Agenda item

To discuss matters arising from the notes not covered in later agenda items.

There had been talk previously about Wells and Rural LCN being involved in a local plan and the local plan team were going to be holding a seminar in the near future and inviting stakeholders to get involved.

Somerset Council Cllr Ros Wyke explained that they have an existing local plan from the Mendip legacy District (the Mendip local plan). There was a judicial review by one of the Parishes who didn’t like the inspector’s direction as there needed to be more housing in the North East of the district. The Judge upheld the Parish against the planning inspector and the seminar next month is going to be about the additional 550 houses which we need to be found within the existing local plan. This is a limited remit and discussion because it is constrained in lots of different ways. There has been a call for sites, these have been reviewed and once it has gone through the internal process it will go out for public consultation in the normal way.

The new Somerset Council has to produce a new county wide plan by 2028.  To do this, Somerset Council needs to do a considerable amount of work on consultations on what the employment land is, what the landscape is and what the travel is. Further to this, Somerset Council needs to add in the transport local plan and minerals and waste local plan, which is particularly important because most of the minerals are within the mendip area, and they are also a nationally significant contribution to the UK’s mineral supply.

Somerset Council Financial Discussion

Group discussions took place about what could be done locally regarding asset and service devolution and ways in which Parish Councils could help Somerset Council in their financial crisis, the following points were highlighted:

·     Focus around traffic, speeding and dangerous junctions in particular.

·     Get together with highway colleagues and the police to join us for those meetings to think about what we can do to make it safer, particularly in rural areas but also on some of the major routes and junctions in the area.

·     Some observations from a police perspective:

o  There is quite a lot of organised street begging which takes place in Wells by organised syndicates and the beggars are not local.

o  Police are spending quite a lot of time dealing with mental health issues.

·     What devolving assets really means.

·     Positives and the negatives of the services for the receiving organisation.

·     Whether it was not only City, Town and Parish councils which have assets devolved to them, but also charities.

·     Sharing hedge and grass cutting and other road maintenance which can go beyond just Wells and St Cuthbert’s Out and include some of the villages.

·     Residents don’t know what the police are doing. The Wells City Council have an item on the agenda every month and the police don’t give a report or come to tell us what they are doing.

Actions

·     Cllr Heather Shearer as, Chair of the Police and Crime Panel

o  make a comprehensive list about concerning issues for them to respond to.

·     Cllr Ros Wyke

    Could there be a discussion with the police on what to do about the high number of deaths on the road and the most dangerous spots.

·     Avon and Somerset Police

PCSO Wyatt mentioned that the needs across each district were different. He concluded that Wells needs CCTV but this would not happen due to the financial crisis and pointed out that they needed more officers on the beat and stated that it was something which Somerset Council could do without a large cash injection.