Governance and Public Services
Shepton Mallet is in the Mendip local government district which is part of the county of Somerset. In the 80 years prior to 1974, the town had fallen within Shepton Mallet Urban District. The town elects one councillor to Somerset County Council; at the last election in 2008, a conservative was elected. Shepton Mallet has four councillors on Mendip District Council, two elected by each of the two Town Council wards. Following elections in 2008, all were Conservatives. However the Shepton West ward elected a Liberal Democrat in a by-election on 1 July 2010.
The civil parish of Shepton Mallet has adopted the style of a town, and there is a Town Council of 16 members. Councillors are split equally between the two wards: Shepton Mallet East and Shepton Mallet West. The most recent elections were in May 2008, following which the council is made up of eight Conservatives, three Liberal Democrats, two members of the Labour Party and three independent councillors.
Shepton Mallet falls within the Wells parliamentary constituency. The current MP is Tessa Munt of the Liberal Democrats. The town is within the South West England European Parliamentary constituency which elects six MEPs. It is twinned with three European towns: Misburg in Germany, Oissel sur Seine in France and Bollnäs in Sweden.
There are two doctors' surgeries in Shepton Mallet, a National Health Service community hospital operated by Somerset Primary Care Trust, and also an independent sector treatment centre which carries out a range of surgical procedures. The nearest general hospital is the Royal United Hospital in Bath. Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service have a retained fire station in the town, which is adjacent to the ambulance station operated by South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust. There is also a police station, and the town falls within the Somerset East policing district.
Read more about this topic: Shepton Mallet
Famous quotes containing the words governance, public and/or services:
“He yaf me al the bridel in myn hand,
To han the governance of hous and land,
And of his tonge and his hand also;”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“I am primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant of all the gods, to demonstrate to all men that there is intelligence and good will at the heart of all things, and even higher and yet higher leadings. These are my engagements; how can your law further or hinder me in what I shall do to men?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Civil servants and priests, soldiers and ballet-dancers, schoolmasters and police constables, Greek museums and Gothic steeples, civil list and services list—the common seed within which all these fabulous beings slumber in embryo is taxation.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)