Unionist Club: outcome of the Community Consultation

by Councillor James Hood | May 14, 2019 | 1 comment

The reports of the consultants who have been carrying out a consultation to envisage how the Unionist Club might become a 21st Century Community Centre for Bruton were completed in April 2019. Following the Council election the reports can now be published. The consultants’ recommendation is that:

The Club and Council are advised that local people’s vision for a new community centre can be realised with a multi-purpose event space that allows for gatherings and performances, with community café (not for profit model) and Club bar, skittle alley and some new parking.

Their reports have been noted by the Council at its meeting on 28 April 2019. It will now be for the Unionist Club to decide whether and how the recommendations are taken forward.

The consultants (Counterculture Partnership LLP) produced three reports in support of their recommendation.

• The Executive Summary gives a short overview of their conclusions and recommendations;
• The Business Plan Report is a more detailed report with recommendations;
• The Evidence Report gives details of the information found during the consultation.

There is more background information about the tender process, and what the Council asked the consultants to do on the Procurement page.

Bruton Town Council seeks a new Town Clerk

by Councillor James Hood | May 1, 2019 | 0 comments

Following the resignation of our long-serving Town Clerk we are looking to recruit a replacement.

Our advertisement

£21,117 to £23,740 pa, subject to qualifications and experience, for 28 hours per week. Some evening work will be required.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a highly motivated individual, ideally with relevant experience, to undertake this interesting and varied post supporting an active and ambitious town council.

Bruton is a small rural market town situated in Somerset, served by 13 town councillors. In addition to employing an assistant clerk, the council also has a dedicated group of community office volunteers.

We are seeking a clerk of the highest calibre to lead and develop our team, to work actively with elected members to help improve the town, and to ensure that all legal, financial and other governance requirements are met.

The successful applicant will either hold or be willing to obtain the Certificate in Local Council Administration.

The position is graded at mid-LC2, (new SCP 24-28). The full time equivalent for this grade is £27,905 to £31,371.

Closing date for applications is noon on Monday 20^th May with interviews scheduled for Tuesday 28^th May.

How to apply

Please read the Job Description and Person Specification for the post carefully.

Send us a short covering letter and a CV, which when read together should demonstrate that you meet the criteria in the Person Specification.

Please also provide the name and contact details of two referees, one of whom should be your most recent employer, and let your referees know that we may be in touch with them.

In order to be considered, your application needs to be with us by 12.00 on Monday 20th May. Email applications to recruitment@brutontowncouncil.gov.uk are preferred, but postal applications received by this time will be accepted. The postal address is Recruitment, Bruton Town Council, 26 High Street, Bruton, Somerset, BA10 0AA. (If you chose to post, please note that Bruton’s post often arrives after midday).

Interviews will take place in Bruton on Tuesday 28 May 2019. The Town Council will make a decision about who to appoint at its meeting that evening, and we should be able to let the successful candidate know the next day (subject to receipt of satisfactory references).

About Bruton: information for applicants

Bruton is a small town at the eastern end of South Somerset District. It has a long history, was mentioned in the Domesday book, and had an Abbey, some of the remnants of which are still visible. The whole of the town centre is a conservation area, with many listed buildings, and a mediaeval street pattern which is a delight to look at but less convenient for pedestrians and cars, as the houses are simply too close together.

Despite its mediaeval centre, Bruton is anything but preserved in aspic. In 2014 Hauser and Wirth opened a renovated farmhouse on the edge of the town as an international art gallery with restaurant and garden, which now attracts 140,000 visitors each year. The town is well-marketed by this and other prominent local businesses, and has become something of a tourist destination, with over 28 AirBnB listings and overnight accommodation for nearly 150 visitors. This, coupled with its accessibility from London, has in turn made it a popular destination for people down-sizing from London (DFLs, or Down from Londons, as locals refer to them).

The other major business of the town centre is education. Kings School, a long-established private boarding school, occupies much of the land to the south of the town, and Sexey’s School, Somerset’s only voluntary aided boarding school, is also to the south-west of the town. Bruton School for Girls (which despite its name is in the neighbouring parish of Pitcombe) is another private boarding school less than a mile from the town centre. The often quoted 2011 census Bruton population of 3,000 actually includes over 400 boarding pupils.

Apart from Bruton itself, the parish is largely rural and pastoral, with two small outlying settlements at Wyke Champflower and Redlynch. Dairy cattle predominate, but several farms have diversified into related industries: Wyke Farms Limited, now a cheesemaker, has a turnover of £64M and 160 employees.

Because of its attractions and its employment opportunities Bruton feels and is a town that is thriving. The challenge for the town and its Council is to ensure that the changes that come with this prosperity are for the town’s benefit, and that Bruton remains a community that meets the needs of all its residents. In the 2016 Town Plan Survey residents valued the town’s friendliness, and its people, above everything else, but there was an under-current of anxiety about incomers, shops that didn’t sell anything that local people might want, and lack of affordable housing for young people. The Town Council’s Planning Committee sees this tension most acutely: in the historic centre there are frequent applications to create guest accommodation, on the edge of town there is widespread public opposition to new development that might provide the needed affordable housing.

You can download a copy of our Town Plan here, and read much more about the Council and the Town elsewhere on this website.