At the Annual meeting of Bridgwater Town Council, re-elected Leader Cllr Brian Smedley (Labour, Westover) said the Town Council was now through the difficult unitary transition period and laid out his councils plans for moving forward together from a position of strength. Cllr Smedley, speaking at Bridgwater Town Hall, said “We have gone through a major transition these last 2 years. We expected just one turbulent year while we tried to get used to the new reality in local government but it took 2. At the end of this we’ve come through stronger, fully staffed and with increased powers. Our aim was always to get back the powers that we had during the Borough days before they were ended in 1974 by the introduction of Sedgemoor District Council and now we’re as close as we’ve ever been. We’re financially sound, we have a corporate structure fit for purpose and we have a community outreach system through our Forums that means we can communicate, engage and deliver for the people of Bridgwater”
Cllr Smedley was elected Leader with Cllr Kathy Pearce (Labour, Westover) as Deputy Leader and also Mayor, while the 3 Corporate Directorates set up to run the council would be fronted by himself (Community) Cllr Tim Mander (Labour, Westover) Amenities and cllr Mick Lerry (Labour, Victoria) Finance.
Power & Responsibility
Bridgwater Town Council is politically balanced Labour 11 Conservative 5 Councillors and members of staff number some 60+. The opposition Tory Group is lead by Cllr Gill Slocombe with Cllr Diogo Rodrigues (suddenly this week elevated to County Tory group leader) as her deputy. Cllr Smedley said “We have a new corporate structure, new powers and responsibilities and we’ve re-jigged the council format to reflect that. Crucially we want to make sure that the opposition Conservative group has maximum opportunity to engage and scrutinise and be part of the process. The 3 standing committees -which-although we’re not required to-we have decided to make them politically balanced.”
“Now that we know what the new look town council newly looks like in this unitary world we want to involve the opposition group as much as we can….Maybe not as much as they’d want..but…when you’re the ruling group you have to rule..so the structures are balanced so that we do that..and allow you to oppose where you need to and that means there has to be some political distance to allow for that debate. ”
“And we hope there’s more of that…because at the end of the day we are all here because we want to do what we think is the best for Bridgwater and debating that and putting forward ideas is crucial to our democracy.”
Triads, Forums and Accountability
Each standing committee of the Council will be fronted by a dedicated ‘Triad’ of ruling group councillors
Amenities: Tim Mander (Labour Westover) Kathy Pearce (Labour Westover) Dave Loveridge (Labour, Sydenham)
Communities; Brian Smedley (Labour, Westover) Irena Hubble (Labour, Sydenham) Liz Marsh (Labour Victoria)
Finance: Mick Lerry (Labour,Victoria) Jacqui Solomon (Labour, Eastover) Liz Leavy (Labour, Hamp)
Cllr Smedley continued “Our dedication to our established estate based communities is paramount and whilst we have existing facilities which we grant fund-such as Victoria and Sydenham Community centres we have been acquiring new community facilities. RE-CREATION has already made a big difference on Hamp and is directly run by the Town Council. Similarly, the new ROLLERCOASTER acquisition will play a similar role on the Sydenham estate.”
“The Town Council’s innovative Forum system is crucial to the community focus of the council’s work” Continued Cllr Smedley “These will be fronted by leading Ruling group members in the form of a Triad and will now include a named shadow from the opposition benches.. The purpose of these forums is to work with our key partner organisations and develop policies outside of the confines of the council chamber so that ideas genuinely come from the community. The principle forums for the coming year will be as follows ..”
TRANSPORT Loveridge, Lerry, Mander
CLIMATE Pearce, Solomon, Leavy
TOWN DEVELOPMENT Smedley, Lerry ,Mander
INFRASTRUCTURE Redman, Mander, Lerry
TOURISM Smedley, Mander, Hubble
CULTURAL PARTNERSHIP Hubble, Heywood, Lerry
HISTORY Smedley, Leavy, Hubble
TWINNING Smedley, Mander, Hubble
EVENTS Marsh, Leavy, Smedley
POLICE Mander, Smedley, Solomon
Cllr Smedley concluded “In addition this financial year we have introduced a ‘Budget’ Forum. This will meet alongside councillors to plan the budget, to review it and to make recommendations and will involve our partner organisations.”
Other areas that the Town Council will focus on will include engagement with various organisations to guage benefit or spot potential issues. The priorities here will include
The Town Deal -This includes the projects highlighted by the former Sedgemoor District Council, funded by Government money but now run by the County Council. These include the celebration Mile and other highway issues. Mick Lerry will be the lead
Infrastructure projects. These include the ongoing Hinkley point project plus the incoming Gravity and Tidal Barrier ones. Leigh Redman will take this portfolio.
There will also be a cross party ‘Projects Executive’ to keep an eye on key town council projects such asthe Town Hall, the Arts Centre, the Docks and others that may come up
Working in Partnership with the Community
Bridgwater Town Council named key 15 Partners for the year ahead who would be able to send delegates to the Town Forums
Bridgwater Trades Union Council, Bridgwater & District Civic Society, Bridgwater & Taunton College, Bridgwater Senior Citizens Forum, Bridgwater Area Cycling Club, Hamp Community Association, Sedgemoor Chamber of Commerce (Bridgwater area), Inland Waterways Association, Somerset Film, Bridgwater Heritage Group, The Police, Sydenham Improvement group, Sydenham Community Centre, Victoria Community Centre,Bridgwater Carnival.
Bridgwater Town Council also operates a Planning Panel which will meet monthly to comment on planning applications for the town. This will be chaired by Cllr Tim Mander.
The Town has member representation on key properties that it owns including the Bridgwater Arts Centre and the Blake Museum with plans in the pipeline for taking on the Bridgwater Docks
The Town Council is also responsible for allocating community grants and this will be through a 4 member grants panel chaired by Cllr Smedley and including councillors Lerry, Leavy and Rodrigues
Marching on Together
Bridgwater Town Council’s increased number of staff
come under the auspices of a Human Resources Committee which will be led by Councillors Mick Lerry and Liz Marsh.
Town Council meetings and useful information can be found on the towns website here.
Cllr Smedley concluded “It’s fair to say that Bridgwater has regained sufficient of it’s local powers that the days of sudden high tax rises is over and our aim is stabilisation at a level people can afford. This year Bridgwater has been promoted from the Championship to the Premiership League of Councils so we can genuinely say we’re ‘Marching on Together”
For Bridgwater Town Council Labour group click here.