Time for Salisbury to take back control?

TAKE back control. That was the catchphrase that did the trick for Boris.

I wonder whether it would work the same magic for Salisbury?

Because what we don’t have here is control. Not a shred of it, or not when it matters.

The destiny of our city is almost  totally in the hands of Wiltshire Council up at Trowbridge.

Schemes for ‘improvements’ are dreamed up at County Hall, or in cahoots with the business-led Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership.

Any government dosh that comes our way tends to be doled out on preordained projects through these channels.

‘Consultations’ garner a pathetic number of responses. Many people aren’t even aware of them. If they don’t read the local paper, and aren’t among the handful of ‘usual suspects’ who sit through area board meetings, they are highly unlikely to scroll through Wiltshire Council’s notoriously impenetrable website on the off-chance that they might find something interesting there.

And then we’re lambasted as ‘ungrateful’ when we finally put our collective foot down, and everyone warns us that we won’t get offered any more sweeties if we don’t say thank you nicely.

Take the People Friendly Streets fiasco, for example. It needn’t have gone so wrong, if only anyone had taken the time to ask local people to help draw up a scheme in the first place.

Our parish council, grandiosely housed in the Guildhall, resplendent on ceremonial occasions in its red robes and civic regalia – a sad reminder of the glory days when the city managed its own business - gets what it’s given and seems unable to wean itself off its addiction to party politics.

Several of its members are ‘dual hatted’, i.e. they are Wiltshire councillors, too. How can that be right? There must inevitably be conflicts of interest. 

It’s time all this nonsense came to an end.

It’s more than time that Salisbury regained some of its former powers as the heart of south Wiltshire.

But since we’re smugly assured by those who benefit from the present system that it won’t happen, what would be the next best thing, do you think?

An independent city council? Made up of members chosen for their ability, not their party allegiance? Free to think as they will, but united by an undertaking to work collaboratively on key issues to get the best possible deal for Salisbury from the unitary authority, regularly consulting residents and businesses and reflecting their opinions?

Pie in the sky? It doesn’t have to be. 

Surely there must be a few public-spirited,  free-thinking individuals out there who will  stand for election in May and undertake to pool their talents for the greater good?

And a few voters willing to set aside their usual a) party loyalty or b) apathy to get them into office?

 

No-one bothered to tell city council the money for People Friendly Streets was gone

 NOW it appears that the city council had no chance of getting Salisbury’s People Friendly Streets experiment reinstated.

Even if they’d all voted for it on Monday, it wouldn’t have happened.

Because Wiltshire Council had already announced the indefinite suspension of the People Friendly Streets package to ‘green up’ Salisbury, and the SWLEP, the fund-awarding body, had consequently taken its money elsewhere. After all, if it couldn’t be spent in Salisbury by March, there were bound to be others with ‘oven ready’ deals on offer. Deadlines work against genuine democratic decision-making? Sorry, them’s the rules!

If only someone had thought to tell the Guildhall Gang. I wonder why they didn’t and I do wish Wiltshire Council would be a bit more forthcoming with its version of events.

Given the number of city councillors who double up as members of Wiltshire, it’s surprising no-one appears to have known that they were wasting their time, along with blood, sweat and tears of all those members of the public who sent in letters and the 10 of us who laboriously and nervously prepared statements to read out to the assembled online throng.

Is it any wonder that the voting public becomes more disenchanted with the political class by the day?

Who do they think they are? An extraordinary city council meeting over the ban on through traffic

GETTING more personally involved in a local controversy, rather than standing above it and pontificating as an independent journalist, has been an educational, wholly preoccupying and draining experience.

While social media can reach and inform sections of the British public that our normal democratic processes can’t, and it’s a great thing that they can do this, I hadn’t realised quite how much hard work is involved in policing a Facebook page.

There are all sorts of fallings-out among people who apparently support your cause but then get cross with each other and start trading insults and using language that would earn them a punch on the nose in real life. That Private Eye column taking the mickey out of online commentators on newspaper websites is hilarious but hideously realistic.

There are all sorts of sly tactics, and outright lies, used by your opponents to try to discredit your group and your cause, which I’m not used to. Given that I’m hardly a shy violet, it astonishes me that I’m so astonished by this dishonesty. I’m exhausted by it, frankly, as I write this.

But hey ho, we have to work with the world we find ourselves in, and deprived of the relatively civilised berth of a newspaper column, I’m enjoying where life’s taking me.

In this case to SOS - Save Our Salisbury, a campaign set up by a few bloody-minded individuals in response to the imposition of two initiatives in Salisbury - a Low Traffic Zone which went under the inappropriate title of People Friendly Streets, and a cycle lane, complete with bollards, in one of the most unsuitable parts of our historic road network. 

I truly find it difficult to believe that Wiltshire Council thought they had a mandate for anything other than the broadest principles of any such schemes, but Plonk! There these things suddenly were, and there we were, having to like it or lump it. 

Because politically motivated Funding From On High had suddenly become available (cheers, Boris!) and if they didn’t use it, they might lose it. Couldn’t have that happening, now, could we? It’s a cycle lane. It must be green, mustn’t it? Yes, OK, it’s empty. But green. Definitely green.

Within six weeks SOS had attracted 2,400 members and it’s still growing. Fantastic.

But it appears that this type of expression of public opinion cuts no ice with our ‘democratically elected’ leaders, who are quite happy to carry on as they are, thank you very much, and would much rather not be disturbed or questioned about what they’re doing in our name.

Here’s what happened. 

Under the Low Traffic Zone restrictions, people learned that they’d be fined if they drove through their town centre without a permit which they’d need to apply online for EVERY SINGLE TIME they wanted to go there. No more spur-of-the-moment visits to dear old Mum in her McCarthy & Stone flat, then, without a scenic trip round the ring road jams in order to approach from the officially approved angle.

Signs sprouted all round the ring road warning people to stay on the A36. In which case no visitor to a city that relies on tourism would ever find their way in.

Carers visiting the elderly or disabled had to spend half their time driving the long way round when they could have been tending to their vulnerable clients.

A long-established and highly-regarded furniture store reportedly couldn’t get permits for stock deliveries outside its premises and was having to use a public car park to unload and carry sofas  through the street.

Traders already struggling with the combined effect of the Novichok attack and the pandemic were warning that they might have to close or relocate, while one business publicly declared that they had been deterred from investing.

Grudgingly, Wiltshire Council scrapped  the Low Traffic Zone and took its bus gates away.

So last night Salisbury City (parish) Council, led by a Conservative group who are split down the middle and fresh from a leadership coup, considered the matter. And decided by 12 votes to 10 that they wanted the restrictions reintroduced. 

I understand that those members who are dual-hatted - i.e. who are members of both Salisbury and Wiltshire councils, which shouldn’t be allowed  - received a text message telling them what was expected of them.

