Agenda and draft minutes

Only members of the core membership are eligible to be nominated as the Chair. Either the Chair or Vice-Chair of the Local Community Network shall be a Somerset Councillor.

Only voting members can make nominations. The nomination must be seconded to be valid.

Nominations – Kevin Bray was nominated by Bob Filmer, Seconded by Suria Aujla.

Unanimous election of Kevin and Kevin was voted in as chair.

Only members of the core membership are eligible to be nominated as the Chair. Either the Chair or Vice-Chair of the Local Community Network shall be a Somerset Councillor.

Only voting members can make nominations. The nomination must be seconded to be valid

No one put themselves forward as vice-chair, the vice-chair to be voted in at the next meeting in September

Action 1: Nomination for vice-chair, this need to be done at the next meeting, they will also need to be a Somerset councillor.

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.

All agreed the yearly report was great and progress has been made.

The LCN link officers present provided an overview of the work of the LCNS across Somerset.

The meeting reviewed the highlights of other LCNs in Somerset, including their work on issues such as children and young people, active travel, highways and traffic, health and well-being, housing, economic development, support for businesses, and climate, environment, and conservation.

Young Person's Working Group: Doreen provided an update on the young person's working group, including challenges faced in securing youth provision and the success of a recent community breakfast event.

Highways Working Group: Alan discussed the highways working group's priorities, including road surfacing, road design, traffic calming measures, and footpath maintenance, emphasizing the need for better engagement from all parishes.

Brief update on plans of the Young Person’s Working Group
Brief update on plans of Highways Working Group

At this point the room divided into a breakout session including those participants online.

Planning across all parish in the LCN Area, be discussed at LCN Meetings

The LCN broke into groups for discussions

Breakout groups feedback

Table one

Table two:

Child, young people and families

What matters to our residents?

Young People: should include children, young people and Families – young people need a safe space.  Police / Local agencies – one team.

Crime and policing:  as above / Travellers

Transport: Buses / trains westlink on demand? / use bus pass? / slinky?

Highways: steward service devolution!

Health / Well-being: housing

Flood / emergency planning (Climate / environment)?

Are all Parish council engaging with LCN?

Find out from resident - communication, engagement.

Table three:

Active Travel

·     Public Transport

·     Footpaths

Input to the local plan

Full fibre rollout

Transport and public transport

Housing – Planning

Broadband

Online – Sally – Roads, Highways and Planning.

Topics for the next meeting

·       Planning, make a list of questions to put to the planning team for a future meeting.

·       Volunteers and Funding

·       Feedback from Highways group

·       Update on the young people working group

·       Look at other working groups needs to be set up

·       Discussion on how the parish can be involved in the LCN

12 parish and town Council, all have been engaged attendance has reduced.

Emmaline spoke to the meeting about Gravity– As you might be aware, the report taken to Full Council on 18^th June 2024 referenced the Council’s ambition to set up a Gravity Enterprise Zone Local Community Forum.  The Local Community Forum would have representatives from both site owners – This is Gravity Limited and Agratas (and any future occupiers), alongside Council officers. The Local Community Forum will seek to make sure that there is a forum for the local community to engage with the project and get a holistic update from the relevant stakeholders involved with the delivery of the project. It will also act as a vehicle to raise issues and provide feedback that will be reported back to the Executive Sub-Committee to act upon.

The Local Community Networks are key local stakeholders and therefore could play an important role in the delivery of the Forum to ensure the interest of the communities are represented.

We expect the details of how the Forum will operate to emerge in the near future and the LCNs closest to the site, and therefore most affected by the development, should in due course consider how they want to engage with the Forum.

·       Tuesday 24^th September – Princess Theatre, BOS

·       Tuesday 17^th December – Venue TBC

·       Tuesday 25^th March – Venue TBC

·       Tuesday 17^th July – Pawlett Village Hall

18:30 start and 2 hours meetings

All dates have been agreed.

Table of Actions: