25 Jan

Town Transport Forum to Look at ‘Catch a Bus’ Campaign

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Cllr Glen Burrows Chair of the Transport Forum

Bridgwater Town Council’s Forum system is proving to be a popular way of  bringing together councillors, experts and the public to develop council policy. One of the most active is the Town Transport Forum chaired by Eastover Labour councillor Glen Burrows. On Tuesday February 4th this Forum will meet at Bridgwater Town Hall at 4pm and will include Alex Carter the Managing Director from First South West busses and will focus on support for the ‘Catch a Bus’ campaign. Glen Burrows, reporting back on the pre Christmas meeting, said “A healthy turn-out at the meeting, held only two days before the General Election was surprising, and proves, I believe, that transport is high on the agenda for the local community.”

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23 Jan

Rough Sleeping hits new records – so what are we doing about it?

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Another day in paradise?

There was a general election just before Christmas. Everybody will have forgotten about it by now. The result was predicted and the outcome was clear. Yet during that election British people must have walked past literally 1,000s of people sleeping rough on the streets of their towns and cities and thought ‘Fair enough that’.  Those on the left who argued that it was Tory austerity to blame were doubted or maybe people thought it wasn’t a problem and that they were alright (Jack). Either way the problem is still here and someone has to deal with it. On the streets of Bridgwater there’s been a spike in the number of rough sleepers – up from a nightly average of 3-5 to a new height of 13-15. So, what’s that all about and what are we doing about it?

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20 Jan

Bridgwater Town Council sets 2020 Budget

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Town Council Leader Brian Smedley presents town budget for 2020

At last Thursday’s Bridgwater Town Council meeting, Council Leader Cllr Brian Smedley (Labour,Westover) introduced the towns budget for 2020-21 calling it a ‘progressive budget, making savings not cuts, increasing the workforce, boosting the property portfolio, keeping the precept down, bringing key local services in house and once again elevating the role of the Town Council beyond a mere Parish level and heading in the right direction to our ultimate goal of regaining the powers of the Borough which symbolised the heyday of the town’ . In commending the budget to councillors, who voted it through unanimously, the Leader also paid special tribute to new Town Clerk David Mears whose personal work in reshaping the council’s finances, administration and general organisation was key to the  success of the budget.

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14 Jan

Nominations for Bridgwater Cup Now Open

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The Bridgwater Cup- nominations are now open

Do you know someone who deserves to be recognised for their work trying to make Bridgwater  a better place during the past 12 months ? Well, if so then why not nominate them for the Bridgwater Cup!  The prestigious cup, which was made in London in 1768, is made of silver gilt and is awarded each year by Bridgwater Town Council  to someone that their fellow townspeople think has made a significant contribution to the life of the town. To nominate individuals or organisations, all you need to do is submit a suggestion with a short paragraph saying your reasons and then either drop it in to Judi Fisher at the Town Hall Office or  emailing it to office@bridgwater-tc.gov.uk  or sending an envelope clearly marked ‘The Bridgwater Cup- Nominations, Confidential’ to  Judi Fisher, Bridgwater Town Council, Town Hall, High Street, Bridgwater, TA6 3AS.

The deadline for 2019-20 entries is February 27th, 2020 and the decision will be taken at the Full Town Council meeting of Thursday March 5th. Continue reading “Nominations for Bridgwater Cup Now Open”

7 Dec

It’s Question Time for the Candidates as Election enters Final Week

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The candidates line up…but there’s someone missing…Can you tell who it is boys and girls??

Whilst Boris Johnson appears to be afraid to face questions from BBC presenter Andrew Neil, it seems that our local Conservative candidate Ian Lidell-Grainger is scared to even show his face to a roomful of Bridgwater College students. Hence the no show at student hustings this Friday. And, sadly, he also won’t be making an appearance at the final public question time of the campaign either this  Sunday 8th December at the Bridgwater Arts Centre at 7pm when Bridgwater voters have one last chance to quiz the people putting themselves forward to be our representatives in Parliament.

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