The people who run Wiltshire Council have just taken a large step to distance themselves even further from the people who pay their allowances and salaries, and vote for them (or not, as the case may be).

They have moved the planning committee meetings from the evenings to the afternoons. These meetings are open to the public and have been held in the evenings for as long as most of us can remember. They are probably the only council meetings that the public wants to go to, as they directly affect people’s lives and the places where they live. But now, if you work in the daytime, you are excluded from observing, or participating in, those important planning decisions. This huge change is all the worse for having been taken quietly, behind closed doors, with a minimum of fuss and no public discussion. A large and important part of the local community has been disenfranchised by a single internal email from the committee chairman, Coun Tony Trotman.

The reason given is that it is difficult to keep the council offices open after 6pm. It has been possible for 20 years or more so why not now? The town council can manage it for its meetings, so why can’t Wiltshire Council? Of course it may not be a problem for some councillors that fewer members of the public can come along and make their voices heard.

This is another dent in the increasingly absurd Wiltshire Council strapline – ‘Where everybody matters’. Everybody obviously does not including people who have to work for a living. Those who promoted and supported this bad decision should reflect urgently on what (and who) the council is there for, and change their minds.

Chris Caswill, Independent Wiltshire councillor, Chippenham Monkton.