Not that city councillors have the power to reintroduce the Low Traffic Zone.  Because no, the unitary authority system has deprived an ancient cathedral city, the commercial centre of the whole of south Wiltshire, of any powers other than those graciously granted by the Remote Controllers in Trowbridge. At one stage we even had to be granted permission to run our own public toilets. Yes, really.

But they can make the gesture, and hope that the Big Boys Up North will come back and play nicely.

Anyone watching the meeting online could have been forgiven when they sat up, goggle-eyed, three and a half hours later, for wondering why they’d bothered.

But they’d have been right to bother. It really was educational.

I wish I could bring you better news.

Sorry for the silence

 Apologies for the recent lack of posts. I’ve been preoccupied and very busy with the SOS Save Our Salisbury campaign on Facebook. There’s an important city council meeting this Monday at which I will be speaking, and I’ll report back after that.

A river park could be just what Salisbury needs

EXPERIENCE has taught us to beware of Wiltshire Council bearing gifts.

But I hope that simple prejudice on the part of a jaundiced public doesn’t scupper their plan for a river park running from the Fisherton Recreation Ground to the city centre.

I believe the Environment Agency experts who say it would help protect us from flooding.

I believe that the improvements to the river channel would make it navigable for the fishy population, while the ‘mini floodplain’ extending some 20 metres to either side would give us a lovely wildlife-friendly ‘green lung’ and recreational space in the city centre and ensure that any future Maltings redevelopment isn’t just a concrete desert.

I believe that rewilding the area of Fisherton Rec nearest the river would encourage biodiversity.

I believe that a refurbed coach park with better facilities would give tourists a decent welcome at long last.

I believe, personally, that the permanent loss of 154 long-stay parking spaces on that miserable Godforsaken central car park is an acceptable price to pay to pretty up this crucial entrance to our city.

BUT: 

I can’t see how we can do this as well as losing Salt Lane and Brown Street car parks to redevelopment, which is what the council’s suggesting elsewhere. 

Or without replacing those spaces with a multi-storey on part of the Maltings/central car park site which must still manage to respect the 40ft rule. And that can’t be guaranteed at the moment.

Or without understanding what exactly Network Rail is going to do to provide more long-stay parking at the station.

One glaring omission in last night’s otherwise very worthwhile online presentation about the river park project was any plan for replacement parking. And I suppose that’s the trouble with tackling such a major redevelopment project in phases, which is all the authorities can afford.

Plus, of course, they’d be chuffed if more motorists diverted to the underused park and ride sites.

So this is where Wiltshire Council could well suffer from the mistrust it has engendered in the population of Salisbury with its previous high-handedness.

I don’t have space to go into much more detail here. But I would encourage everyone to investigate this project for themselves, and weigh up the pros and cons, bearing in mind that there is currently no alternative scheme on offer.

There is another free presentation coming up on December 15 at 2pm, which you can book into via the Eventbrite website with this link: www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/wiltshire-council-and-the-environment-agency-31617204961

And there’s masses of very useful info and illustrations here, including how to take part in the public consultation: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/salisbury-future.

City's traffic troubles set people at odds when we should be working together

NOW that there’s been a resolution (of sorts) to the People Friendly Streets debacle, and we’ve all had a few days to calm down, I’d like to clarify my own particular role in this campaign.

Firstly, I am not opposed to reducing pollution in our city centre, and making it safer and healthier for pedestrians and cyclists. I have a few ideas about how to begin that process, but they are only my ideas, and they aren’t what I want to talk about here.

What I do want to talk about are flawed schemes imposed upon us from Trowbridge in obedience to a government panicking about being seen to do something ‘green’ in a crisis when it’s never shown much interest before.

That’s why I joined the SOS Save Our Salisbury campaign as an admin. Because it is OUR Salisbury and local people need to be properly consulted, however long it takes, about what happens here. We are the ones who know what makes the place tick, and it needs to work for us.

There seems to be plenty of money sloshing about for environmentally friendly schemes. Which is great. 

But if we’re not careful, the pressure to spend it quickly on projects that haven’t been subject to detailed consultation extending beyond the ‘usual suspects’, and that lack widespread public support, will end in it being wasted.

There are no quick-fix solutions when you’re making fundamental changes to the way a city operates. You have to carry the community with you. 

Our traffic and transport system is complicated. Tweak it in one place and it has knock-on effects you might never have even been aware of unless you talk to people on the ground.

If you fail to do that, you risk provoking bad feeling among groups – cyclists, motorists, pedestrians, traders – who should be co-operating on what works best for everyone locally, but who instead feel forced into a destructive rivalry.

Our system has become profoundly anti-democratic and that’s the root of the problem. A vote every few years for Party A or Party B doesn’t offer an effective solution to the multitude of issues modern society faces.

We need to reinvent local democracy and it needs to work not from the top down, but from the bottom up.

The human face of our city's People Friendly fiasco

A MUM from Amesbury has written to tell me how Salisbury’s new traffic arrangements are messing up her life.

She drives twice a day to the city on a school run. Her child has what she calls a ‘hidden’ disability among other health problems that rule out bus travel.

(And anyway, her nearest park and ride is currently a Covid testing centre.)

She is not eligible for a permit because her child’s disability allowance “does not have a motability component to it”.

Since the ETRO was introduced, she says, it has on a few occasions taken her over 90 minutes to drive to Salisbury and back because of the traffic on the ring road.

“It’s costing a fortune in fuel and I am already on a very tight budget.”

One day recently she was heading out of town past Bishop Wordsworth’s School as an ambulance was coming in.

“The cars had to mount the pavement so he could get through because the metal bollards didn’t allow enough of a space on my side of the road. At the time, the pavement was packed with school children.”

I just thought I’d like to put a ‘human face’ on the Facebook campaign SOS - Save Our Salisbury  to show how disruptive and potentially dangerous these traffic schemes are.

The fact that our MPJohn Glen has now publicly urged Wiltshire's leaders to think again, at least until after the worst of the pandemic is over, underlines the strength of our case.

Wiltshire's deputy leader, Richard Clewer, who has consistently shown an understanding of city residents' concerns - remember how he acted as mediator in the row over the Market Place refurbishment? - is doing his best to help but he hasn't been able to make much headway with his council colleagues yet. 

In fact, cabinet member for highways Bridget Wayman has taken a decidedly snippy tone in her responses to complaints on Facebook and Twitter.

It's understandable. There's an awful lot of face to be lost in backtracking.

But this is such a sad waste of public money. Our money. At a time when the NHS and its staff could really do with any spare cash the nation's got, just to get through the next few months.

We do need to improve our air quality. We do need to pedestrianise part of the city centre. We do need to make life easier for cyclists.

