see how this bus performs; if all goes well and it is seen to reduce our operating costs and to attract more people to use public transport – as we hope it will do – then it could signal a shift towards us buying more hybrid buses."

Peter Dawson, planning policy and transport manager for B&NES added: "We are really pleased that First is conducting this trial that could result in long-term benefits for the urban environment through the use of green hybrid technology."

Tony McNiff, managing director of First Bristol, Somerset and Avon, added: "This is a significant step forward for bus operations in Bath.

"There are very few cities outside London that are implementing this advanced hybrid bus technology and I'm delighted that the people of Bath will be working together with First on the frontline of this cutting edge environmental development."

Bus driver Mike Whitaker, who has been in the job for 15 years, said the vehicle was much better to drive.

He said: "I think this is a brilliant idea and it is time to try something new."

An entrepreneur who has developed equipment to scare away birds believes he has found the answer to Bath's gull menace.

Bob Painting, who has designed scarers which use recordings of real bird alarm cries, said the technology was the only answer to the problem.

Mr Painting originally developed the equipment 40 years ago for farmers looking to protect their crops, based on the theory that birds are deterred by the sound of one of their species in distress.

He has now set up the business Wingaway, selling the technology to individuals and companies.

The cries that are played were initially produced by the Ministry of Agriculture and are used by the Royal Air Force and commercial airports to clear the skies.

Mr Painting, who lives in Dauntsey, near Chippenham, said he had visited Bath recently and had noticed how bad the problem had got.

He said: "There is no other way of getting rid of them. I'm not a person in favour of culling birds, not because I don't like killing them, but because it doesn't work."

Mr Painting stressed that feeding the birds deliberately or inadvertently through litter was contributing to the problem and said it needed to stop.

He said: "Bath has got a problem and it is because people do feed them.

"They leave too much litter and food about, which they [the birds] like."

Bath and North East Somerset Council has said it will not issue fines to people who feed the birds, but the authority has ordered signs advising people not to do so.

The signs, which will be put up in gull and pigeon hotspots, are due to go up in two weeks' time.

Changes to bus services across Bath will come into force this weekend in a move transport giant First says will improve reliability and punctuality.

From Sunday a number of services in the city will be subject to minor timetable and route changes which the operator hopes will reflect the needs of passengers.

The number 4, which runs between Bathampton and the city centre, will follow a new route in the centre from Sunday.

The service will now travel between Manvers Street and North Parade via Pierrepont Street, High Street, Bridge Street, Grand Parade, Pierrepont Street before continuing on to Bathampton.

This change is being made to give people coming into Bath on Service 1 from Combe Down, which later becomes the number 4, better access to the city centre.

Passengers with valid through tickets, who boarded the bus in Combe Down, will now be able to remain on the vehicle and travel beyond the bus station until Service 4 reaches the main shopping areas.

The service 8 from Kingsway to the University of Bath will also be re-routed to take account of the likely pedestrianisation of Pulteney Bridge.

Later in the year, all service 8 buses will be re-routed between Manvers Street and Bathwick Hill, but from Sunday, they will go via High Street, Bridge Street, Grand Parade, North Parade, North Parade Road and Pulteney Road.

The 418/419 service, which serves the University of Bath and Bath Spa University, will also be re-routed as well as renamed.

From Sunday Bath Spa University will be served by two dedicated bus services to be known as SPA1 and SPA2, replacing the 418 and 419 services.

Both buses will operate between Grand Parade and both universities, with SPA1 taking a longer route around Brougham Hayes, Lower Oldfield Park and Newbridge Road, and SPA2 going on a more direct route via Lower Bristol Road to the university campus.

Tony McNiff, managing director of First Bristol, Somerset and Avon said the changes were part of a continual review to ensure the firm was providing bus services people used.

He said: "We are constantly reviewing our networks to ensure they best reflect the ways people are actually travelling.

"The changes being made in Bath this month will improve the punctuality and reliability of services, while improving connections for some local people, particularly those people in Combe Down who have asked us to make changes to allow them to access Bath city centre with greater ease.

"Some additional changes are being made in advance of the expected closure of Pulteney Bridge to all traffic from the autumn."

However, residents in Larkhall and Fairfield Park are still fighting to upgrade their 6/7 circular route to a 30-minute service linking the two communities.

In May the circular service was split into two separate routes, then after pressure from a campaign group which fought to oppose the change, operator First restored the circular arrangement.

