TOWN MEETING CALLED FOR MONDAY 28TH MARCH

"Another First for Bridgwater!" declared Sally Jones, Chair of Bridgwater Forward , as Bridgwater Town Council responded positively to the Campaign Groups request for the First 'Town Meeting' of it's kind ever to be held in Bridgwater. "Now everybody come along and air your views!".

Sally Jones (Chair of Bridgwater Forward) Cllr Bill Monteith (Town Mayor)

Town Mayor Cllr Bill Monteith thanked Bridgwater Forward for asking for the meeting and introducing members to ".. the vagaries of "section 9 and 13 part 3 of schedule 12 of the 1972 local Government Act which obliged Town Councils to call a public meeting to which anyone was invited in order to discuss a key single agenda item. " The meeting was set for 7.30 on Monday 28th March and would be held at the Town Hall. The Mayor , who will chair the meeting, stressed that "..anyone could speak, under the usual conditions, but the only participants eligible to vote were the elected councillors. This motion is clearly something which is within our remit."

The Local Government Act says that 6 electors can request such a meeting . In this case the 6 signatories, Sally Jones, Bob Cudlip, Glen Burrows, Dave Chapple, Ian Tucker and Angela Tarr, submitted the following resolution.

"That this town believes that the sale of the Northgate site to Tesco Ltd will be detrimental both to the historic and cultural character of our town, and to the future of retail trading in the High Street and Eastover, where there are already clear and continuing signs of a serious down-turn in trade."