If you’re looking for the new member arrangements for Minehead Tennis Club for juniors and seniors, you can find information about arrangements here.
Bye for now
Author Archive for Rob
Sadly, this week (ended 21st September 2007), around Exmoor and in Minehead and the West Somerset District, many people are saying that there is still a lack of policy vision in West Somerset District Council.
Furthermore, locals appear astounded that the hugely unpopular Tory policies of selling off Minehead’s Vulcan Road car park area for supermarket development may yet still prevail.
It is widely believed that it was these policies that caused the West Somerset electorate to decisively kick out the Conservative Party and install a new majority of Independant Councillors in the May 2007 local elections.
This followed months of petitions, demonstrations and speeches at public meetings which had made it abundantly clear that many of the West Somerset public believed Exmoor and West Somerset had many urgent needs and additional supermarkets in Minehead were not amongst them.
Yet reports in the West Somerset Free Press (September 14th and 21st) now suggest that Exmoor and West Somerset may still have this unpopular Tory supermarket policy foisted upon them.
Some say it’s because of a Tory Councillor signing a key document two days before they were kicked out.
Others suggest that the incoming Independant Councillors were outmanouvered by the more experienced minority Tories when Tory Councillors unexpectedly parachuted in additional Councillors for a key vote which stopped the Independants altering the public plan.
Whatever the truth, it is crystal clear that feelings are again running high in Exmoor and West Somerset about the apparent reinstatement of these hugely unpopular Conservative Party policies.
As a last ditch defence, it appears that the Independant Councillors are now requiring a consultation with the public to finally decide the fate of Vulcan Road and are proposing a ‘do nothing although it will cost us’ option in addition to the various supermarket ones.
But, sadly, West Somerset consultation systems are still in the Dark Ages with no public facility to debate policy other than the weekly local press (much loved as it is).
Previous Local Government surveys have been widely criticised as being fundamentally flawed.
Local Government Consultation systems in Exmoor and West Somerset are still unidirectional, hierarchical and lack the transparency of public audit. They assume that, once elected, Councillors and Local Governmnent bureaucrats will have all the answers.
Few, in the towns and villages of Exmoor and West Somerset, would agree with this view, I suspect.
Exmoor and West Somerset still has huge problems centred around an economy that has seen little regeneration over many decades.
Without a thriving economy delivering well paid jobs, the Exmoor and West Somerset infrastructure will remain as it has been for decades … beautiful but depressed.
Genuine Internet based online public forums would enable a forensic debate about this Exmoor and West Somerset policy and many other pressing West Somerset and Exmoor needs.
An open to all and visible to all public Internet debating forum would enable the minds of all the best thinkers in the District to focus on the the key policy issues that face West Somerset and Exmoor.
If the ‘best thinkers’ in Exmoor and West Somerset, or even Councillors, don’t know how to use the Internet as was suggested to me yesterday by one Councillor, I’m sure that there are many of us who will be willing to help them.
Perhaps this would finally enable the people of Exmoor and West Somerset to get our wonderful rural area on the move.
At least, if the electorate of Exmoor and West Somerset then failed to find solutions, everybody would know they had rationally and publicly explored all possibilities.
Leader of the Council, Cllr Keith Ross, and the other Independant Councillors should require the West Somerset Council bureacrats to institute these online public forums immediately.
If the Local Government Officers prevaricate, I’m sure there are local people who would be willing to set up Exmoor and West Somerset online public forums free of charge (probably myself included). (Indeed, at least two attempts have already been made to set up these forums but they received no official Local Government support or publicity so they both fell by the wayside.)
I, for one, and I suspect many others in Exmoor and West Somerset have had enough of living in the Dark Ages.
Let’s make Exmoor and West Somerset a proud model of community involvement that all other areas will want to follow.
All comments are welcomed below including any from Councillors or Officers in Exmoor and West Somerset.
Whilst sneaking a breather at the Beckford Musicians Folk Camp Society’s Saturday evening folk dance, I was joined by Alan Corkett, who, besides his involvement in the Folk Camps Society is also one of the people who run the Halsway Manor traditional music, dance and song centre.
