One of the constant cries amongst residents is that the Council never listen to them and the Council will only do what Councillors want to do. Last night in Yeovil that was overturned.

The South Somerset Lib Dems have been trying to steam roll through a plan to turn the last piece of open land in Yeovil into a concrete Sports Zone. As I have made clear I am not personally against the building of a Sports Zone. What has always concerned me is that this was the wrong place to build a facility that was of regional importance.

The Save the Yeovil Rec campaign was a local campaign by local people who found the idea of the destruction of this open space as abhorrent.

After five hours of questions and debate the Lib Dem leadership, who were committed to this project, lost the vote when a few brave Lib Dems dared to defy their colleagues and vote with the Conservatives against the proposal.

So what now? Will the Lib Dems defy the people and try and find another scheme to put on the Yeovil Rec site? What they should do is take what is a good idea and try and work with the local landowner who has already offered a free piece of land which would be ideally suited for this type of much-needed facility.

But that is not the end of the story. Because what this shows more than anything else is how out of touch and detached from reality the Lib Dems who lead Somerset have become. The fact they believed they had the right to railroad through this decision against the wishes of thousands of local residents clearly shows the time has come for change. There were some tremendous speeches from the public gallery last night and I am really hopeful that some of them might be inspired to put themselves forward for the Council and replace the discredited and doomed Lib Dems.

• How the Councillors voted
• A dramatic night
• Protestors win their battle
• Planning move fails

Image by gazzat via Flickr

Are there really going to be 40,000 homes in the South Somerset area?

I was recently contacted by a constituent who was very concerned about this issue. Like me, he wants more housing so that there is a good stock of housing available of all sorts of shapes and sizes.

However, like me, he knows that what is likely to be built is low grade, low design quality housing built at the lowest possible rate and in the most advantageous and cheap places.

When the Government building programmers were announced it appeared that South Somerset were going to get just under 12,000 new homes. That figure then rose to 24,000 and now we are at the 40,000 mark.

Providing the current economic downturn does not mean the plans are pointless then what are my objections? Well, I am very concerned where you are going to put what amounts to a town the size of Yeovil. There is certainly not enough brown field (already used) land available, so it is almost certain that we will see green fields being built on.

But equally, will they be built without the services that are so important for the needs of a community. Schools, health facilities, drainage, water purification, transport etc. While some of these do get considered we know that many of them do not.

Nothing less than the future of our green and pleasant land is at stake.

You cannot be but impressed by the degree of activity that is taking place on this site. Drawing students of all ages from all over South Somerset and West Dorset there is a real sense of calm and desire to learn amngst the students I saw.

They also have big plans for the future- a £60m scheme to rebuild much of the College campus. Controversially they have become entangled in the possible development of the Yeovil Sports Zone but have a very clear position that they require new sports facilities and have a duty to explore with the Council whether the Council is serious about the Sports Zone or whether the College will have to build their own on their current site.

Now for a bit of publicity. Fancy a facial, a haircut or a silver service meal, the Yeovil College might well be the place to go? I was very impressed by the activities they are undertaking to give their students the experience of contact with real clients. I am going to give it a go - so should you.