New Keynsham play park, awards for Bath’s green spaces and a Post Office update This week there has been much to celebrate about our parks and green spaces. It’s wonderful news that families in Keynsham can look forward to an exciting new play area at the Memorial Park, with work starting in mid-September. This includes the first bespoke climbing wall in B&NES that has been specifically designed for the park, as well as inclusive equipment for children of all ages and abilities to play side by side. The final design comes after lots of community consultation and we’re pleased to be working with Keynsham Town Council to create this lovely new park. A huge well done to local volunteers, our parks team and bereavement services team who do amazing work to ensure our much-loved places continue to thrive. The seven recent Green Flag Awards for Bath recognise the high standards you all work so hard to maintain. Meanwhile, our aim to restore the ponds in Royal Victoria Park has reached another important milestone, with silt removal and replacement of the liner to take place in early autumn. These are the next steps needed to prepare the ponds, while we continue to find a sustainable water supply and increase biodiversity long-term. However, an important word of caution if you’re enjoying the outdoors. Barbecues are not permitted in our parks and green spaces and they could cause serious fires. None of us wish for our area to see the devastation from wildfires that parts of Wales have sadly experienced this week. Even discarded plastic bottles can act like magnifying glasses and catch alight, so please don’t take unnecessary risks and take litter home. I am keen to ensure a central branch of the Post Office returns to Bath after the company closes the existing Union Street branch on September 1. To that end, we called a meeting with the Post Office to find out how soon this could happen. We’ll remain in close contact whilst they go through their internal processes to see how the council could support a new post office to return to the centre as soon as possible. In last week’s message I spoke about our invitation to former pupils, staff and residents to tour the former Culverhay School before buildings are demolished to make way for a new SEND school. You can watch a wonderful video about the first visit on our Facebook and Instagram channels. A real trip down memory lane. Have a great weekend. Councillor Kevin Guy,
Leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council | 
