At the first meeting of the new ‘Friends of Bridgwater Arts Centre’ group last night, local artist Jonet Middleton was elected by members as Chair, which means she also becomes chair of the new Arts Centre Steering group set up to take the project forward under the new auspices of Bridgwater Town Council. Speaking after the meeting Jonet said “I thought the meeting went well and feel we are now on a positive path to a great future. As a Bridgwater girl I have been involved with the Arts Centre since the 1960s. Most recently with the Visual Arts Commitee and as a volunteer.I care not only about the beautiful building but also about the part the Arts Centre can play in the community. The Friends group will look to increase participation in all areas of the arts in Bridgwater”.
This year Bridgwater Town Council took on the direct running of the famous Bridgwater Arts Centre. Now part of the new, expanding Town Council, in the wake of Sedgemoor’s demise and Somerset’s belt tightening, Bridgwater has secured the future of the first arts centre in the country for generations to come. This week Town Council leader Brian Smedley announced that a new ‘friends of’ group would be set up to ensure the popular arts venue would be rooted in the work and aspirations of its members, volunteers and users. A key launch meeting will be held on Wednesday 24th July at the Art Centre to establish the Friends group and to elect a Chair. Cllr Smedley said “The Art Centre will be run in the same form as the rest of the Town Council which is via the Triad system. There will be 3 parts to thesteering group -the elected councillors, the professional staff and the members. Each will form one side of the Triad. For the Friends group that means electing 4 delegates including one as chair of the Art Centre. The Town Council’s interest is preserving this crucial piece of the towns heritage for future generations and ensuring that everybody has a say in the running of the place. I urge all supporters, members, volunteers and users to attend the meeting, sign up to become ‘friends’ and then take the art centre forward knowing it has the full backing of the town council.”
Rob Semple, Town Council’s Community Services Director
Bridgwater Town Council launched a new town centre initiative to tackle concerns by residents and businesses about the effect of anti social behaviour. Town centre trader David Harris-Heffer of Initiis Ltd said “I noticed a newfound optimism from local Businesses through collaborating with the town council and the police to tackle the anti social behaviour currently crippling the town centre . It’s clear that Bridgwater has an incredibly loyal community and that through working together can create a thriving town centre environment.” Rob Semple, Community spokesman for Bridgwater Town Council said “We are always looking at ways to develop and improve Bridgwater town centre to make it a place people want to visit, work and invest in. We take the matters raised very seriously. We want people to feel safe when visiting Bridgwater town centre and we will continue to work with our partners to find solutions to the issues raised.”
Background to the initiative
Bridgwater’s Fore Street, the hub of the problems
Following an approach from Town Centre trader and operator of the Vodaphone shop David Harris Bridgwater Town Council with the kind assistance of the owner Candida Leaver of the Old Vicarage facilitated a meeting of Town Centre Traders; the Police and Town Wardens. The meeting was run by Rob Semple the Town Council’s Director of Community Services and he shared the top table with Kirwan Pritchard the Anti Social Behaviour Lead Officer at Avon and Somerset Police.
Cllr Tim Mander (Labour – Westover) and Chair of the Town Council’s Police Forum summed up the meeting as follows:“Having attended a number of Police Forums since I have been elected whilst it was great to have so many local traders engaged enough to attend this meeting, and they numbered over 25, it is disappointing to hear once more the lived experience of the problems created by the street drinkers; large groups of unruly youths; drug dealing/taking and shop lifting. The manager of the Nationwide outlined how she had had to call 999 three times in the last fortnight following brawling drunks outside the bank and on two occasions she had had to shut the branch. The Manager of Angel Place and proprietor of Cafe Kreme both highlighted how gangs of masked up youths had created mayhem and upset customers. The manager of Boots explained why they now locked all doors bar one and employed security and despite this still had shoplifters regularly working in and walk out with arm full of goods. Many others contributed with their own experiences and of course questions were raised regarding the Police response. There does seem to be a problem with the way the Police capture complaints, particularly as Kirwan Pritchard claimed there were very few recorded complaints despite the fact numerous traders had reported issues. “
Cllr Tim Mander (Westover)
Austerity the root cause
Cllr Mander continued “Trying to understand why problems have escalated very quickly pointed to the 14 years of austerity the Police had lost a large number of experienced of officers and were still short of resources and it was a juggling act to effectively bid for the numbers of officer’s Bridgwater needed. Diogo Rodrigues Tory Councilor and Proprietor of SL-ate bemoaned the failure of youth services to plan for school holidays yet somewhat ironically the Youth Service had been slashed to non-existence as a result of 14 years of Tory government austerity.
“The Police were challenged over the perception that young people could “get away with anything” they did say they had and were taking action against certain individuals which because of the age of the individuals had to remain confidential. There was also criticism of the way Somerset Housing Services were placing single homeless people from Taunton in Bridgwater Town Centre. “
Traders Vent
Cllr Mander concluded “Whilst understandably the fed-up traders made the most of the opportunity to vent their spleen and highlight their everyday problems. Which is not surprising as clearly as there is a feeling they are not really being listened too. Despite this there was a chink of light in the person of Sam Smith of Paul Smith Associates who explained how his involvement with a football project in Hamp had given hope to two youngsters who had been served with ASBO’s. “
Increased role for town wardens
The meeting produced some actions which were as follows:
1.Kirwan Pritchard and Rob Semple to arrange a meeting with Somerset Council housing team to discuss their allocations policy.
2. The Town Wards to be asked to concentrate their patrols in the next two weeks between in Fore Street between Blake Statue and Town Bridge.
3. Social Services would be contacted in terms of creating a single point of contact in respect of reporting youth crime issues
4. Additional CCTV locations would be investigated.
Avon and Somerset Police and the Bridgwater Town Wardens were also present to listen to the concerns raised by local businesses about Bridgwater town centre. Attendees were given the opportunity to discuss what they saw as the issues for the town, raise their concerns and share information and best practice. The Council is committed to working with local businesses, the Bridgwater Town Team, Avon and Somerset Police and other partners to create a town people want to visit and spend time in. Bridgwater Town Council is already working hard to improve the town centre areas, maintaining flower baskets and containers, keeping the streets clean and making sure litter bins are emptied regularly.
The town centre of Bridgwater turned into a cascade of colour, a celebration of tolerance and a parade of pride as the confident LGBT community and supporters took to the streets. Bridgwater Pride is now in only its second year but has triumphantly taken its place alongside communities across the world celebrating diversity, social and self acceptance and liberation.
The popular German Doner Kebab franchise has opened a brand new restaurant at Bridgwater’s Northgate Yard and will be open from 11am to 11 at night. Karim Miah and Meraz Aziz are partners in the business having previously been involved in the Spice Club indian restaurant in Eastover. GDK will employ 32 staff, 15 part time and 17 full time and is the only restaurant of its kind between Weston and Exeter. Praising Bridgwater, Meraz said “The Location is brilliant it’s a happening place. ” Deputy Mayor of Bridgwater, cllr Kathy Pearce, is also Westover ward councillor for Northgate and cut the ribbon (which was held by her fellow Westover councillor and Town Council Leader Cllr Brian Smedley). Kathy commented “The Northgate development is extremely important to Bridgwater, so it’s great to see local, well respected, restraunteers take on this GDK franchise. I wish them every success.”
