European Award for being Most Youth-Friendly County

The Assembly of European Regions (AER) recently awarded Somerset as the most youth friendly European region (in European terms, the term region means county).

Selected from 12 entries, Somerset was chosen because the region provided the widest range of activities supporting young businesspeople. The AER judging panel emphasized projects such as the Youth Parliament, Somerset Children's Parliament, the Youth Opportunity Fund (YOF), Youth Capital Funding (YCF) and many others. The points were for example given for the amount of money allocated from the regional budget to youth programs, the number of regulations supporting youth implemented in the local law and mentions about youth entrepreneurship in the regional education curriculum.

The prize is rather symbolic and prestigious - each region applying for the award receives a certificate and the winner is awarded with the AER Cup as well as a flag with inscription: "Most youth-friendly European Region". This is a welcome recognition of the work of all our partners across the county, in a range of projects from local to countywide & promoted by the Liberal Democrat administration at County Hall from 1993 - 2009.

Comprehensive Area Assessment - revealed 9 December 2009

The 'Comprehensive Area Assessment', which took a retrospective look at how Somerset County Council served its council tax payers - under a Liberal Democrat administration - now places the county as one of the best in the West.

As an Authority, we won praise for management, delivering services and value for money. In each of the five categories assessed by the Audit Commission, Somerset was given 3 out of 4 and an overall "performing well" rating.

In particular, we were praised for protecting the environment, for levels of recycling, for our adult social services and services for children.

Did you know? (Somerset under the Liberal Democrats)

• Last year Somerset County Council invested £10.75m in school buildings. This included refurbishing classrooms and school kitchens.
• We invested £26m in road maintenance last year, making our roads among the best in the country.
• We provide free 'Skills for Life' courses that help people to improve their numeracy and literacy skills. Over 1,000 people took advantage of these courses in Somerset last year.
• Last year we spent over £2m on extending childcare facilities across Somerset. This means more quality childcare and more support for parents and carers.
• We helped older and vulnerable people claim an extra £10.5 million of benefits last year to help them pay essential bills.

Sustainable Initiatives by your County Council

Barack Obama and Nick Clegg are not alone in thinking that this recession (whilst not welcomed by any of us) is nevertheless an opportunity to do things differently. Two big challenges currently face us; climate change and getting the economy back up and running. The two leaders therefore see this as an opportunity to combine both, with a 'green' programme of sustainable projects and policies providing the stimulus needed.

In Somerset, the Lib Dems have been progressing the green agenda for quite a while now, since winning the 'Green Council Group of the Year' award from the Local Government Association, we have installed small scale renewable energy projects in schools including; 2 wind turbines, 10 solar panels, 3 biomass boilers and heat pumps.

Similar energy saving projects at County Hall include photovoltaic cells on the roof and draught-proofing to our attractive, but not energy-efficient, 1200 windows. A display panel in B Block Reception shows the staff how much electricity is being generated by the panels on the roof, which roughly equates to all our off-peak usage. We are also assessing the feasibility of installing wind turbines on County Council owned land.

Further County Hall projects in the pipeline include a biomass boiler, better lighting controls and voltage conditioning. This means reducing the voltage where possible according to load and 'evening out' the supply. By this means we should save 11.5% of our electricity bill at County Hall.

Watch this space for more news on these developments!

£6m Regeneration Project for Minehead

Ian is joined by Justin Robinson while the turntable is under construction

At the official opening of this wonderful project, Cllr. Ian Galloway said: "I am very proud that we are now able to open this hugely significant development which the residents of Minehead have helped to shape. We owe them all a huge vote of thanks and I am confident that together we will make the most of the opportunities created by Somerset County Council and its partners, and that the local economy will soon see a good return."

The new Mart Road development provides modern workspaces for businesses, retail opportunities and 110-space car park. There will also be a cafe and the facility for different events to be held at the site, such as trade fairs and farmers' markets The site will also include a viewing area for the new West Somerset Railway turntable, which will enable visitors to see close-up the spectacle of 165-ton locomotives being moved by just two people.

Outstanding Youth Service

An Article from 'The Edge' - the newspaper about youth affairs for elected members:

Ofsted inspectors have praised Somerset Youth Service as 'outstanding' and providing a model of best practice both strategically and operationally.

In a relentlessly upbeat assessment inspectors say that at a time of change the youth service is providing a firm foundation of effective practice and represents a very good return on the budget invested by the council. The service is praised for its 'rich and diverse' curriculum which makes a strong contribution to Every Child Matters outcomes and the influence of its good practice spreads far beyond its own boundaries.

The service has developed very effective strategies to reach vulnerable and marginalised young people and ensure that groups such as care leavers, young parents, isolated rural young people and those at risk of exclusion from school are able to access the support and opportunity offered by youth work. Staff are described as 'well-qualified, entrepreneurial and committed' and there is praise too for the staff development programme.

The service has a strong democratic culture, also reflected in young people having many opportunities to contribute to decision making at county and local level and receiving very good support in overseeing the spending of Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital fund monies.

Somerset is one of only two youth services to have received the top rating, which came as the County Council Somerset received a four star rating in its Comprehensive Performance Assessment from the Audit Commission. The CPA report described Somerset's county councillors as 'capable and energetic'.

At last - Large Lorries re-directed by SatNav!

Lorries will soon be able to trust their SatNavs not to lead them down a dead end or an inappropriate route through a small village. In some areas they have become completely stuck and had to be rescued with heavy lifting gear, to say nothing of the chaos caused to the flow of traffic!

