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Tell us the truth about climate

EXTINCTION Rebellion (XR) is an international apolitical network that uses non-violent direct action to persuade governments to act in the face of the climate and ecological emergency.

We do not willingly choose to disrupt the lives of citizens as happened last week in five cities in the UK but until our government matches its words with serious action, we will continue, with a large London-based rebellion planned for October.

I know from talking to people that very many accept that these issues are of concern but it’s also very clear that they do not appreciate the extent of the emerging crisis and the urgency required to try and reduce the inevitable societal disruption. Which is why XR’s first demand is for the Government to be serious about this and to work with others, obviously the media, to communicate the emergency so that there is understanding and support for the enormous changes that need to be made.

Water underpins all life and yet, as the world heats up and weather patterns are disturbed, loss of biodiversity and a growing population are leaving communities across the world facing the threat of their water running dry. Just two examples: Chenai, India’s 6th largest city sits on the brink of such a disaster and in areas of Australia this looming risk is being called “day zero” by the authorities.

The UN estimates that more than 140 million people might be displaced by desertification alone and years with higher temperatures are already causing spikes in asylum applications to EU countries. Then there’s sea-level rise, crop failures and more….it doesn’t take too much imagination to realise the enormous threat to social economic stability – indeed to world peace.

Jo Ripley, Hyde Lane, Marlborough

Why is this allowed

RE: Planning Application 15/07234/FUL, The Rectory, The Street Brinkworth, erection of 8 Dwellings including 4 Affordable Dwellings; Provision of Car Parking to Serve Village Hall & Associated Landscaping. (Resubmission of 14/05118/FUL)

I wonder how many people will want to wish Happy Birthday to the planning application lodged by the Diocese of Bristol, four years ago on the 22nd July 2015. Certainly not the 120+ people who have considered the proposals and then written to object to this plan to build homes on a green field site in Brinkworth.

From outset, this application also garnered strong objections from a number of Council departments and other agencies: Wilts Council Drainage Team; Wilts Council Ecology Officer; Wilts Council Highways Dept; Wilts Council Rights Of Way Officer; Brinkworth Parish Council (on several occasions); Wessex Water.

Despite this obvious opposition, the applicant has also been allowed to alter the plans on several occasions, sometimes giving interested parties less than a week to comment. The very valid objections have been brought to the attention of the local Wiltshire Councillor, Mr Toby Sturgis, on numerous occasions over the past 4 years. Even more frustrating, the posted “target date for decision” is Friday 15 September 2017 and yet still the matter is allowed to drag on. Does every planning applicant get this soft treatment from Wilts Council ?? – I strongly doubt it.

Peter Seagger, Landers Edge, Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire

A long time coming

I CHUCKLED when I read James Bools’ letter last Thursday. He called for a ‘more civilised discourse’ on the thorny question of Brexit.

Earlier in the week, one of my friends, who has campaigned in Devizes Market Place for a People’s Vote, told me of her experience of the uncivilised way in which a man had pushed himself towards her and screamed ‘BREXIT’ into her face.

I then read about the number of MPs (of all the main parties) and other public figures who have received death threats from Brexit supporters.

This was in stark contrast with the People’s Vote march earlier in the year when upwards of a million people marched through London peacefully and without any police intervention for bad behaviour.

So, yes, it would be great if we could have a more civilised debate but I suspect that it will be a long time coming.

Philippa Morgan, Victoria Road, Devizes

Keep Europe united

IN THESE depressing times it is encouraging to note the actions of Dominic Grieve and other like minded politicians who put the interests of our country before personal ambition and their political party.

In complete contrast we have our likely PM, Boris Johnson clearly putting his ambition to the keys of 10 Downing Street before everything else. This is the man who couldn’t decide in 2016 whether to back leave or remain until the last minute. Once he decided that supporting leave was his best best to get to No 10, he was on the red bus with that and other ways to sway the leave vote. Ultimately this policy got the required result for him, of course.

There are so many reasons why leaving the EU is a very bad move for our country but one of the crucial reasons now is Trump and Putin.

Does anyone believe that Mr Trump can be trusted and will do anything other than “put America First”. We may get a few crumbs from his table but watch out if any of our politicians upset him.

Putin shares a goal with Trump also: a weaker,divided Europe.

Both men must think that all of their birthdays have come at once.

Gary Hunt, Chippenham

Help with medals

WOULD the person who wanted information about replacing World War medals please get back in touch?

Irene Sinclair, Chairman Chippenham R.B.L.

irenesinclair519@btinternet.com

Workload is the key

LIKE it or not modern living is very stressful and many are living unhappy lives as a consequence.

Many companies have taken on helping their employees and talking openly about mental health and helping their workforce accordingly. A brilliant idea. However unless they give their workers the proper working environment, primarily manageable workloads, their words are merely hot air.

Our doctors, nurses, police force, teachers, the list goes on are likewise going through the mill as a result of staff cuts and increasing workloads.

Privatisation is all about profit for the shareholder, greed of the directors and management who invariably have never worked on the front line, work for several years, and then receive a huge pay off when things don’t work.

Don’t say you are the caring employer, interested in ones mental health, and then give you an environment to work in that resembles a hostile war zone.

Roger Carey, Cornbrash Rise, Trowbridge

Youth need us now

OVER the past three years it’s been hard to avoid news about Brexit, but young people have been worrying about much more than just leaving the EU.

Many children and young people today feel there is little or no possibility of a positive future.

Our new report Overcoming the Poverty of Hope reveals two thirds (67 per cent) of young people believe their generation will be worse off than their parents. While 85 per cent were optimistic that their physical health and life expectancy will be better than their parents, sadly 69 per cent fear they will have worse mental health.

They’re worried about a whole range of issues including a lack of jobs or careers, high house prices, the climate crisis, poor finances and increased knife crime.

