Town Council Annual Meeting this evening

It seemed extra-ordinary that not all candidates for the Town Council were present this evening and only one had apologised. Those who were there were able to question the developers of the B & W Show Ground. I did and was rather staggered that, in the prime construction contract, there will be no requirement to use local sub-contractors. This does seem to reduce the benefit to the area. Others elicited information regarding further retail competition to retail outlets in Shepton. The chair stated that it was a marvellous scheme.

I too was very surprised at the meagre turnout at the Annual Town meeting. The venue may not be the most thrilling place in the town, but there is normally a reasonable turnout of members of the public, and nearly always a full turnout of councillors. Now I know we are in the final days of an election campaign, but I would have thought all potential town council candidates would have at least attended to see what the flavour of the meeting was, and what burning issues of the day may have come up. There was a completely open forum where members of the public could bring up any matter they so wished. We sometimes wonder why the public have a jaundiced view of local politicians, is it any wonder if a sizeable chunk of them don't even bother to turn up during the time when they want peoples votes, leave alone after the have got them. Our Lib Dem County Council candidate was missing, as were two of his district council candidates, no apologies for this group were sent, they must have had something better to do than to listen to the concerns of the residents of the town.

I hope that those to whom you are not referring don't feel "Left" out. I am Independent Thank You For Your Vote