Somerset this week: 14 February 2025

This week we delve into the pros and cons of a Glastonbury World Heritage bid, the future of Langport and Huish councils which is under review and how Sedgemoor appears to have been forgotten.

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World class yes. But world heritage?

There has been a surge in media interest over the past fortnight as Glastonbury Town Council announced the setting up of a working party to create a road map for the town to achieve UNESCO World Heritage status.

An appeal went out to all in the community and applications closed at the end of last month (January 2025).

The biggest problem affecting the reputation of the town of Glastonbury, is that the one thing the rest of the world associates with the name, is a festival that takes place eight miles away in the village of Pilton.

Pilton is actually closer to Shepton Mallet. A town with two words in its name has a certain Vicar of Dibley quality to it.

And the name would never have resonated from the stage quite as well. Robert Plant screaming “Hello Shepton Mallet” to 100,000 excited fans in 1995 for instance? No, thought not.

The Glastonbury that seeks World Heritage status is a town of some 9,000 souls with a ruined abbey that should be a lot more famous than it is, a magnificent Tor that is a shape so perfect that it ought to be man-made – but isn’t – and an alternative culture that is perhaps at the heart of what the modern town is all about. Walk along the High Street and you might almost imagine you were in the middle of Terry Pratchett’s Ankh Morpork.

It has many more things, including a fine – and for England very rare – 15th-century crucifixion painting in St John’s Church, but this is not something that those looking for a new status for the town seem to have noticed.

Now you might imagine that becoming a World Heritage site would be very popular with the local community. But you'd be wrong. There has been considerable opposition from local people and a petition has been set up opposing the move on Change.org. It has so far attracted 1,200 signatures. Which represents a large number of the town’s total population of some 9,000 souls. You can sign the petition here and read more about why some people are objecting.

There are lots of caveats of course. We cannot ascertain how many of those signing don’t actually live in Glastonbury. On the other hand, those who sign petitions tend to be a “type” and the number of people who actually oppose the move (but don’t make a habit of signing petitions) may be much higher.

The reasons for not supporting World Heritage status appear to coalesce around two perceived issues:

• The large costs of applying for the status and then maintaining it.

• The traffic and volume of visitors the new status might attract would overwhelm the town.

The cost of running a site with World Heritage status can best be summed up as: “how long’s a piece of string?” How do you compare the cost of curating a Roman road, the Appian Way, with the Bavarian fantasy that is Neuschwanstein Castle? Both were added to the list of sites last year.

The cost of applying for the status is easier (not much) to get a handle on. Accountants Price Waterhouse had a bash way back in 2007 in a report written for the Department of Culture Media and Sport (you can read it here ). For the two main steps, preparing a bidding document and producing a management plan in anticipation of gaining the status, they came up with a cost ranging from £420k to £600k.

a cost ranging from £420k to £600k

Whilst illustrative and interesting, these figures from 2007 need to be adjusted for inflation. Using the Bank of England’s rather nifty inflation calculator (try it here), that would work out at £700k to £1m in current terms.

Not so long ago, £1m would seem like an astronomic sum for the good folks of Glastonbury to have to fork out in council tax. In the year to March 2020 the precept the town took was just £370,000. But times have changed, especially since the financial meltdown at Somerset Council.

Today, Glastonbury Town Council takes over £1m from residents as its precept. So you might look at the cost as doubling the precept for one year and then returning more or less to normal. For some people, we understand, that would be too high a price. And we should point out here that Glastonbury still has some of the most deprived areas in the whole of Somerset. A precept hike would not be welcome there.

Which begs the question, what has the council spent so far? We did ask that question but didn’t get much joy. A brief foray through recent town council meeting minutes reveals that in October 2023 the town council voted a budget of £30,000 to explore the idea. A sum of just over £10,500 has been spent so far on getting consultants in to help with scoping and consulting with the public.

However, Cllr Jon Cousins is keen to stress that this is not a done deal. He emphasises that Glastonbury Town Council is currently researching whether or not Glastonbury demonstrates potential ‘Outstanding Universal Value to Humanity’.