Just not this way, and not now, when our traders are reeling from the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.

All it would have taken to avoid this debacle is a bit more time and effort put into a meaningful consultation with the people who live and work here, who know how the city operates. A bit more respect for Joe Public.

People Unfriendly signs to be switched off!

I THINK public pressure is beginning to pay off.

I’ve just spoken to the second-in-command at Wiltshire Council, Richard Clewer, about the People Unfriendly signs on the ring road, which have had the effect of driving shoppers away from Salisbury. I gather this has been greatly to the benefit of Romsey’s traders.

He has told me that the signs are being switched off – this may be happening even before you read this – and that he is “not aware” of any plans to replace them.

It is clear that no-one up at Trowbridge foresaw the increase in traffic jams that would occur on the ring road because of the introduction of the experimental partial ban on traffic in some city centre roads.

What’s more, I understand that it has only reduced traffic in the centre by about half.

I think the message is beginning to sink in that if people in Salisbury had been consulted before the scheme was drawn up – how often have we had cause to say that? - the council could have had a more workable plan and a much greater chance of carrying public opinion along with its well-intentioned attempt to improve our air quality.

Or if the signs had said something like: “Welcome to Salisbury. We’re pedestrian-friendly so please use ring road and not city centre roads to access car parks.” With more signage to said car parks dotted around.

How hard would that have been?

Another trader driven out of Salisbury

I've been chatting to a trader from the antique market in Catherine Street this morning. 

He has given up because of the new traffic rules. He cannot come into Salisbury without a permit and he cannot unload outside his premises. He's been told to use a public car park but that's not ideal when you're lugging large, heavy or delicate stuff about.

He says he will save himself about £100 a month that he would have spent on coffees and other bits and pieces in Salisbury shops whilst bringing in his antiques.

He's selling them elsewhere instead. He says Shaftesbury is much easier. 

Another unintended consequence of an ETRO brought in without proper consultation with people trying to make a living here.

Wiltshire's blast for our broken planning system and developers who take advantage

DELIGHTED to see that Wiltshire Council is taking a robust line with the government in defence of local democracy.

Its response to the Tories’ proposed ‘simplification’ of the planning system is an impressive piece of work and I really can’t find anything to disagree with!

It’s quite lengthy, so here are some of the key points, which were agreed on a grown-up cross-party basis.

They need the ability “to force developers to develop allocated strategic sites within reasonable timescales”. And so say all of us!

They want “a consistent housing target for a specific period of time that is not constantly being updated”. No more moving the goalposts.

In their words: “Please tell us how many houses we need to build and let us get on with ensuring they are delivered. This would enable planners to concentrate on place making rather than numbers.”

Here’s what they say about developers’ shenanigans and how they take advantage of the requirement for the council to have a five-year housing land supply. 

Sometimes the builders are “not keen to develop identified strategic sites in a timely manner, particularly where they are less financially attractive than other green field sites. As a result, by delaying the delivery of those sites they are able to manipulate the five-year land supply and to bring other sites forward.” We all know it, but it’s nice to hear our elected representatives laying it on the line.

“Sites should be built out at a sensible rate after their approval. There is currently no incentive for developers to build out when house prices continue to appreciate and so they can generate greater future returns by sitting on development sites and waiting. 

“There needs to be a system where if development does not occur it is possible for local authorities or government to force it to occur.”

That’s not all, by any means.

They have a real crack at the poor design standards produced by the volume builders -  a topic I’ve touched on recently in this blog.

“There has been too much poor design, particularly when it comes to larger developments in Wiltshire,” they say.

“The current planning system has not made it easy to address this. There have also been too many developments which are poorly designed when it comes to fitting into and relating with existing housing and infrastructure.” 

They’re not just moaning, though. They are offering their own suggestions for how to fix this mess with a better system than that being proposed.

As I say, it’s a lengthy read but it repays the effort and I might quote you some more chunks of it another day. Find it at wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-policy under the Planning for the Future link.

Great news on the city's new river park

HOORAY, here’s some good news for a change.

Wiltshire Council is now in a position to “deliver on the first phase” of the river park which will kickstart the regeneration of the Central Car Park and Maltings.

Improvements to the Avon corridor will significantly lessen the risk of flooding, creating the right environment for progress on other redevelopment projects around it. 

This will also be great for wildlife, with ‘naturalised’ riverbanks encouraging biodiversity and helping our fishy population as well as creating a prettier route into town for residents and visitors alike. What’s not to like?

On Tuesday (Nov. 3) the council’s leaders are expected to launch a seven-week public consultation on their river park masterplan, in conjunction with the Environment Agency.

This will largely have to be conducted online because of Covid, although displays in empty shop windows are being considered.

The council’s cabinet is also being asked to pass on grant aid of about £6million to the Agency towards the project. The money has a ‘use it or lose it’ March deadline.

Work on the project will mean changes to parking arrangements.

A site compound will occupy the coach park, so coaches are likely to be directed onto the central car park temporarily.

Making room for them will mean a temporary loss of 347 long-stay car spaces – just over a third of the total. 

When the work is completed there will still be 154 fewer long-stay spaces than at present, but according to the council only 29 per cent of the available spaces are occupied on average anyway.

Short stay spaces, disabled parking and the Maltings car park will be unaffected.

Well, this does sound like progress at last, and it’s to be hoped everything goes according to plan. 

With traditional retail in decline, Salisbury ought to be promoting itself to tourists as the ‘Green City’,  because we do still have so much lovely greenery here, and this will surely help.

Which doesn't mean I think those wretched bike lanes are the right answer!

New homes planned for city outskirts are 'bland' and 'horrible' say councillors

NEW housing to be built on the outskirts of Salisbury is “bland” and  “poorly designed,” according to councillors.

The city planning committee is objecting to the appearance of the 166-home Phase Three of the ongoing St Peter’s Place development, northwest of Fugglestone Red and Bemerton Heath.

Persimmon Homes is seeking approval from Wiltshire Council of the layout, scale, appearance and landscaping of the latest batch, which will include 102 private and 64 affordable homes.

But in an online meeting on Monday the city councillors, who have no right of approval or veto over the plans and can only submit comments, were scathing about the look of the buildings and voted to oppose them on design grounds.

Cllr Ian Tomes said: “I think they are horrible designs, uninspiring at the very least. They are just boxes, with no chimneys, no features. They are completely bland.”

Cllr Stephen Berry also spoke of “blandness” and “mediocrity”, saying they were “desperately, awfully poorly designed”.

Cllr John Lindley welcomed the fact that the houses will have studies, given the trend for home working.

But Cllr Tom Corbin suggested some people might think they were, in fact, getting an extra bedroom, although the rooms were too small for that.

And chairman John Farquhar wondered: “Are we potentially creating a ghetto here?”

