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Thanks for listening on birds

IT IS good to be able to share some good news. A fellow party member and constituent of mine, Miranda Shirnia, told me if the erection of nets to stop birds nesting in hedges around the former council houses that Green Square is planning to demolish at Bendy Bow in Oaksey.

I called the local Wiltshire Cllr to pass on the complaint and the RSPB to find out what their advice was. Miranda wrote to both the Parish Council and to Green Square and when I visited at the weekend I was told by local resident Jon Adams that they have been told by the developers that the nets are to come down this week, making it safe for birds to next again. He also pointed out the house martins and the humble house sparrows nests that are back in use on the houses waiting for demolition (house sparrows have themselves been seeing declining numbers of late).

The RSPB advice is not to use nets on hedges or trees during the nesting season, and if they are used not to use plastic (nylon) nets and to ensure that any nets that are used are checked three times a day for trapped birds. It is good that Green Square has listened and is now taking the netting down, but it is a lesson to other developers not to use nets in the first place, and follows on from a net removal that my friend and colleague Cllr Hopkinson from Corsham Pickwick oversaw last year.

Well done to all who wrote in to complain, it is good to see ordinary people’s voices being listened to for the sake of our wildlife.

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

Youth is our future

OVER the past few weeks I have had the great pleasure of speaking with pupils from both secondary and primary schools within Chippenham and discussing with them the work of local councils and councillors as well as democracy.

I have been very impressed by their knowledge and their wish to see the local community in which they live improve and for them to have the opportunity of both working and living in the local area.

As a councillor for over 12 years it is very important that I and other colleagues continue to understand the needs of our young people and try to ensure the funding we have at a local level fits in with needs of our communities both young and old and continue to understand the future needs of our residents.

CLLR PETER J HUTTON, Chairman of the Local Youth Network, Chippenham

Our PCC’s view

LAST week, the Gazette and Herald ran a story suggesting that my office had failed to provide statistics to councillors at Calne Town Council. I would like to take the opportunity to clarify this.

My office has not received any correspondence regarding any request for statistics from the councillors involved, nor the town council. Instead it was Wiltshire Police who was approached to provide a report on local crime.

Crime statistics are readily available, on both the Wiltshire Police website and my website. To preserve the valuable time of police officers, the local commander, Inspector Mark Luffman, explained to all parish and town councils that as the data is readily available online he would not task his officers to compile lengthy reports.

I fully support the Inspector’s stance on this. Where the information is already in the public domain we cannot expect our already stretched officers and staff to delve through the data and produce a report.

That said, any increase in crime is a concern and I will be seeking a meeting with the local inspector in order to understand the issues in the town and the action being taken by the police.

Community policing continues to be an absolute priority for me and due to the public supporting the precept increase this year, Calne will soon benefit from an additional police officer recruited to the role of Community Coordinator, who will be specifically working in and around Calne with a focus on community engagement and building strong relationships with residents, businesses and partners in the town.

My office has now received a letter from the town council detailing their concerns and alongside the police I want to work together to reduce crime in the town and tackle this increase.

ANGUS MACPHERSON, Police and Crime Commissioner

BID vote coming up

THE Chippenham BID is coming up for renewal in September this year. My family business Scholars has been trading in Chippenham since the early 1950’s, originally with a Market Stall and later a Shop in various locations, but now situated at 3 The Causeway.

The first time I found out about the Chippenham BID was when I received an invoice from Wiltshire Council requesting my BID Levy. I did not personally receive any information or a ballot paper for the BID as I have all my business correspondence is sent to my Office address.

A BID ballot is not the same as a normal election or referendum, because there is only a YES campaign and with this YES campaign comes the funding (in this case as it is a renewal your own BID levy funds are being used). Furthermore, there is no guarantee that every business will receive a ballot paper as records are not complete and ballot papers for BID’s are sent out normal post mixed in with literature.

The Private Company operating the BID continues to only file complete exemption accounts at Companies House and the accounts that are provided to members (at the director’s discretion) hide the staff costs, so no comparison can be made to the business plan.

