Welcome to Radstock Action Group

Thursday 20th November, Wednesday 26th November. All meetings start at 7.45pm.

Meetings will be held in the Methodist Church in Radstock unless otherwise stated. All supporters welcome.

PRESS RELEASE - 15 NOVEMBER 2008

Resignations unwelcome but understandable

Radstock Action Group is dismayed by the resignation of Steve Plumley and Janet Tanner from Norton Radstock Town Council. They have consistently taken a principled position on subjects coming up for discussion at Council meetings and have sought to reflect the wishes and aspirations of the people of Radstock. This has been in marked contrast to the knee-jerk reactions of some other members of the Council who have not been able to explain what has driven them to vote against the best interests of Radstock; these same people have often resorted to discourteous behaviour and remarks at odds with the expectations of those in public service.

We share Steve Plumley and Janet Tanner's hope that there will be by-elections held - the campaigns will hopefully give more people a chance to have their say over what they want for Radstock and will enable those elected to have a clear mandate on which to act at all levels of council engagement.

Evidence still not found to support view that War Memorial belongs to BANES

In relation to the final trigger for the resignations (the reversal of a Council decision to oppose the BANES attempt to seize the former site of the War Memorial), we note that Councillor Chris Dando has constructed a completely unfounded explanation of his view that the site already belongs to BANES. He has, at no point been able to bring forward any evidence to support his claim; it is particularly unsatisfactory that he has not produced any evidence that the people of Radstock support his position, and we doubt if he can do so - our petition on the subject collected a large number of signatures in three or four hours and was submitted to the Land Registry and other interested bodies. It appears that his enthusiasm for the handing over of the site to BANES is linked to his enthusiasm for the discredited NRR proposals for Radstock, and in particular support for the white elephant that is the new road proposed by NRR/Bellway.

What has the Town council been doing all this time?

We note that, according to his recent letter to the press, 'the town council wishes to start talking to BANES about the future of Radstock'. Truly amazing stuff - how come they haven't been doing this all along? Radstock Action Group thought this was a key role of the local council.

Working for a better future for the historic town of Radstock and its surroundings

Radstock Action Group will continue working for the positive regeneration of Radstock, building understanding of the need for our industrial and natural heritage to be cherished and enhanced, ensuring that the development of affordable homes for local people is matched by the creation of local job opportunities. We will continue to support the listing of the Victoria Hall and a revamp of the road system in Radstock which will not involve the building of a new road which will bring ever more heavy through traffic into the centre of the town which is a conservation area and simply cannot withstand such traffic. We will also continue to support the reintroduction of a rail link between Frome and Radstock.

Railway petition continues to grow

We are delighted that the petition (www.northsomersetrailway.com) to reinstate the rail link now has over 2000 signatures and has been officially adopted as a campaign by Railfuture (www.railfuture.org.uk the UK's leading independent organisation campaigning for better rail services for both passengers and freight).

Press release issued by Amanda Leon on behalf of Radstock Action Group: 15 November 2008