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Coordinates: 51°06′11″N 3°03′51″W / 51.102970°N
3.064156°W / 51.102970;
-3.064156
Goathurst is a small village and civil parish in the
English county of Somerset, around 3 miles from
the town of Bridgwater. The parish includes the hamlet of
Andersfield.
History
Originally part of the Royal Forest of North Petherton, its
first squire owned[2]
Goathurst's St Edward's
church, a Grade I listed building [3] which
includes a 19th-century monument to three-year-old Isabella Kemeys,
showing the child lying on a pillow holding a broken flower.[4]
Goathurst was the location of a 300-person prisoner of war
camp during World War
II, initially housing Italian prisoners from the Western Desert Campaign, and
later German prisoners
following the Battle of Normandy.[5]
Governance
The parish
council has responsibility for local issues, including setting
an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council’s operating
costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish
council evaluates local planning applications and works with the
local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of
crime, security, and traffic. The parish council's role also
includes initiating projects for the maintenance and repair of
parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council
on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage,
footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation
matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental
issues are also the responsibility of the council.
The village falls within the Non-metropolitan district of
Sedgemoor, which was
formed on April 1, 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972,
having previously been part of Bridgwater Rural
District,[6] which
is responsible for local planning and building
control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection and recycling, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism.
Somerset County Council is
responsible for running the largest and most expensive local
services such as education, social services, libraries, main roads, public
transport, policing and fire
services, trading
standards, waste disposal and strategic planning.
It is also part of the Bridgwater county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United
Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the
first past the post system of election, and
part of the South
West England constituency of the European Parliament which elects
seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list
proportional representation.
See also
References
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