10 May

Labour Councillors Back ‘Save our Venues’ Campaign

Mayor of Bridgwater Cllr Tony Heywood

Musicians, agents, venues, promoters and most of all the audience, are uniting in a campaign to prevent the collapse of the UK live music scene which they fear will be the case without government support. In Bridgwater, the town’s most popular indie venue, the Cobblestones Pub in Eastover, is at the forefront of a campaign  to prevent the potentially terminal closures of venues as income dries up and audiences and performers are separated maybe forever. Owner Graham Hodgson, however, is not sitting back and accepting this and has not just set up a crowdfunding scheme to try to save his own business but has joined up with the national ‘#Save Our Venues’ campaign.  Supporters have been sending ‘Save our Venues’ selfies and now Bridgwater Labour Councillors have also added their weight to the fightback.

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28 Apr

Police Clarify Social Distancing Rules

Exactly how far need we go with this social distancing….

Following numerous calls from concerned Westover residents about people failing to keep to social distancing rules and gathering in groups, often drinking, and sometimes having garden or house parties, Town Council Leader Cllr Brian Smedley (Westover) sought clarification from the Police on how they handle such reported breaches. The Town Council subsequently published on it’s website ‘what constitutes a reasonable excuse to leave the place where you live’. These guidelines can be found here.

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28 Apr

“Communities are doing a Great Job” Says CCS Exec

The Village Agents

CCS Village, Community and Carers Agents are working extremely closely with both the health services and social care to broker a range of support, phoning people to check on their welfare and connecting residents with local support groups.On the 23rd of March, the start of the lockdown, CCS launched a county-wide universal referral link which within four weeks received over 32,000 enquiries. As Village Agent Julie says: “The past four weeks have been absolutely MANIC!”

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27 Apr

Bridgwater Community Volunteers in Action

foodbank
Bridgwater Volunteers out there helping their community

It’s the 37th day of lockdown and across Somerset the authorities are working flat out to identify people who need ‘Shielding’ along with  a broader list of the ‘vulnerable’ across the county. The Somerset Coronavirus Support Helpline 0300 790 6275 has now been operational for 3 weeks and during that time has received over 1600 calls.  Open 7 days a week from 8 – 6pm it has seen a massive increase in calls locally following  Bridgwater Town Council’s decision to send out a leaflet door to door.  Some very vulnerable people have now received help as result. Town Council Leader Brian Smedley (at the back of a 50 person queue at Asda) said ” We put out the leaflet because it was clear that not all vulnerable people were being identified by data held by Government and local councils, but this leaflet got right to the people who needed it most.” So if some people are falling through the gaps, might others be? Early on in the Pandemic ‘Community Support Groups’ were set up across the country by volunteers to make sure no one was left behind in their neighbourhoods. Westover web interviews some of the Bridgwater people involved.

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