THE town may well be split over the merits and demerits of closing Chippenham High Street in the early hours of Friday mornings but the Planning, Environment & Transport committee, PET, of which I am a member, is not. 
The trial closure allows street traders to set up their stalls free of traffic flow and we at PET are charged with making an administrative decision in a sensible and realistic way about this and other similar matters. This is what we do rationally using our knowledge of our wards and taking into account opinions of those we represent.
High Street closure has been an issue for some time and in December 2016 after a request by PET, Wiltshire Council granted a closure order beginning on January 13, 2017 for a trial period and by meeting on January 28 the topic was back on the agenda annexed to which was a vast number of emails and letters mainly from motorists drawing to our attention problems created by the closure.
The agenda item followed after several speeches from members of the public at the meeting who opposed the trial closure and the committee members, far from letting the problem descend into a bad-tempered discussion, held a rational debate.
Some members, myself included, put forward the viewpoints of those both opposing and supporting the trial. In broad terms one standpoint is that without closure, motorists abuse open high street access by illegally parking to gain access to ATM machines and coffee shops whilst at the same time weave in and out of traders setting up and pedestrians alike; with a possibility of an accident. 
The other view is that by closing access to vehicular traffic it causes major and chaotic bottlenecks elsewhere, given that there are limited ways of passing through our town from one end to the other. 
Who is right? To my mind both; some problems in life are not capable of being determined in a way that resolves all the issues. 
Nevertheless, PET will continue to act objectively and with expertise to resolve the situation that at best is not perfect but lessens the downside of the situation in which we find ourselves.
Lastly, it is said by some that there should never been a trial in the first place. To that I say surveys, of which the more elaborate kind are hideously expensive, are but a snapshot of views and, like polls taken before elections and the recent referendum, are not a valid way of predicting the outcome so that a trial is a practical necessity.
The next meeting of PET is on February 16, 2017.
R J B GILES
Chippenham Town Council