Voters in Bath and North East Somerset head to the polls

Voters from all over Bath and North East Somerset will today be electing the 59 Councillors who will run the Council for the next four years. Undoubtedly national politics will play some part in the outcome, but let’s hope that whatever the result, we see a form of local government which provides clear and coherent leadership which helps our economy to grow.

For years Local Authorities have seen their central funding diminish and their room for manoeuvre become ever more constrained. That has meant huge re-organisation within Councils and in our case, the Chief Executive, Ashley Ayre, has taken some bold and difficult decisions to ensure the books balance. It’s also meant that Councils have had to recognise that they can’t in the future do all that they did in the past.

There’s actually a silver lining to this because it may lead politicians to conclude that they need to step back and free up the private sector to develop and grow in a way that will benefit the whole community.

We regularly read in the pages of the Chronicle about fantastic innovation and creativity in our local businesses and we can take great pride and comfort from that. Those companies are generating wealth, creating jobs, providing incomes for families and young people and of course paying business rates which means services can be supplied to those in need.

There are such a lot of positive things to say. For example, it’s great to see the progress being made on the Bath Quays site and we all have high hopes that the development will provide a huge shot in the arm to our local economy. It’s a powerful statement and will encourage inward investors to view our City as a place in which they will aspire come and do business.

My plea for the incoming administration, of whatever party political hue, is to do all it can to help all businesses and not to put obstacles in the way of economic growth. 

In particular, they could do worse than focus on Planning and work out ways to streamline a system which all too often seems to apply unreasonable demands on would-be developers. We can protect our wonderful environment but remove the shackles at the same time.