Cllr Roy While (Melksham Without South, Con) has resigned as a Wiltshire Councillor due to ill health.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Cllr While for his dedication to Wiltshire, from his time as Chief Executive of West Wiltshire District Council in the good old days, and then as a district, county and unitary councillor.
Improvements to a junction in Corsham are making progress with the work moving onto the next phase.
The first phase saw new traffic signals installed.
The second phase sees surfacing improvements take place overnight at the end of August. During this time, it will be necessary to close all roads at the junction. This is in addition to the measures in place for phase one, which will continue to operate outside of the full closure period. Work will take place between 8pm and 6am. The diversionary route requires traffic to follow the A4 / A46 / A420 / A350 (and vice versa). These works are anticipated to last for five nights.
The Counter Terrorism Policing network have issued an update regarding their investigation of the Novichok attack in Salisbury and Amesbury in March and June 2018.
They have confirmed that traces of the nerve agent Novichok have been found in a blood sample from a second officer at Wiltshire Police, who was involved in the response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
There are two types of Council Tax Benefit (CTB). One, for pensioners, has its criteria set nationally. The other, for everyone else, can be varied by local authorities.
The roll-out of Universal Credit (UC) has made things more complicated, especially for those who are self-employed or on zero hours contracts. Fluctuations in income have to be notified to the DWP, who then tell the council, who then adjust the household's CTB.
Congratulations to Carole King who is the new Wiltshire Councillor for Westbury North, replacing David Jenkins who resigned for reasons of health. Carole got more than twice the number of votes of the second placed candidate, with the Conservatives dropping to third place on just 15% of the votes.
Discussions on the future role of Devizes Market Place are ongoing with the town council and residents.
Earlier this year the town council agreed to take on a number of assets and services from Wiltshire Council, and this transfer is now nearing completion.
Although original plans for the market place were to create a pedestrianised space, comments following the initial consultation mean the area could become dual use for both pedestrians and parking.
Wiltshire's Get Active programme has sports and activities for young people.
Sports camps this year include athletics, cricket, dance, dodgeball, gymnastics, football and tennis. In addition, there will be multi-sport sessions offering young people a range of sports.
These fun and inclusive camps are open to all abilities, and offer challenges, games, coaching and competitions throughout the week.
More students will have access to specially trained mental health practitioners thanks to government funding for a new programme.
Wiltshire Council, Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group and Bath and North East Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group successfully bid to be part of NHS England's Mental Health Support Team (MHST) Trailblazer programme.
Leader of the Conservative group, Philip Whitehead, was appointed Leader of Wiltshire Council and Cabinet member for Finance, Procurement and Economic Development at Full Council today (9 July).
Cllr Whitehead has represented Urchfont and The Cannings since 2013, and takes over as leader from Jane Scott, who recently stood down from the position. John Thomson also stood down from his role as Deputy Leader.
