It seems 2016 has been a tumultuous year of change, where electoral decisions saw the UK vote to leave the EU, in turn, seeing a change in Prime Minister, and Donald Trump was declared the winner in the race for the White House. 2016 also saw the beginning of a run of tragic losses to the creative arts, a clown epidemic, and the return of Pokemon hunting. Whatever your opinion of the year’s events, it has certainly had people talking, and, as ever, there was plenty to report on locally as well.

January saw Midsomer Norton Town Council taking a stand in order to start regeneration work in the town, and, twelve months on – well, not a great deal has happened as far as the eye can see. Whilst Wetherspoon’s are still yet to begin work on the old Palladium site, due to access issues, Midsomer Norton’s Regeneration officer has been working behind the scenes to get the High Street’s economy moving. All eyes will be on the town in the year ahead.

Midsomer Norton wasn’t the only one making grand plans, as the start of the year saw well-known Kilmersdon runner, Jim Plunkett-Cole, announce that he would be taking on the mammoth task of recreating Forrest Gump’s run across America. Calling the project ‘Jim Gump’, he set about preparing for the challenge of a lifetime – and is currently running across Texas. Another group of challengers, this time from the RUH’s Forever Friends Appeal, found themselves being congratulated by the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, for all the work they had done to fund the hospital’s new Cancer Centre, which saw a new proton scanner installed this summer.

February arrived with the announcement that there would be a Referendum held on whether or not Bath and North East Somerset should be run by an Elected Mayor, as in Bristol, rather than a Council Leader. Other headlines during the month included the mystery of the first of three human feet to be found in Bath; Will Smith, the movie star, declaring his love for Midsomer Norton during a radio interview with Absolute Radio, and local MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, becoming a father for the fifth time to baby Alfred. February also saw Paulton fundraisers, Terry and Carolyn Wynne MBE, reach an incredible fundraising milestone, having helped to raise half a million pounds for Paulton Hospital through the League of Friends charity shop. The pair are continuing to work with the hospital, raising funds through donations at their shop, their travelling tombola, and events in the village. Here’s to reaching the £1m!

March saw the Mayoral Referendum, with the result being a resounding No vote against having an Elected Mayor; however, in a turn of events, with the Government’s plans for the area’s devolution now moving forward, it looks as though B&NES, South Gloucestershire and Bristol will all be governed by one Metro Mayor, who will liaise with the three Council Leaders. Labour has already begun the process of choosing their candidate for the role.

Our area does charity with style, and we at The Journal are always amazed by the feats of locals. As ever, we were in awe of Westfield’s John Reynolds, who took on a 186-mile run before running on to the Bath Half Marathon, as in previous years, to support Time is Precious’ local runners in their efforts. In Paulton, traffic was brought to a standstill, and residents came out in force for Jeff’s Big Ride Out, which saw bikers from all over the area taking part in a convoy to Stourhead, raising several thousand pounds for both Dorothy House Hospice Care and the local Freewheelers Blood Bikes – volunteer bikers who do amazing work to aid local hospitals and their patients. Young Emma Welch’s memory lives on, as her school friend launched the Daisy Bear Campaign, which looked to achieve two World Records in an epic crochet challenge. It was a good month for Writhlington and Mendip Studio Schools, as their lacrosse team made it into the National Championships, and Radstock’s Silver Band found themselves in the third section finals of the National Brass Brand Championships of Great Britain.

April continued to be a good month for local schools, Writhlington kept up its winning streak by gaining a Gold at the RHS Orchid Show, and primary schools all across the region were gifted with rocket seeds from the international space station as part of a project with the RHS. Whether or not they will discover anything odd about seeds grown in zero gravity remains to be seen! April also saw the announcement that live music would once again return to Midsomer Norton’s High Street, as well as several towns and villages lighting beacons to take part in the Queen’s 90th Birthday celebrations. Midsomer Norton’s beacon was so large, it alarmed residents enough to call the fire brigade! During April, staff members from Archer’s Marquees, as well as many other residents, travelled to Calais to help migrants living in the now dismantled Calais ‘jungle’. Businesses and locals teamed up to share skills and raise funds and donations for those living in the camp, many of them reporting their experiences in The Journal throughout the year until the camp’s removal in early autumn.

As summer approached, Writhlington School made headlines once more after being invited to Buckingham Palace to be given a Gold Award for all their work with the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. The PCC elections saw Sue Mountstevens return to her post, and Welton Rovers’ long-term Manager, Nick Beaverstock, stepped down after many years at the club.

In June, the EU Referendum result caused wide debate within the region and continues to do so today, as did the continuing discussions over the area’s devolution, but there were some happier moments to be seen. Bath College won a Gold at the Chelsea Flower Show, one of the World Record Attempts in Emma Welch’s name succeeded, Mary Berry unveiled the RUH’s new scanner, the Stig visited the town, as did Michael Portillo, featuring Radstock Museum and the local railways as part of his BBC programme. Gary Barlow also made headlines after appearing at Cabot Circus wearing a mask of his own face!

The most talked about event in June, however, was Midsomer Norton’s first ever Pride festival, organised by locals, Nik Jovcic-Sas and Grant Johnson. Not only was the event the first Pride to be held after the horrific events in Orlando, but made national news for being the first rural Pride event ever. We are told that plans are already underway for next year’s event.

