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Letters of the Week

THE frustration of St Mary’s parents and teachers reported last week’s Marlborough edition does not surprise me.

When the plans for the new school went before the county planning committee I presented a photograph of the entrance road to Ducks Meadow, taken from George Lane.

It showed the hill past the school entrance, the blind corner into the estate, and the car parking opposite the school entrance which restricted traffic to one lane.

The safety risks to both St Mary’s and St John’s pupils, and to parents and residents, was blindingly obvious.

Nevertheless the councillors decided no action was needed, either to widen the road or to remove parking.

It was agreed that a survey should be carried out six months after St Mary’s opened. That does not appear have been done.

In the recent snow the access to the school entrance was not even gritted. The motto of Wiltshire Council ‘where everybody matters’ clearly does not include Marlborough. We seem to be invisible to Trowbridge.

The efforts of the town council to try and get safer roads, better parking and affordable homes seem to be ignored on every occasion.

GORDON HUTT, Ducks Meadow, Marlborough

Support us in efforts

I’D like to follow up on the letter from Colin Hully in last week’s Gazette regarding John Bentley School (JBS) joining the Royal Wootton Bassett Academy Trust (RWBAT).

JBS has a strong record of improvement over the past few years and has been chosen to contribute to a parliamentary review of secondary education to share our expertise in school improvement.

Royal Wootton Bassett Academy is the only academy in the immediate area with the Ofsted rating of Outstanding and has a strong record of academic achievement. This rating was achieved under the leadership of the current CEO and has been maintained since 2010. Joining RWBAT is a unique opportunity to reinvigorate the meaning of education in Calne and gives the school access to a wealth of resources which will support our school to grow from strength to strength.

In answer to the questions asked:

1. Yes, parents, carers and members of the local community are able to join the board of trustees and the local governing bodies of individual schools and therefore decide on any pay rises.

2. People will have to make their own judgements on whether the CEO’s salary is value for money, but compared to the six-figure sums achieved by heads at other simply Good schools in the area and reflecting the impact he has had on the two schools already in the trust, I would suggest it is fair.

3. Teaching pay at the trust, including the principals, are determined by the Government and all have received increases year on year during this time of austerity.

The school has spent many hours listening to the thoughts and suggestions of students, staff and members of the community and we know that the school is looking forward to joining RWBAT and the opportunities this presents.

We are committed to providing an outstanding education for the young people of Calne and I ask that you support us wholeheartedly in our endeavours.

NICKY BRENNAN, Chair of governors, John Bentley School, Hilmarton

New stores welcome

IT being Valentine’s Day, we took advantage of the £20 meal deal on offer from one of the major supermarkets, and were astonished from the receipt that we had a saving of £13.70.

Assuming that the £20 deal was profitable for the supermarket, that means that in normal circumstances they would be charging a further 68.5 per cent on top.

The recent arrival in Chippenham of the two German discount chains is more than welcome.

GARETH EVANS

Hardens Close

Chippenham

History is damaged

RE your article in the Thursday, February 14 issue regarding the damage to the old bridge’s balustrade. I went to town on the bus on Friday, February 15, got off and walked passed Riva café to see a delivery vehicle parked up the side of the building.

I feel confident that it is a vehicle that has caused this damage as on several occasions. I have even had to wait while a vehicle is reversing up over the pavement before continuing to walk across the town bridge. The pavement is getting increasingly dangerous because of these vehicles. What do the town council do about it? Nothing. It’s a shame that local history is damaged in this way.

M PEARCE, Willowbank, Chippenham

Time to demonstrate

HOW amazing to read in last week’s Gazette that Simon Fisher and our councillors do not consider that our townspeople would attend a public meeting on this subject.

Let me put them right. Wherever you go at present that is all we talk about. I have heard it mentioned in shops, the Market Place, coffee shops, the bus, Rotary Club, my church, the local seniors’ luncheon clubs, committee meetings, as well as on Facebook. So many of us are horrified by your decision.

I meet friends daily in town and we all talk about the low footfall on our streets since the roadworks in London Road lasted so long, and a notice appeared on the road at Beckhampton saying ‘avoid Devizes’. Well, they did, and still do and a pretty town square with no parking will be the death knell of our town.

