South West Wiltshire Liberal Democrats

The final event in a countywide skate competition comes to Melksham's skate park on 21 July.

Youngsters from across the area will head to the new skatepark with prizes at stake in a number of disciplines in the finale of this year's Wiltshire Skate Series.

The Fifth Skatepark, in King George V Playing Fields, has proved to be a success since opening a year ago. The scheme was part of the Melksham Campus project which has also seen improvements to the Market Place, the creation of new football and rugby facilities at Oakfields, and a new cricket pavilion.

Wiltshire Council's Health Scrutiny Committee met on July 11th in County Hall. The main items on the published agenda were an ombudsman's report into the bad and unlawful treatment given by WC social services to a disabled client, and the results of a Care Quality Commission investigation which exposed the inadequacy of the county's Health and Wellbeing Board.

Free parking will be implemented in Amesbury from today. Both Wiltshire Council-run car parks in the town will be free from midday onwards Monday - Friday and all day at weekends, until further notice.

All council-run car parks in Amesbury (Central and Church Street) and Salisbury will be free from midday on weekdays, and all day on Saturdays and Sundays. The five park and ride sites that serve Salisbury will continue to be free.

Wiltshire's Get Active holiday sport programme offers young people a range of opportunities to keep active this summer, with activities being delivered across 61 venues.

• Sport Camps in athletics, basketball, cricket, dance, football and tennis.
• Fun in the Sun - Weekly multi-sport sessions taking place in 27 locations across Wiltshire.
• Inclusive sport days - adapted sport opportunities for young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
• Free swimming - available during some public swimming sessions at Wiltshire Council, Places for People and community managed leisure facilities.
• Camp Activate - Multi-activity programme operating from WC leisure facilities.
• Intensive swimming - available at specific centres, intensive swimming sessions provide the opportunity to increase water confidence and develop new skills.

Two new energy tariffs were launched this week offering a choice of green and affordable deals by supplier Our Power supported by Bath and North East Somerset Council and Bath & West Community Energy.

The new scheme, called Our Power In B&NES, offers locally-generated renewable energy to residents through a collaboration with not-for-profit energy supplier Our Power and local community business Bath & West Community Energy.

Wiltshire Council's Housing Site Allocations Development Plan Document is set to be approved by the WC 'cabinet' on Tuesday. The formal consultation stage, where representations were invited on the soundness of the Plan, ended on 22 September. Three thousand three hundred and seventy comments were received.

Questions have been raised by local organisations about the closure and the phoney consultation* currently underway.

Details in the Environment Committee agenda see supplement 2.

The Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) were set up by the pre-2009 councils as a service to the public. The different ethos of Wiltshire Council means they're now seen as commercial liabilities. The first one to close will be Everleigh near Pewsey. The site has been run down in recent years and is now the smallest in terms of tonnage of material received and number of visits, so Wiltshire Conservatives have decided to close it.

Conservative Angus Macpherson was elected as PCC in 2016 on a 25% turnout. Now he's decided he needs an assistant, so is looking for a Deputy PCC. If you want the job you won't need to go through the inconvenience of getting elected - you can just be appointed.

Payment is £18,000 plus expenses for a two-day week. The PCC element of the council tax went up by 7% this year.

New rules have come in to force to help property developers: for developments of up to nine houses a system of 'Permission in Principle' (PiP) is available.

When a developer applies for PiP the council must grant permission unless there's a good reason not to. In this respect PiP is similar to outline planning but there is no requirement to produce any detailed surveys or impact statements, and at just 14 days the time for consultation is shorter. The council must make a decision quickly - if it takes longer than 5 weeks the applicant can appeal to the government.

... at its meeting on Tuesday May 22nd. A grand total of 15,823 people had signed the petition which said:

'On 29th March 2018, Wiltshire Council announced its decision to close Wiltshire's only two council run outdoor education centres at Braeside and Oxenwood. Both centres have provided invaluable experiences for thousands of children over many years and closing them is very shortsighted. Trips to centres like this give children from all backgrounds a taste of the countryside that they would not otherwise get. It nurtures a love of nature and creates lifelong memories and friendships. It provides a welcome break from classroom education and gives children practical skills to use in everyday life. In a world increasingly dominated by technology, centres such as this create future ambassadors of conservation and wildlife preservation and closure of these two invaluable centres must be stopped. There is a solution. The centres don't need to be Council run, but Wiltshire Council needs to hand over responsibility to interested parties e.g.via a free or low cost community asset transfer. The perception now is that Wiltshire Council doesn't want to do this. We need this to change. Help us us keep the pressure on. 15,000 people can't be wrong.'