Dear Editor,

For many of us, November seems a gloomy month; summer days are long-gone and next spring sometimes feels a lifetime away, rather than a few months.

But there is still much to cheer us here in Wellington and recent news has proved that we have a lot to be proud of here in the midst of our small Somerset town where there is an actively life-sustaining sense of community.

The first piece of positive news - and the achievement really is outstanding! - has been the announcement that Wellington's Transition Town group has won first prize in the Royal Horticultural Society's award for Sustainable Gardening through the group's ongoing - and visionary - project based around Fox's Field on the banks of the river at Tonedale.

This is a national award against stiff opposition and we can be justly proud of what this energetic and knowledgeable bunch of volunteers has managed to do through sheer hard work and stickability since 2020.

And, of course, our Wellington Town Council has played an important role in underpinning the achievement with the steady acquisition of land which is now beginning to form the 'Green Corridor' in the Basins area and well beyond.

And this is against a tough background of the town council taking on new responsibilities being shed by the county.

So, news of a new member of the town council, Gareth Williams, Lib Dem, is heartening as he will surely be an invaluable member of the already very busy team at the council offices. Gareth secured a notable 57 per cent of the vote last Thursday, easily doubling the numbers supporting his nearest rival.

Gareth has wasted no time in getting to know his community of Wellington South over the last few weeks and is already well-liked and approachable.

Now a fully elected member of the council he will carry on in the same vein, I feel we can be sure, and soon become a valued member of the team who do so much day-in-day out for our town community.

JF Pocock

Wellington

Dear Editor,

As many people know, the Rotary Club of Wellington puts most of its resources into supporting organisations in the local community. However, we are also aware that Rotary International has a world-wide commitment to helping others.

Following the disaster in Jamaica, we have sent a donation of £500 to Rotary’s partner, Shelterbox. Shelterbox provides emergency shelter aid and other essential items when disaster strikes anywhere in the world. This aid, in the form of Shelterboxes sufficient to support 5,000 people, has been shipped to Kingston, Jamaica and will have arrived by the time this letter has been read by your readers.

It will be held in Kingston until it is known exactly where and who need it most, By liaising with Rotary in the region and by working through local Rotary Clubs we can be sure that Rotary's support is targeted and properly managed.

Yours sincerely,

Ken Atherton

Press officer, The Rotary Club of Wellington

Dear Editor,

We have read in your pages that Wellington faces unprecedented pressure from developers to build around 2,000 new homes over the next decade — regardless of genuine local housing need.

Wellington's current Place Plan, adopted less than three years ago, has no legal weight and still gives no clear route for the second phase of the much-needed Northern Relief Road.

Without stronger planning powers, we risk piecemeal development that makes the road’s completion far harder and damages the character of our town.By converting the Place Plan into a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP), Wellington could gain statutory control over where new housing goes, protect key green spaces such as the Cades Farm meadows, Longforth Brook corridor and the Basins, and safeguard important bat roosts and wildlife habitats.

An NDP would also secure a greater share of developer funding — 25 per cent of the Community Infrastructure Levy instead of 15 per cent — to support road improvements, sustainable transport and biodiversity projects.

I know the Town Council resolved not to move forward with the proposal to employ a Planning Officer. but engaging a qualified town planner to guide this process would ensure a professional, evidence-based plan that stands up to scrutiny.

Unlike the Place Plan, which cannot enforce protection, a Neighbourhood Plan would give Wellington the statutory power, funding and environmental protection it needs to shape its own future — not have it dictated by developers.

Tim Lomas

Wellington

Peter Hull’s letter in last week’s Wellington Weekly News commended his experience of surgery in Musgrove Hospital. My own recent experience echoes the care, kindness, patience and understanding of the skills clinicians and nurses give their patients.

After a fall from bed at midnight in August, the paramedic and ambulance answered my alarm to reach the orthopedic unit and ward by 4.00am. Having identified my details, knew the time of day and month backwards in 2025, within 36 hours I received surgery. Chatting with the surgeon, I mentioned my last operation had been in the Wellington Hospital, London, where he said he had trained. I was returned to the ward.

Physios and occupational therapists had me out of bed for exercise. Chatting with patients, one had fallen down a pot hole, and another over a dog, we praised the nurses ‘ladies of the bedchamber and gentlemen of the stools’, who responded with such care to answer the alarm bell. Not much sleep in air filled mattresses, and by 5.30am, alerted for the blood pressure nurse and prescriptions of pills, potions and pricks. But we looked forward to our meal times, menus of four courses for both lunch and tea, casseroles and vegetables, salads, vegetarian lentils, fish and freshly baked puddings, not to miss Somerset apple cake with custard.

I learned much from nurses and doctors from other countries in this multi cultural and multi faith hospital, who knew our language better than I did northern accents in this country. My geography improved too. These international professionals come to our National Health Service to give us medical care and their time and attention with compassion and kindness. During my stay I celebrated my 87th birthday. My gifts of bars of dark chocolate were enjoyed by the staff, with best wishes, and a morning therapy, singing 60’s songs. We must never forget the NHS is dependent on these internationals who provide social care we find demeaning.

After 18 days, I was discharged from a rear room of the hospital. One sees the size of the Musgrove Hospital estate and the wide range of warehousing, laundry and catering facilities, air conditioning plant, maintenance workshops for equipment repairs, plumbing to unblock toilets and waste disposal.

None of us want to find ourselves waiting hours for a bed in hospital. At these ends not all is well: a complicated triage system at the Medical Centre for appointments and endless waits for prescriptions from too few pharmacies in Wellington. Our NHS trusts have management problems, underpaid staff leading to shortages, unnecessary payment for parking their vehicles on arrival, taking a big chunk of their salary.

But let us never forget that the NHS is there for us free at the point of delivery, when we most need their surgeons and nurses. Thank you Musgrove Park Hospital.

Isabel Ward

Wellington