About the Council
North Petherton Town Council consists of fourteen Councillors who represent four Wards; namely North Newton, Hamp Bridge, Moorlands and North Petherton which includes the villages of Wilstock and Stockmoor. Councillors are elected every four years. The civic head of the Town Council is the Mayor who is elected annually at the Annual Town Council meeting which is usually in May.
The Council meets at least every two months and in there are regular meetings of the Committees – the Finance and Strategic Development Committee, the General Purposes Committee and the Planning Committee. Responsibilities for the Council and the Committees are set out in the Terms of Reference.
The Public are welcome to attend meetings and there is an agenda item called Community Time on every agenda where members of the public can speak about any agenda item for a maximum of 3 minutes. Meeting Agendas and Minutes are displayed on the website.
The Town Clerk is employed to support and advise the Council. The Clerk is the main point of contact for the community and handles the day-to-day administration of the Town Council ensuring the decisions made by Council are implemented.
Town and Parish Councils are the first tier of local Government. They provide communities with a voice and a structure for taking community action.
All local Councils have a statutory power to raise a precept (tax) to finance the activities and services they then provide for the community. North Petherton Town Council use this and any grants it receives to provide the following:
Allotments
Public Toilets
Bus Shelters
Heathfield Cemetery
Litter picking and grounds maintenance
North Petherton Library – working with Somerset Library Service and the Friends of North Petherton Library
As sole Trustee of North Petherton Playing Fields Association, it provides and maintains Memorial Park and Parker’s Field playing fields.
Support to many local groups and organisations such as Youth Club.
Each year the Mayor hosts a Civic Service held in the autumn during which those who have made a significant contribution to the local community in a voluntary capacity are honoured with the Alfred Jewel Award.
The Town
North Petherton is a situated on the eastern foothills of the Quantocks, close to the Somerset Levels. The town has a population approaching 7,000 and the Parish includes Chadmead, Fordgate, Hamp, Huntworth, Melcombe, Moorland, North Newton, Shearston and Woolmersdon.
It was the largest village in England before it became a town in the late twentieth Century. The town has several claims to fame including the fact that the poet and civil servant Geoffrey Chaucer was Deputy Forester at the royal estate of Petherton Park. Historians are divided about Chaucer’s involvement with the park, some think he lived in Park House, now known as Parkers Field.
A chance ‘find’ in later centuries brought huge excitement when it turned out to be one of the most important artefacts ever unearthed in the United Kingdom.
This was the ‘Alfred Jewel ‘, thought to be the top of a ninth Century pointing stick for reading, a skill King Alfred was keen to promote. The Jewel now resides in the Ashmolean Museum.
The annual North Petherton Carnival is part of the West Country Carnival circuit, and takes place in November, on the Saturday after the first Thursday of the month.
North Petherton has been twinned with Ceauce in Normandy, France since 1994.