The Festival fun didn’t end in June; for in July, live music returned to Midsomer Norton’s High Street as part of M’Fest. This month saw the second instalment of Bath’s foot mystery as yet another left foot was found on a site not that far from the first, which left police baffled.

Local charity, the National Osteoporosis Society, based in Camerton, began their thirtieth birthday celebrations, which culminated in Radstock’s mining wheel being lit up in their brand colour, orange, during October. Another local organisation celebrating a birthday in July was Somer Valley FM, which turned ten on the very day that Pokemon Go finally found its way to British phones and led to the unfortunate incident of teenagers needing to be rescued from local caves.

The third, and hopefully, final, disembodied foot was discovered in Bath during August, all three feet have since been declared medical specimens. A series of changes were announced to First Bus timetables after funding from B&NES Council changed. This led to Paulton’s Councillors, Liz Hardman and John Bull, running a successful campaign to have their discontinued service reinstated, and a number of the announced changes have had further amendments since, with Paulton and Keynsham’s cancelled services making returns.

John Reynolds was back to his old tricks as he took on his biggest challenge yet – running 328 miles over four days from Land’s End to Yeovil to raise further funds and awareness for Coleford charity, Time is Precious. In other sports news, Keynsham’s Olympic swimmer gained Silver and several Team Bath athletes were celebrated, having won medals during the Rio Games. Following on from their World Record success for the most amount of crochet daisies, the Daisy Bear team began displaying their work in Blagdon to continue raising money and a family from Temple Cloud raised over £2,000 for Bristol Children’s Hospital.

More charitable feats took place as we moved into Autumn – Jim Plunkett-Cole reached his 10,000th mile locally with his ‘talk and run’ events to inspire schoolchildren in the area to stay active. He subsequently headed off to America to begin his challenge. Two young girls, one a Norton Hill student, one aged ten, donated their hair to a charity raising money, awareness and, well, hair, for the Little Princess Trust, which provides wigs for children undergoing cancer treatment, and Mind, the mental health charity. The local guiding community began their fundraising campaign to make renovations to Rock Road Hall, in Midsomer Norton, which has supported girlguiding for many years and Westfield-based business, Sun Chemical, teamed up with local schools to ensure that first aid lessons were a priority in the ‘Restart a Heart’ CPR campaign.

The Tour of Britain came to Bath during September to much excitement, Elm trees were reinstated in Westfield, many towns and villages in the area won big at South West in Bloom, with Midsomer Norton winning a surprise Silver Gilt in the national awards, and Radstock Town’s Youth side found themselves going further than they ever have before in the league.

As Winter rolled around, the first candidates for the South West Regional Mayor were announced, with two familiar names being put forward for Labour – local Councillors, Robin Moss and Lesley Mansell. B&NES caused a stir in the national press by awarding the region’s health care provision over to private company, Virgin Care.

For the first time since the new route, Midsomer Norton Carnival enjoyed a dry night and Radstock’s second Light the Night event was deemed a success.

Other headlines in November saw the proposed plans for a new Primary School and housing development in Midsomer Norton turned down by B&NES, whilst the area waits to see if the developer will take the decision to appeal. It also saw the arrival of Paulton television presenter, Martin Roberts, in the Australian jungle on I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! and Radstock had a day it will never forget, when Radstock Metals’ scrapyard in Coombend caught fire, sending apocalyptic plumes of black smoke into the sky, which could be seen for miles around. The town nearly ran out of water whilst fire crews battled to bring the blaze under control, and also saw TV crews descend on the town to report on the event.

December saw further debate regarding the safety of the River Avon in Bath, following the tragic death of another young man. Young Issy Freeman was able to meet Father Christmas all on her own, thanks to the help of local charity, Designability, which has provided her with a new Wizzybug-powered wheelchair. Local companies, Sun Chemical and Eyetech I.T., helped Time is Precious collect and wrap Christmas presents for local children and their siblings who were spending the festive season in hospital; Paulton began its fight to keep the village Post Office, and B&NES Council announced a shake-up in local library services. The local authority says moving Midsomer Norton Library into the Hollies will modernise the service, with Bath Library also moving to free up commercial letting space in The Podium.

In these very unpredictable times, it is difficult to say what 2017 will bring. There is the potential for a hike in Council Taxes, as B&NES faces a very bleak challenge of finding £49 million in the next four years; devolution may progress, and we may well head to the polls again to choose the new Regional Mayor. One thing’s for sure, there will be plenty to report on in the year ahead.

Whatever the year might bring, we at The Journal would like to wish all of our readers and advertisers a very Happy and Prosperous New Year and to thank you all for your support in 2016.

We are a small team who live locally, and you will often see us out and about (if you don’t know us already!), with a camera in hand. We set all of the adverts and design the paper ourselves, all in-house, week in, week out, delivering 16,000 copies across the area.

The Journal began over thirty years ago, run by a very dedicated bunch of local people and we continue to carry on in this way today. So get in touch, let us know your stories in 2017, and advertisers – let us know how we can help you in this brand New Year!