Council Leader
Cllr B Smedley
Brian is the Town Councillor for the Bridgwater Westover Ward. Brian is also a unitary councillor for the Bridgwater South division, which includes the Town’s Westover Ward. Brian has been a councillor since 1990 and is the Leader of Bridgwater Town Council. Brian is a member of UNITE the Union and a member of Bridgwater Trades Union Council.
Brian has a musical history dating back to the Bridgwater punk rock scene in 1977. Starting with the band the Dangerous Brothers, for which he was the principal song writer, he went on founding the Sheep Worrying organisation, which produced an alternative magazine, of which he was the editor and ran a theatre company, for which he wrote, directed and acted in numerous plays and musicals during the 1980’s.
It was during this period that he discovered Bridgwater’s historical links with Czechoslovakia through the Vernon Bartlett election of 1938, about which he wrote a book, a play, and a web site www.vernonbartlett.co.uk.
In 1989 his daughter Cathy was born on the night of the Velvet Revolution.
In 1991 he formed the Bridgwater Czech-Slovak Friendship Society which led in 2002 to the creation of Bridgwater International.
Deputy Council Leader
Cllr Ms K Pearce
Kathy is Deputy Leader is Deputy Leader of Bridgwater Town Council and the portfolio Holder for Climate Emergency.
Kathy was born in Bridgwater and has been a Bridgwater Town Councillor since 2011
Kathy is the Town councillor for the Westover Ward and Somerset Councillor for Bridgwater South division.