After a thirty-year wait, Midsomer Norton Town Council has been able to secure outline planning permission from Bath and North East Somerset Council for a Town Park on land to the east of Gullock Tyning.

The Town Council began looking at ways to acquire more green space for the town soon after it came into being in 2011 and revisited the Town Park plans first discussed as far back as the 1980s when the Hollies Garden was built on. Unlike previous attempts, they began with the creation of a concept diagram to illustrate to all concerned the enormous potential for a park on land earmarked in decades of local plans. The thinking is very much to 'work with mother nature' on the amazing site teeming with wildlife which lies only a few hundred yards from the High Street, rather than trying to create a 'Bandstand and Begonia Town Park'.

"Although at times it felt this day would never come, the granting of outline planning permission is fantastic news, not just for Midsomer Norton, but the whole Somer Valley," said Cllr Paul Myers, Town Mayor. "It represents the culmination of a huge amount of work and determination on the part of many individuals to deliver the long-held dream of a Town Park the whole community can enjoy."

The Town Council will now be able to focus on putting a delivery plan in place, covering ecological and design issues, acquiring the land and financial resources to make the park a reality. More on this next week.