Wiltshire Council is proposing to go ahead with a plan to close the A344 beside the stones from the Airman's Corner junction to the A303. This follows a public enquiry . The original scheme was to include the closure of a number of byways around the area, but following objections the enquiry inspector decided this was not necessary.
From 2005 to 2009 the average yearly death toll in the county was 27, out of a total of 234 killed or seriously injured (KSI). Wiltshire Council is in the process of adopting a target of 141 KSIs for 2020. Previously the council had a separate target for child fatalities, but these are now to be included in the overall figure.
A meeting of the Wiltshire Council scrutiny committee on Monday morning (Jan 30th) successfully challenged the decision of the Conservative 'cabinet' to close Urchfont Manor without adequate consultation.
Five opposition councillors outvoted four Conservatives to force the rethink, after a couple of other Tories failed to turn up for the meeting thus causing the party to lose its majority on the committee.
Plans to transform the lives of what the government calls "troubled families" have been announced. £450 million has been made available in a new drive to turn around the lives of 120,000 of some of the country's most disfunctional families by the end of this Parliament.
These families cost the tax payer an estimated £9 billion per year, equivalent to £75,000 per family. This is spent on protecting the children and responding to the crime and anti-social behaviour they perpetrate. Children from troubled families are 36 times more likely to be excluded from school and six times more likely to have been in care or to have contact with the police.
Two large leisure schemes in Trowbridge are going through the planning process at the moment. Despite what the developers may say its extremely unlikely they'll both go ahead. But which one would the people of the town and surrounding area prefer?
Prorsus' concept for the Bowyer's site is for an 8-screen Cineworld cinema, a Morrison's foodstore with a petrol filling station, six 'family restaurants', a pub, coffee shops and over 500 parking spaces. There would be a riverside walk and a 'civic square'. They say the project is fully funded and could be built out by Christmas 2013 if the planning process doesn't cause hold-ups.
Wiltshire Conservatives' decision to sell off cheaply one of the county's finest assets has been condemned by a wide selection of people, many of whom submitted their comments to the cabinet meeting on Tuesday (Jan 17th).
The Bradley Road offices in Trowbridge and the Kennet DC buildings at Browfort in Devizes are also to be sold. "Stripping the old District Council assets was always going to be part of the move to one council and is not unreasonable in the circumstances," said Cllr Trevor Carbin. "However selling Urchfont was not envisaged as part of that process and shows how desperate the Conservative administration has now become to grab any cash they can. This is not a good time to sell as property prices are low and the government's Localism Act promises new powers for councils to run facilities such as Urchfont on a more commercial basis. Instead of selling it for peanuts to friendly developers the Conservatives should be building on Urchfont's capacity and reputation to make it an even better asset to Wiltshire than it is already."
Highways supremo and road safety campaigner Dick Tonge is proposing measures to increase road safety on the A350 north of Chippenham. This follows a number of fatalities caused by people turning through the gaps in the central reservation. The proposals, which now go out for consultation, are:
(i) That the closure of the Pretty Chimneys crossovers be progressed.
