Dear Editor,

THE community are in desperate need of a bus shelter on the seafront outside the train station for the elderly, disabled, young, and workers.

There is no shelter at the bus stop and with climate change here, you just get soaked or the cold winds go through you.

Minehead Town Council holds the ‘power to provide and maintain’ bus shelters under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1953, S.4.

So, the law gives them the right to do it.

Providing the bus shelter on the seafront is something the council can decide by themselves to do and they do not need it to be suggested to them by anybody else.

The Minehead council will have to get permission from Somerset Council highways to actually place it on the pavement.

I cannot see a problem having a bus shelter there, think of the people of Minehead and the tourism.

Minehead Avenue’s pavements are a disgrace and dangerous to the community.

The pavements are in need of serious work, meaning new footpaths either side of the road.

Instead, Somerset Council wasted millions on a cycle lane from Minehead to Carhampton costing millions and is hardly being used.

The money should have been put to good use where the community would have been walking on safe pavements and had the benefit from this.

Speaking to a young man whose father is disabled, his lifeline is going out on his mobility scooter, but going through Minehead Avenue he is finding the pavements unbalanced and now stays at home.

The worrying thing is depression sets in one’s life and this is not fair to this man and his family being in ill health, as many disabled and elderly and community in general would agree.

Somerset Council was in debt of £161-million, goodness knows what the figure is now, just like this so-called government.

Wasting money when the people that count and truly need help do not get it.

There needs to be a good shake up, starting with councils and so on, leading to government.

Linda Sparks

Williton

Dear Editor,

As a director of the Blue Anchor Toilets CIC (BATCIC) I write regarding your article on the proposed withdrawal of future financial support by Old Cleeve Parish Council, and would like to clarify a few points:

We applied to the council for funding of £6,000 for this current financial year towards our running costs of over £15,000. This sum had been agreed by the previous finance committee and received in the parish precept in April this year. After an extremely tortuous set of meetings the parish council reluctantly released the funds to us. At this point in time there is no agreed financial assistance for next year from Old Cleeve Parish Council as they will be setting their precept at their December meeting. BATCIC has not been consulted regarding our financial needs for the next financial year.

After a change of all officers within the parish council there has been a pressure from them to completely disassociate the parish from any financial support for the Blue Anchor toilets. This movement is being pursued without any consultation with our community and council taxpayers. We have been told by the parish council that we must spend our limited reserves on our running costs and not rely on any future funding from Old Cleeve Parish Council. We must obtain all our finance from grants and personal fundraising. The facts being ignored by the Council are that grants are only available for specific, and new, capital projects. No grants are available for running costs.

It is prudent business practice for any organisation to maintain a capital reserve for emergencies, yet we are told to spend our reserve whilst Old Cleeve Parish Council has its own reserves policy and is currently holding reserves far in excess of its own policy.

It has also been stated by the parish council that financial support for BATCIC “is not an appropriate use of the parish precept”. Under Section 87 of the Public Health Act 1936 Parish Councils have the power to make specific provision for public toilets and this is acknowledged on the Old Cleeve PC website as one of its responsibilities. Funds from the precept can be set aside specifically for this purpose, yet the parish have simply included past funding within the total it allocates for general grants. The parish grants policy is about to be amended to limit any grant to a maximum of £2,000. We have requested that adequate funds are set aside for next year for BATCIC under the Public Health Act.

We have also challenged Old Cleeve Parish Council to hold a public meeting and community consultation so that the future of any financial support for BATCIC can be made in a democratic way. We are providing a public service which we believe should primarily be funded by the public purse. We, as directors of BATCIC, will completely accept the wish of the community and act accordingly. Without adequate financial support we will have no alternative but to close the toilets on Blue Anchor seafront. Our fate therefore rests on the decisions being made by Old Cleeve Parish Council at its next meeting in Washford on Monday, December 15.

Geoff Williams (director BATCIC)

Minehead

Dear Editor,

Might I try to avoid readers being disappointed, through your paper. Other publications and social media have advertised that Minehead Choral Society are performing at an event at Butlins on December 6.

Regrettably we had to pull out of this event when we discovered that the venue was not really suitable and required a 500 yard walk - potentially in rain and wind- from the Promenade car park.

Readers can, however, enjoy the same concert material in the Methodist Church on the evening of Saturday, November 29.

David Beach

Chairman Minehead & District Choral Society