AT the Wiltshire Cabinet meeting in Chippenham on July 9, the council leader promised the public two meetings with full public participation, one regarding the transport policy for Chippenham and the other regarding flooding in Area C, east of the River Avon and Monkton Park on what is currently two farms.

What the public actually got was an introduction by Alistair Cunningham for both meetings who basically told us that the examination in public process has now begun and that basically anything the public now had to say should be addressed to HM Planning Inspector!

The lead planning officer for Chippenham, Carolyn Gibson, who answered most of the difficult questions on behalf of the council, sat with a group of developers for the whole evening – the same group who were over-represented at the council-held developer consultation meeting at the Civic Centre.

We were told that the bund at Riverside Drive was much higher than required to ensure that it will never allow flooding – which doesn’t explain why people living in that area either pay extortionate fees for insurance or can’t actually buy insurance for their homes.

In the flooding meeting, the presentation was the most amateur I have ever seen; the presenters were confusing, bumbling, and skirted all the important issues, just telling us it would all be looked at again when/if planning applications were made, so we didn’t need to worry! When asked whether the council looked at long-term cumulative impacts of the planning process we were told no!

In the traffic meeting we were told that no real traffic data had been collected for seven years, and the models we were shown showed various scenarios where traffic could be seen flowing out of town in the morning peaks but no models were shown showing the congestion in the evening when that traffic returned. The models were presented as if traffic only ever leaves Chippenham! The argument that an eastern link road would be better for Chippenham than the one proposed to the south was never answered apart from an Atkins representative telling us that the east was measurably better without providing any evidence of substance.

The chairman grew visibly angry and refused to allow questions to be answered regarding the uncomfortably close working relationship between the council and its traffic consultants.

The two meetings in summary were a complete farce and just another public consultation box-ticking exercise for the council. We were told what the council wanted us to hear, presented with no firm evidence as to why Area C was chosen and other much more suitable areas ignored and, in fact, most of the ‘evidence’ was what we already knew from published documents.

STEVE PERRY

On behalf of Chippenham Community Voice