What’s most concerning is they feel they are not being listened to. The voices of young people are missing from debates about the challenges facing the country.

These are not issues that can be put off until Brexit is solved. Their concerns are very real.

So how can we, as adults, leaders, educators, parents, decision-makers and politicians, help them overcome this poverty of hope that is hanging over their generation?

We need to work together, believe in young people, nurture their talents, provide opportunities, knock down barriers, and listen to them when it comes to decisions that affect their future.

Emma Bowman, Barnardo’s regional director

What was the point?

RICHARD Hawkins (18th July 2019), reports that Urchfont’s Wiltshire Councillor (Philip Whitehead) says we cannot tell developers what we want them to build, but WE CAN; permission just needs to be refused for properties which don’t meet the criteria set out in our Neighbourhood Plan.

Wiltshire Council has put in writing, in its Decision Statement: “The Urchfont, Wedhampton and Lydeway Neighbourhood Plan now forms part of the Development Plan for Wiltshire and its policies will be given full weight when assessing planning applications that affect land covered by the Plan.” If that doesn’t provide the perfect opportunity to control what’s built, I don’t know what will!

There is clearly a relatively low demand for large properties; one at Peppercombe remains unsold, some 3 years after first being marketed, but it does have a price tag of £835,000! That’s certainly well outside the means of young families, yet these families are what’s needed to keep Urchfont alive and provide a secure future for the school.

The community wants 1, 2 or 3-bedroom houses which are reasonably priced, not 4 or 5-bedroom at ‘silly’ money. With the average UK salary of around £35,000 pa, a 10% deposit and a mortgage of 4-times salary, the most which could be afforded is the £155,000 a 2-bedroom house should cost. But they’re not being built; at least, not in Urchfont. Our Government says there’s a shortage of houses, yet WC will permit just one to be built in the space where there could be 3 or 4. With most of these larger houses having only two occupants, this is a ‘criminal’ waste of our limited development land.

Philip Whitehead is also quoted as saying, “there will always be a natural conflict between Neighbourhood Plans and statutory planning rules” (whatever that means), which rather suggests that although committed to ‘giving full weight to the Plan ....’, WC will find reasons to ignore it if it suits their purpose.

Our Neighbourhood Plan was a HUGE amount of work, undertaken by many volunteers over several years. Once accepted by Wiltshire Council, it should have become the basis on which all relevant applications are processed. If they don’t conform, they should be rejected. Otherwise, as Richard asks, “Why did we bother?”.

David Myers, The Orchard, Urchfont

Listen to village

FURTHER to Richard Hawkins’ letter heading ‘Is Plan Pointless’ we also wish to make the following points regarding planning in Urchfont.

It appears Wiltshire Planning Department have come up trumps again and passed plans for yet another (no doubt) very expensive 4 bedroom house in Urchfont. Just what the village needs (NOT)! What we do need are more market affordable houses for young local people to be able to buy and stay in the area. The planning application for this development was originally for a 3 bedroom house but Wiltshire in its infinite wisdom have again decided what’s supposedly best for our village.

The site would have been ideally suited to two smaller dwellings and they could have been designed to blend in with the cottages in that area. Instead we will have one huge property on a very unsuitable site.

Our Neighbourhood Plan stated that we need more market affordable houses. So far there are only two proposed, on the Uphill site, and the price of these has not yet been disclosed or decided on. Where in the village is it planned for any more affordable properties to be built? In any case, we have been led to believe, by our Wiltshire Councillor, no less, that landowners wanting to develop their land are not obliged to provide this type of housing.

It does appear that Neighbourhood Plans are a total waste of time and energy and are not worth the paper they are written on … at least where housing issues are concerned.

Val and Keith Brockie, Uphill, Urchfont

Useless lighting

IT WAS some three years ago when I totted up the number of street lights on our road which came to 35 over half to three quarters of a mile.

This seemed to me to be completely over the top as there is little or no traffic at night while these lights often shine directly into people’s windows and quite a few have blackout blinds installed (we have them too).

Our one mini roundabout has 6 lights round it! One or two would be sufficient.

It occurred to me that the Council could save quite a bit of money here and on similar roads elsewhere and so I got up a small petition to present to the Council through our local councillor, the proposal being to switch most of them off leaving about six in strategic places such as opposite junctions and on bends.

Not only could they be switched off but they could be removed altogether with the extra advantage of removing what is found to be a favourite perch for pigeons which inevitably leave their messages below on the pavement around which we have to navigate.

This would save the cost to the Council of maintenance as well as that of electricity.

But no, this appeared to be too difficult for the Council with our councillor suggesting that they didn’t have the money to do it anyway.

What is happening instead is that two lights so far have been replaced with LED ones.

These may save on electricity but they are way too bright resulting in even worse light pollution.

They are not shaded to direct the light on to the road only.

One does away with the arm that provides pigeons with a perch which is the only improvement but it still comes down to the fact that there is absolutely no need for the excessive number of lights.

One may try to help in some small way but, unfortunately, we have nincompoops in charge.

Rowland Pantling, Broomcroft Road, Pewsey

Thanks for help

I WOULD gratefully like to thank Slade House Social Committee in Victoria Road for kindly raising £400 in their recent Charity Raffle in aid of the Devizes MS Support Group.

I started a group within Devizes as there was nothing local for people who suffer with MS.

We have 20 regular members who come to monthly meetings that are held at The Nursteed Community Centre every last Friday of the month from 10am-12noon.

The money we raise go towards supporting our members in a variety of ways from holding weekly exercise classes to putting on transport so that members are not excluded from joining in activities or social events.

So a big, big thank you to all the residents and committee at Slade House for raising such a fantastic amount of money.

Becky Miles, Coordinator of Devizes MS Support Group