According to Alan, lots of exciting things are now going on down at this wonderful fifteenth century and Victorian manor.
With a wealth of fascinating activities from folk music, folk dance and traditional music entertainment together with facilities which are ideal for small meetings or large conferences, I really must pay them a visit soon.
I also learned that one of my favourite organisations, the Folk Camps Society, regularly uses Halsway Manor for their great family weekends. Another good reason for visiting Halsway Manor which, for me, is definitely one of the Seven Wonders of West Somerset.
Interestingly, when I was looking for their web site, I typed in the name wrongly as Halsey Manor (because that’s the way it’s spoken). I wonder how many other people make the same mistake and find themselves looking at a series of (unrelated) sites about Halsey genealogy.
If I was asked for my opinion on The Seven Wonders of West Somerset, Halsway Manor would certainly top the list.
I wonder what you would include amongst the Seven Wonders of Exmoor and West Somerset? I’d love to know.
Why not give your complete list as a comment here.
I’d love to hear from you.
Bye for now
Just as I was gazing out of the window over the moorland of Exmoor, which is my favourite way of avoiding getting down to some proper work, an email came in from my old friend Merlin to say ‘hello’.
Merlin runs Minehead Online which is a web site that reaches into the heart of local history by providing a profusion of old photos of Minehead, West Somerset and Exmoor along with lots of great links to other local sites.
Check out her article on Culbone Church which is a wonderful two mile walk from Porlock Weir along the coastal paths and one which I regularly enjoy.
Always chatty, Merlin has a new blog too, entitled Minehead then and now devoted to her local interests which is already attracting a lot of visits and interest.
If you are interested in the history an local affairs of Minehead and other local villages and towns in West Somerset and Exmoor, Merlin is well worth a visit.
Bye for now
Rob
Individual determination and the long standing dissatisfaction of the West Somerset Council electorate yesterday successfully combined to overcame the glossy leaflet campaign launched by the entrenched Conservative majority in the Local Council Elections of May 3rd 2007.
Those Independent Councillors who are now newly elected and who have, arguably, achieved a triumph of the individual against the organisation, may well feel justified in taking some time off from politics during this Bank Holiday weekend to enjoy some quiet satisfaction (and rest their sore feet).
Sadly though, the journey has only just begun and their election success is only a first step along a very rocky road to achieving genuine progress for West Somerset.
The next step is to exercise control over a West Somerset Council bureacracy that may well yet have it’s own agenda and be very prepared to promote it vigorously.
Indeed, the many intricacies of Local Government regulations could easily trip up any unwary newly elected and Independent Local Government Councillors and yet prevent them implementing the wishes of the electorate.
It is vital that the community values of open cooperation and political inclusion that have brought these private individuals into public office are now placed at the head of a new and publicly stated open Government agenda for West Somerset.
Time is short and the Tory Party machine and 13 elected Conservative Councillors wait in the wings ready to take advantage of any slip.
The community of West Somerset has propelled these 16 new Independent Councillors into power and it is now vital that they make full use of the e-democratic collective intelligence of the West Somerset community to overcome the policy challenges that have bedevilled West Somerset and Exmoor for too long.
I firmly believe that involving all the community in policy discussion using modern e-democracy systems is not an optional extra, but is a necessary pre-requisite to further success.
What do you think about e-Government?
Rob
Election experts are keeping a close eye on voting in the Minehead area to see if a new information campaign can boost the response to this week’s poll for seats on West Somerset Council.
Candidates hoping to win a seat on West Somerset Council local elections have been offered free space on the internet to woo voters.
Residents of Minehead & surrounding area are now able to click on to their local site to see what the rival candidates have to say. Organisers of the information campaign say they are hoping to plug an information gap and encourage more people to vote in the local elections. In some places less than a third of the electorate has bothered to vote in recent years.
“More and more people are using the internet to compare prices and compare products, so we don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to choose their councillor in the same way,” comments local organiser Clara Lawrie.
There are 30 candidates standing for the 18 contested seats in the TA24 area. Clara Lawrie has contacted all of them with the offer of free web space for a short statement saying why people should vote for them.
