West Somerset Council Aquasplash Council Meeting fiasco

An overwhelming show of support for the Aquasplash swimming pool with more than 40 of the public packed into the Council Chamber and almost as many outside (according to the excellent West Somerset Free Press) led the decision on whether or not to close Aquasplash to be deferred until later in the month with discussion promised at a larger venue.

Personally, I find it incomprehensible that the West Somerset Council is even considering closing the Aquasplash swimming pool which is obviously beneficial to the local community in many ways.

Obviously, the new Independent administration has a lot to contend with to sort out the disasters left by the previous Tory administration that have been building up over many years.

Indeed, I have a lot of sympathy for council leader Cllr Keith Ross. He's inherited a horrible mess to clear up. I also have sympathy for the ordinary foot soldiers employed by the West Somerset Council.

However, surely common sense should be applied and a proper list of priorities for public benefit formulated.

For the good people of West Somerset to see posh Council Offices arising out of the ashes of Aquasplash is simply unacceptable. That the new Council offices are going to cost hugely more than expected adds salt to the wound.

Building new Council offices was a stupid decision. This was always my opinion and also the opinion of many of the public that demonstrated in Minehead's Avenue during the previous Tory administration.

(Furthermore, it now appears that the new satellite offices in Minehead, which are grossly over budget, are only held on a short lease. I just don't believe it!)

Closing Aquasplash permanently would be a stupid decision. Even mothballing it until the finances can be sorted out must be more acceptable than selling the site off for redevelopment.

It is a farce that people like myself are trying to think of ways of regenerating the Exmoor and West Somerset area when the decisions of the West Somerset Council steadily seem to cause its degeneration.

Finally, according to my search engine query 'west somerset councillor blog', not one West Somerset Councillor has a blog.

(I went through the search results for page after page. There were councillors from elsewhere with blogs, just not West Somerset. If I have missed one, I will be happy to put an entry sending people to it from my regeneration blog. Let me know and it will be done.)

It costs nothing to set up a blogger blog. Nothing! That is zero! It enables you to ask the opinions of your constituents on matters such as Aquasplash and to immediately and automatically share the results of your discussions with all your other constituents. It enables you to share in their expertise and ideas.

This is vastly better than having them trying to pack into a nasty little Council room, or standing freezing outside. Much better!

On a blog, you can share in the closely and intelligently argued comments of your constituents. This is vastly more useful to everybody than a few minutes nervously making a one way speech standing in front of a full Council Meeting.

In our modern Internet age, The present ways of public involvement in West Somerset Council's Local Government decisions are nothing short of pathetic.

There is a wind of change at West Somerset Council and emails are now being answered. The new Independent councillors are immensely more approachable than the previous Tory lot and some of them are working immensely hard to sort out the mess.

But the improvements don't go far enough or fast enough.

If we are going to look beyond the immediate crises to a time when West Somerset can actually start moving forward and achieving benefits for our community, there needs to be much better public involvement in decision making.

West Somerset Councillors need to be at the cutting edge of excellence in the UK, if they are to solve the huge problems we face. Councillors all over the UK are getting blogs so they can talk to their constituents. West Somerset councillors must do the same.

Bye for now

Rob