22 February 2009

Does Somerton have a 'micro climate'?

Over time, various people have commented about the weather in Somerton. Some people swear that it rains less in Somerton than in the surrounding areas. Certainly, Somerton seemed less affected by the recent snow. And I've noticed that the landscape surrounding Somerton can display quite localised atmospheric effects like the one below.



Till the next weather front.

Niall

20 February 2009

Why the big car park?

Its always a good idea to have a big car park around a Community Hall but the car park around the Tin Dunny really is spacious and I wondered why. Maybe this is the answer.


Till next time.

Niall

19 February 2009

The two faces of eve.........

As I've observed so often in this blog, meetings of Somerton Town Council rarely fail to amuse me and the last meeting (10th February) was, once again, no exception. Initially I did wonder if the meeting would start at all because the band leader, Tony Canvin, wasn't present and it was touch and go to see if the sheep would come to order. Obviously Paddy Keenan had been taking the brave pills and the meeting set off on another journey into the unknown at 7:35pm.



Cllr. Ian Neale is slowly emerging as the star performer and he got off to a flying start with a rant about the condition of Somerton's roads which are, by his estimation, the worst in the county. His idea, wait for it, is that Somerton Town Council should be given a bunch of (public) money so that it could sort out its own roads. My immediate thought was to wonder who might then become the controller of such funds? (Anthony Henry Canvin would be my bet.) Fortunately County Councillor Pauline Clark put things into perspective with some information about the size of the County and the scale of work that the Councty Council has done in the face of the recent extraordinary weather.

At 7:48 the matter of the pedestrian crossing on Behind Berry was raised and this generated some spirited discussion but, once again, Cllr Neale struck out on his own and showed everyone else just how it should be done. Without a hint of irony, he suggested that there should be a consultation on the issue. Isn't it curious how some issues are worth consulting upon (a pedestrian crossing) and some are not (the sale of Etsome Terrace and the purchase of the Tin Dunny).



At 8:18pm there was a discussion about the vexed issue of the Medical Centre. The beautifully coiffed Paddy K made some comments about national policy and 'super sized' health centres and then informed the gathering that there would be a meeting between the PCT, STC and the GP practice to discuss developments. When questioned by one of the sheep, Paddy went on to say that the meeting would not be public and this, once again, illustrates the two faces of Somerton's Town Council.

There was little of real substance discussed at the meeting and few of the Councillors had anything significant to report. Yet the one decision of significance, the approval and signing of cheques, was passed without comment. I wonder if the wider community would be quite so acquiescent if they knew that the approval was for approximately £57,000 of expenditure for January. The preceding month's approval (December) was for £106,000 and before that there were approvals, by month for £57k, £30k, £16k, £12k, £17k, £42k, £25k and £10k. This year's expenditure is currently around £378,000 and we still have February and March to go, with the Tin Dunny still unfinished.

The point is that nothing that happens at Somerton Town Council public meetings informs the public (ie the taxpayer who funds this clown show) of what is happening behind the scenes. From what I see, an awful lot happens out of sight of the public and it leads me to wonder why Somerton Town Council's leadership should want to maintain this veil of secrecy.



In closing, its sad to see that the only sign that has been installed at the Tin Dunny proclaims it to be the home of Somerton Town Council (although the previous owner's sign is still in place on the building). I'd have thought that the first sign to go up would be one proclaiming it as the Somerton Community Hall. From where I stand, this sign indicates that the focus of the leadership is on building a bureaucracy rather than on enabling the community who pays for it all.

Till next time.

Niall

PS A lot of photography is about being in the right place at the right time, as these clouds over Badgers Cross illustrate.

10 February 2009

Secrets and Lies

Amongst many questions that plague me about the behaviour of Somerton's Town Council, the curious opacity of the Minutes has always bothered me. They rarely reflect the significance of any of the Council's decisions but they do reflect the complete absence of robust debate. In its turn, that absence depends on two factors, firstly, the absence of any significant community presence at any Council meeting and, secondly, the sheep-like behaviour of the majority of the Council who follow instructions and vote with the leadership. Nothing has quite illustrated this process like the manner in which the Tin Dunny (aka Unit 8 Cary Court) was purchased.


Back in 2006, the Somerton Community Hall Support Group, possibly the only body in living memory to be even vaguely representative of Somerton's wider community, presented its research and consultation which sought to establish what sort of community hall would suit Somerton's needs. I was present at a Public Meeting on 27th November 2006 and the absurd events of that meeting (see the archive) caused me to start writing this blog.


In preceding months, the SCHSG had done excellent work in drawing together all of the various local interested groups and had formulated a vision for a community hall. At the meeting on the 27th, the then 'leadership' of the Council (Cllrs Canvin, Keenan and Gardiner ably assisted by Cllr Langmaid) derailed the concensus that the SCHSG had gathered. Those Cllrs made it quite clear that a) the SCHSG's 'vision' was beyond Somerton's funding ability, b) that irrespective of the SCHSG's report, nothing was going to happen without the approval of Somerton's Town Council and, c) in the final analysis, Somerton Town Council, not the community, would decide what, if anything, was going to happen.


Much of this was reported in the Western Gazette at the time and specific mention was made of the Town Council's refusal to consider making a Lottery application for additional funds. Yet the meeting warranted not a mention during the Council Meeting of the following evening, 28th November. The Minutes of the next meeting, 19th December, suggest that, rather than the SCHSG doing all the work, it is now Cllr Langmaid who is co-ordinating interest in the project - a very good example of Stalinist Revisionism.


And there the matter rested until, in September 2008, Somerton Town Council announced, with all the usual self-congratulatory fanfare, that they had managed to swap the Etsome Terrace site for the Tin Dunny. But it was the price that was placed on the transaction that got my attention.


Back in 2006, Tony Canvin, the undisputed Leader of the Council, was raving about Somerton only being able to afford £400,000 and that wouldn't build a hall of the desired size. Yet two years later, with property and land values in freefall, Somerton Town Council 'pay' £700,000 for the Tin Dunny with (at the time of writing) some £130,000 spent in alterations and the hall unfinished. When the cost of purchase of Etsome Terrace is factored into the equation, along with interest charges, the Tin Dunny will have cost Somerton's ratepayers well over £1million.


Now, you would have thought that this would warrant some discussion by the Town Council but no, there is absolutely no mention of it in the Minutes. The decision to spend £750,000 on a Community Hall is not recorded anywhere in the Minutes. The decision to spend £750,000 on the provision of a Community Hall is only recorded in an outline budget presented to South Somerset District Council in December of 2007. That budget was never publicised by Somerton Town Council and Somerton's wider community were never given a chance to consider it.


So, when you read the Minutes you would think that the Town Council's time is taken up with worrying about litter bins and street lighting and crockery and allotments. Reading the Minutes, you wouldn't think that the Town Council is busy spending a cool £1,000,000 of ratepayers money on an industrial shed in the back of beyond. And this contradition between what the Minutes record and what the Council is actually doing is just one of the reasons that so many members of Somerton's Community mistrust Somerton's Town Council.

Till next time.

Niall