STOKE ST MARY PARISH COUNCIL

End of Year Report 2025

It has been a busy year in the parish.

First, thanks to all who volunteered, particularly to the “drainage crew”, both old and new. The parish is significantly more secure from extensive and lasting flooding than it was this time last year. We will always have some flooding, we are in a valley after all, but we can be safe in the knowledge that it will disappear.

Thanks also to those individuals who pick up the litter along the roads in the parish without any fanfare, and also to those who clear the churchyard.

Not all of you will realise that the defibrillator has a “guardian”, who carries out regular checks to make sure it’s working all year round, and this is something he has been doing for many, many years – again, without any fanfare.  Our thanks to him.

The Parish Council welcomes a new member in Rebecca Pow. Rebecca has, of course, served the parish over many years as our MP, but also as a Parish Councillor. We look forward to working with her.

Apart from the work on the drains, there is also a great deal which goes into making sure we have a strategy for keeping them in good shape, and a safe way of working for volunteers. Our own Mr Drains – Councillor Graeme Watt – has ensured we are in good shape, and also raised the money from the Somerset Rivers Authority for a major reclamation of a drainage course between Stoke Road and Haydon Road.

The Parish Council has also been working on the roads in the parish. Councillor Rob Hossell has spearheaded the work in Shoreditch, which now has a sensible speed limit and clear signage.  Some more work remains to be done by Somerset Council. We have permission now to install a Speed Indicator Device in Haydon and have bought the equipment. We now wait on Somerset Council to install the post to carry it.

The play area has been open for a year and has been very well used. A group of the Stoke St Mary volunteers (is there a regiment?) worked on the area -varnishing, planting bulbs, replacing the bins and the signs for which, thank you. Councillors Pat and Dan Fallance inspect the area weekly. If anyone spots a problem, it can always be reported to the clerk (clerk@stokestmaryparish.gov.uk).

We held an evening First Aid course in November, which was very well attended. We now have another fifteen people who will feel confident to help out with the CPR and the defibrillator, should the need arise. We are looking at getting the parish signed up to the GoodSAM scheme in the village  (details to come) and the potential for another defibrillator in Shoreditch, if the money can be raised. More later.

Through sterling work by Councillor Tania Watt and our clerk we now have a draft budget for next year which shows no change in the parish precept. This would not be possible without our regiment of volunteers.

I must also thank Councillor Sarah Wakefield who represents us so well on Somerset Council. Whatever beefs we have with the Council, its policies and its procedures, Sarah has been exemplary. Thank you, Sarah.

There are issues facing the parish which will become more important as the year goes on.

The Half Moon has closed. The intentions of the current leaseholder and the freeholder are not yet known. The pub is protected, to an extent, by being registered as an asset of Community Value until May 2026. All this means, in practice, is that the community is given six months to raise the cash to buy it if the freeholder wants to sell. John Meadon has pulled together a group looking at the alternatives.

Higher Broughton Farm is still ongoing. The Crown Estate will be meeting with us, at our initiative, to finalise their plans. This should happen before the year is out.

The biggest problem likely to face us in the New Year has been looming over us since the outrageous sale of large tracts of the parish by the Crown Estate. Somerset Council is working through the development of the local plan, which will determine where the targeted number of houses will go in the county. The developers will, no doubt, have huge plans for our area. Because they own land gives them no right to build on it but, given the pressure on councils to allow building, this will be the biggest fight yet. We will know more when the initial call for sites is published “before the end of the year”. We will want to call the community together early in the New Year.

My thanks go to all the Parish councillors and, of course, to the Regiment.

Best wishes

Colin Fisher

Chair

Stoke St Mary Parish Council

December 2025