No one spoke during the meeting in favour of the designs or on behalf of the developers.

The target date for Wiltshire’s decision is January 13.

If you want to see the architects' drawings for yourselves, look under 'planning' on the Wiltshire Council website and type in application number 20/08976.

Wiltshire 'sees Salisbury planning team as an irrelevant inconvenience'

ALL is far from well between Wiltshire and Salisbury. At least, on the planning and helpfulness front.

The volunteers working on a neighbourhood plan to give local people an input into future development decisions say they are getting precious little help from Trowbridge staff, who treat them as a nuisance.

A quick read of some paperwork for tonight’s (Monday) city council planning committee spells out their frustration.

It’s buried in the city’s draft response to government ideas on how to speed up house-building. (These basically amount to getting rid of what Boris Johnson sees as unnecessary red tape, and sorting out those pesky great crested newts -  a protected species with an irritating habit of living slap in the middle of whatever patch of countryside his big builder buddies can’t wait to cover in concrete. A bit like all those ancient woodlands and HS2. You know the kind of thing.)

Anyway, here’s what Salisbury’s team are telling the government about how neighbourhood planning could be improved. I’ve edited it just to clarify:

“The biggest blockage to evidence gathering” is Wiltshire’s “reluctance to support” them.

“The mindset of the officers is not helpful (it is reluctant)” and the city team have to ask repeatedly for the evidence they need. 

“Local plan policies are not prepared in a collaborative manner with the community” and “liaison meetings are often uncomfortable because the Wiltshire officers appear to consider the neighbourhood planners as a blockage to what they are trying to achieve”.

In addition, the Wiltshire website is “hard to navigate and the search facilities do not usually return the correct links”. (As a journalist, I can vouch for that.)

So what’s to be done?

The Government must recognise that neighbourhood plans are largely prepared by volunteers in their spare time, the team say.

“Developers and planning officers get paid for working on neighbourhood plans – neighbourhood planners do not.”

Each planning authority such as Wiltshire should be required to have specific staff to support neighbourhood plans, which “should not be treated by officers as an irrelevant inconvenience”.

I think they’ve made themselves clear!

To me it’s an inevitable result of taking all power away from a historic city that ought to be, and used to be, the centre of democracy for miles around. But you’re probably sick of me banging on about that one.

The Salisbury lot are pretty unimpressed with the government’s proposals, too. I’ll talk about why in another post.

People Friendly Streets maybe, but the signs are anything but friendly

THERE'S an odd contradiction between the name 'People Friendly Streets' and the language on the signs all around the ring road and entrances to the city centre.

There's nothing on any of them to say that visitors are welcome or that the car parks are open as usual. 

Nothing to encourage day-trippers, just a whole wodge of stuff giving the impression that anyone coming here in a car is going to have a hard time.

'Access restricted' suggests that they're not going to be able to get in.

And I've seen absolutely nothing in terms of signage to warn people that they face a fine if they break the rules.

What's more, I drove from Waitrose car park this morning to Harnham via the top end of Castle Street, zigzagging along Scots Lane, the top end of Endless Street, along past the chippy to the next right turn, and straight out along Brown Street. Just to see what was what.

It wasn't particularly inconvenient. I wonder whether this is what all the locals will do, leaving only the tourists upon whom our city's economy depends to be baffled by it all. Just asking.

What a wonderful place Salisbury could be!

A BRAVE new world of lush green city living was the image dangled tantalisingly before us on our Zooming computer screens last night.

This, we were encouraged to feel, was how Salisbury could be, if we only dared to dream big enough.

It was so gorgeous it actually, however briefly, made me want to live in an urban flat.

Naturally, it would need to have rooftop allotments and greenhouses, internal courtyards, green energy, chic shops and spaces for home workers and office-based businesses down below, all sandwiched into a tall converted building tastefully remodelled to take a step back from the busy street frontage.

And we’re talking about someone whose lifelong fantasy has been a ancient stone farmhouse complete with Aga and an orchard!

The occasion was a hugely worthwhile online meeting organised by the Civic Society and hosted by Wiltshire Creative.
Some fascinating contributions were made by Andrea Pellegram, the planning consultant advising the city’s Neighbourhood Plan group, city council leader (not for much longer, alas!) Jeremy Nettle, and a bunch of highly articulate architects and developers who are behind the extraordinary Biophilic Living project in Swansea.
There’s so much to inspire us going on there that it’s hard to explain in this short post.
Look up their beautifully illustrated website (biophilicliving.co.uk), and ask yourself: What’s to stop it happening here, other than a lack of leadership with the requisite willpower?
Doubts were expressed about whether inner city regeneration of this type could work within the limits of a historic conservation area like ours.
It could, was the answer, by thinking laterally. Instead of transforming one great big building (although we’ve got one or two of those that could do with it), we could start on individual street scale, interweaving nature with existing development.
We’ve got to think up ways to encourage more young people to come here to live and work affordably, and Biophilic Living is admittedly an ambitious one.
But post-Covid, which has accelerated the decline of retail and changed the way we all live, possibly for the long term, we’ve got to do things differently. Which was the theme of the evening.
I guess the Maltings is the obvious place to try it out, and perhaps Wiltshire Council’s ongoing attempt to bring all the land holdings there under one ownership is the one thing that could make it possible, if Trowbridge had a mind to try.
I know their deputy leader Richard Clewer was watching, and I’d love to hear his take on it.
Meanwhile the Neighbourhood Plan team hope to go out to public consultation with their draft ideas for the city in the spring. I don’t envy them.
Now we’ve seen what could be done, I guess the job of persuading us to settle for less would be a thankless one!

PS And as my husband points out, architecturally innovative development along these lines would attract visitors in its own right at a time when the city is no longer a retail destination.

Hope for the future after City Hall closure

BEEN chatting to Richard Clewer, deputy leader of Wiltshire Council, about the City Hall closure and plans for its future.

He tells me that the council is well aware that it’s a war memorial, it’s not hatching any nefarious scheme to get rid of it, and definitely intends to reopen it when circumstances permit, though he admits that there’s no timescale because there’s no way of gauging how long the impact of Covid will be with us.

He explains that there was no prospect of it getting Arts Council aid, of the type that was given to the Playhouse, Arts Centre, Winchester Gate, etc., because the Arts Council wouldn’t see it as a creative hub  - i.e it’s not producing new creative content.

It’s been hosting a lot of tribute bands rather than original artists – and there are all sorts of economic reasons for that. It’s not big enough to make money for a really big-name band. I’ve enjoyed all sorts of stand-up comedy there. But it’s not where people go, by and large, to see new stuff showcased, and that’s where the government money’s going.

However, he’s really keen to see it staging more original work when it does relaunch, and that’s music to my ears. As long as Salisbury folk will feel safe getting out and about again, and be able to support so many venues in sufficient numbers.

