Bath City Centre travel, race equality success and Armed Forces support I wanted to share a few updates this week that show how things are moving forward across Bath and North East Somerset – from the way we get around our city, to how we support our Armed Forces community, and how we’re working with schools to make sure every child feels welcome and included. You may have seen that work has now started on the first phase of the Bath City Centre active travel scheme. This is an important milestone and something many residents have been asking about. The route starts on Charles Street and runs through the city centre via Upper Borough Walls to Pulteney Bridge. Over the coming months, this work will deliver around 300 metres of new cycle paths, eight new crossings and improvements to around 800 metres of pavements, roads and drainage. The aim is simple: to make it easier and safer for people to walk, wheel or cycle through the city centre. This new route will connect with existing and planned paths across Bath, helping to build a joined‑up network for active travel. By giving people more realistic choices for short journeys, we can reduce car dependency, cut pollution and help make our city centre a healthier and more pleasant place to be. I know building work can be inconvenient at times, so thank you for your patience while this essential investment takes place. I also want to say a big thank you to the City of Bath Armed Forces and Veterans Breakfast Club for their generous donation of a new Armed Forces Day Flag. Club members raised the money themselves and kindly gifted the flag to be used at our annual flag‑raising ceremony, which marks the start of Armed Forces Week. This year’s ceremony will take place on the morning of 22 June in Parade Gardens. It’s an annual event with a powerful meaning. Bath and North East Somerset has a strong Armed Forces community, and this gesture is a reminder of the respect and gratitude we have for those who serve, or have served, and for their families. I hope many of you will be able to join us for the ceremony. Finally, I want to highlight some really important work taking place with schools across our area to promote race equality and tackle racism. All schools in Bath and North East Somerset are being invited to use a new Race Equality Charter toolkit, to help them create environments where every child feels safe, respected and included. The toolkit offers practical help for schools to look honestly at how race and racism may affect their community, take clear actions where improvements are needed and make lasting, positive changes. Thank you to the children and staff at Norton Hill Primary who took the time to explain what they have been learning – please go and watch what they have to say on our Youtube channel. This work supports the Bath and North East Somerset Race Equality Charter for Schools, which was shaped by the experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic young people locally, good practice in education and the Equality Act. Every child deserves to feel safe, valued and able to do their best at school, and I strongly encourage all local schools to sign up and make use of the toolkit. Enjoy the warm weather this weekend – we have many amazing parks and green spaces to enjoy as I highlighted last week with Bath topping Time Out’s Best Green City list for green space and nature. Have a good weekend. Councillor Kevin Guy,
Leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council | 
