AS your Chew Valley Ward councillors, we are delighted to have the opportunity to write a monthly column to give you updates and insights into the work that we do for you, our residents.

What do you want our villages to look like over the next 15 to 20 years? This is the vitally important question that residents are asked to respond to by November 14 as part of Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Local Plan Options consultation.

Housing is a big challenge in our area as elsewhere. Everyone knows someone whose child can't find a place to live in the Valley, or someone who wants to downsize in their village but can't. We desperately need truly affordable homes, social housing, small houses and flats.

Every 20 years Local Authorities must develop a Local Plan - a highly regulated procedure set by Government. The Local Plan provides a strategy for the area’s future housing, infrastructure and services. Government has almost doubled the housing target for B&NES which means 27,000 homes must be built in the area in the next 18 years. The Council has to consider all options, including whether rural locations may be suitable for larger development.

We believe that some new homes should be built in the Chew Valley - but we need the right homes in the right places. Bishop Sutton, Chew Magna and Chew Stoke have development options in the consultation. Nearby Whitchurch has large sites for consideration which could affect services here, such as those of our hard-working GP teams.

This is why we urge everyone to take part in what is a genuine consultation and sifting process. It’s important to consider how many new homes are fair for a village, our green spaces, the lack of public transport and increase in car journeys. Also, what about local jobs for residents? The consultation runs until 14 November. Have your say at bathnesplaces.co.uk

We wanted to represent the Chew Valley to get things done for our community, so we’re really pleased to share recent achievements. For example, Wessex Water have put in a revised application for essential upgrades to the sewerage system in Ham Lane, Bishop Sutton that includes below-ground storm water storage. This will have much less of an impact on this pretty area than the earlier proposed unsightly facility. Big thanks to residents and Stowey-Sutton Parish Council for all their hard work on this, too.

As winter draws in and rain makes driving conditions worse, it’s fantastic that B&NES Council has recently resurfaced Highfield Lane and The Wrangle, Compton Martin, The Street, Stowey, and Norton Lane in Norton Malreward Parish. Our many, many pictures of potholes have borne fruit!

Finally, a big shout out to the snappily titled B&NES Active Travel Masterplan, The Public Rights of Way team and the great work of Chew Stoke Parish Council for making the footpath to the waterfall safe and walkable again.

Dr Dave Harding and Anna Box, Liberal Democrat B&NES councillors for the Chew Valley Ward