I am disabled and to take away some of our parking bays will certainly restrict my life. I, like others, can only walk a certain distance, so if you take away the two opposite Marks & Spencer, so many of us will be affected.

We have been so fortunate that our cinema has been bought and we are promised two! How lucky we are. However, in the evenings when both the Corn Exchange and cinema have events, we are expected to walk some way in the dark afterwards to our cars.

So come on down from your ivory tower Simon Fisher, publish large adverts inviting us to a meeting, not four small lines that our councillors will be in the Corn Exchange on a certain day. If not now is the time Devizes for us to demonstrate before it is too late.

NINA LAMB, London Road, Devizes

No row over robes

I FEEL I must respond to the letter from Cllr John Boaler in last week’s Gazette.

Cllr Boaler says he did not become “a councillor seeking privilege in any form” but the definition of privilege is “a special right or advantage only available to a particular person or group”. This seems to me to accurately describe the role of a councillor.

Historically, when individuals took their seats on Calne Town Council, they accepted the office and proudly wore their councillor robes at civic events, which are Mayor making and Remembrance. At those events we exercise our special right or privilege by representing our community.

We also exercise our privilege when we make decisions about planning, budgeting etc. I’m assuming the Labour councillors will still want that privilege.

When Cllr Boaler and his colleagues joined the town council they gave their oath of office and signed a Declaration of Office. At a later stage they decided not to wear their robes.

Clearly clarification was needed, so I brought the matter to the council to enable everyone to air their views. The matter was debated and voted on and passed with a large majority (15 to three) deciding to continue to wear robes on civic occasions – we definitely didn’t have a row.

We seem to have been bombarded with fake news recently. Whether it’s the ‘Save Calne Library campaign’ when the library was going to be enhanced, not closed, or the recent petition about air quality, when the current long-standing measures have actually improved the levels of pollution, reports like this are worrying.

When an individual joins an organisation like a church choir or a Scout group they are usually pleased and proud to wear the uniform or ‘garb’ and like the majority of my colleagues, I feel privileged to serve my community and wear my robes of office.

Similarly, councillors are expected to set their political views aside when they join a town or parish council because we should all have the single aim of working for Calne. That’s what I’ve always believed, but now I’m beginning to wonder.

CLLR GLENIS ANSELL, Calne Town Mayor

Think of the country

WHY was it necessary to have a referendum on our membership of the EU?

Many arguments were made, the vast majority of which do not stand up to scrutiny. Examples being the imposition of EU laws on the UK, notwithstanding that of the 35,000 laws that the UK parliament has imposed on the UK since joining the EU, only 4,000 have any relevance to the EU and of those, only 72 were objected to.

A significant objection was the cost of the EU, which equates to £7.3bn or 0.4 per cent of GDP. This works out to about £116 per annum or £2.23 per week for each of us.

This is a small sum to pay, to ensure that our businesses maintain the huge advantages of being able to trade freely with our nearest neighbours, providing access to a market of 500 million people worth $16.6 trillion. The EU makes separate contributions to our poorest regions, provides approximately £1.5 billion to the private sector for such things as research grants, and we have all benefitted from being EU citizens for the last 27 years.

Why did our MPs vote to implement a non-binding advisory referendum? During debates on the referendum government ministers stressed that the referendum would be non-binding. Because it was advisory it was unnecessary to have a higher threshold for approval, as it was not going to change any constitutional arrangements. The 2016 referendum never was the ‘will of the people’.

Why did our MPs then support the Prime Minister, when a decision was made to ignore the ‘non-binding’ basis of the referendum and implement Brexit come what may?

Why did our MPs support the Prime Minister when she decided that she would implement Article 50 to trigger the process of leaving the EU?

This decision was made without the future form and structure of the UK relationship with the EU being agreed by a majority within Parliament. Any such major constitutional change should have demanded cross-party support.

If our MPs fail to agree an arrangement with the EU, do they support a ‘people’s vote’ as a last resort?

It would be possible to hold a further referendum, but two wrongs do make a right.

Even now it is not too late to withdraw the Article 50 notice. It has been established in law that the PM can do so without the consent of the remaining 27 EU member states. She could then call a parliamentary enquiry to determine what the majority in parliament think our relationship with the EU should be.

