Trevor Carbin Liberal Democrat

I'd expected to vote for Jo Swinson as I've so much respect for the work she's done for the party, however in the first messages from the contenders to the members Ed starts by talking about the climate emergency and the need for positive action. Jo starts by talking about herself and all the TV appearances she's done.

WC admit they're experiencing what they call "issues" with people not being able to get through when calling phone lines at the council.

Although the official line is that "a project is in place to address this issue as a priority", in practice the problem will continue indefinitely.

Here's an announcement from Wiltshire NHS. This should be good news as the service provided by Arriva seemed not always to reach the required standards. If you're a user of non-emergency transport please get in touch to let us know if there's been an improvement.

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The Home Office has today announced that the charge for calling the police non-emergency number is to be scrapped next year.
From April 2020, the Home Office will cover the £5 million a year connection costs.

At present, the telephony provider charges 101 callers a 15p connection fee.

Angus Macpherson, Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon has welcomed the news: "We're in the process of improving officer numbers in community policing teams, and it's important to me that the police are as accessible as possible and today's announcement is a really positive step forward.
"A lot has gone into improving the Force's performance in answering 101 calls and those most affected by this charge, which goes directly to the telephony provider, tend to be those most vulnerable.
"Reporting crime, passing on intelligence or ringing for an update should not cost callers 15p, and this is good news for victims and the people of Wiltshire."

Here's the result as declared by Wiltshire Council. The numbers go towards the South West England and Gibraltar total, which resulted in 3 BPs, 2 LDs and one Green MEP.

The turnout for Wiltshire was 43.64% with 159,544 people voting in the Wiltshire Council area out of 365,628 eligible voters.

The breakdown in Wiltshire was as follows:

Apologies for the ambiguity in the headline, which is the product of WC's very expensive PR department. It's not the pupils who are going to cabinet but the proposals. The press release below is partly disingenuous, in that it talks of three-school solutions though still two of those schools are to close. The good news is that the new school won't be a nationalised academy. Under government rules new schools have to be nationalised: someone has realised that if you pretend not to close the existing schools you can get round that. The bad news though is that for all practical purposes special needs education based in Trowbridge and Chippenham will cease, and everyone will have to travel to Rowde. This is still a financial and educational cut by WC Conservatives.

354 Wiltshire families have not got their primary school preference for this September with only 93% being offered their first preference.

Parents who applied online can see which school their child will attend by going to https://admissions.wiltshire.gov.uk/prefs.php

Terence Herbert, Wiltshire Council executive director children and education said: "Preparing your child to start their school days is a big milestone for every family and I'm pleased that once again we are able to provide so many with one of their preferences.

Yet a further climb-down by Jane Scott's disturbed administration. This time it's the Calne to Chippenham cycle path which was scheduled for closure, but has now been saved following a public outcry. The pattern is that each U-turn is accompanied by a self-congratulatory press release saying, "How wonderful we are for not closing this facility which we wanted to close before the public got in the way." And here it is:

Here's a WC press release:

Wiltshire Council has submitted 'expressions of interest' for the government's Future High Street Fund to boost the town centres in Chippenham and Trowbridge.

The Future High Streets fund is a £675m central government hand-out that is open for applications from towns and cities throughout England. The fund recognises the continuing importance of high streets as places where commerce and community meet, and aims to support high streets as they change to meet the needs and expectations of communities now and in the future.

Faced with a legal challenge to their proposal to shut Larkrise School in Trowbridge and St Nicholas' in Chippenham, Wiltshire Council Conservatives have backtracked on the scheme and agreed to do some more effective consultation.

Here's the WC release (edited):

A group of families had taken a case to court about the process and had been granted a hearing to consider elements of the case, scheduled to be heard next month.