Acoustics are a bit of a problem at the City Hall. I’ve watched Billy Bragg play there and at the Arts Centre, and definitely preferred the latter, so that's a good point of comparison.

Money needs to be spent putting the sound right. The building would also benefit hugely from a wholesale refurb to get rid of the drab, depressing municipal colour scheme and to divide up the spaces in a more exciting, flexible way that would accommodate a wider variety of uses. So much could be done with it during the daytime when it’s normally pretty dead. Just think of what's being done all over the place with redundant churches!

It could be a community asset with a genuine feeling of community ownership, but it needs a great deal of commitment, effort and imagination, not to mention cash, and with Covid controlling everything at the moment, it’s hard to see how this will come about.

So closing City Hall, rather than the Playhouse or those other venues, was the least worst option for the council in the circumstances, according to Cllr Clewer. And when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so unreasonable.

It is very rough on the people who have worked there, and I’m told a consultation with them is starting next week, with redeployment being preferred to redundancy where possible.

I wish them all the best, and hope it works out.

Join the debate on how Covid will change Salisbury

HOW will Covid and its long-term impact on our behaviour and wellbeing affect the future of our city? And how should we plan for it?

That’s the fascinating and very timely subject of an online meeting being organised by Salisbury Civic Society, along with our Neighbourhood Plan team and Wiltshire Creative.

Starting at 7pm on Wednesday (21st) it will cover the impact of trends such as online shopping and working from home which have  really taken off during the pandemic.

It will also look at the value of connecting with nature close to home and bringing it into the heart of the city.

Taking part will be a panel of experts including architects and developers working on the Biophilic Living Project - an urban regeneration project in Swansea.

It involves a mixed-used development including affordable homes and workspace alongside a community farm, right in the heart of the city, with the aim of combating urban isolation and social exclusion. 

I’ve had a quick look online and it sounds like a wonderful idea, though where on earth you’d put a farm in central Salisbury is another matter!

But the principle of interweaving development, nature and wildlife to the benefit of all is obviously relevant to our own River Park project, part of the flood-proofing Maltings redevelopment. 

Also on Wednesday’s panel will be the consultant leading the Neighbourhood Plan, Andrea Pellegram, and city council leader Jeremy Nettle.

Audience members will be able to submit questions live online during the event.

You need to book, but it’s free, via the Wiltshire Creative website.

I hope they get a good turnout.

Authorities act at last to save Old Sarum airfield hangar

FINALLY! A plan to save one of Salisbury’s historic treasures is ready for take-off. 

The Grade 2* listed Hangar Three at Old Sarum Airfield has been added to Historic England’s register of buildings which are officially at risk.

That means the heritage body’s experts can work with Wiltshire Council officers to draw up plans for its restoration, using legal powers if necessary to ensure that the work happens.

They describe its condition as “very bad” and have put it in their highest risk category.

They are offering to work with the hangar’s owners, a company based in the Bahamas, but can get on and get things done without them if necessary.

For the SOS - Save Old Sarum group and the local Wiltshire councillor, Ian McLennan, who have been desperately trying to get the authorities to take a more active interest in the building’s fate for several years now, this is wonderful news.

And it comes not a moment too soon, with stormy weather starting to set in, and the hangar’s roof looking unlikely to survive another winter. 

A leader the city council can ill afford to lose

A disappointing development at our city council, where leader Jeremy Nettle is about to stand down.

Cllr Nettle is one of those reasonable Conservatives who believe in acting in the best interests of their whole community. There aren’t enough of them about at the moment, either locally or nationally.

Having sat next to him on a plane to Malta this time last year I can vouch that he’s the same with everyone, whether in the council chamber or accompanying our choir tour as an ‘other half’.

He has shown no interest in the sort of petty tribal point-scoring which preceded his time at the top and which should have no place in a parish council.

There’s been no grandstanding, no throwing about of weight. Just decency, good manners and common sense. 

The same can’t be said of some of his colleagues, however, and the rift within the party's ranks is very much out in the open now after a vote of no confidence.

Cllr Nettle, who will officially give up the leadership next month, will carry on as councillor for Fisherton and Bemerton Village. He deserves a vote of thanks.

Goodness knows who we'll get now. Any bets?

Quote of the week

COMMENT of the week comes from city and unitary councillor Sven Hocking, at last Thursday's area board meeting.

"Lord knows we could do with some decent journalists in the city."

Thanks, Sven.

Cllr Hocking is Wiltshire's portfolio holder for 'Highways Streetscene'. I would like to think that journalists, decent or otherwise, will be keeping a keen eye on the state of our streets from now on. 

Big Brother's coming to your People Friendly Streets

DO you, like me, worry about the Big Brother tendency in British society, particularly in the midst of all these Covid diktats?

I’m not saying that restrictions to quash the pandemic aren’t needed, just that I can’t quite believe how meek and mild we lovers of liberty are in accepting the increasingly confused authoritarianism of a plainly incompetent government.

And it was in this somewhat jaundiced frame of mind that I logged in to the Salisbury area board’s discussion of our forthcoming People Friendly Streets scheme on Thursday.

A “mini Holland” was how Wiltshire officers described the shift they envisage towards a more environmentally friendly future.

What’s not to like about that?

Well, at a pinch I could put up with the inconvenience of having to apply for a permit to get from Exeter Street into Catherine Street every time I want to unload a few bags at Mencap.

But I probably won’t bother. I’ll just head up to the Trussell Trust at Bemerton Heath. I imagine they’ll be inundated!

City centre residents will need permits to access the central low traffic zone as well as the paid-for permits already required to park near their homes. Cameras will recognise their vehicles and let them through the ‘bus gate’ checkpoints. Presumably they’ll have no spur-of-the-moment guests dropping in, since visitors’ cars will apparently need permits, too, which implies a degree of premeditation.

Builders, plumbers, wedding parties and funeral guests will all need to apply.

And however much Wiltshire promises a ‘light touch’ in policing Blue Badge holders, especially those who come from elsewhere for a day out when no-one’s told them that the rules have changed, I foresee a bureaucrats’ paradise. Some much-needed job creation, perhaps?

Permits are blessedly free of charge. But break the rules, and after an initial bedding-in period when you’ll get away with a warning notice or some “advice and education”, it’ll be penalty charge time – that’s £25, rising to £50 if you don’t cough up quick.

You could say this is necessary. You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. And we certainly need to do something to tackle air quality in the city. Whether this project simply shunts even more motorists onto the ring road, causing worsening jams and pollution further out, will be monitored, though what the authorities will be able to do about it is, like the air, not yet clear.

But what’s really niggling me at the moment is the positioning of ever more cameras all over the place, not positioned to catch shoplifters but to monitor where you and I are going and whether we’ve got permission from On High and a good enough reason to go there.

