Somerset this week: 12 April 2024
A Taunton farmer fined, internet improvements to Ilminster, Crewkerne, Bruton and Glastonbury, Martock gets a CEO, Labour gets a candidate for Bridgwater and Chard chickens come home to roost.
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Somerset this week: 12 April 2024
Every little helps?
Or not as the case may be. A couple of weeks ago Somerset Confidential® wrote an exclusive piece on where sewage spills had occurred in Somerset over the course of 2023. One of the biggest offenders was the Fivehead Wastewater Treatment Works where storm overflows ran for 2092.07 hours across the year – that is the equivalent of it running for 87 days continuously. The outflow runs into the Fivehead River and hence onto the Isle River, the River Parrett and out into the Bristol Channel.
That makes pretty ugly reading all by itself. This week though we learned of further pollution to the river from a silage clamp at Underhill Farm, Staple Fitzpaine, near Taunton.
Silage clamps are concrete panel structures that act as a wall for a silage pit which will store grass, maize or whole crop wheat providing a food source for dairy cows throughout the year.
In this case Officers from the Environment Agency (EA) found the clamp had been overfilled with grass and, as a result, the silage effluent bypassed the drainage system and had discharged into the Fivehead River.
Analysis of the effluent showed it was approximately six times more polluting than untreated human sewage.
the effluent …… was approximately six times more polluting than untreated human sewage
A water sample taken by EA officers showed significant discolouration and an unpleasant odour. Monitoring equipment showed dissolved oxygen levels in the water to be below 12%. An unpolluted watercourse would be expected to have oxygen levels above 70%.
The farmer, Daniel Macey, initially denied having anything to do with the pollution. During a voluntary interview under caution, he declined to answer any questions put to him by EA officers. Instead he submitted a written statement.
In that statement he denied causing any pollution of sewage to the Fivehead River when officers were in fact investigating him for a silage effluent pollution. Macey later went on to state that a number of ‘other agencies’, that he would not identify, were the cause of any sewage discharge into the watercourse.
At Taunton Magistrates Court last Thursday, Macey was ordered to pay a total of £4,821.21 in fines and costs after he admitted causing pollution to enter the river.
This is the second significant incident of agricultural pollution to the river system in Somerset we have reported on in the past three months. Water companies are expected to pay significant sums to clean up their own pollution incidents. They are being asked to pay billions (admittedly over 20 years) to improve storm overflows.
We have to ask if a fine of under £5,000 is enough when serious pollution incidents of this nature are discovered. Especially given the fact that the discharge was: “six times more polluting than untreated human sewage.”
Add that to the storm overflows on the Fivehead River and you are left wondering how the river is not biologically dead.
Faster broadband coming to Ilminster, Crewkerne, Bruton, Shepton and Glastonbury
Wessex Internet has won a £33.5m government contract to deliver broadband under the Project Gigabit banner to 21,400 homes and businesses in rural areas of Dorset and South Somerset. Project Gigabit is government funded, with companies able to bid for contracts that cover different geographical areas. Under the contract, all properties will benefit from full Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) connections which means that a fibre optic cable goes all the way to a home or business, rather than stopping at a cabinet down the road – even those in challenging and remote environments.
That means Wessex Internet must build FTTP Gigabit broadband to all those 21,400 properties in the contract area. However, it will still be the choice of individual homes and businesses if they want to be connected. In practical terms, this means connection points are installed near to each property, enabling a premises to be quickly connected if they choose to subscribe to a broadband package when that area ‘goes live’ or at any time in the future.
This was the fourth Project Gigabit contract awarded to Wessex Internet, and the company’s largest to date. Planning for the network expansion is already underway, with construction expected to start towards the end of 2024.
In South Somerset, it encompasses rural areas close to Crewkerne and Ilminster along its western boundary, with Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet and Bruton on its north-eastern edge. Of the 21,400 properties total, around 2,400 are in the western cluster around Chard/Crewkerne up to Ilminster/Langport and 2,700 are in the eastern cluster between Glastonbury/Shepton Mallet to Bruton/Frome.