I would urge all our MPs to ensure that their future decisions on Brexit put the well-being of the country above that of their party.

RON CROOK, White Street, Easterton

Woods are a joy

I HAD a lovely walk today through one of the hidden gems of Devizes: Belvedere Woods. The extensive area of snowdrops are just at their best, and there is no need to drive from Devizes! As published a year ago, when Devizes Town Council took over the woods, and had a lot of volunteer support, the woods go from the new part of the cemetery through to Quakers Walk, so make a lovely circular walk, coming back along the towpath to the Wharf Centre and tearooms.

TONY ALDRIDGE, Devizes

Dunstan is forgotten

IT has been announced that Calne’s John Bentley School is to be renamed Kingsbury Green Academy.

Kingsbury Green was a former name for The Green, which lies at the heart of Calne’s Heritage Quarter.

John Bentley was a philanthropist who left money in his will, proved in 1662, to finance a school: a house on The Green was bought which became the first Bentley School. Many schools came and went on The Green, which deserves to be remembered through its part in the town’s educational history. The later Bentley Grammar School moved to Wessington in 1957, becoming comprehensive in 1974: today’s John Bentley School is its direct successor; but it is a long time since it was on The Green. ‘Kingsbury Green’ is a pleasant and historic name but perhaps confusing as the school is no longer there.

In 2014 Calne’s St Dunstan’s School changed its name to Marden Vale for reasons I cannot understand. Dunstan was a 10th-century regent of England and archbishop of Canterbury; a great educator who had, with king Eadgar, begun an enlightened programme of reforms ushering in an Anglo-Saxon renaissance.

Dunstan crowned Eadgar in Bath Abbey using a new service that was to become the model for all coronations. Eadgar was succeeded by his teenage son Eadward who many disliked, favouring instead his half-brother Aethelred.

Amidst discord, Dunstan presided over a state council in a two-storied wooden hall in Calne, then a royal estate; the teenage king Eadward being absent, ‘on account of his youth’. Many present vigorously attacked Dunstan’s reforms. Dunstan was losing the argument when, as if by divine judgement, the floor collapsed, hurling Dunstan’s opponents to the ground.

Dunstan alone survived unscathed as he had been standing on a beam. This ‘Miracle of Calne’ was a turning point in our national history, followed as it was by the king’s murder and four decades of almost continuous Viking attack. Dunstan ended his days teaching the novices at Canterbury: he was canonised, rightly regarded as one of England’s greatest saints.

I would have preferred Dunstan’s name to be reborn in the John Bentley School name change. Our children need inspiration from their great antecedents and role models on which to derive hope and motivation to succeed. What better way than to name a school than by identification with Dunstan?

It is disturbing that Dunstan has been diminished within our town’s history. Few today will know the former five-storey Harris factory building was named St Dunstan’s when it was built in the early 1920s. Even the modern street name ‘Dunstan Close’ is wrongly spelt.

With Calne’s exciting involvement in the Great West Way project ongoing, it is so sad that we have treated our greatest historical figure so shabbily.

NICK BAXTER, Northway, Calne

Offer free parking

IT strikes me that the local traders’ main concern with the parking issue in Devizes is not the loss of parking in the Market Place per se but the loss of free short-term parking close to the shops. If that is the case, the parking could be provided by allowing the first 30 minutes parking time free in one (or all) of the main car parks with any longer requiring to be paid for, as is done in several other towns.

An alternative might be to make parking in Sainsbury’s car park free but limited to 30 minutes. Sainsbury’s currently refunds the first hour’s charge. If parking was free they might be willing to make a contribution.

JOHN WELLER, Salisbury Street, Devizes

Support mass lobby

IN Wiltshire alone last Friday, students from schools in Malmesbury, Corsham, and Bradford-on-Avon participated in the Strike for the Climate inspired by 16-year-old Swedish school student Greta Thunberg. An action that has seen children from 224 schools across the UK participate to have their say in saving the future of life on Earth.

