Midsomer Norton Town Council’s Operation and Finance committee is set to study and
discuss potential asset transfers for Silver Street Nature Reserve and Welton Green.
Since its formation in 2011, the Town Council has taken on green spaces within the town to help preserve and enhance them for local people. This includes St Chad’s Well, the Garden of Friendship in the Catholic Church grounds, the High Street flower beds and Wellow Brook.
Welton Green has long been an aspiration of the Town Council’s – to help keep it tidy, and indeed, volunteers mow the grass there, despite it belonging to Curo. Despite discussions over the past six years, nothing has been decided by the social housing landlord, with Midsomer Norton Town Council now needing to do its sums on the cost of maintaining this piece of land.
Mayor of Midsomer Norton, Paul Myers, said at the Town Council’s June meeting: “B&NES’ Parks are under increasing cost pressure, but we have to be careful, too. We have been collecting assets, but potentially building up a lot of work and need to look at our mission on green space and what we are trying to achieve for the town to see if we can afford the maintenance of new assets.”
Cllr Michael Evans said that the parish was taking on more and more responsibilities, compared to the local authority and that whilst localism is a good thing, it needs to be resourced. Cllr Richard Robertson, who has previously scheduled volunteers to look after Welton Village Green, said that it was the gateway to the town, and that hopefully it will continue to be mown and kept tidy. Cllr Alastair Slade added that the assets needed to be funded in a sustainable way.
B&NES Council are also due to assess the Town Hall as part of ongoing asset transfer negotiations, to see how much work needs to be done to bring it into a resonable state of repair, prior to the building being signed over to the Town Council.