A spokesperson for Wessex Internet explained that: “with Project Gigabit, we don’t bid on specific blocks, but are expected to reach all properties we can in the contact area offered by the government.”
Looking at the project blocks there’s an obvious gap in and around the town of Wincanton. We asked Wessex Internet about that. They explained: “We already cover some of the rural areas surrounding Wincanton and this will be expanded under another Project Gigabit contract for the South Wiltshire area, which was awarded in March.”
If you live in one of the areas in South Somerset that is part of this new project block, you may still need to be patient. The Wessex Internet spokesperson explains: “This will be a complex network build, so there is a five-year delivery timescale on it. Planning is underway and the first installation work will start by the end of 2024, with some properties connected by early 2025. The best advice for any residents who want more accurate timing is to use the postcode checker on our website and sign-up for updates. This will also help residents identify if they are already covered by an existing network that’s not shown on this map of new areas.”
Hector Gibson Fleming, CEO at Wessex Internet, told us: “Everyone at Wessex Internet is excited we will be extending our service to thousands more people living and working in the new Dorset and South Somerset Project Gigabit area. While this is a large geographical area, it also represents an organic expansion of our existing network. This will allow us to retain the friendly local service that matters so much to our customers, to continue working in partnership with rural communities in our network build, and to provide fulfilling employment opportunities for local people.”
Leigh Redman chosen
At last the voters of the new Bridgwater constituency will have a candidate who actually lives in the constituency to vote for. After Bristol-based Ashley Fox was announced as the candidate for the Conservatives, followed by Mendip South’s Claire Sulley for the LibDems, Bridgwater folk must have been wondering if any party was going to choose one of their own. As to Reform, they are clearly planning a surprise. Currently their website informs us that they have chosen a candidate but they’re not going to tell us who it is! The exact words are: “Candidate in Place, details to be confirmed.”
Meanwhile Labour’s Mr Redman has been waiting a long time for his candidature to be confirmed. The whole process has taken over three months. Speaking after the announcement was made that he had been chosen, Leigh said: “I am proud to be able to announce that I have been selected to be the @uklabour parliamentary candidate for the Bridgwater & Burnham constituency. This has been confirmed by our regional director. I am truly honoured to have been chosen to fight for my home town.
I look forward to working with all members and volunteers to build a campaign, ready for the general election when called, that will give the beating heart of Somerset a Labour voice in Westminster.”
Labour certainly haven’t helped the cause by taking so long over the selection process. If Sunak called an election in May, it would leave Labour struggling in Somerset as their candidates have barely had chance to get their feet under the campaigning table.
Still, being a local will help with that and having been a long-serving member of Bridgwater Town Council as well as a Somerset County Councillor for Bridgwater, Mr Redman certainly knows his way around town.
Chard makes a rod for its own back
Having last month decided to reject a report into bullying at the town council, the chickens are starting to come home to roost.
The report was rejected by Town Chard Councillors (a year after they unanimously approeved it). It had been prepared by independent consultant Chris Rolley to look into the issue of bullying and recommended improvements and practical ways to fix the problem.
The LibDem group on the council had been agitating for some time against the report, possibly because the three councillors identified as being responsible for the bullying, but who were not named, appear to have come from among the LibDem group.
The LibDems have a majority on the town council. The Mayor, who refused to answer questions we put to him about the way the report was rejected, is also a LibDem.
And it was a LibDem Chard Town Councillor who asked Chard Town Council Officers to look into Mr Rolley’s Report into Chard Town Council in case it might have been biased. The request was backed by other councillors too.
The irony of a Chard Town Councillor asking Chard Town Council Officers to review an independent report into Chard Town Council takes parody into an artform.
