Leaders Column
A weekly column is written by the Leader of Mendip District Council, Cllr Ros Wyke, and contains her personal views.
The columns are published every Thursday in the Somerset Series newspaper group, and here on the Council's website. Previous editions are also featured online.
Cllr Wyke welcomes your views. If there is something you'd like her to cover in her column please email.
Many people are surprised to learn that nearly 40 percent of Mendip residents live in a rural setting. With this in mind, I wanted to talk to you about parish councils and the important role they play serving their local - and rural - communities.
I know many of you are watching the increasing rates of covid infections across the UK. The cases are rising locally in Mendip too unfortunately. We're all, understandably, concerned for what the coming weeks and months could bring.
Last week at a meeting of the Mendip District Full Council, we gave an update on our actions to combat climate change. Since taking over the administration, in May 2019, fighting climate change is something we've been taking very seriously.
Those of you who are interested in all things planning-related will have seen that central government is set to bring in changes to the planning system over the coming months. From what I understand, the main aim of these changes is to support developers and to increase housing stock.
Across our district, for a variety of different reasons, there are people who live on the roadside in vans and caravans. These communities occupy County Council-owned land and roads, and so it is Somerset County Council are responsible for any enforcement action.
I know many of you are keen recyclers and will be glad to hear that as of next month, the variety of items collected from our houses for recycling will be increased. Plastic pots, tubs and trays, food and drink cartons and small household electricals and batteries will now be collected.
As the season changes and autumn evenings draw in, what better time to start thinking about how to make our homes more energy efficient?
Today I am covering an item many of you may have heard or read about - the future of local government in Somerset.
Ask any Councillor what topic has featured heavily in their inboxes in recent weeks, and they'll most likely reply 're-wilding'. Re-wilding is when you leave areas of land to grow unmanaged in order to allow wildlife, especially bees and other pollinators, to flourish.
Hello, I'm Ros Wyke and I'm the leader of Mendip District Council. I'm really happy to have been invited to write a weekly column in this paper as I'll be able to keep you up to date with current news, issues and developments facing Mendip as a district.