But the firm reduced the frequency of the buses to every 40-minutes, compared to the original 20-minute service, which residents say is not sufficient.

Mr McNiff said the firm would struggle to make a 30-minute service viable which was the reason for splitting the route in the first place.

He said: "It is difficult to see where we would get the money to fund a 30-minute service from.

"There are ongoing discussions about the service but there are some quite difficult issues."

For more information about changes to bus services, visit www. firstgroup.com/bath.

A hi-fi firm says security fears led it to jump the gun on planning permission for a new store in Bath.

A heritage campaign group in the city is calling on planners to take enforcement action against hi-fi and TV store chain Richer Sounds, which has opened without formal planning consent.

The store opened in the former Porter Butt pub in London Road in mid-August, despite not having listed building consent or permission to put up signs.

Before the firm moved in, the building had been occupied by squatters.

The company has defended its decision to open, saying the threat of break-ins had prompted it to make alterations. It said all its actions had been done following talks with council planners.

But the Bath Heritage Watchdog group, which monitors changes to the city's listed buildings, wants Bath and North East Somerset Council to take a harder line with the retailer.

The organisation said on its website: "The last we heard ... was that the work taking place was essential repairs, authorised by conservation officers, to replace rotted timbers in floors and roof supports which currently make the building dangerous. Opening a retail outlet without planning permission is not what is usually regarded as essential repairs.

"Unless enforcement action is taken over this particular abuse of planning legislation, it will set a precedent for any other premises in B&NES. Attempting to enforce any similar situations in the future will leave the council open to accusations of favouritism or bias."

A spokeswoman for Richer Sounds, which said the company enjoyed "good working relationships" with planning authorities across the country, claimed the firm's hand had been forced by a series of attempted break-ins at the building.

"Squatters illegally occupied the premises earlier in the year and we subsequently had four break-in attempts following their eviction," she said. "After careful consideration and taking advice, Richer Sounds took the view that the property was under constant risk while standing vacant and so we undertook superficial repairs and redecoration to enable us to begin trading.

"We have held lengthy discussions with local authority officers on the works that have required consent, pending formal agreement.

"Richer Sounds has strived to protect this site against vandalism and disrepair and has done so with a constant and respectful dialogue with local conservation and planning, amending designs where necessary."

A spokesman for B&NES said a listed building application for the site was currently under consideration "following extensive negotiations" while an advertisement consent application had been submitted but was awaiting validation.

"No enforcement action will be taken while the necessary applications are under consideration, as the council has to be seen to be giving the applicant a fair chance to regularise the works," he said.

"Only in the event of permissions not being granted would enforcement action proceed."

A far-reaching idea for channelling business cash into improving Bath city centre could now yield an extra £1 million.

And the creation of special business improvement district status for the heart of Bath will pay for a £140,000 flying squad of troubleshooters to deal with everything from litter to charity collectors.

Hundreds of business owners will be balloted next month on whether to go ahead with plans for a BID, with shops and offices in the city centre having to pay one per cent of their rateable value into a central pot.

The money collected – now estimated at £3.5 million over a five-year period – would be spent on projects prioritised by the business community.

It had earlier been thought that the scheme might bring in £2.5 million. But organisers reckon they will raise around £600,000 a year from the levy on an estimated 700 firms, with medium-sized businesses paying £500 annually.

To this would be added annual funding of up to £50,000 a year from Bath and North East Somerset Council through the partnership body Future Bath Plus, while money is also expected in the form of voluntary donations from businesses below the £25,000 rateable value threshold, adding up to around £40,000 a year.

A proposal document drawn up by a steering group of business representatives suggests a number of projects – with the £140,000-a-year rapid response street team the biggest.

This would see a team of up to five led by a supervisor who would ensure that the management and cleanliness of city centre streets was up to scratch. They would focus on street cleaning, street traders, charity collectors "and other street activities."

The document also envisages:

a review of waste collection services and arrangements, with local compacting and a business recycling service

an awards scheme for businesses which take pride in their premises and streets by keeping them particularly clean

bringing anti-crime schemes such as Pubwatch and the city's street marshals under the BID company umbrella

a £120,000 city centre marketing drive aimed at getting more people into shops and attractions, with another £20,000 spent on innovations such as the use of Twitter and Bluetooth

an £80,000 budget for organising new events or improving existing ones such as this year's Bath in Fashion festival

£40,000 on transport promotions "to make it more appealing and affordable to travel into the city centre." A council report on the BID idea says this could see "parking promotions to make it cheaper and easier to park in the city centre, particularly at times of major events".

