Want to Play a Part in Bridgwater’s Future? Of course you do. Here’s how.

gib map
If Cllr Smedley stares long enough at a map of Sedgemoor it will simply disappear….

So look. What say do you have on anything and who even asks your opinion anyway? Well, Bridgwater Town Council does and that’s a fact. And how do we do that? Well, for a start we have expanded our Vicar of Dibley sized mini parish council into an all embracing all singing all dancing experiment in People Power. Why? Because one day we want back the Borough status that was taken away from us by Sedgemoor District Council back in 1974. That’s what we want and that’s what we’re going to get.

So how are we doing this? Well, Bridgwater Town Council has 16 councillors and you elect them every 4 years. That’s democracy in action. But it’s not enough. So we wanted to find a way to get the people more involved. That’s why we set up a system of Forums, where the important issues of the town are put directly to the people who can discuss this with the experts, the service deliverers (not always the same people…) and the councillors.

Want to find what they’ve got planned for our town??Town Development Forum for you then!

Town Development Forum

The most important of these Forums is the Town Development Forum. This one looks at major infrastructure issues in the Town that affect everyone’s lives . We’ve looked at Northgate, Tescos, the new school, the Celebration Mile, the Tidal Barrier and now we’re looking at the Local Plan. The next meeting is on Tuesday 28th February and will be at 7.30 at the Charter Hall, Bridgwater Town Hall, High street. To see the working document click here.

If you’re concerned about the many proposed new housing developments around the town and would like to discuss this amongst the movers and shakers of the community then this is the place for you.

What doe this map mean? Who knows!? Someone does.Find out at the TDF.

The TDF is a delegate based organisation and includes representatives from business, the community, the unions, and many other walks of life. If you feel you can represent a section of the community or if you would just like to come along, then drop a line to Town Council Leader Brian Smedley on bdsmedley@gmail.com.

Town Transport Forum

Major infrastructure is clearly our most important theme for a Forum, but our next most influential forum is the TOWN TRANSPORT FORUM. This is chaired by Eastover councillor Moira Brown and has looked at many topics such as cuts to bus services, railway station improvements, cycle paths, residents parking and the EDF roadworks. The next TTF meeting will be on Thursday 16th March at 4pm in the Burgess room, Bridgwater Town Hall.

Town Twinning Forum

We operate several other forums, and of particular interest to our world position is the TOWN TWINNING FORUM. Bridgwater has 5 twin towns (La Ciotat-France, Homberg-Germany, Uherske Hradiste-Czech Republic, Marsa-Malta and Priverno-Italy) 6 if you count Seattle in the USA where we have a ‘Joe Strummer’ connection now in it’s second year. The next meeting of the Twinning Forum is on Tuesday 14th March at 7pm, in the Town Hall Burgess room. The group will be looking at plans for our International Twinning Week which will include an event in Angel Place and in the Bridgwater Arts Centre on Saturday 22nd April featuring the top Italian rockabilly band After Dark from our twin town of Priverno. Would you like to get involved?? Now’s your chance.

Culture, Commerce and Youth

The Town Council also seeks to influence many different areas of community life through smaller forums and working groups that bring together people active in various fields. We have long supported the Town Team which works with traders and the District to focus on our town centre. Our lead member is Cllr Dave Loveridge (Eastover) whilst Cllr Mick Lerry (Victoria) represents us on the Chamber of Commerce. We want to bring together the arts and culture providers in the town and so have set up the Bridgwater Cultural Partnership which we will fund to play a leading part in organising a town centre festival this summer. Our lead member is cllr Siobhan Wilson (Victoria). And crucially we have a Town Youth Forum, fronted by our youngest councillor, 26 year old Cllr Diogo Rodrigues (Dunwear North) and who has been given an extra funding boost for the coming year to seek out seed funding opportunities as prioritised by the young people themselves and  youth groups. Finally we keep a close eye on EDF and all things nuclear. Fronting this operation is the ever active Cllr Leigh Redman (Dunwear South) who regularly holds the French nuclear giant to account in the press and at face to face meetings. On top of this it is Leigh’s job to key an eye on the CIM Fund – that’s the Community Impact Mitigation money which EDF has set aside to spend on projects related to it’s potentially intrusive impact on our community (which some people ‘may’ have already noticed…)

Clear Water Thinking

All plain sailing from here on in. Cllr Smedley steering a steady course through the springs and eddys of outrageous inappropriate maxims.

And there’s more! We’re looking at new Forums and initiatives for the coming year. Cllr Kathy Pearce (Westover) is looking at the Environment – which includes the controversial changes to rubbish collection, which BTC has opposed, and at Tourism options for the town and the future of our waterways. We keep our eye on the town’s Heritage and operate a monthly planning panel which we have expanded to include delegates from the ever active Civic Society. On top of all this we maintain our civic traditions with pride and have a very active Ceremonial Mayor, currently Alec Glassford (Fairfax) ever present in the community at public engagements and promoting our town around the county.

We’re Backing Bridgy

Bridgwater Town Council is punching above it’s weight and will continue to do so until we get our town back to the influence we once had- control of our own destiny, tax and spend powers and Bridgwater people making the decisions about Bridgwater!

Posted: 27/02/2017 Category: Tags:

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