25 Mar

Planning: Concerns over Wembdon Road HMO

Tower House, Wembdon Road

Westover Residents along Wembdon Road became concerned at a recent planning application relating to Number 27 (Tower House) made by the ARC Charity for a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO), especially after rumours spread across social media concerning the possible use and potential occupants and its proximity to the nearby school. Westover councillor Brian Smedley met with resident spokespeople and then arranged a wider meeting with ARC, Sedgemoor Homeless section and Planning officers to get the facts. The minutes of the meeting are printed in full here.

Planning application number: 08/22/00015/LE (access here)

Proposal: Conversion of reception room to a bedroom for 7no. to 8no. bed HMO.

Location: 27 Wembdon Road, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 7DJ

Registered : 2/3/2022-applicant ARC ( a homeless charity)

Earliest decision: 13/4/22

Meeting notes ‘27 Wembdon Road, Bridgwater’ Continue reading “Planning: Concerns over Wembdon Road HMO”

16 Mar

Bridgwater Supports Ukraine

Lorry loaded and ready to go to the Ukraine

The Bridgwater to Ukraine relief  lorry left home today to head for the frontline Polish border towns packed with donations from the people of this community to the struggling but heroic people facing down the Russian invasion that we witness daily on our screens yet which they face constantly in their homes and their streets. The Bridgwater-Ukraine relief project was organised by Mario and Gosia Gogolin from the Bridgwater-Polish community through their organisation ‘You are not alone’ and with the help of local churches and the Town Council. Bridgwater Town Council let the group use the Town Hall last week for the delivery and sorting of the donations, staff and councillors helped with the work and today the Town Council voted through £2,000 to pay for the cost of the lorry to get to it’s destination.

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14 Mar

‘Together Sessions’ will provide backdrop for new Sunday Markets

Starting this month Bridgwater will be the latest Somerset town to host a Sunday Independent market. Running from  Quayside via Fore Street, up the High street and round to King  Square the town centre will come alive each last Sunday of every month. And astride the route will be the Georgian heritage area of Castle Street, where you can find the historic Bridgwater Arts Centre-the first of it’s kind in the country. An ideal place to drop into, grab a drink, pick up some food and listen to some live music. To coincide with the Market, ‘Bridgwater Together’ will be hosting the ‘Together Sessions’ from 12 noon until 3pm featuring live music in the bar. The first event on Sunday 27th March will feature musicians from Bridgwater to Poland to Jamaica including The Hullabalosers, Red Smed, Meg Boucher, Mariusz, Elaine di Campo and Claude ‘The Enchanter’. The sessions are free and you can drop in and out during the day.

Continue reading “‘Together Sessions’ will provide backdrop for new Sunday Markets”

13 Mar

Flagging Up Bridgwater’s History

Promoting our town

For the past 4 years Bridgwater Town Council has been producing an annual ‘Visitors Guide’ to promote the town as not just a tourism destination but also to celebrate to sense of pride that Bridgwater people have in their own community. Town Council Leader Cllr Brian Smedley (Westover) said “In 2018 and 2019 two standard issue ‘tourism’ brochures were brought out and we sent these all over the country. They were well received. But…then lockdown hit us, people were staying at home and so we came up with the idea of exploring Bridgwater through it’s trees and produced a ‘treeflet’ based on a tree trail around the town centre. Of course it didn’t help that Sedgemoor had chopped down 3 of these trees by the time the brochure came out….However, now that the pandemic is on the way out, we’ve decided to promote that other passion of Bridgwater people, it’s history, it’s culture and it’s heritage.” 

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4 Mar

Ukraine Vigil: Galyna’s Speech

CЛАВА УКРАЇНІ!

“Today we are all Ukrainians!”

Here in England, in Somerset, in a little town of Bridgwater, we unite to show support to Ukraine.

A week ago (feels like eternity! The longest and the hardest week in my life!) on Thursday night, Russia started a war on Ukraine, a large-scale invasion launched by a missile strike.

All night the Russian invaders tried to get to a beautiful, peaceful capital of Ukraine – Kyiv and other major cities of the county.

The war in my homeland has lasted for a week.

Continue reading “Ukraine Vigil: Galyna’s Speech”