Midsomer Norton Town Council are set for their fifth extraordinary meeting this year when they meet in August to discuss the finances for the Town Hall refurbishment project. The Finance and Operations Committee resolved at it's July 17 meeting to invite the Town Hall Project manager, Nicola Dyer, to discuss the "income and expenditure" for the two phase project, later this month.

In February 2022, when the Town Council sought approval to borrow £1.5m from the Public Works Loan Board, the estimated cost for both Phases, including a contingency fund, totalled £2,280,097. However, by June this year the Project Manager's Report, dated May 24, showed expenditure for Phase 1 of the project to be estimated at £1,371,699.00, with Phase 2 estimated to be £1,644,484.00, giving a combined project total of over £3m.

Some members of Midsomer Norton Town Council, including the Mayor, Cllr Gordon Mackay, believe the investment in the Town Hall will enable the Community Trust, which manages the Town Hall, to generate enough income to become less reliant on council funding. However, with well publicised delays to the project, not to mention the rising costs associated with inflation, concerns have grown over the past year that the true cost of this project has not been considered.

The original Application for Approval to Borrow was published in the Town Council Agenda for February last year and included both expenditure and details of those providing funding for the project, including Historic England, Architectural Heritage Fund and B&NES.

This level of detail will certainly allow for a better understanding of the scale of public investment that has gone into this project, where it has come from and what sort of meaningful return is likely in order to achieve the "virtuous cycle" of investment Cllr Mackay has sought to promote through the press this year.