Category: Somerset County

According to Somerset Live; keeping Somerset’s streets and public toilets clean could become the responsibility of town and parish councils as bankrupt LibDem controlled Somerset Council seeks to cut costs. The council faces a financial emergency and has to make savings so it wants to devolve responsibility for them to town and parish councils, which could lead to further rises in council tax bills.

Several town and parish councils have already expressed an interest in taking over responsibility but if these services are devolved to town and parish councils, the cost will have to be met through their local budgets, with any rise in cost being met by an increase in their share of the council tax precept.

Unlike Somerset Council, town and parish councils have no maximum limit on how much they can raise their council tax by in a given year.

Another LibDem catastrophe in Somerset. Don’t vote for them again! Join UKIP and help us to get rid of them.

According to Somerset County Gazette, Somerset Council told residents, including a 101-year-old woman, to fill their own potholes on their road.

Elderly locals in Watchet say they live on ”the most potholed road in England”with 21 potholes. Their concerns have been dismissed by council highway staff for two years.

The say more than six people have fallen over as a result of the potholes – described by a neighbour as ‘bomb craters’ – with two being hospitalised. Living on the street is one Somerset’s oldest residents, 101-year-old Sheila Nicholls, who lives with her husband Bill. They are all elderly residents and don’t have the money to pay for the work.

The LibDem controlled council said it is the fault of their cars and rather than listening to their concerns they just said it was “nothing to do with them”.

According to BBC News, holiday park owners won’t be able to cope with the rising numbers of electric cars.

One Somerset park near Brean Sands, just south of Weston-Super-Mare holds a thousand static caravans, but has only three electric charging points. The owner has been told the National Grid can only support a few more, leaving most electric car drivers unable to recharge on site.

Every caravan needs electricity for lights, heating, and the gadgets of modern life but electric cars are much hungrier. To install hundreds of charging points would be a massive job. The whole park would have to be dug up, big new cables laid. The supply to the site from the Grid would need to be quadrupled, if not more. The grid couldn’t cope with it.

For years Somerset was left out of high speed broadband networks, because the resident population was small. In the same way, there are fewer high speed electric charging points in these remote areas.

UKIP opposes electric vehicles. We will repeal the ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol cars set for 2030 and end tax exemptions and free electricity for electric vehicles. Electric Car Batteries cost £7,000 and have a life of just 5 years if you are lucky. With a limited battery life, electric vehicles will not have a worthwhile second-hand value.  Electric car batteries use lithium-ion technology, which is potentially dangerous and car fires in electric vehicles is already more frequent than for petrol and diesel vehicles.

The RAC has joined other electric motoring campaigners calling for action from the government.

If this issue concerns you, please consider becoming a UKIP member. You can join UKIP at https://www.bathandsomersetukip.org.uk/join-us/

According to Somerset Live, a huge solar farm could be built on farmland on green belt land on the fringes of North Somerset. PS Renewables has announced plans to build a five megawatt solar farm on a 22 acres site on land south of Haberfield Park Farm at Abbots Leigh.

The land is currently used to grow crops, but the scheme could see rows of PV panels installed in lines up to 3.5 metres from the ground. Access to the site would be from the A369 – a busy commuter route into Bristol – down an existing track.

The site, from which energy would be fed into the regional grid, would be controlled remotely and CCTV would also be installed. The solar farm would take four months to build and have a lifespan of 40 years.

UKIP would oppose this unwanted development. We oppose building solar farms on agricultural land and we will remove subsidies for wind and solar farms. Land suitable for agriculture or grazing must be returned to farming.

Save our green fields …

If this concerns you please consider becoming a UKIP member. You can Join UKIP at https://www.bathandsomersetukip.org.uk/join-us/