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Annual Parish Meeting plus

Posted on 8th April, 2015
The Agenda for the Annual Parish Meeting to be held at 7.30pm Coronation Hall Bleadon on Monday 13 April 2015 and a copy can be found on http://www.bleadon.org.uk/parishcouncil.html

Items include: 
  • 2015/16 Precept
  • Planning Applications
  • Other informative reports & presentations
  • Open Forum
Also a reminder that completed nominations for prospective candidates for upcoming parish elections need to be returned in person to North Somerset Town Hall WSM by 4 pm Thursday 9 April 2015. More details on http://www.bleadon.org.uk/beinvolved.html?part_id=160604&post_id=20383&action=view_comments

 

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Comments (1)

On Friday North Somerset published the candidate nominations for the May 7 Parish Election, surprisingly showing that 6 of the existing councillors have decided not to stand again, with only 3 of the existing BPC councillors (Mary Sheppard, ID Clarke & Ian Gibson) deciding to stand for re-election. I have also been informed that the Bleadon Parish Clerk will be on sick leave for another week so we now also don't have a clerk at arguably the most important time i.e. the APM and the run up to a new election and the consequent establishment of a new parish council. It will be interesting to see whether the expensive contingency planning and ICT put in place by the clerk and council over recent years will now come to fruition and rescue the hour!

BOB's understanding (pending advice from NS) is that, with only one new nomination (Carole Findlay, wife of ex-councillor & ranger Ian), the 4 nominees will now be automatically 'elected' directly without a poll. That still leaves 5 vacancies and these should be re-advertised to be filled by co-option or by election should 10 electors request.

Considering the above it may be a slightly sombre APM on Monday evening (and may also be quite quiet). There will no doubt be thanks to the outgoing councillors who have mostly precided over a controversial 12 year period with the participation in the flawed and de-credited Quality Council Scheme leading to the growth of the highest precept in North Somerset with no consequential increase in services, in fact arguably less service (fostered by NS cuts). It should be noted that around £400,000 of precept has been collected and spent during this period.

So, the new council meeting in May will appoint a new chairman and perhaps a stated mission to reduce the budget and start a recruitment drive to convince residents that BPC is still fit for purpose and worth joining and supporting. Otherwise, what is the point? After all, North Somerset usually make overriding key decisions in planning, highways, education, transport, its related financing issues, etc. One possible solution is to de-parish and, perhaps like Uphill, simply have a village society committee (like the Halls) for all the formal political bits to champion local opinion. For the most part, Bleadon residents may not notice these political issues as the village activities and amenities we enjoy will continue to run through the sterling work of the current non-BPC controlled volunteers e.g. Halls Committee, Market, Youth Club, Church, BPROW, Flower Shows, Bleadon Party, MayDay Fayre, etc.

Why is there an apparent apathy in the desire of residents to participate on the Parish Council yet be so active in other community activities? Will that now change? What do residents think?