A message from Cllr Kevin Guy, Leader of Bath & North East Somerset CouncilAs we head towards Christmas the Paris Olympics held in the summer feel like a long time ago, so it was a great pleasure to be reminded of the incredible achievements of local Olympians and Paralympians at a celebration reception held by the University of Bath earlier this week. The event was hosted by Professor Phil Taylor, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bath. Five Paris 2024 medallists were among the Olympians and Paralympians honoured at the event. The athletes all train, study or studied at the university which is one of the country’s leading institutions for high-performance sport. Theirs was a huge achievement and it was an honour to represent the council at the celebration. I am proud of the many contributions that both of our universities make to our community and of the joint working we have undertaken with them as part of our Future Ambition Board, which also includes the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust. The board was launched in the summer and between our four anchor institutions there is much to build on with shared projects for the long-term development and health of our area. Over the coming weeks we have a series of Area Forums and Bath Community Conversations which are part of our Connecting Communities programme. These give you and our community partners the opportunity to meet and discuss local issues. The Community Conversations and Area Forums help us and our partners understand what matters to you and how we can all work in partnership to improve people’s lives. Details of Area Forums in the rest of the B&NES area and joining instructions can be found on the council website. I started this week’s message mentioning Christmas which seems to get earlier every year. A huge amount of work is under way on our fantastic Bath Christmas Market which is on from November 28 until December 15. The market is a big boost for local and regional businesses, with 85 per cent of the 230 traders this year based in the South West and 40 per cent of the traders, who have signed up for first time, being based in Bath. And it was great to see consumer champion Which recently picking Bath among the eight best Christmas markets in the UK based on the cities that were rated highest in its best UK cities survey of more than 4,000 visitors. Have a good weekend. | 