Even if the new working group decide there is a case to be made, the Town Council will consult with the community as to whether they want to move forward with an application or not.

the Town Council will consult with the community

Other complaints loom large across social media (there are several Facebook pages) and have been aired at the various meetings held between the Council and the community to explore the possibilities of making a bid.

One objection was that Green Councillors put it in their manifesto at the last town council elections but it was only in brief and hardly anyone votes in local elections. While many will sympathise with that objection, it seems harsh to criticise councillors for saying they’ll do something before an election, and then setting about the process of doing it afterwards.

Surely the lesson here is twofold. Read party manifestos carefully and vote. It is no councillor’s fault if people choose not to read their material or don’t turn up to vote at an election.

There’s also been concern expressed about a lack of consultation. The Town Council have set up meetings (on 13 October, a stall at the Frost Fayre and a debate on 6 December) with the community setting up their own informal meetings too. And the latest effort, a working group with a mix of councillors and townsfolk that we mentioned at the top of this piece.

We’ve talked a lot about the costs of the plans and the opposition to it, what about the benefits?

The obvious one is name recognition. And as we have already noted, while the name Glastonbury is well renowned, it has very little to do with the town of Glastonbury. And with recognition comes tourism. Some travellers now are simply ‘collecting’ World Heritage sites as they go.

That would be great news for the businesses in the town, perhaps especially so for the more eccentric alternative businesses. And people will need places to sleep and eat.

Add all that on top of the £20+m being invested into the town via the Town Deal projects and this could help transform the economic prosperity of the town. Something not to be dismissed lightly, given the levels of deprivation that exist in some parts of Glastonbury.

A report by the UK’s National Commission for UNESCO suggests that in 2019 for the 76 UNESCO designations they surveyed, UNESCO status helped them to generate an estimated £151 million in one year. That’s pretty much £2m per site. A decent boost to the economy of a small town in Somerset?

But others will only see the risks of over-tourism which is certainly becoming a major issue at several major sites across Europe, not all of them World Heritage sites either. Other worries include a proliferation of AirBnBs resulting in housing for rent to local people drying up and ultimately pricing local people out of the housing market.

Bear in mind, too, that large numbers of people in Somerset are already priced out of the market. Somerset has some of the highest house price to earnings ratios in the country.

Oddly when you look back into the mists of Avalon it turns out the idea of getting the town designated as a World Heritage site goes back to 2006. It isn’t new or especially the sole preserve of the Green Party either. But it is for the first time being actively discussed with sums of money being set aside for further discussion.

“whether Glastonbury could and, more importantly, should progress”

But once again the Town Council are keen to emphasise that this is a community decision and that decision has not been made yet. We’ll leave the final word on this to Cllr Jon Cousins. He told Somerset Confidential®: “Glastonbury Town Council is pleased to see the passion that local people have for this wonderful place, and we are bringing our community along on this journey to scope whether Glastonbury could and, more importantly, should progress with this process. A new World Heritage Working Group is being set up during February – the membership being predominantly of local residents – to engage and consult with Glastonbury’s community. The Working Group will discuss, debate, and disseminate relevant information; lending their passion, expertise, and critical thinking to explore the pros and cons of potential World Heritage status, the prospective process, and its impacts for our community – with a view to formally report back to the Town Council later this year.”

Reviewing the future of Langport and Huish Episcopi

Well to be more exact, the future of a local authority that might be called Huish Episcopi and Langport. Yes, the order in which the names are used matters greatly to some in these parts.

Those who are less bothered by names will simply be relieved to see some kind of economic sense return to the way the community is run.

On Monday (10 February) the grandly named “Constitution and Governance Committee” of Somerset Council met to discuss the future of the Parish Of Huish Episcopi and the Town of Langport.

At present the area has town councils, one of which (Huish Episcopi) completely surrounds the other. The old town of Langport is moribund, unable to grow its number of houses and as a result having to raise a sky high precept on the few it has just to raise enough funds to keep going.

The current arrangements see 20 councillors representing just under 3,000 people across the two councils. Nine in Huish Episcopi representing 2,158 electors while 11 in Langport represent just 816 electors.

It is, frankly, bonkers.

