WE ARE now starting to see the real impact of the cuts being forced on local government by the Conservative Government. Here in Wiltshire we see public toilets closing, grass not being cut, roads un-repaired, vital services like the Wiltshire Hopper and public transport being cut amongst other cuts.

One solution to addressing these cuts to services, services we would all like to see maintained, is for communities to fund them through our towns and parishes. For this to work we need to ensure that all pay their fair share.

Trowbridge Town Council has taken the lead in asking other towns if they will contribute towards keeping the much valued Wiltshire Hopper service running. I’m delighted that Melksham Town Council has chosen to explore this further and hope that it may be possible to save this service, but let’s not restrict this just to the towns. If all of the town and parish councils across the five towns contributed a small amount, perhaps calculated on a per household basis then we easily raise the funds to pay for this, and other services.

If every parish contributed then we could have a fair and equitable way of ensuring that everyone has access to the services. I hope that all of the parishes will seize this opportunity to disprove the theory that they leave everything to the towns – let’s all work together and protect these vital community services.

Some may, of course, recollect that we used to have a more formalised method for doing this – it was known as the District Council!

COUN JON HUBBARD, Wiltshire councillor and town councillor for Melksham South