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. 

Liberal Democrat Councillors in Wells will be supporting local wildlife by selling individual native woodland saplings direct to the public, clubs, and businesses at bulk discount rates.

This week, at Mendip District’s Full Council meeting, Councillor Tom Ronan, Portfolio Holder for Strategic Policy and Climate Change provided an update on the progress being made to address the district’s climate emergency commitments.

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.  

But that being said, I believe that as a District Council we should do everything we can to support these groups of people, including providing housing support to those who are eligible. We need a satisfactory solution for roadside residents and local people.

Councillor Helen Sprawson-White on Mendip Council has switched from independents to Liberal Democrats, giving the party a majority on the council.

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.