Project 25 – Home in Bath
I have lived in Bath all my life, it’s a city I love for its architecture and vibrancy. On the surface bath is a dynamic city, one of the wealthiest in the UK, but like any city, we have our problems.
Bath is a tourist hotspot that means in the summer the city centre becomes very busy as the coaches come in, this creates problems when you have big events like the Jane Austin festival. The people pour in to see the city, that can also couple with sports fixtures and other events that can make day to day life more difficult.
The city is one which has its dives, the people living on the southern side of the city are generally poorer and live around five years less than on the more wealthier northern side. Although there are pockets of inequality in every ward and community.
Right in the centre of the for many years sat the derelict Stothert & Pitt site in the city stood largely abandoned. In recent years, along with the former MOD sites have been re-developed into homes, business and community spaces. But, some have become student housing that has created problems when it comes to affordable housing.
If I didn’t have my needs, even without, I often wonder how will I afford to live in my city. I’m not from a wealthy background my parents are a ward sister and porter at a university, but they have got themselves through hard work to be debt-free and live a good quality of life.
A council report says the highest and lower life expectancy can be measured in just five bus stops, based on the circular route.
We like many cities have homelessness, the latest council numbers show there were around twenty-five in 2016, and only twenty beds. I often see groups of homeless and people who have a dependency on alcohol/drugs gathered outside the shelter.
I love the diversity of Bath, we are a Christian country, but we see many different cultures and religions. While the city is a largely white British, we can see the multicultural city through its food, culture and mixing. You don’t see black people as outsiders, as part of our city.
There are problems caused by influxes of tourists and students which causes congestion. I don’t believe there is a lot we can do, the long-running saga of the A36/A46 link road has been a debate for as long as I can remember.
Climate change is a concern, the city has been asked to clean up its pollution to meet government targets. But the CAZ zone is difficult as some don’t want to charge private cars, but it is unknown how this could be policed.
The city and the surrounding county of Somerset have some beautiful escapes, one of my favourites is Rainbow Woods or up Lansdown just five ten minutes from the centre. Wondering around not far from the car, you are in nature, like refreshment almost.
Bath will always be home, its an iconic city, but this I feel impacts local people. When building work happens like the Southgate development, this can divide people like protection of buildings like Churchill House. At the time speaking to my taxi driver, he said the whole development should have been modern.
Bath is a small city, on the map, the main shopping area is one street on a map you could draw roughly a line from the Bus/Train Station up to the Circus and you would find everything you would find in another city. The chain stores but go down the beautiful 18th century Corridor and the surrounding alleyways you find lovely little independent shops, one of my favourites for buying presents is The Sliver Shop.
The city is one which can struggle with normal issues, but I find the shops are often the normal high street stores and gift shops. Although there are normal shops, we know that the high street is in decline and in Bath I think it is not as bad as some cities because of the status as a world heritage site.
Bath I think is a mixture of cultures, which makes us a lovely place to be. But you need to see the other side, the peak tourist season in the summer and around Christmas makes going about daily life difficult. There is already problems in university term times with traffic, this is compounded by the events.
But without the events, the city would be poorer. Like every city, we have been through austerity, but I think because of the students and tourism this hasn’t felt as bad. What is noticeable is the impact of students, and the Christmas market.
Bath is a small city, but there are areas where you can get away from the hustle and bustle. The residential areas have high streets where you don’t find mass tourist, these are the places where you find the real Bath. However, many of the out of centre high streets are becoming more and more about your supermarket and your cafes//bars.
The geography of Bath means we are surrounded by hills, this has its advantages and disadvantages. While it provides shelter from the harshest winters, it can create gridlock as people commute into the city and across the city. The solution is a much-needed bypass to ease congestion in the city, but this has been a saga which has run for decades.
One of the struggles Bath has is housing, most of the young people cannot afford to pay the rents or get onto the housing ladder. While you see more houses being built on the outskirts of Bath, you still face the premium of living in a tourist city.
Being a tourist city and having a topflight rugby team is a boost to the city. But, this adds to the traffic issues. When you need to escape Bath, the city I believe is good as it is only a few hours to the coast, or if you’re going abroad an hour to Bristol Airport, and by train about an hour to London, before changing to a fifteen-minute express to Heathrow.
Outside the city, in residential areas, I find that the parking is getting worst. I believe one of the reasons for this is that the young are staying at home for longer. This adds to pollution in the city, we have problems with genuinely affordable houses, Bath has a premium because of its status as a World Heritage Site.
So, after twenty-five years in Bath, and whenever I travel away from the city where are the points where I feel home begins. A4 easy, at either end of the city there are roundabouts, I feel turning of the roundabouts is where my city begins.
Its easy in Bath to bump into people you know, I often find that people are helpful. I feel that being disabled and working with various organisations and attending events in the city, I am a person who is well known by face.
Concluding, I love my city but it has its challenges and resolving them will need communities and everyone to come together to find solutions to the big issues facing our city…