Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Somerset Cllrs Christine Lawrence, Marcus Kravis and Mike Rigby, Jon Richards (WACET), Amy Wigglesworth (National Trust – Dunster Castle) and Paul Matcham (Minehead Eye / Somerset Connect).

Paul subsequently attended in a virtual capacity.

To receive and note any declarations of interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

(The other registrable interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes: City, Town & Parish Twin Hatters - Somerset Councillors 2023 )

No declarations of interest were made by those present.

To approve the notes from the previous meeting.

The minutes from the previous meeting were agreed as a true record by a show of hands from those present. The Chair signed and returned a copy to the clerk.

The Chair to advise of any questions, statements or petitions received that are not covered by items on the agenda for the meeting on which members of the public have requested to speak.

Katrina Midgely, Trustee of the Minehead Food Cupboard raised a concern about the lack of basic support from Somerset Council for vulnerable families, and an increasing reliance on the voluntary sector. The Food Cupboard was being approached by a variety of vulnerable people with complex needs and did not have the capacity or resources to help them long-term. It was considered that with the demise of West Somerset Council, the staff had pulled away to Taunton, and now with the onset of Somerset Council, there was a dearth of housing staff actually resident in the county! West Somerset was feeling forgotten, and the temporary staff currently employed lacked basic local knowledge of the rurality of the LCN area. Although the Food Cupboard tried to help, they were unable to provide sustainable options to tackle some of the more difficult cases. Pippa Hughes agreed to feed back the concerns to the Somerset Council Housing Team, and then liaise with the Food Cupboard independently on a way forward.

Ian Aldridge, Trustee of West Somerset Advice Bureau (WSAB). Asked Somerset Councillors to be mindful when awarding grants, that they didn’t overlook the very necessary work of the WSAB. The WSAB is independent from the Somerset Citizens Advice Bureau and as such is funded separately. Could this please be borne in mind, if grant funding is allocated to ensure that the WSAB gets a share.

To discuss matters arising from the notes of the previous meeting.

A presentation of the topics and themes that were discussed at the last meeting can be viewed here.

It was suggested that another tile should be added to the list on the subject of employment – covering access to further education, apprenticeships and training.

A breakdown by post-code would be helpful.

Data sets based on the Minehead /Watchet LCN were shared.

Ray Tew (MCDT) asked what additional data was available that could also inform decision making and analysis.

A request was made to dig out further data specific to the Minehead & Watchet LCN. Attendees in the room felt it would be important to establish why people moved to the area, and whether they were economically active or moving to West Somerset to retire. A working group was requested to research and analyse this data. (Emphasis on age, income and employment status).

To consider what more we need to know about each theme and how to prioritise subjects.

Each table outlined what their concerns were around the highlighted themes. Some tables made the point that the topics/themes were all interlinked and were difficult to separate such as Young People, Education Health and Wellbeing, Climate/Environment and Flooding. The main discussion points are captured below in no particular order: -

Public Transport

• Heavy reliance on 1 bus route (No28) to Taunton. This is the only public service on the main road A39/A358. Villages off this route are cut off. Cuts in the service and timetable have major impact on residents.
• No28 has subsidised fares until March 24. What happens after this point? What has been the take-up and has the reduced fare encouraged greater use of the service?
• No 28 needs to be reliable as access to education and employment.
• Limited tourism offer. Some days full of Butlins passengers and others travelling empty.
• Sometimes the service is pulled without notice due to staff shortages.
• Shouldn’t just be confined to public transport and emphasis on the bus service – all transport should be considered.
• Need to raise awareness on alternative transport solutions.
• More subsidies needed to support bus services in rural areas. (Minehead Town Council currently subsidise the Minehead to Porlock service).

What is already in place?

• Wivey Link provide a valuable service to residents but reliance on volunteers who cover a limited area. Is there an opportunity to expand this service? Or duplicate it further afield?
• Community Transport Group – Again limited service as reliant on volunteers, but could this offer workable solutions for hospital appointments? Currently serves dementia patients and the elderly/Infirm.
• AtWest Shuttle bus service.

Communication: including broadband

This also linked with public transport, business and employment.

• Broadband – better connectivity needed.
• Openreach is moving towards digital connectivity with fibre and plans to phase out the copper landline. This will mean heavy reliance on electricity supply to maintain the service. If there is a power cut, then land-line telephone communications will go down as a result. In areas with no mobile signal this could remove resilience in the event of civil emergencies. Leaves the elderly and vulnerable at significant risk.

Business / Employment

Business and Employment were considered interlinked

• Not just relating to young people. Also applies to older people who are trying to re-enter the job market.
• More data required – Need to identify the gaps. How many businesses, where are they and how many people do they employ? Broken down into industry categories.
• What can the LCN area offer to make businesses want to come here and create employment opportunities.
• Local employment centres mainly around agriculture and tourism and is low paid.
• There are jobs being advertised but some remain unfilled. What are the barriers to employment – health issues? Lack of transport? Lack of skills? Lack of qualifications?

Highways

This was linked strongly with Flooding, Climate Change and the Environment

• More joined up services would be beneficial at preventing ongoing problems. Examples – Hedge-cutting (more than just 1 cut and using a wider swathe), followed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

At the end of the discussion time, each table was asked to prioritise their 3 main themes. This was to reach a consensus on the way forward. It was agreed that the LCN team would take away the worksheets and evaluate via a scoring system the top 3 themes that the meeting had wanted to prioritise. Working groups could then be established to explore these issues.

The Chair advised that drop-in meetings could be facilitated in Minehead and Carhampton for members of the public to report in on the recent flooding incidents. These would also help to increase resilience, advice and support and a number of partner agencies such as Somerset Rivers Authority, Environment Agency and emergency services could be on hand to provide advice. Attendees considered this to be a good idea, especially if data on recent flooding incidents could be collated and shared. There was consensus that the West Somerset Flood Group should also be included in the discussions. Cllr Ian Aldridge requested that a meeting should also take place in Williton as it was the focal point of the district and also suffered regularly from flooding. It was agreed to feed the information back to the community resilience team.

Post Minute Note:

Flooding Drop In Meetings have now been booked for :-

• Wednesday 9 November at Carhampton Village Hall from 4-7pm,
• Wednesday 15 November at Minehead Community Centre, Alexandra Road, Minehead 4-7pm.

The Chair also advised that he wanted to convene a Homefinder presentation to update the LCN on the local lettings policy and housing allocations in Somerset. It was hoped that this could be done via Teams so that the presentation could be recorded, and members of the LCN could watch at their leisure.

Tuesday 5 December 2023

Wednesday 7 February 2024

Attendees asked if the West Somerset House Council Chamber could again be booked for future meetings.