MIDSOMER Norton Town Council has re-elected Cllr Martyn Plant as town mayor and chair of the council for a third consecutive year.

The election took place in the at the Small Hall, Somer Centre during the 2026 Annual Town Council meeting held on Monday, May 11.

Cllr Wendy Gregory proposed Cllr Plant for the role describing him as having done an 'admirable job’ and as having represented the town council ‘extremely professionally’.

On accepting the chains of office, Cllr Plant thanked his fellow councillors for their continued trust, remarking that he was ‘getting even better at doing it this year’. Cllr Cheryl Scott was re-elected as deputy mayor and vice chair.

The annual meeting dealt with the appointment of councillors to the various committees that oversee the council's work, with members raising the importance of ensuring that governance responsibilities are shared as broadly as possible across the council's membership.

The meeting took place nearly 15 years to the day of the founding of the Midsomer Norton Town Council.

A petition in 2009 with 900 signatures triggered a governance review urging Bath & North East Somerset Council to create an independent town council for Midsomer Norton, while a further petition asked for a separate parish council for Westfield Ward.

The then Norton Radstock Town Council was described by critics as a "broken institution" and "beyond reform” with arguments about the division of resources between the communities it served with Midsomer Norton underrepresented.

A consultation took place with the residents and interest groups in Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Westfield over 16 months with a final decision to dissolve the council upheld by a B&NES vote of 48 votes to four on July 2010.

The new Midsomer Norton Town Council held its first meeting on May 12, 2011 after securing an election victory with the slogan A Fresh Start for Midsomer Norton.