South West Wiltshire Liberal Democrats

Statement on Visit to the United Kingdom, by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

Trowbridge pupils with special educational needs will have to travel for their education as Wiltshire Council cuts the present provision and keeps just two SEND schools in the county. Here's a release from the WC propaganda department:

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Wiltshire Council is going to convert its street lighting to LED at a cost of £12million.

The decision follows a Lib Dem budget amendment in February 2012 which stated: Street lighting - It is proposed that in addition to the administration's proposals to turn off street lights, half of those remaining lit will be transferred onto LED bulbs to yield a saving in energy costs. This will require capital investment of around £2.800m with a borrowing cost of circa £0.250m. As such this proposal will be cost neutral for 10 years after which point it will yield payback or £0.250m per annum.

Tthe Department for Transport (DfT) are proposing changes to the Community Transport (CT) Permit system. This affects CT providers that undertake paid services, even if they are small scale and linked to the local community.

If the plan goes ahead CT providers will need an Operators' licence and their drivers will have to obtain Passenger Carrying Vehicles (PCV) licences. This will significantly increase costs. The new regulations will probably also reduce the number of volunteers willing to drive minibuses.

Wiltshire Council has published its annual review of the Highways Service. (In Environment Committee agenda item 6). The good news is that road casualties decreased in 2017/18 financial year. The other good news is that although the number of potholes shot up, this was of course caused by an increase in the amount of weather, and not by WC neglect.

Wiltshire Council collects Council Tax (CT) from 218,000 households. 50,000 people live alone, so they get a discount of 25% on their council tax.

Because Wiltshire Conservatives keep putting up your CT, the value of the discount also goes up and is in the region of £400 for most people.

The lower CT is an acknowledgement by the government that single people use fewer resources than families so it's only fair for them to pay less. However your WC doesn't see it like that, describing the reduction as an 'award'. "The total value of discounts awarded to single occupiers in the current financial year is in excess of £24 million," says WC.

The government's drive for more fracking and their determination to over-ride any local opposition has hit the headlines recently. A few years ago licenses were issued for exploration in Wiltshire. Nothing happened at the time, but will the threat return? Here's a message from Friends of the Earth:

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Your WC claims its winter maintenance team is more prepared than in previous years to keep traffic running smoothly over the cold period.

13,000 tonnes of salt is in stock in six storage sites. Weather stations in key areas provide real time information and assist in producing accurate forecasts to ensure the gritters are sent out at the right time.

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.