We need a proper joined-up transport strategy

Written October 2023

BY happy coincidence, this week’s Journal carries a story on how our city centre could look, car-free.

I saw it online, just after a meeting with Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for highways, Caroline Thomas, and one of their senior officers on Tuesday.

Your city council had invited them, plus neighbouring parish leaders, to discuss our traffic chaos and the lack of realistic plans to sort it.

We are all being asked to comment on proposed new housing sites in Wiltshire’s Local Plan Review, focused around Harnham, Old Sarum and Laverstock.

These will hugely increase traffic, in particular on the Harnham Gyratory and Castle Road – with knock-on effects on the entire ring road and those brave souls who venture onto it.

But there is no comprehensive transport strategy upon which to base our responses. It’s running late.

To my mind, this makes a nonsense of ‘consultation’. Although I didn’t put it that bluntly to Cllr Thomas, she clearly understood.

But understanding won’t change anything, because the system isn’t about listening to people first and foremost, is it?

It’s about meeting targets imposed by ministers at the behest of developers who pour money into party coffers and are insufficiently challenged by cash-strapped, understaffed councils, cowed by the threat of a builders’ free-for-all if they don’t maintain a five-year land supply.

And it’s totally failing to meet our biggest need, for genuinely affordable rented housing that doesn’t get flogged off.

Readers may know that I help to run a Facebook group, SOS – Save Our Salisbury, launched during the People Friendly Streets/cycle lanes fiasco.

I’m not against making the city centre pleasanter for pedestrians and cyclists, and if this means partial pedestrianisation, so be it. It looks lovely in the AI-generated images in the Journal.

But only if – and it’s a big if – local people have been listened to about how it would work for them. Only if there is adequate, attractive, affordable provision for visitors to park. And only after a parking study – long promised by Wiltshire – shows how this can be achieved.

With our great new attractions, Bradbeers and Primark, Salisbury should tempt shoppers from across the income spectrum.

But I am concerned about the combined effects of roadworks, jams and the current limited parking options.

Some readers will ask: ‘Why can’t they use the park and ride?’ And if a way could be found to ease the queues that the buses get stuck in, I might agree.

Back to square one.

Helping besieged residents to make their voices heard

Written September 2023

TWO main subjects have fought for space in my brain over the past few weeks.

One is housing development, and the other, the City Hall. So, in that order.

There is so much to do in the Harnham area at present, helping residents who feel besieged by developers and who don’t know how to make those in power listen to them .

That’s partly the result of the Wiltshire Council Local Plan Review. How to respond to the public consultation on that particular epic ought to qualify as a specialist subject on Mastermind, there’s so much technical bumf to get to grips with.

So far I’ve been to three public meetings, plus one with neighbouring parishes, a debate by our city’s planning committee and an online share-fest of horror stories with councillors elsewhere in the county who are seeing their communities’ wishes overridden.

At the same time I’ve been trying to help residents fed up with having their public rights of way blocked in the name of elf’n’safety during the builders’ bonanza that’s engulfing Harnham Hill.

On the Wiltshire Plan, we’ve been instructed to confine our comments to whether it is ‘sound’ – a piece of jargon that means nothing to Joe Public.

My advice is not to worry, just get stuck in, tell them what you think and leave it up to the independent inspector to sort out.

You can do it online via www.wiltshire.gov.uk/local-plan . Or if your eyes aren’t up to the scrolling (mine are struggling), pop down to the library on October 17 from 3-7pm and talk to a planning officer. Most important, don’t be put off!

Right, then. The ongoing saga of not much happening that is our City Hall aka war memorial.

In an outbreak of common sense, Trowbridge has ruled out moving the library and Young Gallery into the building.

And the search is on for partner organisations with the commercial nous to relaunch theHall as an entertainment venue. Failing that, Wiltshire might have to do it on their own, which they don’t fancy.

The City Council did make tentative enquiries, by the way, but were told we wouldn’t get any cash to help run it!

So we wait some more. And if nothing emerges in due course, our area board will ask if any community groups can come up with another option, such as a charitable trust.

In the meantime there is a request to open it for Remembrance, which might be a nice gesture.

How will Harnham's road infrastructure cope?

Written September 2023

IF YOU were responsible for sorting out a clogged-up junction that’s blighting people’s lives, what would you suggest?

At a guess, I’d say your answer might not be: ‘Build several large housing estates feeding more traffic into it’.

But hey ho, I’m not a Wiltshire Council planner, so I expect they’ll say I don’t know what I’m talking about.

And it’s not my job (thank the Lord) to solve the problem of the Harnham Gyratory in order to justify destroying more of Harnham’s green fields.

