Do BANES know more than BCC

So, at first, I am told that the traffic monitoring systems, were installed in Whitchurch, Stockwood & Hengrove are for measuring traffic volumes as part of the ongoing Hengrove park development.

That was via Bristol City councils Facebook page. They told me to contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if I wanted to know more. My BCC contact said that she assumed that this was the case.

Then I heard that they were installed all around the area, has been set up by a private traffic data company called Streetwise and are not being carried out by or on behalf of Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES). (Thanks to a resident in Banes for making enquiries to BANES to establishing this from Nick, a Senior Transport Planner in BANES)

I continued to ask my contact  in Bristol City Council (BCC), eventually replies to me and said that she was in a meeting with Claire from BANES who said that ‘’ it appears that BANES commissioned them to monitor overall existing movements to be able to feed in to future work for strategic transport improvements associated with the JSP’’.

I have sent an email, dated 7tn May, to my BCC contact and copied in both Nick and Claire from BANES letting them know what each other has said. I have asked them to confirm which the correct version is. My contact replied saying that she will let Nick and Claire respond to me. I await their reply…

Then I get an email from my BCC contact. It appears that they are getting fed up of me asking so many questions. NB if the information was freely and easily available on the internet, and if everyone gave the same information….I wouldn’t keep asking questions!

I am told by BCC that ‘’We cannot respond to anymore queries on this and the final email that will come from the complaints team details everything that we have on this scheme’’. It is interesting to note that I have also been told ‘’We don’t expect laypeople to get heavily involved in the technicalities of processes, as we communicate all that is necessary at all relevant points of progress that would a) be to the interest of our citizens, and b) where the public can help shape our plans to develop to future steps’’

The rest of my week has involved me working on my statements for the Examination in Public EiP. To do this, I need to understand the technicalities of processes! This has been the hardest and most time consuming thing so far. It is made even harder by asking questions about it and either waiting for answers of not getting answers at all!

Nevertheless I will persist!