Every year Sedgemoor councillors get a bag or two of daffodils to plant in their wards. Last year we planted the outline of the proposed (and now highly debateable) Tesco store front on the Brewery field. It’s still there despite attempts by Clean Surroundings to mow them back to the stone age.

This year we decided to run a Westover residents Poll to see where we should put them. The winning answer was of course not possible due to the rubber trousers I’ve recently been wearing. However, based on the poll at closing time we’ve given one large bag to the YMCA skatepark, sadly bereft of floral decor since it’s conception a year or so back and then split the remaining bag between the Brewery Field -where residents will shortly have a planting session and the canal path where the Old Taunton road end at Canal view will be enflowered. Finally due to the continuing generosity of Sheriff Tex of West Street, the West Street Garden bulbs have been donated to help brighten up the Friarn Avenue Community Garden.

Saturday morning on the streets of Westover, usually around the Blake statue, you can find political campaigners mingling amongst the shoppers exchanging points of view, handing out leaflets and making the weekend a more interesting place. This Saturday Westover joined the worldwide protest against TTIP.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a series of trade negotiations being carried out mostly in secret between the EU and US. TTIP is about reducing the regulatory barriers to trade for big business, such as food safety law, environmental legislation, banking regulations and the sovereign powers of individual nations and opponents see it as “An assault on European and US societies by transnational corporations” as well as “secretive and undemocratic.“

Public services, especially the NHS, are in the firing line. One of the main aims of TTIP is to open up Europe’s public health, education and water services to US companies. This could essentially mean the privatisation of the NHS.

TTIP is being negotiated by the Tory-LibDem coalition whilst both the Labour Party and the Green Party are strongly against letting the NHS and other pubic services being carved up with both parties recently elected MEP’s stating that “public services will be kept out of TTIP.“

There is also concern tht TTIP’s ‘regulatory convergence’ agenda will seek to bring EU standards on food safety and the environment closer to those of the US where regulations are much less strict, with 70 per cent of all processed foods sold in US supermarkets now containing genetically modified ingredients whilst the EU allows virtually no GM foods and the same goes for the environment, where the EU’s REACH regulations are far tougher on potentially toxic substances.

In Europe a company has to prove a substance is safe before it can be used; in the US the opposite is true: any substance can be used until it is proven unsafe. As an example, the EU currently bans 1,200 substances from use in cosmetics; the US just 12.

TTIP’s biggest threat to society might be it’s perceived assault on democracy. One of the main aims of TTIP is to allow companies to sue governments if those governments’ policies cause a loss of profits which means unelected transnational corporations can dictate the policies of democratically elected governments.

Both Labour and Green parties are strongly against this aspect of TTIP whilst the Tories and Lib Dems in coalition remain supportive of the whole TTIP package.

To find out more about the campaign against TTIP and to sign the petition you can go to the 38 degrees website at 38DEGREES.ORG/TTIP

At this weeks meeting of the Bridgwater Town Council Finance Committee, Westover Ward achieved a substantial ammount of funding for community projects. The committee, chaired by Town Council Leader Cllr John Turner (Labour Hamp) is comprised of 7 Labour and 1 Tory member reflecting the Political balance of the Council which Labour controls 14-2.

Canal Volunteers

Each Town ward has £1,000 a year to allocate by ward members to target areas within their community as felt necessary. Westover councillors this year submitted a bid to support the work of the Inland Waterways Association in their work to clean up the Bridgwater-Taunton canal, ultimately bring it back into navigable use and to co-ordinate volunteers the length of the canal in the Westover ward which includes most of the canal as it goes through Bridgwater and the docks. The grant will also support  situating an information centre at the docks which has already been moved into place.

Friarn Street Mosque

The Finance committee also unanimously endorsed a grant application of £2,500 to help the renovation and furnishing of the new Islamic Cultural Centre in Westover’s Friarn street. Rafi, a young moslem nominated by the ICC to put their case, addressed the Finance Committee saying “The Islamic community in Bridgwater previously didn’t have a place to pray and so now we have one . But more than this we want to encourage integration and avoid cultural misunderstandings. We want people to visit us and to experience Islam in a real world and practical sense. We want to work with  schools, with the community and with the emphasis on effectiveness.”

Westover Councillor Brian Smedley asked the committee to “Judge the grant for the Mosque as you would for any other Church in Bridgwater which is asking for a grant for work in the community. If you have a policy of giving grants to churches  then it should apply to all. People should accept the first Mosque in Bridgwater as they would any church ,take up their offer to visit their new cultural centre and respond positively to their desire for openness “.

Bridgwater Arts Centre

One of Westover, and the town’s, gems is the Bridgwater Art Centre, which was granted an additional £3,000 to upgrade computer software. This came in addition to their core grant of £10,000 which reflects the Town Councils commitment to maintain Britain’s first arts centre since Sedgemoor District Council cut it loose a few years back.

Canalside Dog Bins

Finally an appeal by Westover ward councillors for an extension to the existing budget to include further dog bins in the vicinity of the Old Taunton road canal bridge area where the new development of Manley Gardens has seen a major increase in the dog population and the lack of bins along that stretch  of the canal, was supported. There will now be a site visit to establish the best location .

CIM Fund

The new Community Impact Mitigation Fund set up by EDF is a new pot of money that community groups can be pointed at. At the Finance Committee meeting, West street’s Westfield Church was referred to this fund to apply for additional grant money.