PLEASE keep your letters to 250 words maximum giving your name, address and daytime telephone number - even on emails. Email: letters@gazetteandherald.co.uk. Write: Gazette and Herald, 1 Newmarket Avenue, White Horse Business Park, Trowbridge, BA14 0XQ. Phone: 01225 773600.

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

Consider all options

I WRITE to express my severe concern over the announcement that a section of the A4 and Avenue La Fleche are to be closed for 5 days for what is said to be “essential maintenance”.

Just what is this essential maintenance? I think the travelling public and those likely to be affected by drivers who will not follow the advertised diversion routes but will seek alternatives through country lanes around Bremhill, Ratford, Studley/Stanley and Lacock should be told.

I wish to be convinced that all options for carrying out this work have been scrutinised and approved by Councillors who are ultimately responsible for the management of the Highway network.

Questions which need to be asked and answered include:

Can the works be performed over short lengths , say 2-300 yards?

Why does they require a total carriageway closure and why can they not be performed with one-way working?

What measures are planned to prevent use of country lanes with inadequate width to allow two vehicles to pass and very soft verges?

Do the works require all day closure or only during off peak hours?

Why can the work not be done at night when traffic flows are a fraction of daytime usage?

I am sure any Contractor will say “this is the cheapest way of doing the work” (that is the least inconvenience to them) and that it is preferable to close the road for “Health & Safety of their workforce”. However these assertions must surely be tested against the inconvenience to road users and residents, not forgetting repair costs to minor roads not fit for diversions.

With such a huge Official Diversion planned there needs to be a thorough review of the alternatives. On more than one occasion in recent years I have been through single line road works where platoon or convoy working has operated. A quad-bike or similar small vehicle leads each group of vehicles past the works at a controlled speed which thus minimises any risk to the road workers. As with all hold-ups it can be frustrating but far better than being sent miles out of one’s way.

I spent 40 years designing, maintaining, planning and building highways - the last 7 of which were as Chief Officer of a large Shire County. The highways Act 1980 declares that a Highway is a way over which the public have the Right of Passage and that no Highway may be closed without the approval of the Highway Authority. In my day there was a general presumption against sanctioning a highway closure except in the most extreme circumstances. Nowadays it seems contractors can obtain road closures with little or no regard to the effect on other road users.

Have the Council given specific authorisation for this closure and if so why?

G.J.Hobbs, Elmbridge, Studley Hill, Studley, Calne

Trains no answer

MARTIN Bovett (Letters 24th October) suggests a train service between Calne and Chippenham could ease Calne traffic congestion, making a bypass and associated new-builds unnecessary. I believe Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (SWLEP) Rail Strategy Report advises a train would not be financially viable/ competitive with the current bus service. Reinstating the train line would also likely mean the demise of the popular Calne - Chippenham cyclepath, which was saved from closure by petition in March 2019.

Every year a quarter of a million more people move to the UK than leave and the extra population need houses. In past years immigration has been centred around large urban areas leaving rural Wiltshire relatively unaffected and allowing house building in Wiltshire to be been seen as an optional enabler for new roads. All change!

Now rural counties like Wiltshire are being transformed into urban employment centres to accept a set-in-stone quota of new-builds. If Wiltshire Council fail to provide land for ~45,000 new houses by the year 2036 central government will step in and build them where they see fit.

It’s no longer new houses to pay for new roads, but new towns, roads, bus routes and train services to support the aforementioned population explosion. No transport investment is pending for Calne, which is interesting given the concentration of new-builds planned in surrounding towns Chippenham and Melksham and the 2 A-roads (A4 and A3102) currently kettled into 1 single carriageway road through Calne Town centre.

Oliver Rawle, The Green, Calne

Not what we wanted

My response was like that of Margaret Taylor, who you reported as saying “I will believe it when I see it” about yet another announcement in your paper about the building/ opening of a Care Centre for Devizes.

This proposed new health centre has been announced and reported as being built/ opened at least three times both in your paper and elsewhere!

Before the 2015 General Election the Labour Party organized a local petition for a Minor Injuries Unit for Devizes, which we presented to Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group As a result we were invited to meet them to discuss their plans to build an even better facility, an Urgent Care Centre, which would also include a Minor Injuries Unit.

It would appear from your report that the facility we campaigned for, a Minor Injuries Unit has been dropped, as “the new centre which will be organised with appointments and not take walk in patients” Does this mean that patients with minor injuries, often young children and elderly people, will still have to travel to Trowbridge or Chippenham to be treated? If so, this is not what we campaigned for!

Sue Buxton, Ex Secretary Devizes Constituency Labour Party, Lansdowne Terrace, Morris Lane, Devizes

Wonderful concert

I WOULD like to publicly thank the management and volunteers of Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon for laying on a lovely concert on Sunday afternoon. The performers were Sinfonia Cymru, a group of very talented young musicians based in Wales.

Surprisingly the Director was a Scot, James Crabb, who played the classical accordion in tango pieces by Piazzolla and others. This was very unusual and very impressive. My wife and I were entranced for over two hours. Brexit was a million miles away – perhaps where it should be!

David Feather, Broadley Park, North Bradley, Trowbridge

Time for a change

CALNE Without Parish Council is to hold a meeting next week, to give its views on the proposal to create a separate parish council for Derry Hill and Studley.

On the face of it this should be a forgone conclusion as around 700 residents of the two villages have signed a petition asking Wiltshire Council to create the new parish council through something called a Community Governance Review. Over 95% of residents canvassed have supported the creation of a new parish.

The meeting won’t be held in Derry Hill, as it usually is, but instead it is to be at Calne Town Hall at 7.30 pm on Thursday, November 7. I would strongly encourage residents of Derry Hill, Studley and Old Derry Hill to attend the meeting despite the inconvenient location, to make their views known to the council.

