New Town Councillor

Following the resignation of former Mayor Councillor Bob Martin, Tenbury Town Council have co-opted the Rev Ian Williams to serve on the council.

Unusually the whole co-option process was carried out at a special meeting of the Town Council to which the press and public were excluded.

Tenbury Town Council regularly use the Section 100(1) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from official meetings, and where the act cannot be stretched to apply they hold informal meetings which they are also able to exclude the public and press.

(Only meetings where Councillors are "summoned to attend" are official meetings)

The Council have voted to adopt the Freedom of Information Act, model publication scheme, but rather than make all relevant documents available on their website, the will use the website to direct enquiries to the Town Clerk who will copy documents and make a charge.

To elect or to co-opt that is the question?

Following the shock resignation tonight of former Mayor Cllr, Bob Martin, Tenbury must once again wait to see if the vacancy will be filled by Election or Co-Option.

If ten local residents request an election then one must be held, although the last time this happened, earlier this year, only one name appeared on the ballot paper, so they won by default.

For a separate vacancy three names were put forward for co-option. The final choice was decided by Town Councillor in a secret vote.

Four Year Battle Won

After a four year battle by Councillor Margaret Austin, Worcester County Council have agreed to install a new gully to remove the water that collects in the notorious splash point in Kyrewood Road.

They have also agreed to a new drainage system in Bromyard Road to alleviate the water run off from Tenbury High School and Dark Orchard.

Whoops!

The Crisis Support Team, Evacuation training session scheduled for 20th September was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

I hear that despite some teething problems the team and their support network are doing some great work and have plans and procedures that are far more advanced than some District and County Councils.

Anyone wishing to have a live update should attend the Crisis Support Team meeting to be held on Monday 29th September 2008 at 7.30pm in the Pump Rooms, off Teme Street, Tenbury Wells.

Henceforth the Crisis Support Team will be know as CEST. Community Emergency Support Team who will operate the Community Emergency Support Plan.

Town Council - Call on residents to lobby for Flood Action

Tenbury Town Council has taken the unprecedented step of issuing a press release stating its position with respect to the security of the town because it is concerned at the lack of action taken by the relevant authorities in respect of flood defences.

Click here for statement.

Tenbury's infamous water splash

One Tenbury Councillor has been campaigning for years to get Worcester County Council to solve this puddle problem.

The puddle appears after every shower, and cars then splash anyone unfortunate enough to be walking by.

For years the response from the County Councillor has been unhelpful suggestions such as "use the opposite pavement" (There isn't one) and it is a low priority.

Now Worcester County Council have promised to review the problem and see if funding can be found to resolve the problem once and for all.

Six months ago.

New Lease of Life for the Tenbury Regal

A study commissioned by the Tenbury Area Partnership is to propose the development of the Regal Cinema/Community Centre into a vibrant arts, heritage and cultural centre.

New facilities could provide opportunities for people of all ages to participate in sports, arts and recreational activities.

A well designed re-development of the site could provide a vibrant cultural centre with cross over facilities by combing meeting rooms and office space with a wide range of activities including museum facilities, events and exhibitions, gallery, whilst keeping and upgrading the existing Cinema and Theatre space.

It is hoped that £2M Grant funding from a variety of sources can make this plan a reality.

Town Council - Flood Action

The Tenbury Town Council are to issue a statement of condemnation regarding the Environment Agencies Flood report and their response to the Town Council's concerns.

It is almost certain that there will be no major flood defenses for Tenbury as we do not meet the qualifications set out by Central Government. Wortcester News Article

It may be possible to get funding for smaller projects. All suggestions should be sent to the Town Clerk or your local Councillor.

Flash flooding is not the responsibility of the EA, but drainage of surface water is the responsibility of the County Council. The Bog Lane area, which is the source of so many of Tenbury's flash flood problems is to be investigated by the CC this week and they will provide the TC with a interim report by Friday. The weather forecast indicates that Tenbury could be hit by more flooding this Thursday.

What a difference 24 hours makes.

Tenbury Mayor; Cllr Jones, Cllr Morgan and Town/District Councillor Penn take a break in their sandbag distribution to survey the damage.