You can probably guess what happened next? Without the inconvenience of having any input from the author of the independent report, Chard Town Council decided the report was biased and that by implication, Chard Town Council did not have a problem with bullying.
At which point it is probably worth noting the fact that that was the third report into bullying at the town council, all of which concluded Chard Town Council has a problem.
Needless to say the review Chard Town Council undertook into the independent report has not been made publicly available.
That sort of whitewash might work in Chard, but it may carry less weight beyond the town boundary. Especially among potential employees of the town council.
After all, who would want to work for a council where the bullying of staff is identified in three separate independent reports and, when challenged, the Town Councillors rally round to say there isn’t a problem and those doing the bullying should get an apology?
Be that as it may, having identified a potential locum clerk (the previous clerk lasted just nine months and left on 20 March), he rescinded his agreement to work for Chard before he even started. That was confirmed by the agenda of the full council meeting of 4 April 2024.
However, also confirmed was that a recruit for the Proper Officer role, Peter Finnis, who has previously held clerk roles at Martock Parish Council and Midsomer Norton Town Council, would be taking up a position at Chard Town Council.
However, by the time the minutes of the 4 April meeting were published, they revealed that: “The offer by a consultant of providing a part time Proper Officer was withdrawn after the publication of the March 18th Extraordinary Full Council meeting draft minutes.”
What could Mr Finnis have seen in the minutes of the 18 March Extraordinary Full Council meeting draft minutes? Could it be the council’s decision to rescind the report into bullying by Chris Rolley? That certainly appears in the minutes of the 18 March meeting….
Wells Voice “Commended”
Congratulations to hyper-local publisher Wells Voice which was Commended in the Hyperlocal Newspaper of the Year category in the 2024 Newspaper Awards. The winners and runners-up in the 13 different categories were announced at a black-tie event at the Hilton London Bankside last month.
The judges said of Wells Voice: “A brilliant publication, especially considering it’s put together by one person. It has all the design and content of a punchy local newspaper, in a compact hyperlocal format.”
Editor Andy Vallis founded the paper in 2017, having just been made redundant by Trinity Mirror from his job as chief sub-editor and assistant director of content at Mid Somerset Newspapers. He used his redundancy money to help set up the Wells Voice and it has been a tremendous success.
It is especially pleasing to see an independent title taking an award for journalism, when so many of the large news groups are producing titles that simply don’t cut the mustard when it comes to real local news reporting.
Delusions of grandeur?
Your average town and parish around Somerset has a clerk. The town or parish clerk is a respected role. The name “clerk” carries a certain kudos. However, recruiting clerks and keeping them is not as easy as it once was. Although, as ever, some councils find it a lot easier than others.
Over the past couple of years Martock Parish Council have struggled. They have had locum clerks, a Parish Clerk, a General Manager, a Responsible Finance Officer/clerk and a Consultant Clerk.
From January 2022 to October 2023, a period of 1 year and 9 months, they’ve had 6 people taking the role of clerk or clerk equivalent. That’s an impressive turnover of staff, possibly even in excess of that experienced by Chard Town Council. So far Sally Scattergood, Tracy Lamb, Peter Finnis, Vanessa Ricketts, Karen Crowhurst, Sarah Goodman have all held the fort at parish council meetings.
After such a chaotic period in the administration of the parish, in October last year Martock finally hit on a new title for the person who would effectively be the Parish Clerk. They went out and sought to recruit a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Very grand indeed.
But aside from delusions of grandeur, isn’t the Parish or Town Clerk the most senior officer of the council anyway? So a sort of chief executive?
In fact the role described in the job description, appeared to be more or less identical to that of Parish Clerk.
Martock Parish Council is not a large organisation. It has 13 members of staff and a very modest precept of £485,000. None of which really screams CEO as opposed to parish clerk. Still, if Martock thinks handing out a posh title is going to fix the problem…
we have been unable to find any other Parish Council in Somerset using the title “Chief Executive”
For now a CEO they have and the person they selected was none other than South Somerset District Council (SSDC)’s former Regeneration Programme Manager, Natalie Fortt.
