Building homes, extending park & ride times and celebrating football This week I had the pleasure of meeting housing leaders, developers, finance partners and university representative to an annual housing summit. It was an important opportunity to bring together the people and organisations who share a commitment to tackling one of the biggest challenges facing communities today: delivering the homes people need. The Future Ambition Board Housing Mission Delivery Board Summit provided a chance to discuss how we can overcome the significant barriers to housing delivery, including rising construction costs by working in partnership, being innovative and finding new approaches to funding and delivery. As a council we are responding to the local housing challenge and need for affordable homes. We have a pipeline of planned activity, from preparing sites and planning approvals through to spades in the ground. This evening at cabinet we will be considering a report relating to the next phase of development at Bath Western Riverside which could help bring forward more than 300 affordable homes as part of the 1,000 homes planned across the site. Alongside our ambitions for new homes, we are committed to investing in sustainable transport. I am delighted that we have secured further funding through the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority (WECA) to continue extending our Park & Ride bus services later into the evening. Securing this funding is great news for people who have been relying on the extended hours. They make it easier and more convenient to use public transport later in the day and give people more choice in how they get around. I have regular meetings with local police representatives and Clare Moody the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner and this week I was able to raise concerns about pockets of antisocial behaviour across the area as well as incidences of hate crime and domestic violence. Finally, congratulations to England following Tuesday night’s nail-biting win against the Democratic Republic of Congo guaranteeing a place among the World Cup last-16 with the quarter-finals in their sights. Throughout this tournament it has been so good to see the power of sport bringing people together. Have a good weekend. Councillor Kevin Guy,
Leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council | 
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