In addition, the board of directors are supposed to provide some level of governance to the BID in relation to the spending of the £300,000 of levy payers money. However, the Chippenham BID has never had the required representation on the board of directors, as stipulated by the business plan for BID governance.

Directors have also been recruited to the BID board from outside of Chippenham, by allowing them to pay a voluntary BID levy and any business represented on the BID Board is still authorised to provide goods or services to the BID.

For this renewal it is likely that the BID will opt for the standard percentage rate of 2%, which is substantially more than Salisbury at 1.5% or Bath at 1%. It may also be necessary for the BID to gain the support of larger retailers by offering a discount on this rate.

It is obvious that the operating costs of the Chippenham BID are proportionally much higher than the larger City BID’s. However, the original BID Budget from the Business Plan included staff costs, but in the annual reports, there is only a small apportioned amount for wages.

We are never going to know the true operating costs of the BID, as in addition the salaried staff, projects are now operated by other external Private Companies.

The BID Ballot is September 26-October 24 2019.

If you have raised objections to the BID before or been critical in their surveys etc, please remember the Private BID Company has this information and may not be chasing your vote.

Whether YES or NO, please vote in the ballot, if successful all businesses within the BID area will be legally required to pay the levy for the complete 5-year term.

I will be voting NO, as there remains NO transparency, NO accountability and NO benefit to my business.

EDWARD KIRK, BID Levy Payer, Scholars, The Causeway

What’s going on?

AFTEr months of work, has anyone got a clue about how to negotiate the junction of Park Lane, Malmesbury Road, Langley Road and New Road at the Hathaway Business Park in Chippenham?

The original roundabout marking have been removed, the new traffic lights remain switched off and there are no give way road markings or signs.

Add to that, the apparently discontinued zebra crossings and an arbitrary lane apparently for traffic entering Hathaway in a direction that it cannot flow, drivers and pedestrians can only use knowledge of how the junction used to work to guess at what they should do now.

Currently all traffic adhere to the rules that applied while the roundabout was in place, while ignoring the erroneous and incomplete road markings, and the non-functioning lights.

All told the situation is an example of how road users can generally behave sensibly despite the best attempts of the road authorities to inflict dubiously considered changes to traffic control, and to hinder rather than help during the interim period.

I see little indication of the authorities taking responsibility for the use of this junction while the interminable ‘work’ to ‘improve’ it continues.

DAVID WALLIS, The Gardens, Heddington

Thanks for help

I WOULD like to say a huge thank you to the very kind people who came to my assistance when I had a nasty fall outside Cyril H Thomas’ workshop on March 28.

A lady and gentleman ran to help and the men from the workshop called the ambulance service then fetched my husband. A lady from the veterinary surgery brought me blankets to keep me warm. My husband and the gentleman also had a chair, tea and coffee whilst we were waiting for the ambulance, such a kind thought.

Fortunately I had no broken bones and after a thorough examination by the paramedics was able to go home. I am recovering slowly and will soon be taking my daily walk around Calne again. Thank you all.

HEATHER THORNE, Silbury Road, Calne

Schools: two truths

WHEN will Wiltshire Council tell the two truths about plans to close 3 Special Needs Schools in Wiltshire. The lack of proper public consultation over their plan to close 3 Wiltshire Special Needs Schools and build a single “super school” was agreed by the Judge at Cardiff Civil Justice Court as having been inadequate. His agreement to allow parents to proceed with a Judicial Review forced WC to undertake the public consultation again.

They have started 5 weeks of consultation which will end on May 6. The fact that the schools are on holiday for much of that time does not seem to matter. But then, consultation to Wiltshire Council usually means nothing more than giving people an email address to send any comments so that they can be easily ignored. Wiltshire Council still plan to close 3 schools.

First truth: Wiltshire Council is struggling to fill a budget hole left by government halving by 50% the amount of grant they give to councils like Wiltshire. Selling up to 3 SN Schools sites would help WC get in money to fill the hole. Council tax rises to pay for the necessary services will be no doubt blamed on the Council and not the Government. The weird world of Council finances gets worse when we consider that WC intends to borrow over £20 million to build this so called “Super School.”

