Midsomer Norton Town Council set up two new Working Parties at their June 5th full council meeting, to address the High Street's decline and the increase in antisocial behaviour concerns. The state of Midsomer Norton High Street was an issue raised by all the candidates in the recent Town Council elections and Cllr Shaun Hughes proposal met with unanimous support, as did the proposal from Cllr Jemma Griffiths to address the towns growing antisocial behaviour problems.

The High Street Working Group will review the "High Street economy and recommend short, medium and long term strategies to stop and reverse the decline, create economic growth and improved footfall". The group hopes to work with B&NES and WECA "to find financial and strategic support", as well as engaging with traders and landlords.

The antisocial behaviour group is also intended to be a collaboration, bringing together the Town Council, local schools, police, youth services and members of the public. Cllr Griffiths explained that reports of antisocial behaviour in the High Street were a growing cause for concern, "specifically for females not wanting to access the local area outside of school hours". It is hoped that this new working party, which should have representatives who will also support CAP, will seek to "address the increase in antisocial behaviour concerns".  

In July last year the Town Council agreed to "create a working group with stakeholders including Midas (the Street Marshal contractor), local venues and the police, to create a strategy for reducing anti-social behaviour in the town". Prior to this resolution the Town Council had attended a meeting with Matt Knight, the Regional Coordinator for the Community Alcohol Partnership, but despite the CAP still appearing as an external body the Town Council appoints representatives to, very little has been heard about the initiative since the end of last year.

Despite the apparent agreement that these two important issues should be addressed, there was no agreement at the meeting on when these two groups would meet, with the Mayor, Cllr Gordon Mackay, saying "We don't have the time to transact this amount of business to discuss the terms of reference for working groups. So we can resolve to have the working groups and then we will have to decide exactly what that will entail".

However, the Town Council's Protocol for the Formation and Operation of Working Groups, approved in December of last year, states that "when setting up a Working Group, the Council or Committee must set clear terms of reference for it regarding objectives, scope and outcome(s). These will be approved by the Council or Committee before the Working Group is formed". The uncertainty surrounding the membership, timeframes and terms of reference expressed during the discussion at the last Town Council meeting suggest that Mayor will need to tighten up how future Working Group motions are put to Full Council, to avoid this confusion happening again.