Agenda item

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.

SC Cllr Ros Wyke Highlighted one of the casualties due to financial pressure is cultural funding.  She spoke about Take Art which was suggested could be discussed at a future meeting and she was not sure if they will have a sustainable grant funding in the future.

Cllr Martin Cooke from St Cuthberts Out Parish asked:

Would the Astronomy Group which met in Wells Museum continue? The legacy council used to own the telescope. Could this be discussed on another agenda? She mentioned that it seemed as if the telescope was not working.

SC Cllr Ros Wyke affirmed that she had responsibility for assets and would undertake to find out whether the telescope at the Mendip Hills Charterhouse Centre was working as she was not aware that it was not working.

Crime figures were queried, notably Draycott.

PCSO Jason Wyatt, Avon & Somerset Police, said crime figures for each area were online. They were current and up to date and on the Police.uk (www.police.uk) website. He informed everyone that they merely needed to insert their postcode.  He pointed out that they were not week specific but monthly figures which were one month behind. For example, December’s figures were available in January, January’s figures were available in February etc. 

He further pointed out that the LCN maps did not match up with the police boundary lines and provided a map of the policing boundary lines stating that W was for Wells and S was for Shepton and that Draycott fell under the Cheddar area. (See attached map).

PCSO Wyatt mentioned that it was difficult to run figures for one area for one LCN because of the boundary lines.

He further pointed out that the agenda item was too vague for him to give a presentation. Shepton Mallet crimes were different to Wells crime and if he gave a presentation he needed the request to be more specific for any kind of meaningful presentation.

Flooding

David Lewsey from Shalford House, Dinder queried the compensation causes for victims who were severely affected by flooding. There are strong rumours and questions regarding the compensation and the actual cause of the flooding.

Lisa Pool suggested that Gill Pettit, Priddy Parish Clerk, maybe able to assist with this information.

Cllr Heather Shearer mentioned there is a planned flood drop in, at Shepton Mallet in February.  As soon as they had a date, they would let the LCN team know. She offered to speak to Paul Ellison to try and extend the area with the help of Somerset Councillors and will ask government if they could help as they had a fund there. There was an email contact on the gov.uk website where a person could report that they had experienced flooding.

David Lewsey – will make sure he is included.

North Wootton, Westbury sub Mendip, Easton, Godney were also flooded.

It was identified that there is a none reporting of flooding. It would be appreciated if residents could report flooding and near misses, flooded roads and blocked drains. There is a 50 house threshold to get government financial support. The reporting is important.

Scott McMillan mentioned that in regard to flooding, the community did not know how to report it. He was working with 3 families who had felt abandoned by all the Authorities and been unclear as to who to ask for help from and who to report it to. 

SC Cllr Heather Shearer affirmed that it was discussed how to have resilience and planning in place.

Cllr Wyke further affirmed that Somerset Council was keen to keep supporting the valued volunteer organisations.

In response to a question about where funds would come from, SC Cllr Ros Wyke explained that a number of charities were kept going from the legacy districts and so they have funding for the last two years, and they should not have missed out. She validated that individual organisations may have been mislaid in the transition as they integrated the finance system and if any charity has not been contacted then should contact her.

It was mentioned that previously, at the first LCN meeting in Priddy, the room thought that the LCN would address how they were going to proceed with their priorities.  However, what was discussed then had not come up again. He further stated that only active travel had moved forward and wanted to know what were the plans to start looking at the other issues.

Philip Blatchford from Emborough asked whether the LCNs would still run after Somerset Council’s proposed budget cuts.

Cllr Ros Wyke assured everyone that they were not going to remove the LCNs. The Lead member, Theo Butt Philip, made it clear at Scrutiny, that LCNs were not a budget saving.

1.        She further confirmed that there were 3 things to consider:

      Achieving continuity from one meeting to another and how to build on things rather than reinventing the discussion and the agenda.

2.       The staffing of the LCNs and how we support them.

3.       Realistic expectations and focus