Councillor Alvin Horsfall

Mendip Liberal Democrats respond to Mendip’s new inspection rating (CAA)

Speaking on behalf of Mendip’s Liberal Democrat group, Cllr Claire Hudson, the Leader of the Opposition said:

“The Liberal Democrats are not surprised by Mendip’s CAA results and find no pleasure in saying ‘we told you so’.  The Liberal Democrats have been questioning the Conservative administration of Mendip about their performance for the last five years; the Liberal Democrats have been asking why they have chosen to ignore the recommendations of numerous Audit Commission inspections and the Liberal Democrats repeatedly challenged the former leader of Council Ken Maddock’s assertion that Mendip was ‘Better than Excellent’.  This has been well and truly shown to be what it really was deliberately and cynically inaccurate.

“This CAA result – Mendip’s score is a 1 – is the lowest possible score a Council can get.  It means Mendip is an organisation that does not meet minimum requirements and performs poorly. This result makes Mendip one of the four worst councils in the South West.

“Unfortunately, the Conservatives have only themselves to blame.  This result hasn’t just come out of the woodwork, but is a result of consistent ways of behaving that fly in the face of best practice. 

Apart from their failures to produce proper policies required of a local authority, the Conservative group have consistently denied a voice to any opposition (nearly half the council).

“For example the Conservative administration’s decision to not advise the opposition of this year’s proposed job cuts (redundancies that have cost the Council well over £1million) before it was released to the media; their decision to vote along political lines to deny the participation of experienced Liberal Democrat members in the council’s businesss; along with an unrelenting spin on their actions, have made them undemocratic and have lead to significant criticism, not just from the opposition, but from government agencies working with the Council.

“Over the last few years Mendip has haemorrhaged talent and knowledge; this must stop.  We still have many excellent officers, who can help us to improve, who have the drive to push the council forward, but there has to be the political will – and this is the challenge to the Conservative administration.

“The Conservative group need to stick to their agreed Improvement Plan, engage with the opposition, and take responsibility for their actions.  Their targets are ambitious, possibly over ambitious, but if the Mendip dog truly can learn new tricks, then things will change.  If nothing changes, we will not improve and the next step down is government intervention.  I hope it is the former that prevails.”

Alvin reports:

The Conservatives plan to cut £129,000 from the budget for police community support officers in Somerset.  

There is widespread public anxiety about crime and anti-social behaviour. So it is extraordinary that the Conservatives think the best response is to cut community-level police patrols.  

What adds insult to injury is the Conservative council spending £50,000 on job advertising for a new chief executive. I think most people would rather see their Council Tax being spent on maintaining a visible police presence in their community.The Conservative cut in funding for the police was kept secret before the County Council elections in June. They seem to believe that tackling crime is a low priority and we currently have too many police community support officers.  

The Conservatives should have been honest enough to make their opposition to police community support officers clear before the County Council elections.”

A Conservative councillor has resigned from the Tory group on Somerset County Council, realigning himself with the Liberal Democrats.

Stephen Gill, councillor for Bridgwater South said he had become disappointed with the way Ken Maddock and the Conservative group are running the council, and criticised its regime of cuts to front line services in Bridgwater.

On welcoming Steve to the party, Jill Shortland, Liberal Democrat Leader on SCC, said: “Steve is a man of principle clearly motivated by a desire to help the people in Bridgwater.

“He is a strong voice who has always stood up for local people. This decision shows he feels he can better serve local residents by joining the Liberal Democrat group, and we are delighted to have him on board.

“The Liberal Democrats ran Somerset County Council as an excellent authority and Steve has simply become rapidly disenchanted with the way the Tory party are running it today.”

Frome is planning to hold a celebration party with the new Formula 1 champion Jenson Button as the guest of honour.

A group of organisations including Somerset’s Chamber of Commerce and Into Somerset are working with Jenson’s management to find a free date.

F1 expert Roger Phillips said they were finding it difficult to find a free date but they were going “to persist”.

Alvin is pictured here the other Frome County Councillors Maggy Daniel and Peter John who presented a cheque to Graham Clarke, president of the Frome Collegians Football Club.
The cheque for £2,100 will go towards the cost of creating a new football pitch at the old Frome show field.
The construction of the pitch is almost finished and will be completed by next summer.
Also pictured are under-10 team members: Joe, Kieran, Joseph, Joel and Tyler

Anyone entering Frome from the Blachbridge round-a-bout would have noticed the state of the Old Dairy site.

I have had many complaints about the site and finally there has been some action.

Mendip have taken some remedial action to make the owner clean up the site and I hope this will continue

Over the last couple of weeks I have had quite a few people mention the amount of discarded cigarette butts on Palmer Street.

The problem is, there are 3 restaurants and Bar 11 on Palmer Street, all which have patrons who smoke outside these premises. I will visit the business owners and ask them if they will provide better dog-end containers and perhaps put some notices up to remind people not to litter the streets. Cleaning up the cigarette butts also means your council tax is spent on this when it should be used to provide other vital services. I’m not going off on a big anti smoker campaign, most people know that I smoke. I just want people to act a bit more responsibly with their litter.   

Frome Town Council do a fantastic job each year with the flower displays around the town. This year the tubs have been the target for vandals. I think its a real shame that the tubs keep getting vandalised because keeping the town looking nice helps attract more visitors which in turn helps our local economy. I have asked the Town Council officers to contact the Police and have them check the CCTV camera on Catherine Hill to see if the culprits can be identified and prosecuted