Wiltshire’s previous ‘junction improvement’ scheme failed a cost-benefit analysis. So what now?

Here goes: They intend to widen the southbound (uphill) carriageway between New Bridge and the Gyratory to create an extra lane for queuing traffic.

That involves creating a cycle lane up to SIX METRES wide “to meet current design standards” through the wide grass verge, which they reckon can be done without felling any of the lovely mature trees lining this key approach to our city.

Then move the bus stop a bit further downhill, create a crossing with priority for pedestrians and cyclists at Britford Lane, two new crossing points on Combe Road and Downton Road, change the traffic light timings - and Bob’s your uncle. Apparently.

At Monday’s City Council meeting we were shown a modelling video of dinky little imaginary cars moving smoothly through all the arms of the junction under this new scenario.

We were told it accounted for “all the development sites up to 2026” plus a bit extra for “strategic growth rates”.

I find it hard to believe that it will, in fact, cope with the traffic serving the new estates already under construction, let alone the hundreds more homes proposed over the next decade or so on Downton Road, Odstock Road, off the Combe Road, and at the In-Excess garden centre. Not to mention the hospital’s HEAT project.

What’s more, we were warned that the viability of the scheme depends on the as yet unknown cost of digging up and diverting all the utilities that run under the Gyratory.

So what happens if that cost doesn't stack up? Does the traffic just continue to do so?

All this, to save Trowbridge the hassle for a while longer of doing what it admits it should dobut hasn’t got around to – planning for a sustainable new community away from the city and close to major transport links.

Harnham engulfed by a sea of new housing

Written July 2023

LOOK what’s been quietly unfolding while the entire world seems to have been in convulsions about hanging baskets. A real, concrete threat to whole swathes of our green environment.

It is misleading to claim, as Wiltshire’s Cabinet report did on Tuesday, that there has been ‘significant engagement with the local community’ over the proposed housing sites in its Local Plan Review.

As a leader of the City Council, chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan and vice chairman of the planning committee, I can assure you that nobody from Trowbridge has ‘engaged’ with me about any of this in the two years since I was elected. Even though my ward is hugely affected.

And I’ve had dozens of emails in the past few days from extremely upset residents who feel they’ve been ambushed. None of them had any idea what was in the offing, either.

The two sites identified for a total of 310 houses on either side of Coombe Road will worsen congestion at Harnham Gyratory (as will the extra 280 coming elsewhere in Harnham), and obliterate countryside which is a highly valued recreational resource for the neighbouring community.

Enormous pressure will be put on the birdlife, bugs and wildflowers of the Lime Kiln Down County Wildlife Site next door, where these new residents will naturally want to walk their dogs and let their kids run around.

Wiltshire Council is the part owner (with us) of this lovely little haven, which is maintained by your City Council with the help of dedicated volunteers and is currently alive with butterflies. There’s already another major development mooted bang opposite it, across Odstock Road. How can it survive? Where’s next?

Our Neighbourhood Plan group has had its efforts to suggest brownfield site options, focusing on identified local needs for affordable homes, rejected.

I’d encourage people to respond to this consultation and I hope we can make a difference.

But hundreds of Harnham residents objected to the estates currently gobbling up the fields along Netherhampton Road, and now even the garden centre is at risk.

I will do my very best to represent local people’s views, working across the East/West ward boundary in a non-political partnership with other Harnham councillors on behalf of the whole community.

I hope readers will forgive me if I sound as though I only care about Harnham. That’s not the case. But I’ve run out of space. Rather like Wiltshire Council, I suspect.

You can't make people know what they don't want to know

Written August 2023

IT was 13 years ago. My son, a first-year physiotherapy student, was home from uni for the weekend.

“I think our family must be weird, Mum,” he said. “When I told them we talk about the news at dinnertime, my flatmates were amazed. None of them even knew who the Prime Minister is!”

Gobsmacked? I was. These were intelligent kids, undergraduates. They hadn’t been taught and didn’t care about that stuff.

Fast forward to Tuesday. I was manning a Market Place stall with some fellow councillors and our clerk.

We were asking about people’s priorities for our next budget. After the parish poll furore, I’d expected a barrage of criticism.

Without exception, those I spoke to had grumbles. About the Fisherton Street improvements, River Park disruption, commercial waste bins and bin stores, proposed and ongoing housing developments ….. the trouble being that none of these fall within the remit of the City Council.

When we explained what we are responsible for, the majority had few complaints.

Fourteen years after the district council was replaced by a unitary Wiltshire, leaving Salisbury demoted to parish status, it’s clear that large numbers of residents still don’t understand who does what.

Hence the leaflet we’ve posted to every household within our boundary this week, explaining just that, and how we spend our share of their tax, and inviting them to take part in a survey on whether we should do it differently.