They believe that future loan repayments will be easier as the Government is gong to be giving them additional grant money because of a projected increase in SN pupil numbers. Why would they think that the government is going to keep to any agreement to give them more money when they have already had their grant money cut in half?

Second truth is about SN children. Life for a child with any of the various conditions that make conventional learning more difficult, is not easy, with life for their parents no better. It is determination built on love that drives these families to keep going day by day. When a parent of an SN child sees them off to school they can’t just forget them. They will worry about how they are coping until they get them safely back home.

The distance that these children have to travel to school is one of the most important factors in their education. Some have the worry of distance to medical support if they have a seizure or other medical emergency on the way to school. The idea that taking children out of their local community and shipping them to a school that is further away does not fit with the excellence that Wiltshire Council say they want. To make it worse, children who are already in the 3 schools have built up relationships and friendships that are an important factor in their lives. The idea that transporting them to a new school that will be one of the largest ever built for SN children shows a callous disregard for reality. It is obvious that children spread over Wiltshire getting to 3 separate Schools has to be easier for them than having to get to one single location.

This is simply about money. These are 3 excellent Schools and closing them is a barbaric act of bureaucracy that would never be forgiven by those whose lives will be blighted by it. It is not too late. Listen to the real experts. The parents know what is needed. Stop any plan to close these schools and spend money improving them. Then you will get and deserve the votes that you always crave so much.

TONY FREE, Warminster

An outdated model

WILTSHIRE’S proposal to close three special schools and create an all-in-one school for 350+ pupils with moderate to severe special educational needs in a remote rural location has many of the features of the institutionalised responses to need which those of us in the field of learning disability and mental health thought were gone forever.

Experience shows that even with relatively benign institutional regimes attempting to solve short term needs and cost pressures in this way makes no strategic sense. Although there had been campaigns throughout the second half of the 20th century to draw attention to the poor quality of life and abuses in the large institutions for people with learning disabilities and mental health problems, in the end it was their inflexibility and the long term costs of keeping them open that sounded their death knell.

1) The proposed school will be one of the largest of its type in the UK. Large institutions are inflexible because once a large building has been opened it can take decades to close it when needs change. Almost inevitably numbers needing or willing to go there will fluctuate – especially when it is in a hard to access location involving long and expensive journeys for students and families

2) There is always pressure to keep institutions full because they cost the same to run whether full or not. Thus they suck in and hold people who would be better elsewhere or who would benefit from change or a greater range of choices

3) Institutions isolate people who need special help by keeping them in social groups defined by those needs rather than enabling them to know and be known by the wider community. For disabled children small special schools located near where they live and working with mainstream schools can provide the flexible, outward looking and non-stigmatising education that all children are equally entitled to.

4) Institutions in isolated settings develop inward looking staff cultures and are unattractive from a career perspective. Recruiting can also be difficult because journey times and costs of travel also affect staff members

Wiltshire’s proposals are full of good intentions but, in addition to ignoring the practical issues raised by the families of current students, they also ignore the laws of unintended consequences which experience shows produce large expensive white elephants. Generations of children and their families will be tied to an outdated model simply because it is there and needs filling.

DR BOB GROVE, White Street, Horningsham

MPs please listen

NICK Baxter does sound like he is talking sense in his letter reference revoking Article 50. He clearly points out that referenda are only advisory, and so not binding. What most people believe is binding is when the major parties clearly state they will respect the result of any referendum, something the major parties promised before the electorate voted against what most politicians wanted. Since then they have done their best to frustrate enacting the result.

Nick refers to the referendum held by Harold Wilson. The politicians of that day respected that result as it went in line with what they wanted. I have no doubt that Harold’s parliament would have reacted the same as today’s should the vote been no.

Even in a representative democracy it is a rash fool of a politician who goes against the will of the electorate, and if referenda are only advisory then why go to the expense of holding them at all.

