Frome Town Council has been praised by a respected media player for being open and transparent with its news and how to contact councillors.

In a rundown of many Somerset parish and town councils, each has been tested to see how effective they are at being in contact with constituents.

The health check included:

• Can it be found on page 1 of a Google search?
• Does it list councillors, give photos, contact details and their register of interests?
• Is there a contact email or number for the clerk?
• Does it have an up do date list of agendas?
• Are the minutes published in a timely fashion?

There are 309 parish or town councils in Somerset, and the highly-respected Leveller magazine, which has broken several corruption scandals in the county in recent months, assessed as many of them as it could, finding Frome the best of the lot.

The Leveller wrote: "Unsurprisingly Frome is an exemplar. It has a professionally designed website with good navigation. It is easily picked out by Google. Councillors are listed with images, contact details and declarations of interest. Staff including the clerk are listed and have contact details provided. Agendas were all up to date. The only slight complaint one could offer (and it is a tad pedantic) is that the minutes for the 16 November Town Council meeting were still showing in draft on 16 December (despite presumably having been approved at the 7 December council meeting). "

You can read the report on all the councils, including high praise too for Rode HERE