And gosh, these cameras will have the capacity to record whether citizens are keeping a Covid-safe distance apart.

I’m concerned that law-abiding taxpayers will need to declare the purpose of any motorised visit to the central zone and to accept that they will be spied on every time.

But that’s what’s coming, and before half-term.

To be fair, there are some undoubtedly good things envisaged, too.

Like a long-overdue refurb of Culver Street, more benches for people to rest if they struggle to get from car park to shops, an e-cycle hire scheme, and charming ‘parklets’ – little on-street oases to park your bike and sit while you catch your breath. New wayfinding signs, too, and reconfigured bus stops.

And at least, as Cllr Sven Hocking pointed out, after the experimental 18-month period we will be able to tweak things.

“We realise it may take a bit of getting used to,” one Wiltshire officer told the meeting.

And the prize for Understatement of the Year goes to …….

I'm so sad that Salisbury is losing the India Shop

THE saddest yet, to me, of the many sad shop closures blighting Salisbury is that of the India Shop in the High Street.

This is one of the city’s few, truly different and interesting places to browse for gifts, homewares and small, unique pieces of furniture.

It’s one of the best of the steadily diminishing “quirky independent” brigade that Wiltshire Council’s consultants are always enthusing about as being key to Salisbury’s future as a retail centre. 

And over the years I’ve probably spent a small fortune in there.

I popped in yesterday and I kid you not, I could see how glum all my fellow-customers were underneath their Covid masks.

The ones I spoke to all said pretty much the same: “Oh, what a shame. This is the one shop that makes coming into Salisbury worth it.”

I don’t quite agree – there are three or four more I’d make the effort for, but that’s all, these days. 

Then again, I think this was just people’s way of saying how fed up they were.

Fortunately, the company’s Honeystreet warehouse out Pewsey way is remaining open, so devotees will be able to trail out there for their Eastern fix.

But that’s not the point, really, is it?

The point is what’s happening to Salisbury.

Sure, retail experts have been saying for ages now that the pandemic has only hastened the inevitable, given the inexorable rise of online shopping. And that high streets have got to adapt to survive.

But how can they? How many cups of coffee can we drink?How many identikit chain restaurant meals can we eat till even the money-off vouchers lose their allure?

And what’s the point? We can’t just sit and stuff our faces and gaze vacantly around at hundreds of other people all doing the same thing, then retreat to our computer screens at home to ‘one click’ everything else we need because it’s cheaper from some giant warehouse where workers are treated like dirt. 

Do you think we will still be offered genuine consumer choice if we allow that to happen? If control over what’s on offer is concentrated in just a handful of hands, greedy for economies of scale?

I hate it when I hear people say: “Soon there won’t be any point in coming into town.”

It’s about more than shopping. It’s about what sustains a community.

Tree-felling development rejected by councillors

IT pleases me to see that what a councillor called "ecological vandalism on a grand scale” by a developer is not to be rewarded. Not yet, at least.

Wiltshire’s southern area planning committee yesterday registered its opposition to the construction of 32 houses on former garden land off Southampton Road, Alderbury.

Prior to the planning application being submitted, 150 mature trees on the site were ring-barked and felled, making an ecological assessment of its former value as a wildlife habitat impossible.

The councillors were shown slides of what now looks like a patch of scrubland.

Cllr Richard Britton described the developers’ offer to join every householder up to a wildlife trust as “a joke, surely”, and their proposal to provide each home with bat and bird boxes as “window dressing”.

He pointed out that planners are supposed to approve developments that improve biodiversity and said that the scheme for 32 houses on the plot in question “goes nowhere near enough to provide green corridors and dark spaces”.

The committee also heard that Alderbury has seen a 14 per cent growth in housing in recent years, “more than its fair share”, and this plot is outside its officially approved development boundary.

Wiltshire strategy defines it as a large village where there should be “not too much” development, an officer explained.

Residents voiced worries about the road access, where speeding traffic trying to get to the front of the queues on the A36 is already a danger.

One said the developers had shown “complete and utter contempt for the planning system” and an area of pleasant woodland had been reduced to a wasteland.

Parish council chairman Elaine Hartford said the site had been “desecrated”. The loss of trees would increase the likelihood of flooding, and proposal was for overdevelopment that would be totally out of character in a rural village.

No representative of the developers, 1215 Heritage Homes, spoke at the online meeting, which the public were able to follow on Microsoft Teams.

The company has appealed against the council’s failure to rule for or against the application despite protracted negotiations, and the issue will now be settled by a government inspector.

Why are we Brits so submissive?

ONE thing that’s surprised me during the pandemic panic has been the willingness – in fact, eagerness - of the public to be told what to do, even when the edicts of our authorities are patently illogical or contradictory.

Our Prime Minister (God help us!) makes a stupid fuss about Rule Britannia at the Proms and our right to bawl that “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves,” and then expects students to slavishly accept rules that turn them into prisoners paying through the nose for their own detention by private security guards. Which is immoral, if not illegal.

We have to accept that we won't be allowed to sit and sip a coffee in Costa if we don't use their track and trace system, which requires a smartphone. It happened to someone I know in Salisbury the other day.

I don’t mind jotting down my name and address in a restaurant in case they need to contact-trace me, but there must be plenty of people who can’t use a smartphone-based system, so now it appears it’s OK to treat them as undesirables. And we meekly swallow it along with our cappucino.

Support local independents, that's what I say!

This same friend tells me she was shopping in Tesco this week when a very attractive cut-price offer caught her eye.

Then she spotted the caveat. It was for Clubcard holders only. There were lots of other deals to which the same limitation applied.

Now everyone knows that store cards are designed to gather information about our individual shopping habits and lifestyles. They can gauge our financial health by how much we spend, and a lot about our physical health by what we spend it on, whether that’s remedies for piles or ten bottles of gin.

It’s no surprise to me when Waitrose send out occasional money-off coupons that just happen to apply to the groceries we buy most frequently.

But now I come to think about it, that’s not much better.

Offering bargains only to people who sign up to have their lives pried on by supermarket spyware. Is that really right?

The Tesco-shopping friend in question always pays cash. She refuses to have store cards of any description, precisely because she values her privacy.

That might be a step too far for most of us.

But do question, regularly, what you’re giving away about yourself to businesses and the authorities, on and offline, and what they do with it.

And be careful. Ask yourself what they have done to earn your trust.

 

Take the survey, what are your Salisbury priorities?

PEOPLE can be forgiven for reacting with cynicism when politicians ask us what we want. 

Salisbury’s experience suggests that even if we tell them, we usually get what our overlords think is good for us anyway. Or whatever it was they wanted in the first place. Or a fait accompli. Certain traffic and cycling schemes spring to mind. And those are just the latest examples.

