The Secretary of State consented to publish proposals to establish a new maintained special school in Wiltshire. In July 2019, the Wiltshire Parent Carer Council (WPCC) promoted the timeline that Wiltshire Council produced to try to describe the process over the next few years and broadcast a webinar to try to help parent carers understand the plans and the timeline.

Excellent to see newly elected town councillor Chris Hoar implementing his manifesto promises to Trowbridge central

The Climate emergency was declared by Trowbridge town councillors at a meeting last Wednesday.

'The motion put forward by councillor Chris Hoar will ensure all future policies and procedures decisions will take the effect it will have on the climate this into account.

Wiltshire Council's South West Wiltshire Area Board have approved about £6,500 in contributions to local projects, however there is still a remaining £30,000 is available for initiatives or local projects. Contact Karen.linaker@wiltshire.gov.uk

The area board meets a gain on, November 20, 6.30pm, at the Nadder Centre, Tisbury, for public debate on one of its priorities - the emotional and mental wellbeing of young people living in the Mere, Wilton and Tisbury Community Areas.

Salisbury Civic Society recently confirmed that former resident of Mere, Wolfe Frank, chief translator at the Nuremberg trials is to be honoured with a blue plaque and his later role as The Undercover Nazi Hunter will be highlighted at next month's Mere Literary Festival (7th- 13th October 2019).

The Nuremberg Trials were the military tribunals that the major Allies, Britain, USA, Russia and France organised 
after the Second World War to prosecute leaders of Nazi Germany who had planned and carried out the Holocaust and other war crimes.

On the 11th September the National Audit Office (NAO) released a report looking at support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities in England. This report is of relevance for schools in South West Wiltshire, in particular Larkrise School in Trowbridge.

The report outlined the scale of pupils with special education needs in England. As of January 2019, 1.3 million pupils in England (14.9% of all pupils) were recorded as having special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). A child or young person has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. These children have diverse needs of different levels of severity, and they may have more than one type of need. The most commonly identified primary needs
are speech, language and communications needs (21.7% of pupils with SEND at January 2019) and moderate learning difficulties (20.4%).

• 270,800 pupils (20.6% of pupils with SEND) had legally enforceable entitlements to specific packages of support, set out in education, health and care plans
(EHC plans). These are children whom local authorities have assessed as needing the most support. Nearly half (47.9%) attended mainstream schools and almost all the others were at special schools.

• 1,041,500 pupils (79.4% of pupils with SEND) did not have EHC plans but had been identified as needing some additional support at school ('SEN support'). The vast majority of these children (91.6%) attended mainstream schools and the others were in a variety of different educational settings.

On Thursday voters in #Ethandune go to the polls for the by-election.

Residents of Coulston, Bratton, Edington, Dilton Marsh, Heywood and Hawkeridge are being encouraged to cast their votes in the Wiltshire Council by-election.

The by-election is taking place due to the death of former cabinet member and Wiltshire Councillor Jerry Wickham who died in July.

We welcome all members to join us at our Annual General Meeting on Saturday 23rd November 2019

Celebrate our recent wins, help shape our plans going forward - and vote for your new
Executive Committee. Have your say and get involved.

Venue: Longbridge Deverill Village Hall, Nr Warminster, BA12 7DG

Time: 10:30 - 12:30

A team of Liberal Democrats from South West Wiltshire will be heading to Bournemouth this weekend to attend the Party's Autumn Conference.

Leading the team will be Parliamentary Candidate for South West Wiltshire, Ellen Nicholson, who will be taking a few days away from the constituency campaign to represent local members and voters at the Bournemouth Conference.

Ellen Nicholson said, "These are exciting times for Liberal Democrats. In recent weeks we have won the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, picked up another four MPs through defections, continue to do well in opinion polls and are gaining more seats and votes in our recent three Council by-election successes.

"This will also be the first Conference with Jo Swinson as Leader and I am looking forward to a great speech from her on Tuesday. Jo has already had a great impact in the country. Our membership now stands at a record 120,000. In Parliament Jo has demonstrated the leadership our country so desperately needs.

"With the Conservatives under Johnson hurtling towards a Hard Right No Deal agenda and Labour bogged down on the leftwing margins with Corbyn, Jo has demonstrated there is an alternative to these two extremes - the Liberal Democrats.

"We are the voice of reason. We are the biggest party backing Remain. We are the fighting to ensure the people, not politicians, have the final say between staying in the EU or Brexit (whichever form it takes)."