A Somerset village must wait for the chance to take back control of its local playing fields - because Somerset Council doesn't have enough staff to make it happen sooner.
Middlezoy Parish Council transferred its playing fields to Sedgemoor District Council in 1979, with the asset subsequently passing to Somerset Council in April 2023 after the district council was abolished.
The parish council has made a push to take the playing fields and village hall, located on Nethermoor Road, back into local ownership as part of Somerset Council's push for greater devolution of local public services.
But these efforts have been frustrated by a glut of similar requests from other parishes - with Middlezoy not being allowed to "leapfrog" its neighbours despite clear public enthusiasm.
Anthony Betty, who lives in the neighbouring village of Othery, raised the issue when Somerset Council held its most recent full council meeting in Bridgwater on Wednesday afternoon (July 15).
He said: "The parish council already manages the site through a lease and wishes to bring the playing field and village hall into common ownership, to simplify management and reduce costs for the local community.
"Somerset Council has stated that it is not currently prioritising this transfer because the parish council already has a lease in place and therefore enjoys 'reasonable security of tenure'.
"Can you explain why a parish council that has demonstrated both the capacity and willingness to take on full ownership of a community asset should be required to wait indefinitely behind other requests?
"Will the council commit to publishing a clear timetable for considering and determining outstanding devolution and asset transfer requests, including Middlezoy Playing Field?
"Given that the parish council transferred this asset to the former district council free of charge, is willing to pay the legal costs of the transfer, and is already responsible for managing the site, what tangible benefit is Somerset Council providing to local residents by retaining ownership of the playing field rather than progressing the transfer to the parish council?"
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Numerous parish and town councils across Somerset have already signed devolution deals to take on the running of local services - with Street Parish Council assuming control of numerous green spaces throughout the village, Yeovil Town Council agreeing to manage the Octagon Theatre following its long-awaited regeneration, and Bridgwater Town Council taking on the town's historic docks after its own transformation (though a newly-approved £5.2m scheme).
Councillor Theo Butt Philip, portfolio holder for transformation, human resources and localities, said the council was very keen on devolving further services but was dealing with a sizeable backlog of requests.
He said: "It is very much our intention to continue the programme of devolution to town and parish councils, and we are making progress on that.
"We are very grateful to all the city, town and parish councils which have expressed an interest in taking on assets and services, and to date we have received in excess of 80 expressions of interest.
"While it is fantastic to have received such interest, it does mean that it has not yet been possible to progress all these asset devolution arrangements.
"The parish council has an existing lease of the playing fields which lasts until 2043, and so it currently does have a reasonable security of tenure regarding the site.
"We have reviewed the terms of the lease and believe that it is relatively unrestrictive, which will enable the parish council to control the management to the site."
The council is currently undergoing a significant transformation programme, which numerous departments being reshaped to cut costs, resulting in some areas being short-staffed and delays in major projects being delivered.
Mr Butt Philip (who represents the Wells division) continued: "In prioritising outstanding requests from the many city, town and parish councils, we are giving priority to those who do not already have the ability to manage the operation of assets through an existing lease.
"We are very committed to working through our existing pipeline of devolution requests, and we will be in touch with Middlezoy Parish Council once we are in a position to discuss the future plans for the site.
"We hope to be able to commence devolution discussions with those outstanding requests in the next year, but whether a pipeline can be achieved will depend on the complexity of devolution transfers.
"To date we have completed over 125 asset devolution transfers and we have over 90 further asset transfers currently in progress. We are progressing these as quickly as capacity allows, but because we do not have a lot of capacity we are having to prioritise sites.
"Given that the community is already benefiting from the way in which the playing fields are being managed, and while we agree with the parish council's desire to obtain a freehold for the site, we cannot allow one parish council to leapfrog all the others which are waiting."
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