There's no need to play party politics on city council

THE best news I’ve heard in a while (well, that’s a slight exaggeration) is that no one political party has an overall majority on Salisbury City Council.

Last week’s Journal reported that the members were negotiating with a view to forming a ruling coalition.  Er, why?

What on earth does a parish council (that’s what it is, despite the grand-sounding name) need a political majority for?

Its responsibilities include running the market, crematorium, Guildhall, information centre and the Bemerton Heath Centre, not to mention parks, allotments, public conveniences, and a couple of small car parks where it is obliged to set charges fixed by Wiltshire Council.

It is consulted on planning applications but can’t veto them.

It organises the gardens competition and the Christmas lights, the carnival and various other parades, and plants community orchards and wildflower areas.

Its staff are very good at all these things, and I hope that doesn’t sound patronising because it isn’t meant to be.

Controversial things may happen from time to time, such as the Queen Elizabeth Gardens refurbishment, but these are not really party political issues.

If all the city councillors fell prey simultaneously to some incapacitating lurgy, I’m sure Salisbury would keep calm and carry on with no discernible difference for as long as it took them to recover.

But I wish them well, especially if they can make all-party co-operation the new name of the game.

Shame it can’t happen at Wiltshire level.  I couldn’t help noticing that there is no representative of Salisbury, Amesbury or indeed anywhere else in South Wiltshire on the new Trowbridge cabinet, though we do have some ‘portfolio holders’ which I suppose must be the next best thing.

Bit sad, isn’t it, considering the economic importance of the city?

ON a lighter note, I was one of the lucky 1,000 packed into the City Hall last Tuesday for a recording of BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.

The £5 tickets sold out within three hours and what a bargain they were.

Chairman Jack Dee was a deadpan delight, and the audience loved the show’s local references, including a missing words round featuring Salisbury Journal headlines.

Another memorable game had the panellists pretending to be Druids wanting to extend Stonehenge, and Wiltshire Council planning officers telling them that they couldn’t.

Their combination of quick wit and silliness made for the kind of entertainment you could take your granny to without fear of embarrassment, but there were plenty of young people enjoying it, too.

I think the old-fashioned phrase ‘good, clean fun’ sums it up. Not enough of it about these days.