Unfortunate Clash

Tonight Town Council meeting was unfortunate to clash with the Turn Back Time series filmed in Shepton, as leaving the meeting in time for the show seemed to set the agenda for the meeting.

Lets deal with the positives, the Television show was most interesting and it was great to see Sheptonians on the TV.

I understand the street party was well received, unfortunately not finishing work until 5.30pm and having a meeting at 6pm, left me no time to attend, which from my perspective didn't seem fair, but that's life!

So to the Council meeting, Myself and Councillor John Gilham proposed £500 to spend on Turn Back Time street events, this was defeated, but at least the Town Council grant aided the Victorian street event £250 to pay for the two performing bands. I pointed out that we need to increase footfall in the Town Centre and events are a good way of achieving this.

I was surprised the way the Chairman handled Cllr Kennedy's appearance at the Council meeting, she ruled that Allotments were not on the agenda and curtailed his address to the Town Council, OK fine, but then surprisingly she allowed Cllr Terry Marsh to offer Cllr Kennedy advice, I tried to point out the inconsistency of her approach, but was told I had said enough.

I was not happy the way the precept (council budget) is being handled this year, tonight the Chairman and Cllr Parham tried to pass a piecemeal part of the precept, at the same time trying to make decisions ahead of other spending commitments that clash with budget heading they were asking us to agree, I abstained on this sorry matter.

Give us the full details and then we can agree the whole budget, but be assured this matter will be decided by the portfolio holders and be further assured that any dissenting view points will not be allowed in January.

I called for the Chief Executive from Mendip Council to get involved with English Heritage in a push in restoring our Market Cross, this has been going on for over three years, how much longer can this neglect go on!

We have now received the bids to enhance the Cenotaph, there is still work to do on the bids and we will meet again in a fortnight to discuss further.