Richard D'Arcy Our New Mayor

For us to hear in December that Councillor David Marsh, several times mayor of Wincanton and a long standing member of the Town Council, had been judged by the magistrates to have committed benefit fraud has been a sad occasion for all concerned and has precipitated a crisis in the Town Council. As a result at the Full Council Meeting of Wincanton Town Council on Monday 11th January 2010, Councillor Richard D'Arcy was elected as Chairman/Mayor and Councillor Robert Dickinson was elected as Vice-Chairman.

Richard has served on the Town Council for many years, this being his second term as mayor, his first being from 96-98. He was born in Temple Combe in 1947 and has lived in Wincanton since 1959. He attended Wincanton County Primary and King Arthur's School, is married to Gill and has two children and three grandchildren.

Recently he has been particularly active in working for Wincanton Sports Ground where he is the Director with Responsibility for Marketing and Entertainment. He and Jill are also been much involved in the German Exchange with Lahnau.

Cllr D'Arcy hopes that the Council will be able to move forward, and concentrate on conducting the business which they have been elected to do.

At a special meeting of the Town Council on Monday 7th December 2009, where Cllr Marsh refused to resign as Mayor, the decision was taken by the Town Council to refer David Marsh to the District Council's Standards Board to see if it was appropriate for him to remain on the Council. That refusal had precipitated the resignation from the council of the then Vice-Chairman, Maureen Emery. David Marsh's subsequent decision to remain a member of the Council after resigning as mayor also resulted in the resignation of another councillor, David Norris. The result is that given some unrelated resignations, there are now five vacancies on the Town Council.

Maureen Emery has drawn the attention of the Council to the fact that there has not been a contested election for a place on the Town Council for many - perhaps thirty - years. She has asked if it would not be possible now to hold an election for all town councillors.

There was also other important business at Monday's meeting. In particular the plans to build a large-scale bar and restaurant at the Long Close site in Wincanton were recommended for approval by councillors. This is certainly a very important decision as it is part of a joint project with. Marston's Inns and Taverns to transform the outskirts of the town by building a 57 bed Travelodge at the same location. This scheme has now been officially registered with South Somerset District Council.

Another important planning application was one to build a new Health Centre for the town, three industrial units and four retail buildings at the New Barns site in Wincanton. Councillors deferred making a recommendation on this to a future meeting.

John Baxter with acknowledgement to the Western Gazette.

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