February/March news

Dear All,

Apologies for the lateness of news this month, my broken wrist has slowed me down somewhat.

The end of Mendip

This evening sees the final ever ‘full council’ meeting of Mendip District Council, so it is quite a momentous occasion. Mendip District Council has been serving us since 1974 and will be abolished at the end of March along with the other three districts in Somerset and the County Council to make way for the new unitary Somerset Council which begins operation on vesting day 1st of April 2023. Although there are a few other Mendip meetings to go including the Planning Board, this evening is the last time when all 47 councillors are asked to attend. The meeting will include a final update from council leader Ros Wyke and reflections on Mendip District Council from the Chair of Mendip Helen Sprawson-White, who has been a councillor for 16 years.

It will also consider an update on progress to address the climate and ecological emergency, a report on mental health, and a motion to support proportional representation to be used for general and local elections (and opposition to the Government’s new voter Id law which would come into effect this year. I’m not able to go for family reasons, but will be online, and you can see the meeting live in the council chamber in Shepton Mallet and via this link (with the reports) – https://www.mendip.gov.uk/article/11081/Full-Council-Monday-27-February-2023. I will also report back after the meeting.

Mendip district councillors, elected May 2019

New Somerset Council

Last week saw a full council meeting of Somerset County Council (over 5 hours long) which approved the new council’s budget and constitution, after quite an epic effort over many months – please see here, and here about the constitution.

This included the new planning arrangements, which have some changes – see here.

To try and reduce the democratic deficit and disperse power from a larger unitary council, 18 local community networks are being set up, with one for the Frome area – see here.

The Somerset Councils are also consulting on how Somerset Council will involve and consult local communities, organisations and others in the planning process, including in preparing planning policy documents and in determining planning applications, until 16th March 2023 – please see here. Update: as some stakeholders were not aware of this consultation, comments can continue to be sent to the localplanningpolicy@somerset.gov.uk email up to the 31^st March.

A further meeting is on Wednesday 1st March to agree appointments to committees and outside bodies, and reports of committees, including Environment Scrutiny – see here.

Stonebridge playgrounds to be improved

In other local news, last week I was pleased to help persuade Frome Town Council to support spending money from local developments on improving two playgrounds in Stonebridge despite some concerns as this will really benefit local children – see here.

FTC also announced that the Old Showfield play area is in dire need of refresh and money will be sought from other developments to improve and repair to play equipment there – see here.

FTC also passed a vote of no confidence in our current MP. please see here. I reported the meeting and a link to the YouTube video of it. I spoke at the meeting about the playgrounds.

Packsaddle Fields

A few weeks ago Mendip District Council’s panel approved the application by the residents group People for Packsaddle to list the Packsaddle Fields an Asset of Community Value (ACV), which has implications for any future land sale or planning application to develop that site. I had advised the group, supported their application and was pleased with the decision – see here.

Selwood Crescent green and Packsaddle fields recognised as green spaces

The Packsaddle Fields site together with Selwood Crescent green are also now officially identified as open spaces in the Mendip District Council Open Space Audit, after so many people responded to the consultation. The update to the audit was presented to Mendip’s Cabinet for approval on Monday 6th February – see item 8 appendices 2 and 3 via the link here.

Walking and cycling

Frome Town Council have commissioned what is known as a local walking and cycling infrastructure plan (LCWIP) which basically identifies through a survey of the town and research and analysis into how we could make it easier and safer to walk and cycle in Frome. The report will make recommendations for short term and longer term actions, and the idea is that this is adopted at Town Council in April and then by the County Council. It will be useful as a basis for future funding bids and council spending. I have been to a couple of briefings but await the full report. Some recommendations will include new crossings and cycleways and the expansion of the 20 mile an hour speed limit from the town centre. I’m quite keen to see what you all think, so will circulate it when I have it for comment.

Fromefield 20 is plenty

Some residents in Fromefield have been very keen to reduce speeds past their houses there, with 70% responding positively to a survey a couple of years ago. I had a report of monitoring of the speeds of Fromefield back from the SCC highways officer which shows existing speeds on average about 26 miles an hour and the 85th percentile (below which 85% of vehicles are travelling) at about 30 miles an hour over the whole period of about a week. As speeds are over 24 miles an hour, the rules are that some sort of physical intervention is needed to slow traffic down before a 20 mile an hour limit can be achieved, which may require more planning and funding to design and implement. I’ve asked officers to discuss the next steps (which would include the LCWIP, see above).

Environmental scrutiny

As vice chair of Somerset County Council’s Environment Scrutiny Committee I have helped go through lots of environmental policies at the County Council including electric vehicle charging, responses to flooding, ending peat extraction, and work to decarbonise public buildings. The next meeting tomorrow will look at working on a Local Energy Plan for Somerset and recycling flexible plastics, as well as how to govern action on climate change, please see here for details of this public meeting and previous meetings – see here.

Citizens Advice needs help to help more people

Citizens Advice Mendip is asking for help so if you can help volunteer with them to help others please get in touch with them- see here.

Cost of living help

A new leaflet has been produced by the Somerset councils to help people find help with the cost of living and direct people to sources of advice – please see here.

Stand with Ukraine

Last week Mendip and Somerset marked a year since the illegal and brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, and I attended the Ukrainian cultural awareness session in Frome, which was informative and very moving. Some 1417 Ukrainian refugees have been welcomed to Somerset since the invasion last February, was over 250 going on to live independently in the UK. To help move hosted refugees into rented accommodation there is a new landlord incentive scheme, please see here. I have spoken to the SCC’s resettlement team and Mendip’s housing officers about what more we can do to help.

Berkley and Rode

My reports to Berkley parish council (including on the school places review, and the pedestrianisation of Berkeley Lane/Dark Lane to reduce fly tipping) and Rode Parish Council (including highways) are here and here.

Beckington and Norton St Philip

I was also pleased to report to Beckington Parish Council that our efforts to get the Bath Road and Frome Road two and from the village included in the county council’s gritting network have been successful after the icy weather in December led to a lot of problems again – see here. The next parish council meeting is 14th March, see here.

In Norton St Philip and Beckington the biggest news of course is Norton St Philip Parish Council’s victory in the High Court in the judicial review they brought against Mendip District Council’s Local Plan Part 2 which has resulted in the removal of five housing development site allocations from the local plan in Norton St Philip, Beckington and around Midsomer Norton. Please see Norton St Philip’s website here for the court order and judgement here and Mendip DC’s statement here which was prompted by an Extraordinary Full Council meeting. Norton St Philip parish council’s next meeting on 8th of March will be dominated by considering two planning applications for development in the village despite the judgement in their favour.

“Too many evenings”

I have put my record of meetings and short list of future meetings online here so you can see what I’ve been up to – https://adamboyden.mycouncillor.org.uk/2023/02/25/meetings-record/#page-content and will keep this up to date.

There’s a lot more going on as well on other issues so do let me know if you need any help or advice I want anything.

Other news:

Mendip District Council news: https://www.mendip.gov.uk/news