Shepton Mallet is a town on the up.

The last 12 months have seen some big changes and developments in the town, and the next 12 look set to be no different.

Cllr Matt Harrison has been chairman of Shepton Mallet Town Council for the past 18 months, and has just been re-elected to the post once again, so he will be leading many of the projects in the year ahead.

"It's an exciting time for Shepton," he said. "This time last year we knew there was massive change ahead. The pandemic turned the world upside down – from a health perspective but also an economic perspective. The way we work, the way we shop – so many things in life are different.

"But ironically, the thing we cannot change, is that change is constant. So we can either just sit back and let it happen, or we can embrace it and make it work for us."

And Matt is determined that the changes that take place in Shepton Mallet will be positive ones.

"We have had a big year, and we've got another big one coming up," he said. "We've resurfaced the Market Place, we have remodelled the library. We ran a series of 35 summer events, and a programme of 47 winter events. We made improvements to the BMX track. installed our new boundary signs, and we launched our Heritage Trail app.

"Now we have already started implementing our new wayfaring signs and Collett Day is back on June 11 which is going to be great.

"In the autumn we are going to launch our new website, Hello Shepton, which will be part business-directory and part tourist information, and will also have a what's on guide.

"We have also committed to building a new play park in Collett Park, and the tender for that is going out shortly."

And Matt feels there are two big opportunities ahead too, in the shape of the Government's Levelling Up fund (which has set money aside to invest in infrastructure to support town centre and high street regeneration, local transport projects, and cultural and heritage assets) and the reorganisation of local government.

"We are working on a combined bid with Cheddar and Burnham-on-Sea for the Levelling Up Fund," said Matt. "And the first bid goes out in July.

"But even if we get diddly squat, the bid is still a good piece of work – it will be a living, public realm investment strategy – and there are other grants available.

"In terms of the local government reorganisation – it's too early to say what that looks like. But there is a new Liberal Democrat administration, and they tend to be more amenable to hyper-local decision making, so I am optimistic. I think it's an opportunity."

And Matt is full of praise for the town council too.

"We have got a really good council now," he said. "Even though on paper we might be politically different, generally we all want the same thing, and that's a better, successful, Shepton Mallet."