But here’s a five-minute questionnaire with one difference. It comes from the Liberal Democrats. And because their chances of achieving power in this area are not all that high (sorry chaps!) we can, perhaps, take it at face value, i.e. that they actually want to know what voters think about living in this neck of the woods.

Here are some of the things it gives you a chance to voice an opinion on:

What local shops merit praise for their community spirit? What would make you buy more locally? How do you rate the performance of the NHS, the government, and Wiltshire Council?

Is Wiltshire doing enough to protect green spaces, and if not, what would you like to see?

How can we improve walking and cycling routes locally?

What are your top three priorities for the city? (It’s hardly a surprise that a bypass is currently the front runner.)

Armed with this information it is to be hoped that the party can press for improvements in the way our local government operates.

Got to be worth a try, however you normally vote. Here’s the link:

https://wiltshirelibdems.org.uk/en/page/wiltshire-lib-dem-residents-survey

Planning battle over site where 150 trees felled

THERE'S a very interesting planning battle coming up.

It involves a site in Alderbury where a developer wants to build up to 32 homes.

The thing that's grabbed my attention is that according to Wiltshire Council paperwork, about 150 mature trees were felled before the planning application was submitted.

This, understandably, has upset many people - the parish council and Wiltshire's ecologist, among others.

It means, the ecologist says, that nothing could be done about assessing or protecting the wildlife on the site, referred to as "land to the east of Wagtails, Southampton Road". Plus there is "anecdotal evidence" of some felling taking place during the bird nesting season.

The developers say that they will give every household a wildlife camera, boxes to house hedgehogs, bats and birds, a bug hotel, and Wildlife Trust membership.

The ecologist says this is "not suitable or adequate" compensation for what has already been lost.

This is by no means the only objection, and following what they call "a protracted period of discussions and negotiations" (I bet!) developers 1215 Heritage Homes have appealed to the planning inspectorate on the grounds of Wiltshire's 'failure to determine' their application.

This means that an inspector will now consider written arguments submitted by both sides and decide whether the development can go ahead.

Wiltshire's southern area planning committee are due to debate the scheme on Tuesday (September 29) and officers are recommending that they oppose it.

You can read all about it on the wiltshire.gov.uk website by typing in the application number 19/11206/OUT on the planning section.

Or you can look up the agenda papers under the 'councillors, committees and meetings' heading. And that should also give you a link to follow the meeting live online.

Some might think there is an issue of principle at stake here. I am sure other developers will be eagerly awaiting the outcome.

But it is hard to guess whether cash-strapped councillors will have an appetite for a potentially expensive fight, or indeed what an inspector will make of it when the Prime Minister is urging the nation to build at all costs.

Cycle lane costs B&B a booking, plus wise words from ex-MP Rob Key

SOMETIMES it seems as if the only thing we Brits are good at is making a mess of things.

I'm convinced some Tories voted for Boris Johnson as their leader because he was popular on TV, being all dishevelled and amusing on Have I Got News For You. They thought it would go down well with the public.

Well, have I got news for them. You've been had! I should think Ian Hislop, Paul Merton and their producers must be ruing the day they hauled him aboard and helped make him a household name.

It's beginning to dawn on even his most ardent fans that things aren't going swimmingly.

Our former MP Robert Key's got it sussed. He recently agreed, with a sad heart, with a Twitter complaint that under its current regime the Tory party is "the most dangerous political force of our lifetimes", and is "corrupt" and "dishonest".

From a moderate Conservative with a long and honourable record of service to our city and to Parliament, who has tried his level best to give John Glen a clear run at the job without interference, that's a condemnation that should make voters stop and think.

Incidentally, you can hear a fascinating podcast interview with Mr Key, ranging over music, politics and life in this city, on the very good mySalisbury.co.uk (which I am not paid to plug) by just typing his name into the search box on their website.

Meanwhile, here's another thing we're busy making a hash of.

Making Salisbury more pedestrian and cycle-friendly. Great in principle, but throwing up a lot of practical problems (see previous posts) that ought to have been foreseen.

Installing a cycle lane in Exeter Street means, as I've told you before, getting rid of residents' parking spaces and forcing them to park away from their homes, in The Friary, for example.

Now the proprietors of one of the B&Bs in the street have taken to Twitter to tell of a customer cancelling his booking when he was informed about these arrangements.

"This is the start of it regarding our business," they say. "Thank you, Wiltshire Council."

This highly-regarded B&B is part of our vital tourist industry.

Is it really asking too much of Salisbury's distant rulers that they actually consult and listen to the locals about what will work for them before they impose changes such as this?

Rule of Six? It's a Rule of Eight or Nine round here!

WELL, what a stroke of luck that Salisbury’s People in the Park event took place on Saturday.

Two days later and it would presumably have fallen foul of Mr Johnson’s Rule of Six, aka Recipe for Utter Confusion.

Our Transition group organised a lovely event in Lizzie Gardens, sociable and friendly but with ample space for everyone to keep their distance, and masks on sale for those like me who had left theirs at home.

Anyone wanting to do their bit for the future wellbeing of our city and the planet would have found something they could support or join in.

Followed as it was on Sunday by David Attenborough’s heartbreaking documentary (by all accounts - I didn’t watch because I find images of suffering wildlife too upsetting) about the many species facing extinction, it was a timely reminder that whether or not we get on top of Covid, we are on the brink of destroying the environment we depend on.

So, the Rule of Six.

Well, there appeared to be a Rule of At Least Eight going on in Harnham on Monday.

A keep-fit class of nine or ten in one corner of the park (I know, sports are allowed, but those same people wouldn’t be allowed to have a coffee together afterwards. How incomprehensible is that?) and a group of eight ladies on folding chairs, at what I’d consider to be a perfectly responsible distance apart, enjoying a chat further along.

Five of us dog-walkers stood in a well-spaced circle joking that we had ‘room for one more’.

But everyone I spoke to on my 90-minute walk was frankly puzzled as to the logic of this latest edict, and what they could and couldn’t do. And because of that, they were generally of the opinion that it would be widely ignored.

They told me of people still flying in from abroad without any checks. And the media have been full all weekend of horror stories about even medical professionals being told to travel hundreds of miles to get themselves tested, if tests are available at all.

If a bunch of reasonably well-educated, well-meaning residents of leafy suburbia can’t quite figure out what’s going on, what hope is there that stupid people will understand, let alone do what they’re meant to?

Oh, and the name Dominic Cummings did crop up, in terms of why the public might have lost faith.

This is not leadership in any meaningful sense of the word.

 

 

Want a Covid test? See you in Scotland!

SO people from Salisbury are being advised to take the high road to Scotland to get a Covid test.

It would make a great 'Chance' card for the new Salisbury Monopoly set, wouldn't it? 'You are feeling poorly. Go directly to Inverness. Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200.'