Councillor Hazel Prior-Sankey (Portfolio Holder for Transport, Planning & Waste) was greatly in demand when the media heard the news. She was pleased to be able to tell them that Somerset County Council and Suffolk County Council have agreed to work in partnership to help improve the quality of information presented by SatNav systems, as well as sharing information on other highways matters.

During a recent meeting at the offices of the Department for Transport in Westminster, the two county councils forged a common stance on what information the satellite navigation systems should be providing for HGVs as a minimum.

Counterfeit Haul Totals £200K

Henry works successfully with the police in his community

1,200 counterfeit items including DVDs, CDs and textile brands such as Burberry, Prada, Versace, Chanel, Ralph Lauren and Armani were seized by the council's Trading Standards team, in their biggest ever single seizure. A local transport company alerted the council after picking up a suspicious consignment from Exeter Airport. Heading for Northern Europe, the counterfeit goods originally came from China and would have retailed for between £30 (for items of underwear) to hundreds of pounds for sunglasses, handbags and running shoes. The estimated total value of £200,000 shows how big this business is and what an important job Trading Standards do for the residents of Somerset.

Gold Health & Social Care Award (for the South West Region)

It will come as no surprise to people who follow the success of our care services, to learn that our Learning Disability Services, together with health colleagues, won a Gold Health & Social Care award for the south west region.

The award recognised the staff's success in meeting the communication needs of people with the most complex needs and enabling them to take back control of their own lives.

For one individual, this enabled him to move from a position of isolation and self-harm, to taking part in activities such as abseiling and canoeing. There can be no greater reward for everyone's hard work, than experiences such as this.

School Improvements - we never stand still!

Cllr Pauline Clarke helps with the final touch at Cotford St. Luke - the weather vane

Over the past year, 11 building projects have been completed and a further 14 are under construction on school sites, including new classrooms, children's centre, a drama studio and sports hall. There are another 8 projects in the pipeline, including new Skills and Enterprise Centres and specialist sixth forms. There are also 2 new schools being developed in connection with housing developments at Somerset Bridge and West Monkton. New accommodation was opened in Sedgemoor for KS4 pupils in September 2008 and it's hoped the Taunton Link Education Centre will open in April, 2009. Plans in the pipeline include the Mendip Centre in Glastonbury and the Deane Discovery Centre for Taunton. In addition to this, we have replaced, or will be replacing, a number of life expired temporary classrooms on various school sites.

Somerset Believes Renewable Fuel is BEST

In line with the group's commitment to renewable energy, Somerset County Council became the UK local authority for the BEST Project (Bio-ethanol for sustainable transport) which attracted EU funding, and took delivery of 10 new pool cars. A network of E85 fuel pumps were installed across the county and as a result SCC won many environmental awards. Since then the Lib Dems have kept pace with the debate about biofuels and concerns about reducing food crops. They now favour using waste to energy technology (see article above) to produce methane and eventually, use this to fuel our pool cars. These initiatives are helping the community to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and to tackle the causes of climate change.

Nick tries out the environmentally-friendly option at Conference

The group were delighted to showcase the car at Liberal Democrat Conference in Liverpool in the spring. The Somerset councillors were especially hoping to draw their MPs attention to the fact that in order to encourage people to buy these vehicles, the government must first reduce the tax on environmentally-friendly fuel. Otherwise, we are left with a 'chicken & egg' situation, where people don't buy the cars for lack of alternative fuel pumps and there aren't many pumps because of too few cars that use them!

WAVE Funding Update

The European WAVE project (Water Adaptability - Valuable for Everyone) is an initiative that will bring £815K of European funding to Somerset over the next 5 years through the EU Interreg IVB programme. SCC has recently had confirmation that not only has the bid been successful but it received the top assessment out of 28 bids submitted.

The project aims to tackle issues related to climate change and water management. Particular focus will be applied to the already flood-prone Levels and Moors, where it is essential that water should be managed in a way that sustains both wildlife and the economic viability of agriculture.

Somerset Landscape Scheme

The Somerset Landscape Scheme aims to conserve and restore the best features of our landscape. In 2006-07, 240 projects were funded by the Scheme and 2007-08 has already seen that number increase to 262. In the last year, the SLS has helped landowners to plant in excess of 8,000 new trees throughout the county, in addition to various other types of scheme, proving that landscape conservation continues to be a high priority for the residents of Somerset.

Stars come out (again) for Adult Social Care!

Somerset County Council (SCC) has been awarded the highest rating for its Adult Social Services for the fourth year running, putting the County Council among the elite in the country. The report (by the Commission for Social Care Inspection) says that our social care is of a 'very good quality and reflecting value for money'. It particularly highlights the council's strengths in developing partnerships with the private sector and other stakeholders.

Exciting Museum of Taunton Project comes nearer to fruition!

The council's vision to restore Taunton Castle and build a new state-of-the-art museum, to house all the wonderful artefacts Somerset has to display, came nearer with our submission for planning permission in October. The £6.5m project also includes a café, extended opening times and a large temporary gallery for holding touring exhibitions. Visitor numbers will hopefully double to over 60,000 annually.

A mobile library service with a difference was launched at the beginning of November. As well as carrying 2,500 books and DVDs, it has eight solar panels on its roof to help charge its batteries. This green energy means the library doesn't need to carry a generator to power the two public computer terminals and other electric facilities on board.

Not forgetting our Young People

A new website for young people in Somerset (created by the council, but designed by young people), aims to put 11-19 year-olds in touch with local activities by drawing information from thousands of sources. The AWSOM (Activities Within Somerset for Young People) website gives them dates, times, costs and transport details to participate in things as diverse as sky diving and submarine excursions!