The BID levy is additional to business rate payments and would be compulsory.

The council report, to B&NES cabinet member Councillor Terry Gazzard, recommends that he approves the BID document, and that none of its plans conflict with the council's aims and ambitions.

The council itself – as an organisation in the city centre – will have to pay between £20,000 and £25,000 in annual BID levy payments.

City centre manager Andrew Cooper will talk about the BID scheme at The Bath Chronicle's next Business Breakfast on September 28 at the Macdonald Bath Spa Hotel.

The event takes place at 7.30am, starting off with a glass of buck's fizz.

The event runs until 9am.

Tickets cost £12.50 per person.

To book a place call 0870 400 8222.

Controversial plans for a Bath school to become a new-style academy have been thrown into uncertainty after it failed to make the first two waves of successful applicants.

It now appears unlikely that Oldfield School will get its wish to switch to academy status in the autumn term – a development with implications for a citywide secondary education shake-up.

The Kelston Road school was not named in the official list of fully approved schools released by the Department for Education (DfE) yesterday, nor did it make a second list of those whose proposals have been given initial sign-off approval by ministers.

The girls' school had at one stage hoped to start the new term today as an academy outside local government control having been fast-tracked under new Government legislation.

The school then said it hoped to switch to academy status during the term but its progress has been slowed down by Bath and North East Somerset Council arguing that the governing body's plans to remain all-girls were out of step with the authority's reorganisation of local schools.

Across the country, 32 new-style academies will open this week while a further 110 have had academy orders signed, meaning they should change status in what the DfE calls "the coming months".

Both Norton Hill School, in federation with Somervale School, and Trinity Primary School, in Radstock, have had their orders signed and now just need to complete a funding agreement.

A spokeswoman for the DfE confirmed that the stumbling block to any quick change for Oldfield was the council's refusal to support the plans.

She said: "We have always been clear that where a school is part of a review relating to reorganisation of schools, the secretary of state will want to consider the implications of the conversion of a school to academy status carefully before he makes a decision to issue an academy order, which is the case with Oldfield School."

Oldfield head teacher Kim Sparling has remained confident that she would be able to ignore the B&NES consultation process, which had initially looked at the possibility of the school closing.

Bath MP Don Foster has been lobbying Education Secretary Michael Gove to ensure that Oldfield does not get what he describes as a "free pass" to become an all-girls academy.

He said: "I have been very, very clear right the way through that I wanted Oldfield to be part of the deliberation of what was in the best interests of schools right across the city and that the notion of Oldfield going it alone in a way that would damage the plans for the wider community was something I was always opposed to.

"The guidance for the academies specifically says that if a school is part of a local reorganisation then this has to be taken into account by the Government.

"Some people in the school seemed to think it could ride roughshod over that. They have been wrong."

B&NES has issued an ultimatum to Mrs Sparling and her board of governors, giving them until September 17 to change the academy application so the school becomes co-educational.

The council has said that if the governors fail to do this, it will take steps to close the school and reopen it as a mixed one, which may be run by the community.

B&NES has argued that parents have consistently expressed a wish for the school to become co-educational.

Martin Powell, who lives in Newbridge and is a member of the Co-Ed Oldfield School Group, urged Mrs Sparling to listen to the views of the community.

He said: "If Oldfield School is determined to become an academy, then the Co Ed Oldfield Group calls on the head and governors to use this pause in the process to reapply as a co-ed school, so meeting the wishes of the local parents and the wider community in Bath, as well as ensuring the school thrives in future."

If Oldfield were to remain all-girls, that could be the saving of all-boys Culverhay School – which is earmarked for closure – because of sex discrimination laws.

The Chronicle attempted to contact Mrs Sparling yesterday but received no response.

​Motorists in Bath were experiencing long delays on one of the city's busiest roads this morning as roadworks combined with the start of the school term.

Contractors midway through 10 weeks of gas mains work have today opened up a section of London Road to the east of the junction with Cleveland Bridge.

Previously, the work which started at the beginning of last month, had been concentrated on the stretch of the A4 between Margaret's Hill and the top of Walcot Street.

More than 360 metres of old metal gas pipes are being replaced with new plastic pipes.

It is part of gas distribution company Wales & West Utilities' (WWU) multi-million pound, 30-year replacement programme across Wales and the South West.

The doors to Bath's biggest department store open today – with more than 200,000 items of stock on sale.