The idea of a parish of Derry Hill and Studley is not a new one, it was raised about 15 years ago and reported by the Gazette & Herald along with proposals to merge the remaining villages in Calne Without with their adjoining parishes. This was opposed by the then parish council, a number of who’s members are still councillors.

Residents attending the meeting next Thursday will hopefully have an opportunity to influence councillors decisions.

The new parish would benefit from entirely locally elected councillors who could engage with residents and be responsive to their needs. In the current parish where Derry Hill and Studley is underrepresented, decisions are often in the hands of councillors from distant villages who have little contact with our residents and are not familiar with our local issues. Please try to attend the meeting next Thursday.

Ioan Rees, Rag Cottage, Old Road, Studley

CGI is working well

A BRIEF Wiltshire Times report on the recent crop formation at Norridge Wood included information about last year’s Hackpen Hill events which couldn’t be more wrong. I, in my capacity as farmer liaison and fundraiser with my organisation Core Group Initiative (CGI) raised £7,075 at two crop circles at Hackpen Hill last summer by literally camping at a the gate to the CC field for weeks managing the domain free for the farmer and facilitating access to hundreds of visitors, many from overseas, to the crop circle by asking for £3 per head for charity, of which 99.9% were utterly happy to do.

The simple fact is that there is no way that the farmer would be able or inclined to do this without the total help of CGI. He merely agrees to it. We ask for nothing in return. A total of over £32,000 over seven years has been raised for local charity, £22,320 of which went to Brighter Futures cancer facility at Swindon Hospital.

Crop formations have been generating huge sums with us for charity over the recent years with CGI, working well with cooperative kindly farmers like James Hussey of Broad Hinton. We’ve been on the TV, BBC, ITV and radio. Access to crop circles at and around Hackpen Hill has been a huge success with CGI for several years now. Farmers tend to be hands-off but allow us to do this for the benefit of the local charities.

The MO is that the farmer agrees to allow fundraising on his land but CGI and myself do all the day to day work completely free for weeks on end receiving and educating visitors to good behaviour on land. I can do this as I’m of independent means.

Paul Jacobs, Founder and frontrunner CGI

Get a free PSA test

ON BEHALF of Wiltshire Freemasons, I thought we should share the results of our recent free PSA testing day. It was gratifying to see 270 men turn up to be tested. This was, by far, the most popular testing session we have had in Wiltshire thus far.

Sadly, one man dies every 45 minutes from prostate cancer. We want to change that. The results of these test were: 248 Green letters, OK but should have another test in 12 months. 11 Amber and 1 Amber High, advised to be tested again within 3 months. There were 10 Red letters issued which advised the recipients to contact their doctor straight away for further tests.

PSA blood testing, we know, is not an infallible test, but it is the best we have got at the moment. It helps diagnose benign conditions such as BPH and prostatitis which need treatment. It also helps in the detection of prostate cancer which, if found early, can be one of the easier cancers to treat with a high success rate.

The next testing day in Devizes will be on September 26, 2020, once again at the Conservative Club, Long Street Devizes. No appointment is necessary – just turn up.

Les Welling, On behalf of Devizes Freemasons, Sarum Drive, Devizes

No bread, no fun

FOR hundreds of years we fed our ducks and swans bread with no apparent ill effect.

Recent research has now said it is harmful to our feathered friends health and to give them specific bird food. Notices in our park say we can buy the correct food at the civic hall. I often buy a bag for my grandson. The mark up they make on the small bags of food they sell which I sometimes see the staff filling up from the huge bulk bags must be astronomical.

Now we are told our water birds are starving and urge the public to feed them bread.

Why suddenly OK to do so if it’s bad for their health.

Enlighten me bird lovers. I’m totally confused.

Roger Carey, Cornbrash Rise, Trowbridge

Your help wanted

I AM hoping readers might be able to assist me. I am a post-graduate research student in the History Department of the University of Winchester. I am researching the Cattle Plague (Rinderpest) epidemic, which ravaged agriculture between 1865 and 1867, when just under a quarter of a million cattle were lost nationwide.

My focus is primarily on the local effects of the Plague, how local communities and individuals were affected by, and responded to, the epidemic and the measures brought in to control it. These necessarily hit the farming communities hardest but there were serious ‘knock-on’ effects as we have seen with the Foot and Mouth outbreaks in the recent past. I am studying the effects in Wiltshire in detail, hence this mail to you.

I was wondering if any of your readers knew of anything to do with the cattle plague from family histories or common knowledge; maybe they know of a memorial stone commemorating the events (I am aware of several but not many). If anyone has family diaries of the period they may mention the events in passing or actual records of the events. Anything at all would be of great interest to me and I would be most grateful if anyone can help.

If anyone does wish to get in touch please could they contact me, in the first instance through my university email, t.pratt2.18@unimail.winchester.ac.uk. Thank you very much.

Tony Pratt, c/o Horticultural Dept, Wiltshire College Lackham, Chippenham, SN15 2NY

Prepare to be safe

THE end to British Summer Time brings darker evenings – and you’ll probably notice it getting colder too. This is the time to get your home ready for the winter and we want to remind people to carry out some simple checks to help protect and keep their loved ones safe this winter.

With more households likely to turn their heating on shortly, we want to remind people that now is a good time to make sure: that all gas appliances are fitted and working correctly – get them serviced by a registered Gas Safe engineer; an audible carbon monoxide alarm is present in the home – if you don’t have one, they can be purchased from most DIY stores; that the National Gas Emergency Number - 0800 111 999 – is stored in your phone. This is the number to call immediately if you smell gas or suspect the presence of CO.

Now’s the time to get ready for winter – it may save your life.

Clive Book, Head of Emergency Services, Wales & West Utilities