Comment

Marlborough borough councillors and officers on the town hall steps in the early 1960s. The only member of the group surviving is the borough surveyor Claude Yeomans, on the right at the back

THERE is an old saying that "nostalgia ain't what it used to be" and nor is local government for those whose memories go back to the mid 1970s.

Another local government re shuffle is looming and the district councils in Wiltshire including Kennet and North Wiltshire are to be swallowed up into a County Hall-based unitary conglomerate.

Moreover, the word local will disappear from local government as villages in the far north and south of the county have to travel some distance to the seat of power at Trowbridge.

It does not hurt to look back to the halcyon days before the last local government reorganisation in 1974.

The towns had different councils to the rural areas. Remember the old Borough Councils of Devizes, Chippenham, Calne and Marlborough?

Malmesbury, which claims to being the oldest borough in Britain, had its own borough with offices and staff.

Then there were the councils for the country areas like the Marlborough and Ramsbury Rural District Council, Pewsey RDC, Calne and Chippenham RDC and Wootton Bassett RDC.

There was a massive campaign against reorganisation with slogans saying: "Do Not Vote for R.E. Mote".

But when the time came, the old councils seem to have gone out with more of a whimper than a bang.

Recorder Desmond Vowden, who proposed the toast to the old Devizes Borough Council at a banquet just before reorganisation in 1974, said it was a pity there had to be a change, but change must be accepted.

Fifteen former mayors attended the banquet, including Mr R. P. Sheppard who was mayor in 1935.

And at the last civic ball of the old Marlborough Borough Council there "was not a sad face in sight" according to the Gazette of March 21, 1974.

After much singing and dancing, hundreds of balloons were released, two of them bearing slips of paper giving the finder the right to a miniature copy of the borough's pewter platters.

One, incorporating the date of the first borough in 1204, was won by Victor White and the other, bearing the date of 1974, was won by Mrs J. Martin.

Only two of the former mayors of the Borough of Marlborough are still living - toyshop owner Tony Gray and former saddler David Chandler who later switched to a teaching career in Africa.

Mr Gray, who served a term as chairman of Kennet District Council, said the position of mayor was much more respected then, not just locally but also nationally.

"When you were mayor and went anywhere you were respected," he said.

Now local government in Wiltshire - except Swindon which became a unitary authority in 1997- is back in the melting pot and the four district councils - North Wiltshire, Kennet, West Wiltshire and Salisbury - are to become part of a new Wiltshire unitary authority.

The new unitary authority will have district offices so some cynics are saying it will be almost like a return to the pre 1974 days.

If they are right it could well be a case of not Back to the Future but almost Back to the Past.

2:36pm Monday 4th February 2008

Print

Email this

Comment