Less than 24 hours after their meeting with the Environment Agency, where it was confirmed that Tenbury would not be getting any flood defences, Town, District and County Councillors were out in force on the flooded streets of Tenbury.

The Tenbury Crisis Management Team and Plan were swung into action early this evening as it became clear that Kyre Brook would breach its banks.

Click here for more.

Town Council Web Site

It seems that it doesn't matter how much of our money Tenbury Town Council spend on their web site, they prefer to keep even the meetings that the public can attend as quiet as possible. Next Monday's Web Site & Communication Meeting has only been advertised on one notice board outside Temeside House and not on their website!

Democracy - Safe in their hands!

Extract from the minutes of the town council.

TENBURY TOWN COUNCIL 2008/9/1

Minutes of the Web Site/Communications Committee held on Monday 21st July 2008 at
7.30pm in the Council Chamber, Teme Street, Tenbury Wells.

PRESENT: Deputy Chairman Cllr ****, Councillor **** and Cllr **** Town Clerk.

1.1. Election of Chairman.

It was prop. **** that Cllr **** be elected as Chairman. There was no second to the proposition.

A temporary Chairman was therefore required to be elected for the meeting to continue. It was prop. **** that Cllr **** be elected as the temporary Chairman. There was no second to the proposition.

It was then prop. Cllrs ****/**** the meeting be postponed, 2 for 1 against. The motion was therefore carried and the meeting postponed.

Meeting ended 7.35pm.

Tenbury Town or Toy Town?

Has the meeting been re-scheduled. Well if it has there is no record on the website. Perhaps it was held in private session, like so many meetings of the Town Council to spare them from further embarrassment? Currently (if the very expensive web-site is correct) the council have no meetings planned. Perhaps they have all resigned!

Unprecedented crowds outside the Regal

Hugh crowds queued outside the Tenbury Wells Teme Street Regal Cinema tonight hoping to see the latest blockbuster movie 'Mamma Mia'.

The queue started forming an hour before the screening was due to start and quickly built to be over a hundred metres long.

The Art Deco style 1937 cinema only has a maximum capacity of 260 seats, so hundreds of people had to be turned away.

Hopefully this new found enthusiasm for screening popular films in Tenbury will be continued and this will help to raise the cinemas profile to enable the new management and the Town Council to raise the much needed finance and grant aid to carryout extensive repairs.

Regal History
Regal Rescue

Mamma Mia Trailer

Buggers Muddle at the Mad Hatters Tea Party.

Life in local politics never runs smooth.

Following the resignation of one Town Councillor, Tenbury Wells has been forced into holding an election for a replacement following the application of 10 signatories to MHDC. However the resignation of a second Councillor went virtually unnoticed and as the requisite signatories were not received by the deadline, this vacancy can be filled by co-option. Clear so far?

The 2nd vacancy is for the St Michaels ward, but anyone living within 3 miles can apply which is virtually everyone living in the Tenbury area.

So anyone with a desire to sit on the Council must now decide whether to take their chance and stand for public election or apply for election by secret ballot amongst existing Town Councillors.

They cannot realistically try for both, as appearing on the ballot, will almost certainly exclude them from being considered for co-option, but the closing date for the ballot is prior to the closing date for co-option, however the election (4th August) for co-option is prior to the election by public vote (7th August).

So that's clear then!

Also, no voting cards will be issued for the Public Election as TWTC does not have any money in its budget to cover this election.

Sensory Garden

It seems that there are still plans to develop a Sensory Garden at the Burgage despite the suggestion receiving no support at the A Better Welcome for Market Towns meeting.

The voting at the meeting was:

Improve Riverside Seating = 16 Votes
Install an Events Sign Frame = 13 Votes
Install Heritage Interpretation Boards at the Bridge and Church = 12 Votes
Install Markers for a town walk = 8 Votes
Install Signage at the entrance to the Burgage = 8 Votes
Install an Electricity supply for events on the Burgage = 5 Votes
Build a Sensory Garden = 0 Votes

Even if the Council ignore the voting at the meeting as not being representative of the town, the Consultants engaged to carry out the study of the Towns needs, also ranked this idea joint 7th out of a list of 11.