So the two councils have got together with their populations and petitioned Somerset Council for a merger. We reported on that last year (you can read more here: Langport and Huish request).

The report to the Committee confirms that the petitions are valid and meet the criteria for the number of electors from each council asking for a review. The Committee also accepted the recommendations put to it, which means a governance review will now take place.

a review of the current arrangements and potential new ones

What happens next? Somerset Council now have agreed to carry out a review of the current arrangements and potential new ones. That does not mean they have to agree to any changes.

Who carries out the review? As the relevant Principal Authority, Somerset Council must oversee the review and approve the final recommendations. However, the work will likely be delegated to Somerset Council’s Constitution and Governance Committee.

What’s the process from here on in? It is pretty quick fire to be honest.

• Monday’s meeting set Terms of Reference and a timetable.

• Consultations with stakeholders will take place in April this year.

• Recommendations to be drawn up and considered by 29 April.

• Over the summer a wider consultation will take place on the draft recommendations.

What could we expect from a new council? Final recommendations considered by Committee in autumn this year and that will determine what happens next.

If change is agreed, an Order to be prepared to include implementation date by 1 December this year.

Consultees will include MP Sarah Dyke, Cllrs Mike Stanton and Richard Wilkins who represent the Curry Rivel & Langport Division of Somerset Council and councillors from Langport Town Council and Huish Episcopi Parish Council.

If a new council (with Huish Episcopi at the front of the name) were approved it would have 11 councillors to represent the 2,974 electors which seems much more sensible. There would be no wards as such, simply 11 seats on the council awarded in an election to the 11 candidates with the highest number of votes.

The cost of running the council would be spread evenly across electors, not as at present putting much of the burden on those living in Langport.

However despite the timetable above, change, if approved, will not happen any time soon. The earliest changes could be made to the council would be in April 2027 in anticipation of a first elected new council in May 2027.

Sedgemoor – what’s that?

These days any member of the public can ask questions of their council. The Freedom of Information Act enshrines that right. It has made a significant difference to the transparency of government at national and local levels. In as much as anything can be defined simplistically as a good or a bad thing, then the Freedom of Information Act is a good thing.

That does not mean it should be the first thing that councils reach for when asked a question by a member of the public. Genuinely open government should mean councils willingly answer questions from the press and their electors, without having to reach for the Freedom of Information Act. The Act is a good fallback, but it gives the authority 20 working days to answer a question.

Speaking for ourselves only, our experience of Somerset Council is that with the press they are entirely reasonable and only use the Act for complex or time-consuming data requests.

However, of late, there have been instances where the public have not had such a good deal.

For instance one taxpayer who asked the council for information on the accounts that he was happy to research/access during the open accounts period, was told his request had been converted to a Freedom of Information request. This is wrong in so many ways. Every council must open its books for at least 30 working days every year for inspection to anyone who requests access, which is what this individual requested.

The Council does not have the right to convert that request into a Freedom of Information request. They do have an obligation to open their books.

they do have an obligation to open their books

But even when the member of the public asks for something under a Freedom of Information Request, they should expect the answer to be timely, complete and accurate. So when an individual asks for the total of unpaid council tax for each of the four “legacy” district councils, you might expect this to be a straightforward request. It might take 20 days to answer, but it is data the Council should hold.

It is after all not quite two years since the four district and one county council of Somerset ceased to exist. Yet already it would appear that they have faded from the memory of some Somerset Council officers. Despite the fact a significant number of council officers used to work at one of the four old district councils.

The question about the unpaid tax was asked in September last year and despite monthly correspondence since, has still not been answered. At the root of the problem is an apparent inability of the council to acknowledge the existence of Sedgemoor District Council.

an apparent inability of the council to acknowledge the existence of Sedgemoor

Repeated requests for all the information have gone unheeded. Some has been provided, but not Sedgemoor and when it has been pointed out that the information provided was incomplete, the officers responding seem unable to grasp the existence of the district and its taxpayers.

You might have hoped that after six months of trying, someone could have found it? Perhaps the town of Bridgwater and its environs is only a figment of our collective imaginations after all?

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