That the youth are standing up to be counted on this vital matter should put the rest of us to shame for the damage caused to our planet and climate in our lifetimes. But you can do something now. I have proposed a motion to Wiltshire Council which will be debated on Tuesday entitled ‘Acknowledging a climate emergency and proposing the way forward’.

There is a mass lobby of councillors planned for 9.30am that morning outside County Hall in Trowbridge and you can help by either turning up or by getting in touch with your councillor. Their contact details (phone numbers and email addresses) are listed on the Wiltshire Council website.

We want this to be a polite and friendly day, especially as other demonstrations to save Salisbury library and for the special schools will also be attending full council, so vulnerable children and their parents will also be present.

We hope very much that the motion will be treated as ‘friendly’ and will be passed by the council, as 29 assorted local authorities, cities (11) and town councils (11) have so far signed up to a climate emergency in the UK.

This represents a not inconsiderable proportion of the total UK population (22 per cent) and it is growing by the day. The political make-up of these authorities have come from all parties: Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Scottish National Party, Green and Independent. The day itself will be long as it is also the budget setting meeting, and this motion is likely to be debated at the end of the day, but proceedings will be broadcast on the Wiltshire Council website.

So do your bit and write or phone your councillor and ask them to support this motion. See also: https://northwiltslibdems.org.uk

DR BRIAN MATHEW, Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for North Wiltshire, Councillor for Box and Colerne

Reconsider parking

WE read with dismay the articles in the Gazette & Herald over the past few days regarding the change to public parking in the Market Place, and also the reduction of free on-street parking from two hours to an hour - completely insufficient to do very much in town on a single visit.

In last week’s Gazette & Herald Cllr Simon Jacobs is quoted as saying that Devizes needs “to be able to attract more people into the town” .... “find new ways to bring people into their centres and new ways to keep them there.”

Surely one of the simple ways to achieve this is to make plenty of parking of all types available, and to keep town centre parking free for stays of two to three hours. Devizes is a pleasant and attractive small town, but already struggling to build and maintain its shopping and social offer. The relative ease with which you can park free for two hours up to 6pm, long enough to shop, or visit, say, the opticians, and then have a coffee and cake without having to rush back to your car, means we often prefer it to Trowbridge or Melksham, equally close to us as shopping centres, or even Marlborough, where the difficulty and cost of parking puts us off.

We agree with many of the concerns voiced by local traders, that removing or reducing the Market Place public parking, and limiting the current available on-street, is likely to have a significant negative impact on local business.

We support more thorough and open consultation, and reconsideration of proposed measures which seem likely to discourage non-resident visitors to Devizes.

ELIZABETH & JOHN WINCHCOMBE, Devizes

cc Simon Fisher, Devizes Town Council

Best option available

[Reply to Mr and Mrs Winchcombe]

IN Devizes we are fortunate that we have a significant amount of free parking in town and even without the Market Place, 20 per cent of all parking spaces are free, which is higher than any other town in Wiltshire and with a occupancy rate of around 60 per cent, it is very rare that a parking space cannot be found.

The changes to the Market Place are as a result of parking policy changes throughout the county, which will see the removal of all free parking in off-street car parks owned by Wiltshire Council.

Throughout the negotiations with Wiltshire Council, we constantly pressed for the Market Place to be transferred with its current use, allowing the Devizes community to decide how it was to be used in the future; however, following their parking review last year it was clear that this was never going to be an allowable option.

The parking review set out two clear choices for the Market Place, it either became a pay and display car park with a premium charge, allowing parking for up to two hours, or all parking was to be removed, displacing it to another pay and display car park. Either way there is an aspiration by Wiltshire Council to generate a further £95,000 per year from parking in Devizes.

Whilst neither options were very palatable, the town council, supported by representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, The Federation of Small Businesses and other stakeholders came together in the hope that we could persuade Wiltshire Council to change its mind. However, the best we could achieve was that the Market Place become a community space with a provision for blue badge holder parking, taxis and motorcycles.

National opinion supports the view that over the next 10 years the way we use our town centres is going to change and their importance as places to gather and socialise will be as equally important as the retail offer. Towns that don’t prepare for this by making their centres diverse and vibrant will be overlooked, with the result of ever-decreasing footfall, which in turn will put greater pressure on the retail sector.

SIMON FISHER, Devizes Town Council