I recently had occasion to write to Midsomer Norton Town Council to seek clarification on their procedure for publishing recordings of Council meetings, given that meetings conducted over the past two months are only accessible through the personal account of a sitting Town Councillor seeking re-election.

I must compliment the Locum Clerk, Paul Russell, on his swift and comprehensive reply, but what I found particularly troubling was the fact that since the start of this year, the Town Council has lost three members of staff. The resignations of the Clerk and Deputy Clerk were a matter of public record, but the loss of a third member of staff came as a shock to me, as I’m sure it will to many of your readers.

What this means in practice is that the Town Council have been reduced to the Locum Clerk and one part time member of staff, managing the day to day business of a Town Council that last year spent £745,100 and currently finds itself managing the major project of refurbishing the Town Hall, estimated to cost over £2m at the start of last year.