The folk I spoke to were pleased and interested to be asked for their views. But even with our friendly Giant, valiantly manned by Cllr Paul Sample and his band of volunteers, to attract their attention, an awful lot of passers-by just glanced sideways and quickly looked away in that classic British ‘Oh, please don’t ask me to speak to a stranger’ way, before walking on. You can’t tell me they were all tourists.

At the risk of sounding rude, you can consult till you’re blue in the face, but you cannot make people want to know.

Despite lots of publicity, our evening session in the Guildhall attracted just one visitor.

All I can take from this experience so far is that people can’t be that dissatisfied with the service they get from us, or they’d have said so.

However, if you disagree, there are more consultations on Saturday and Tuesday, and online. Details on that leaflet, or our city council website.

Hurry up and restore our City Hall

Written June 2023

ANOTHER update on our City Hall’s future is promised at tonight’s public meeting of the Salisbury Area Board (Five Rivers, 6pm).

Let’s hope things have progressed in a more positive direction since we heard that the building needed £2.1million spending to make it usable, that no third party had yet been found to run it, and that redevelopment might be a better option.

In its absence, I’ve rediscovered the Arts Centre, which beats it hands down for atmosphere. On Friday I really enjoyed a Beatles tribute night, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Fab Four’s one and only visit to our city. But we desperately need a bigger venue again if Salisbury is to regain its status as a cultural destination for all tastes.

Over the years at the City Hall I’ve watched acts like Paul Merton, Bill Bailey, the late lamented John Martyn, Billy Bragg … I even went to an Abba tribute night, which was great fun, not least because half the audience were dressed as their heroes.

I’ve laughed my socks off at a recording of Just A Minute, hosted by the inimitable Jack Dee. I’ve served teas at a Community Choir concert. I’ve watched my 13-year-old son (yes, it was a long time ago) and his mates from the old Rock School gigging in the foyer. So I do value it as a resource for all our community.

Whatever is done with it has to respect its status as a Second World War memorial, and if Wiltshire Council does decide to redevelop, maybe a new, standalone memorial could be built, following consultation with the Royal British Legion and the wider public?

Anyway, there’s yet another ‘regeneration’ plan for the Maltings coming shortly from its latest owners, according to the area board paperwork, though it doesn’t sound as if much detail will be available tonight.

So goodness knows whether the Cultural Quarter, incorporating a relocated library, is seriously back in the offing.

Sadly I’m going to miss this meeting as I’ll be listening to a talk on an even more pressing issue. The president of the National Farmers’ Union, Minette Batters, is the speaker at our Civic Society’s agm, and her subject is The Future of the Countryside and Food Production.

The future of the City Hall or the future of the nation’s food supply. Which of these knotty problems do you think will be solved first?

Canine capers in the Market Place

May 2023

FREE, family-focused events are among many things for which our City Council deserves to be congratulated.

Take the themed Sunday Street Sellers markets, which run monthly throughout the summer.

Last weekend’s canine-focused entertainment was a dog lover’s delight, and you didn’t have to splash any cash to join in with your pooch or just sit in the sun and watch the fun.

After attending the annual civic service at St Thomas’s, I swapped my robe and hat (what a relief, that hat is so uncomfortable) for jeans and trainers, and pitched in.

I particularly wanted to do my bit for the unsung heroes of Solstice Missing Dogs, a small team of very knowledgeable volunteers who give help and advice at all hours to anyone whose pet goes awol. It’s amazing how busy they are, in addition to their day jobs.

As well as tracking and recapturing hounds that are often traumatised and panicky after being on the loose, sometimes for days or even weeks on end, they are keen to educate people on what to do and what not to do if they’re trying to help in a search. You can find out more on their Facebook page.

I was soon roped in to help judge the ‘dog with the best trick’ and ‘best rescue dog’ categories, a mission impossible when they were all so cute and their owners so proud, some with such moving stories to tell.

Other worthy canine causes featured among the stalls, alongside a range of arts and crafts, and there was even a mini agility arena. I hope this truly good-natured and inclusive event will be back next year.

A pat on the back for all the competitors, and for our hardworking staff, who also had a whole weekend of Mayor-making celebrations to organise.

Herding councillors back and forth across town is not the easiest of tasks, as we’d all agree. Even after two years I still need to be reminded of where to stand in the procession!

But that brings to mind the need to say thanks to another unassuming hero, our outgoing

Mayor Tom Corbin, who has worked incredibly hard over the past year and taken such genuine interest in the many engagements he’s undertaken.

Congratulations and good luck to his successor, Atiqul Hoque, who I am sure will be just as brilliant!