Agenda item

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

A)        What are we missing from the local LCN?   

·         More information on planning – update on Local Plan, training and briefing sessions on the role of PC and enforcement. 

·         Quarry working group = different ways of working and attitudes. 

·         Parish Council cannot share problems in isolation, their issues are shared – particularly flooding. 

·         Local action plans. Born from community plans. 

·         Share Local Community plans with LCN. 

·         Support for fewer main meetings – 3 a year was mentioned. 

·         Priority for anti-social behaviour /low level crime for the forthcoming year. Information and data required on stats, what to look for etc. 

·         More sharing of good practise – e.g. how has Taunton or Exmoor achieved what they have?  Chairs and Vice-Chairs of working groups of other LCNs invited to future meetings to present how they have done it and answer questions. 

B)        What matters to residents in our communities? 

·         Get rid of the red tape.  

·         Planning enforcement – Better understanding to reduce parishioner frustration. 

·         Health and Support – Signposting – Mental Health, GP  

·         Holding Social housing providers to account – Problems for some but not all.  

·         Education – State of the Schools – Kids struggling post COVID 11–14-year olds. 

·         Buses – not constantly reliable for an ordinary life. Evercreech has a bus partnership member = Pro-active involvement.  How to get timetable coordination. 

·         MUPs – Evercreech? 

·         Cost of Living  

·         More People at parish Council meetings, how to encourage more?They are concerned but do not come forward. 

·         A lot on socialmedia - Planning – Housing – But do not come to the parish council meetings!!! 

Discussion from the group work: 

·         Fewer LCN main meetingswould be better, reducing to four times a year. Theworking groups are to feed in information to the main LCN meetings. 

·         Feedback from other LCN areas workgroups, should be available to be shared in the meeting.  Removing the red tape involved tohelp resolve local issues faster.   

·         Housing – Social housing and private housing, the impact on health- Is the housing stock up to standard?  Homes in rural areas that are not on a bus routes.  

·         Schools - some of the children are not in school full time, being on a part-time timetable. 

·         Mental health involved in school children. This is due to them not being in school full time. After effects of Covid.   

·         There is a big drug issue in Shepton;mostly cocaine.Why is the social hub in Hillmead not open? This can be used for SDAS (Somerset drug and alcohol service)drop-in sessions.Could this beat weekends too?This problem is the same across all the areas of somerset. 

·         Therewas also discussion for the need for clean and affordable housing and holding social housing providers to account. Ensuring homes are meeting the minimum standards regarding insulation and providing decent windows. 

·         What has happened to the AsterResidentsGroup? The Chair is going to investigate this and see what has happened to the group. The Chair and Barry have been in discussions with Aster as there has been a lot of negative interaction. 

·         A housing working group with housing and police involved.  

·         Mental health, drug and alcohol workshop to be considered or held.   

·         Communication to have people involved from parish councils to LCN to share issues. 

·         Buses are no good for the rural life in somerset it needs to have better timetables. 

·         Batcombe has a water issue as most people are on a privatewater supplier. 

·         Antisocial behaviour – asking for the police to be involved, having them to come along to a planned meeting 30/09/2024.  Needs to be a member of the senior management team.Ask them to just one LCN and not just the parish ones. New police commissioner has been asking to attend, needs to have a balance in the meeting – Matt Dayis the officer for the area.  

·         The importance of involving members of the public in meetings and working parties to ensure that the voice of all residents are represented. The group discussed what matters to residents in their communities, and how to ensure that they capture the evidence to support this. 

Action 5 - How do we get locals involved in the LCNor in other ways?  Can all LCN Membersconsider suitable methods for engagement especially to those regular non-attendees. 

Action 6 - LCN Chair and Vice-Chair: to visit every parish in the LCN area and find out their issues and priorities. 

Action 7 - Set up a housing working group and involve different housing providers and residents.