The Radstock Mayor writes:

After my previous diatribe on the subject of litter, I am delighted to announce that we have reached a stage of equilibrium, with very little rubbish on the pavements and most of it deposited in the bins provided. Not so in the hedges surrounding the town. However, one should be grateful for all that effort and will have to hope that the native inhabitants of the hedgerows find the paper useful for their nests!

You will be relieved to learn that the application for reinstatement of the Radstock to Frome railway was completed and sent off in good time, so the waiting starts now. Some people have suggested that the railway will supplant the existing cycle way. This is not the case; in fact the reverse is true and the protagonists of the railway have committed to seeing the cycle path through to Frome town centre. Because of this commitment, we are now being supported by Sustrans and Frome Missing Links.

What I am really hoping is that if we get the railway link, it will provide a much needed impetus to 'raising the game' of commerce in the town centre. The pandemic notwithstanding, there are a lot of empty shops in Radstock and all these could be brought to bear when the passengers start arriving.

It has been suggested that Radstock should try to promote hobbies shops. As a child I well remember the Bath Meccano Shop and how I went there with my brother from Chilcompton Station to Green Park. What a magnificent experience! Covid has taught us the value of hobbies- weaving, model making, tapestry, ornithology and let's not forget model railways! They are all ways of maintaining our sanity and once the hobbies bug is caught, it lasts much longer than Covid-19.

Enough of this whittling! Now where's my tube of epoxy resin?

Rupert Bevan