As a district and town councillor for Frome College ward I have worked to tackle litter, flytipping, unauthorised camps and flygrazing graffiti in and around this area for years. Mendip has spent less on litter clearance (in a new Core Services contract) to save money. Recently I have drawn Mendip’s attention to litter hotspots so their contractors can do a better job at clearing up in some areas. We need a concerted effort from the whole community, including schools, to stop people dropping it in the first place. I have also taken part in and helped organise community litter picks, most recently in March in Stonebridge, which was a great success with the highest ever turnout of volunteers giving the stream and open spaces a spring clean.

Graffiti has been tackled quickly. I have got graffiti cleared up as soon as I can, in Stonebridge and recently at Fromefield, to help stop it re-occurring.

Recently, horses have been running through our streets, with their owners grazing them without permission on fields around town and at the Showfield. I have taken this up with Mendip’s Enforcement team. A new law comes into force in late May which should allow landowners and Mendip to take control of the situation much quicker. I am pushing for an effective strategy locally to deal with flygrazing, using the new law. See here for more.

When travellers camped on the Showfield in previous years, I helped Mendip organise the eviction, and the clean up of the area, quickly. A new travellers camp recently appeared in fields between Leys Lane and Cuckoo Lane on private land, and neighbouring residents complained of noise and flytipping. Last year local residents cleared up mountains of rotting waste themselves. Horses are still being kept in fields with public footpaths. Recently I and other councillors helped residents get a stronger approach from Mendip. The travellers left soon after, leaving a field of flytipping behind (see today’s Frome Standard). We expect landowners to look after their land and respect their neighbours. We want to help residents and our councils keep our area clean and safe.

We also need more travellers sites in the district to camp on legally. Mendip’s Local Plan Part 1 shows we need 90 residential pitches and 80 transit pitches in the district, http://www.mendip.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=9073&p=0 To sort out where, the Gypsy and Travellers Sites Allocations Plan should have been prepared by now but has been held up by the delays to the Local Plan Part 1. As that has now been adopted and the legal challenge withdrawn, this really needs to be drawn up soon as possible after the election, to stop unauthorised camps springing up here again.