If only we could vote on Devo Max for Salisbury

WHY are hard-pressed traders having to pay a levy to prettify our city centre and lure in more customers?
It’s quite simple. Because our local authorities don’t have the money to do what, undeniably, needs to be done.
And because a sizeable majority of businesses that bothered to vote on the issue were in favour.
I never thought I’d be quoting Margaret Thatcher’s words with approval, but as the old battleaxe put it: “There is no alternative.”
Having said which, I’m aware that only a third of those eligible to take part in the poll did so.
You’d think an issue as important as Salisbury’s future prosperity would attract rather more interest among those who make their living here.
Maybe the people who didn’t participate run businesses that don’t rely on kerb appeal and they couldn’t perceive any benefit to themselves from forking out. That would be a short-sighted view in my opinion.
And if it’s the case, I’d politely suggest to Wiltshire Council that its vision of a ‘community led’ future with minimal public services is just that – a dream. Well, the decline of public services isn’t an illusion, of course. But the ‘community led’ bit might well be.
When people aren’t interested in exercising their democratic rights, do we have a community any longer? Discuss.
In the meantime, like the Scottish Nationalists, those who don’t like the outcome of a properly conducted poll will just have to put up with it.
At least the Scots, and our traders, were asked what they wanted.
Last month the Journal featured a letter from Wiltshire councillor Richard Britton objecting to my objection (bear with me) to his Trowbridge masters abolishing our youth service and leaving it to area boards to pick up the pieces.
He said I couldn’t “have it both ways”. I couldn’t complain about Trowbridge making decisions “remotely” and then complain about it devolving responsibility for the consequences of those decisions to local people.
Cllr Britton seems to think this was a generous gesture amounting to some kind of Devo Max for Salisbury. I don’t think he was being ironic when he called it a “brave move” by the Conservative leadership.
‘A piece of political buck-passing once you’ve made a complete dog’s breakfast of a viable service’ seems to me to come closer to the truth.
Anyone round here remember being offered a vote on how we wanted to be ruled?