Lets hope that the grant available is not squandered on someones pet project that has little public support, and if it still goes ahead, once the capital grant is spent, lets hope someone has considered the cost of maintenance and it doesn't turn into yet another patch of weeds like the beds in the car park.

Under New Management

The historic Tenbury Wells Pump Rooms will be reopened (again) on Monday May 5th following the transfer of responsibility from Malvern Hills District Council to Tenbury Wells Town Council.

Town Council blamed for wall delay.

Three months to the day after I wrote to the Town Council to say that the Environment Agency would not accept their proposal to culvert Kyre Brook, it was finally confirmed at tonight's meeting that the idea would now be dropped.

The WCC Engineer who addressed tonight's meeting claimed that had it not been for the insistence by the Town Council that they pursue this idea, the replacement wall would now be in place.

WCCs remit is to build a wall to support the highway, and flood defences are the responsibility of the Environment Agency. WCC have therefore not undertaken any flood modelling or flow rate monitorin, as they do not require this data to replace the wall. The Environment Agency have recommended that WCC rebuild the wall to a height slightly higher than last years maximum flood level, but no thought seems to have been given to where the water will go, or to the fact that the new wall will join a lower wall, thereby cancelling out any flood defence benefits.

WCC have just appointed new contractors for all engineering work and will now be submitting the plans to these contractors for comments and estimates. It is unlikely that the work will now commence before July.

Councillors at tonight's meeting expressed surprise that as they have do not have sufficient technical qualifications or knowledge to know if the proposed scheme is technically correct, that WCC were waiting for them to sign off the project.

Ludlow Journal

Town Council - No Comment

Tenbury Town Council have instructed their Clerk to reply to all enquiries that they are unable to comment about the proposed Tenbury Biomass Power Plant.

Until a formal planning application is submitted and referred to the Council for comment they must remain impartial.

It was also reported that the planning application was returned to the developer by MHDC as the developer had not paid the planning fee. Whether or not the developer had been given advice about the shortcomings of the application is unclear.

Unofficially at least one Councillor is pro-the Biomass project, some are anti, and the others undecided.

In an unrelated matter, the Council voted to remove a negative reference to small Biomass Power Generation Plants from a report to be submitted to the West Midlands Spatial Review.

Replacement Wall Still Under Discussion

It is now 227 days since the last flood in Tenbury Wells, but a final solution to replacing the wall in Market Street seems still to be undecided.

At tonight's Tenbury Town Council Meeting, Mayor Bob Martin confirmed that they were still awaiting details from Worcester County Council regarding the replacement wall in Market Street.

Although the work was due to start this month, it appears that there is still no final design and a contractor is yet to be appointed.

Concerns were also raised about the narrow scope of the project, which could lead to water flow being diverted in such a way to undermine the foundations of adjacent buildings or eroding the opposite bank leading to collapse and possible total blockage of the brook.

Again due to the lack of joined up thinking, the proposed wall which appears to be 5ft high, is higher than, and does not join up to the next section of the wall on private ground.

The Town Council's proposed solution is to culvert the brook along this section, creating a market square and access to a small park on the opposite bank of the brook. This suggestion has met with fierce opposition from the residents whose properties would adjoin the park, and from the Environment Agency who have a policy of objecting to culverts.

A meeting is to be held later this week to begin the process of planning the replacement toilets, but it seems that due to what appears to be an incredible lack of momentum by Worcestershire County Council, the fundamental questions about the flood defences have yet to be met.

Pump Rooms - Management

The transfer of the Historic Grade ii * listed Pump Rooms at Tenbury Wells is still in progress.

Malvern Hills District Council have decided that to avoid any future financial liability for the building it should be transferred to the control of Tenbury Town Council.

All the arrangements have been discussed behind closed doors using the much overworked Section 100(1) of the Local Government Act 1972.

It is therefore impossible at this stage to know what plans the Town Council have to make the building self-sufficient and not add additional costs to the precept.

With vision and proper management, this building could be a real asset to Tenbury Wells and become a tourist destination, but does the Town Council have the necessary skill set and business acumen at their disposal to full-fill this?

New Community Website

Tenbury Town Council have launched a new community website.

www.tenburytown.org.uk

They will shortly be writing to local businesses and organisations inviting advertising, and event editorial.