Politicians, which must include Claire Perry, have a duty to at times listen to and enact the instructions given to them by their ultimate employers. If not then the trust the population have with their representatives breaks down and, in a democracy, more radical actions are taken, especially at the ballot box. The last EU elections showed this when UKIP won the most seats. That has not yet translated into national politics, but we’re heading that way with even the far right becoming more prominent which is a real danger.

People who say they respect democracy should accept a democratic result, otherwise we end up in a continuous loop of voting about the same problem.

We do not need another advisory referendum, we had one. We need our politicians to enact the instruction given to them. If it’s no deal we will as a nation still prosper long term. A deal would be better but not one that still leaves us tied to the EU in a customs union, or unable to leave the trap of the backstop.

ANDREW CARR, Brickley Lane, Devizes

We need to change

WE ARE the 6th wealthiest nation in the world, and we have people both in work and out queuing at food banks. What is the point if citizens can’t afford to eat and meet their other basic survival needs and over 4,000 children living in poverty. We also have in excess of 11,000 rough sleepers, over 4,000 of whom are veterans. What sort of democratic society have we now got ?

The government shows little care about its voters the public. Our politicians are afraid to explain the benefits of Brexit regardless of their duty of representing their public.

Just recently talking to MP James Gray I asked why he wouldn’t explain the benefits of leaving EU? He said “Why should I”. Where is the democracy if your MP is not willing to explain or discuss with their public the benefits or problems with Brexit. An MP who is against 16-17-yr-olds getting the vote but who’s future Brexit includes.

Then there is Climate Change and the Environment which other Brexiteers have threatened. Liam Fox, Trade Sec, stated “We will have to change our working laws and regulations in order to get Trade Deals”; Michael Gove, Environment Sec, stated “Our fisheries policy will have to change to be more open”.

We are now in the middle of the 6th Mass Extinction and yet we continue to meddle instead of supporting our environment. Only by working with others such as the EU can we have any hope of change.

GORDON SIM, Trowbridge

Vote Brexit call

IF Brexit is to be delivered, it is going to need a sea-change at the helm. The European Parliament election on May 23 is a first and immediate opportunity to show those within the Westminster Parliament that they are mistaken to continue to do everything in their power to thwart us leaving the EU. People need to be put into the parliaments who can be trusted and are competent to deliver on the clear instruction from the electorate in June 2016 for the UK to leave the EU.

No tricks, no delays, no kicking into the long grass and no pretending a capitulation agreement delivers Brexit. End the uncertainty and the whole torturous process. We have suffered enough national humiliation and shame in the charade of a negotiation with an intransigent and malign EU - no more! Get us out on WTO terms, free to negotiate a trade agreement subsequently with the EU and the rest of the world. Brexit is not a problem to be managed, but a wonderful opportunity to reset the country, respect its cherished democratic traditions and express its dynamism and spirit in an exciting C21st world.

Vote for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party on May 23, a party focussed on delivering Brexit and believing in Britain.

Register your support at thebrexitparty.org

TIM PAGE, Wiltshire County Organiser, The Brexit Party, Lower Dunge Farm, West Ashton

e-mail: timpage57@hotmail.com

Don’t hate politics

YOUR correspondent Brian Minter (G&H Apr 11), asserts that ‘politicians have systematically destroyed this country over the the last 50 years.’ Such cynicism calls for a response.

However disappointed we individually may have been in successive Governments, it is indisputable that living standards in the UK are much higher now than they were in 1969. One of the reasons that PMs Macmillan, Wilson and Heath all wanted us to join the Common Market was because the performance of our economy back then marked us as the ‘sick man of Europe.’

Today the UK is the 5th largest economy in the world. We enjoy living in an open, liberal culture. We have a comprehensive National Health Service; a third of our young people go to university; we have hugely innovative industries, flourishing creative arts, amazing sport etc etc. I do not recognise the claim that our country has been ‘systematically destroyed’.

Goodness knows our democracy needs radical reform and modernisation. But it has enabled us to experience a greater degree of political stability and continuity than most other countries. Raw anger and cynicism only encourages those who see democracy as their enemy.

JOHN BOALER, Woodland Park, Calne