Her approach has been approved by the national body representing council election officers.
“Unfortunately some people will not get a single piece of candidate information through their door. There needs to be more joined up thinking about how to provide better information to electors,” says Malcolm Dumper from the Association of Electoral Administrators.
The organisers of the web campaign, who are independent of any political party, hope this week’s local elections will lead to greater use of the AboutMyArea websites, run by the community for the community, for politicians and councils to explain what they do all year round.
Completely fed up with Local Government Councillors who consistently do not reply to my communications, in desperation, I have set up a petition on the 10 Downing Street site to try to get something done about this ridiculous state of affairs.
Please visit my new web site set up to discuss Involving People in Government for the rest of this article
May 2007 District Council elections are now imminent in West Somerset, UK and many in the local population can’t wait.
The Tory majority that has ruled, seemingly for ever, in West Somerset, UK is seen by many locally as clique ridden, paternalist, old fashioned and just plain wrong in it’s policies.
Clique ridden because those who have the private ear of the local Conservative Party may feel that their ideas are listened to, those outside the local Conservative Party certainly do not. Letters and emails are just not replied to.
Paternalistic because the inner circle of Tory rulers give the impression that they think they know what is best for us in West Somerset and, no matter how many of us stand up and disagree, they still carry on blindly with their policies. Surely, when the whole of Minehead Avenue is filled with ordinary people protesting against their policies, let alone the packed and vocal public meetings, they should start to suspect they have made some dreadful mistakes and start rethinking? Events have consistently proved otherwise.
Old fashioned because their approach is paternalistic, hierarchical and top down. No modern organisation operates this way these days because it just doesn’t work in the modern world. The most valuable resource West Somerset has is the knowledge, know how and energy of all of it’s population. Those at the top of the local Tory hierarchy, in their splendid isolation, could have used the energy and goodwill of the West Somerset population for the benefit of the local community. Instead, they chose to consistently antagonise those who were trying to contribute to the debate. Many local people believe surveys and consultants paid for out of local people’s taxes were manipulative and biased, seeking only to confirm unpopular policies on an unwilling population.
Plain wrong because their policy of building new Council offices at huge expense was and is very unpopular. Local people were highly vocal at public meetings and in the local press with suggestions of better ways of spending the money. These were ignored and the Tory majority continued with their policies.
Plain wrong because the Tory Council’s policy was a double whammy against local businesses. Selling off publicly owned land to national retail organisations was widely believed to be damaging to existing local businesses whilst also preventing local businesses making use of the land themselves to grow and expand and develop the local economy.
At the packed public meeting in the West Somerset Community College that was called because of the extent of opposition to their policies, the Leader of the West Somerset District Council publicly refused to accede to the popular request at the meeting to call local elections and let the local people decide.
For many in West Somerset, it then just became a matter of waiting for the next elections for an opportunity to remove the Conservative ruling majority many believed was completely discredited.
In May 2007, West Somerset will decide at the polls which direction is right.
West Somerset can opt for building a strong, prosperous and democratic community that calls on, uses and develops the wisdom of all of it’s members.
Or West Somerset can vote for West Somerset to continue as a rural backwater where businesses struggle, jobs are few and wages are low which is the legacy and blight of too many years of local Tory rule.
Rob Watson
On the 17th January 2007, there will be the traditional wassailing folk music playing session at Butchers Arms, Carhampton, West Somerset with cider soaked toast (but that’s to nourish the apple trees), shooting (that’s at the evil spirits in the apple trees) and Wassailing singing.
See you there, if the weather’s fair, or more info (with podcast) from Wassailing in West Somerset
When I got the invitation from a folk musician friend, whose mother had just moved into the Dunster Lodge Residential Home, West Somerset, to celebrate the new year with some folk music, I leaped at the opportunity.
I always very much enjoy playing music for the elderly at rest homes or nursing homes because they are so appreciative and welcoming.
We had a great afternoon playing sea shanties, jigs, reels and polkas with a few songs. Read all about it at Dunster Lodge Residential Home in Minehead, Somerset, England
Bye for now
Rob