We asked her what she made of the title. She told Somerset Confidential: “The Proper Officer role is often titled ‘Clerk’ but there has been a recent increase in the number of councils using the titles ‘Chief Officer’ or ‘Chief Executive’ to reflect the services and facilities Town and Parish Councils are now providing for their communities. Additionally, the council were advised that the title chief executive would increase the reach of the job advert and therefore the pool of potential applicants, helping to ensure the council found an applicant with the required level of management experience.”
We have no reason to disbelieve the statement, however we have been unable to find any other Parish Council in Somerset using the title “Chief Executive” for the Parish Clerk.
Whatever the challenges that Martock can offer, the role will hopefully be less stressful than her previous role as Regeneration Programme Manager. Natalie was responsible for SSDC’s three major regeneration projects:
Wincanton: originally budgeted for a £5m regeneration, project abandoned with no significant regeneration activity having happened.
Chard: significantly over budget as a result of poor cost control (lessons will be learned). Project abandoned after the sports and leisure centre was completed.
Yeovil: currently several million pounds over budget. Started in September 2021, a report in December 2022 identified that the project was already £4.2m over budget. By August last year Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh hit out at the scheme as "overbudget and overtime." It is still not finished, with a current completion date of late 2024.
The Chief Executive salary for Martock is in the range of £41,496 – £51,999 per annum plus an “attractive pension”.
Happy Hospital
Happier news for patients at Wincanton Community Hospital. More of them will now be able to spend more time in their wonderful garden. This is all thanks to the handiwork of the Friends of Wincanton Community Hospital (Friends) and the generosity of supermarket chain, ASDA.
The Hadspen Ward at the hospital which cares for inpatients is located well above ground level and so it is a significant challenge to get less mobile patients into the garden. That leaves many unable to breathe the outside air for many months at a time.
The Friends got together with the hospital staff to discuss ways to solve this problem. The obvious solution being a lift that was large enough to transport wheelchairs, or even beds, into the garden. The hospital, like all of Somerset’s community hospitals, is run by Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (“Trust”). However when they approached the Trust’s estates and facilities team to look at the cost, they came up with quite a hefty price.
However Ian Piper, a trustee at the Friends came up with a plan. Ian is a former project manager who has worked on projects for the MoD, among other public sector clients. He offered to carry out the work himself. It was very much his area of expertise.
Instead of putting obstacles in the way, such as having to use a recognised contractor from an approved list, or demanding quotes, or insisting on given insurance cover, everyone agreed to let him get on with it. A spokesperson for the Trust told us: “we didn’t have any concerns as the Friends of Wincanton worked alongside our trust estates team, so this was done in partnership and with the full support of the trust.”
Friends of Wincanton worked alongside our trust estates team
Ian explains: “I took on the project and we first put in a lift, and then changed the doors so there was bed and wheelchair access, along with all the necessary safety measures too. With the help of Chuck Downton, another of the trustees, we also resurfaced the area below the lift and finished it off with a decent edge on the path with lots of lovely planters, which were kindly donated by our local Asda’s charitable foundation.” In fact ASDA chipped in with a cheque for £1,200.
At the top of the garden area, the tubs were planted up by the activities coordinator along with the patients. The Friends of Wincanton also provided plants and bulbs and helped with some digging out of the planting areas. The planting of the tubs is very much focused on being an activity and so bulbs were planted by the patients to deliver a colourful spread in areas which can be seen from the ward, including around the lift area. It is currently a sea of tulips and the spokesperson told us, looks stunning.
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Good news for Wincanton Community Hospital.... offset against the ongoing saga of the libdems (intentional use of lower case) at Chard.
They're obviously taking a leaf out of their leaders book....blame everyone else and take no responsibility.