At the Midsomer Norton Town Council meeting on Monday, 2nd September, two of the proposals were a new contract with Safe and Sound continuing the work of the Street Marshals in the town for another twelve months and more support for youth and children.
Newest member of the Town Council, Sara Box, is to spearhead a campaign to encourage more youth services within Midsomer Norton. Among her proposals is to develop a Youth Council, where nominated young people from the area's secondary schools would be called on to advise the council on services that would best suit their needs.
A similar scheme is used in Weston-super-Mare with great success. This, along with the decision to award a grant to the Somer Valley to provide after-school activity sessions in Orchard Vale Hall, are just some of the schemes the Council is hoping to work on in the coming months to support its youth and children programme.
During the meeting, representatives from the Children's Centre spoke of their concerns to the cuts in funding that their services face. The Children Centre is an organisation that provides help and assistance to parents, as well as supporting early years development. It was pointed out during the meeting that there is a real need for their services in the Midsomer Norton area and links with local primary schools are showing that even more support is needed. Lib-Dem-led B&NES Council plan a 48% cut to their services.
The Town Council agreed the signing of a new contract for the Street Marshals. The Street Marshals scheme has recently completed its six month trial where marshals patrol the High Street between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., at weekends as well as working extra hours over the bank holiday weekends.
So far, there has been an 81% decrease in reported criminal damage and over the last Bank Holiday, the police didn't get called out to a single incident in the High Street. The Street Marshals now also have the use of CCTV jackets, which allow them to record altercations which can later be used as evidence in court. The licence for the use of these jackets is being shared with B&NES Council which is making a small financial contribution to the scheme.
Town Councillors were shown a proposed design for the new mayoral chain, which currently plan to include a David Fisher painting, designs taken from St John's Church and the River Somer to create a unique badge of office.