Friday, July 11th, 2025
Pension Fund Palestine Row | Bath Carnival This Weekend | Bath Man's 15 Marathons for Cancer
🇵🇸 A major consultation begins in September on whether the £6 billion Avon Pension Fund, which administers the local government pension scheme and has 140,000 members, should divest from weapons firms. This comes after campaigners warned their pensions were being used to fund human rights abuses by Israeli forces in Palestine. Read the full story by Local Democracy Reporter John Wimperis in the Bath Echo.
👑 On Thursday, the Queen visited Lower Shockerwick Farm in Bath, the latest Jamie’s Farm site, which is run as a centre for children experiencing social exclusion at school, reports the BBC.
🗳️ The Liberal Democrats won the council seat in the Mendip ward by-election, with Reform in second place. Only 84 Tories voted in Jacob Rees-Mogg’s hometown, reports the Bath Echo.
🪘The Bath Carnival is this Saturday!
👺 Check out this profile of its puppet masters in Nearfield Magazine:
⛔️ And here’s how roads will be affected, courtesy of the Bath Echo.
🏃🏾♀️🏃🏾Two best friends -including a young man from Bath - are running 15 marathons in 15 days for cancer research, reports the BBC. Today, they should be about half-way through their epic challenge. Here is their crowd-funding page.
🏄🏼 We spotted the sudden closure of The Wave near Bristol just as we went to press two weeks ago. It’s been a tumultuous fortnight for the water park, but ITV reports it reopened in time to host the English Para Surfing Open competition.
🙏🏽 Thanks to those of you who answered our poll. We’re chuffed that the Bee helps you understand Bath better!
Weather
⛱️ Another scorching weekend is forecast!
🗓️ Bath Carnival Party in the Park
Sydney Gardens, Saturday, 10:00 – 22:00, free 📍Live Bands, DJs, Food and Drink, Licensed Bars, Walkabout Acts, Super Pirates Play Area & Community Village
💃🏽 Bath Carnival Procession
City Centre (starting at Bath Rec Ground), 15:00 - 17:30, free 📍Drumming bands, dancers, costumes giant puppets, soundsystems, eco-floats, schools and community groups
🔫 Avon Valley Adventure Park is open this weekend for Summertopia featuring a water play area, giant slip ‘n’ slide, huge paddling pools and beach zone, ending with a foam party. Information and ticket prices here.
🧢 Or you can leave just your hat on at the Langport, Somerset Nudefest, which expects to host hundreds of naturists this week, reports the BBC.
📌 Bath Bee Community Noticeboard
📌 Bath Abbey is fundraising to install a stained glass window honouring Saint Alphege, a Christian saint who was born in Bath in 953, became Abbot of Bath Abbey in the early 980s and Archbishop of Canterbury in 1006. The new window, by Bath-based artist Neil Ireson, needs an additional £90,000 with a 2026 installation planned.
📌 Bath Share and Repair collected 153 unwanted IT devices to be recycled to help locals who need tech for jobs, training or equal access to education.
📌 There are at least 33 charity shops in Bath. This BBC piece looks behind the scenes at the problems they face, from disgusting donations to the falling price of rags. Since the pandemic, the price for what is known as "rag" has collapsed from 42p per kilogram in 2020 to around 12p per kilogram now, according to letsrecycle.com.
📌 Don't forget the Roman Baths are open late into the evening from July 21 to Aug 31.
City
🏊🏻♀️ Bath resident and Olympic gold medallist Tom Dean says teaching swimming to children is as important as teaching road safety, reports the BBC.
🩻 Seryth Colbert, a consultant in oral and maxillofacial surgery at the RUH, has lost an employment tribunal after saying he was unfairly dismissed, reports the BBC.
🏡 Is a shipping container a permanent, or temporary structure? That’s at the heart of a new retrospective planning application for a Newton St Loe holiday let, reports the Bath Echo.
🏘️ The council is battling a developer in Timsbury over what the lack of affordable housing, reports the Bath Echo.
🚻 Meanwhile, can these Weston loos ever be converted into liveable housing? Again, the Bath Echo has the story.
⚽️ Twerton football ground has a new sponsor and a new name, says the Bath Echo.
🗑️ A change in commercial rubbish collection by the council means more costs for local businesses, reports the Bath Echo. The council is pushing rubbish collection to 6p.m., but a consultation with local businesses showed 93% of respondents did not support the time change, because 43% shut at 5pm and 33% close at 5:30pm; 72% said the extra cost of paying staff to stay later would be unaffordable.
Transport
⛔️ Stall Street could be closed for months, says the Bath Echo.
Crime
🚨 A Bath woman has been jailed for shoplifting and racial assaults, reports the Bath Echo.
Longer Reads
🤰🏻A new Bath mum shares her distressing, intrusive thoughts - something many new mothers experience in this BBC feature on maternal mental health.
👨👩👧 The University of Bath has been calling on the government to overhaul UK parental leave, saying it doesn’t work.
📻 You can hear the report’s co-author Dr Joanna Clifton-Sprigg on BBC Women’s Hour if you scroll to 13’21” in this episode. .
🧬 Check out this profile of DNA Detective Turi King, who is director of the University of Bath’s Milner Centre for Evolution, in The Bath Magazine.
🇬🇭 The FT features Ghanaian-British architect and artist Arthur Timothy’s African Regency home in Bath. (May be behind a paywall).
🔥 The Bath Magazine has the story of Britain’s biggest gold bullion heist, executed by Bath’s John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer ten years ago.
Sweet stuff 🍯
🏏 Now as a South Asian here in Somerset (by way of America), I’m a sucker for South Asian stories in Bath. So here’s a great one:
Lansdown Cricket Club, founded in 1825, is the oldest side in Somerset and one of the oldest in England. Former players include WG Grace and Viv Richards. As part of the festivities to mark its 200th birthday, Lansdown invited legendary Pakistani cricketer Mushtaq Mohammed – who played 57 Tests for Pakistan across a 20-year period starting in 1959 and had a highly successful spell with Northamptonshire in the 1970s – to Combe Park. Here is the Bath Echo’s full report.
✈️🧵 A female-led aerospace sewing firm - not a phrase you often hear - here in the southwest is expanding, reports the BBC.
📖 The lineup for Bath Children’s Literature Festival has been announced. The festival takes place from 26 September.
🐛 The Holbourne Museum in collaboration with the Museum of Colour is displaying portraits of three black pioneers: a Trinidadian historian, a black abolitionist and the first British-Indian MP.
🐝 Literally part of our hive - here’s a great piece about student bee keepers at Beechen Cliff school, featured in the Bath & Wiltshire Parent.