Letter in support of Cheddon Fitzpaine & West Monkton Parish Councils
Dear Sirs,
I wish to put on record my support for my friends at Cheddon Fitzpaine and West Monkton Parish Councils in the light of the Local Governance Review embarked upon by Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT).
As you know, I have been a regular attendee at your parish-council meetings and have been successful in deploying Somerset County Council resources to the direct benefit of this community, in which I also live. I cannot remain silent while SWT’s wrong-headed review threatens the very existence of your conscientious parish councils and others around Taunton Town.
SWT’s action also throws the future ownership of Maidenbrook Country Park into question, adding insult to the injury already caused to this imaginative project through their indifference, delaying tactics and U-turns. While their latest decision to make the land available by means of a long lease is better than nothing, it falls far short of the offer made by their predecessors, Taunton Deane, to give your parish councils joint ownership of the land for subsequent placement into a country-park charitable trust. Such a trust is the only real way of ensuring public ownership into the distant future. Having initially agreed to honour the country-park commitments made by TDBC, SWT then reneged on the joint-ownership promise. Instead, they offered the land for sale to the two parish councils but, after a price had been agreed, they promptly withdrew that offer too.
I was amused to read the news release SWT put out on 24th December last, in which they were clearly trying to claim credit for the success that the country park has already become. The truth is that SWT have shown little interest in the project – and even managed to get its name wrong, calling it ‘Monkton’ instead of ‘Maidenbrook’ Country Park in their news release! Their ambition now seems to be sweeping the park up into some big new centralised Taunton Town Council with no track record. If that happens, all the hard work done by your two PCs to look after our local community will have been for nothing.
In wishing you luck in fighting off this unwelcome take-over bid, I would strongly encourage all parishioners to make their voices heard at every stage of SWT’s Local Governance Review consultations. There is no doubt in my mind that cynical party politics is at the heart of SWT’s recent decisions to interfere in the business of efficient and hard-working parish councils.
Yours faithfully,
Giuseppe Fraschini
Somerset County Councillor for Taunton North