South West Wiltshire Liberal Democrats

Highways England (HE) have submitted an application for development consent for their Stonehenge road scheme to the Planning Inspectorate. The application will appear on the Planning Inspectorate's website.

Non-statutory consultation on the scheme took place between 12 January and 5 March 2017, followed by statutory consultation between 8 February and 23 April 2018, and supplementary consultation between 17 July and 14 August 2018.

Wiltshire Conservatives have made the decision to hike up car parking charges next month. They have also introduced charges for Sunday parking and increased residential permit prices. Here are the details as released by WC:

Sunday and Bank / Public Holiday parking will become chargeable, unless town councils pay for a free parking scheme.

Here's the official press release from your WC, following Wiltshire Conservatives' decision to close it. If you live in the Pewsey area, or were involved in the consultation, or are of a nervous disposition, it's probably best not to read on as you may find it condescending, insulting, snivelling, inconsistent and desperately annoying.

Wiltshire Council Conservatives ran a public consultation from June to September this year on whether or not Everleigh Household Recycling Centre (HRC) should be closed. 94% of people said 'No'. The HRC will close.

The formal decision was made at the Cabinet meeting on October 9^th, when Jane Scott's administration voted unanimously to close the service, despite strong representations from residents, parish councillors, and local Wiltshire councillors. The resolution was to:

Wiltshire and Swindon Credit Union is seeking to expand its work across the county in order to help those many people who do not have full access to mainstream banking facilities. Thousands of people in our communities struggle to make ends meet each month, and they then often turn to payday lenders or loan sharks to borrow the money they need to look after their families. This pushes them into a cycle of debt from which they struggle to escape. In some instances people are having to pay back over 25% of their monthly income to loan companies, sometimes amounting to several hundreds of pounds which they should be spending on their families.

If you, or a friend or relative, love reading but are unable to get to the library, Wiltshire's home library service may be the solution.

The free service, which is delivered by volunteers, is available for eligible customers who have no one to visit the library for them.

A member of library staff initially visits the customer at home to talk about what they would like to read. They are then introduced to a library volunteer, who will visit every few weeks to exchange their books. There are no fines or charges.

The consultation is now live for comments on the Schedule of Proposed Changes and associated documents.

It ends at 5pm on Friday 9 November. The conslutation is an opportunity for interested parties to comment on the published materials before the inspector begins the formal public hearing sessions.

Copies of the consultation documents can be viewed and downloaded via the WC website.

This is a press release from your WC. It's been edited to remove clichés, jargon and verbiage.

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A multi-million pound science park for businesses specialising in health and life sciences has been opened in Wiltshire today (21 September).

The Beech-Allen Building, the first phase of Porton Science Park, will support new jobs and businesses linked to the established centres of science and technology at the Porton Down Campus. These include health, biopharma, life sciences, defence and security technologies.

The West Wilts planning committee met this afternoon (Sep 19) in County Hall to consider an application for a "Proposed Coffee Shop unit with external seating area, and associated alterations to car parking and landscaping" next to KFC on Bradley Road.

The scheme was recommended for permission. It was called to committee at the request of Graham Payne to consider the visual impact upon the surrounding area, the relationship to adjoining properties, car parking and environmental/highway impacts.

Wiltshire Council Conservatives have confirmed that, despite objections during the formal consultation period, charges will be extended to include Sundays in all WC pay and display car parks.

There will also be increases for season tickets and for residents' parking permits.

The legal process for implementing charges at Southwick Country Park will go ahead, but the car park will remain free for the moment. The same applies to Westbury Leigh car park and Devizes market place, where asset transfers to the town councils are being considered.