It’s increasingly obvious to me that we’re being led by a bunch of jokers, but this isn’t really funny.

It doesn’t matter how many times Smirker-In-Chief Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Matt Hancock and their cronies pop up on our TV screens protesting that their ‘world-beating’ system’s working pretty well on the whole.

That simply isn’t borne out by the reported experiences of far too many members of the public.

I genuinely do not understand how, with the constant flip-flopping of advice about where we can go, with whom, and under what circumstances, this particular bunch of politicians can expect to be taken seriously.

The basic public health message, on the other hand – which is to be ultra-cautious, stay home a lot, wash your hands a lot more, then cross your fingers and hope it’s not your turn - does need to be taken seriously.

But with no end to the pandemic in sight, plenty of otherwise sane Brits simply don’t follow it any more.

Because they’re told it’s OK to head to sunnier climes for a holiday. Having forked out on air fares and hotels they’re suddenly told it’s desperately important to come back RIGHT THIS MINUTE and pay through the nose for new plane tickets. They get home from these ‘danger zones’, and they’re not even Covid-tested.

These rules can only be made by leaders who’ve forgotten or never known what it’s like to have to save up all year for anything.

Back in Blighty, people are urged to get back to work if they've still got any, and ‘eat out to help out', then ticked off for socialising too much, or in the wrong way.

I feel so sorry for our young people, their lives stuck on hold, being blamed for trying to have fun. I know some of them push the boundaries, but even us oldies can’t all stay indoors all the time. It’s getting very boring.

And it’s no use the Health Secretary complaining that testing capacity is being used up by people who aren’t showing symptoms when we know that many carriers are symptomless.

How are we supposed to know if we’ve got it, or if we’ve had it, when no one can find out unless they’re visibly extremely unwell? Do we want to risk passing it on unwittingly? No, we very rightly don’t!

I had a nasty flu-type bug in early March and took longer than usual to get back to normal, experiencing other health issues. But I have no idea whether Covid was to blame. There wasn’t a testing option.

It’s not actually irresponsible to seek information about your own wellbeing. It’s just inconvenient for a government that has totally failed to step up to the plate and make adequate provision.

 

A festive fiasco in store for Salisbury? Christmas event cancelled

IT seems there’ll be precious little festive fun in Salisbury this year.

No Playhouse panto, and a Christmas market has been ruled out due to a distinct lack of enthusiasm from potential stallholders.

City officials gamely came up with plans for an alternative, scaled-down event, focused on half a dozen food kiosks, a ‘destination bar’, and some socially distanced entertainment, where families could sit safely in ‘bubbles’ to enjoy activities such as face painting, story time with Santa, and wreath-making.

All of it, naturally, designed for swift dismantling in the event of another lockdown.

A sponsor was said to be prepared to chip in 15 grand towards the £70,000 cost.

But councillors meeting on Monday were told they would have to make provision for a £20,000 shortfall.

And they took fright, backing Cllr Atiqul Hoque’s view that it wasn’t worth it and would have to be cost-neutral. Staff who went away and looked into the figures again have now come back  and said that can’t be done, so it’s all off.

That’s the nuts and bolts.

The online meeting took an unexpected turn, however, when that model of restraint Cllr Kevin (‘Get off!’) Daley suggested that the council had an “unhealthy relationship” with Daimee, the operators of the City Garden bar currently cheering up the Guildhall Square.

He asked whether the council could make some money for itself instead of letting others make “hundreds of thousands of pounds”.

Daimee ran last year’s successful Yuletide tepee and were in line to run this winter's 'destination bar'.

The company’s Aimee Hancock, not surprisingly, took strong exception to “being slandered” and suggested that Cllr Daley was taking “a bit of a liberty”.

She offered to show the business’s books to anyone interested, saying: “We have been nothing but honest and open. We are absolutely not taking advantage of the council.”

Chairman John Walsh was one of several councillors who felt that Mr Daley had been “unreasonable”, and his remarks had been “not very nice”.

But Cllr Daley was unabashed.

So, end result, the council has decided it hasn’t got money to lose. And that’s fair enough. Responsible, even.

But traders must be worrying that many Salisbury residents will head for Winchester instead, where a market will (Covid permitting) still be going ahead, for their annual splurge.

 

A dog tale with such a happy ending

AS a completely soppy dog lover, can I just say how delighted I am that Eli the Labrador has been found.
I’m an avid supporter of the Missing Dogs Salisbury crew on Facebook. I think they do a wonderful job out of the goodness of their hearts. But they are only part of a network of similarly dedicated unsung heroes across the country. And this is how It can pay off.
I don’t know Eli’s owners, and I hope they won’t be upset by my intrusion, because I can’t possibly know everything that led up to this situation, but my understanding is that they allowed a stranger into their home out of kindness, and that he and the dog subsequently disappeared, prompting an internet search. Now Eli has been found in Kent.
The story brought to mind an error of judgment I made way back in my youth - only it was my rent money, that I’d thoughtlessly left on top of a dressing table,  that disappeared along with the homeless couple I’d invited to stay the night because I felt sorry for them. Hardly comparable with the loss of a beloved pet. But the result was still pretty disastrous,  as I had to move out and rely on the kindness of friends till I”d saved enough for deposit on another bedsit. A painful lesson, but what you learn from it depends on how you look at life. You don’t have to become embittered.
We are all, always, just a whisker away from disaster. It can strike in a multitude of ways, and wealth may be no defence. Never, ever, think it can’t happen to you.
But never let it stop you trying to help people in need. The good ones far outnumber the bad, and there are so many reasons why things go wrong for some, through no fault of their own.

Please take a look at the project mentioned in Svend’s comment below. What a truly inspirational way to face adversity.

Steer well clear of Harnham next week

IF I were you, I’d avoid the southern side of the city like the plague next Monday.

And those of us who live here might be well advised to stay at home.

The gods of chaos have ordained that Wessex Water will close a short stretch of Netherhampton Road on September 7.

Their website, which warns apologetically of ‘potential traffic disruption’, appears to indicate that the work was originally planned for today but the signs by the roadside say otherwise.

Now it will coincide nicely with the three-week closure of Downton Road for resurfacing which starts this Thursday, with through traffic being diverted - if you believe drivers will actually follow the signs - via Blandford. Or was it Wimborne? Or possibly Land’s End?

I don’t think for a moment that they will. Instead I predict unusually high volumes of short-tempered motorists zigzagging through the country lanes for miles around as they follow their satnavs in search of a shortcut.

Me? I’m going nowhere.

• A small victory for common sense. After a public outcry, the water company has now postponed the Netherhampton Road works until after the Downton Road resurfacing is completed at the end of the month. Thank goodness. 

 

Bloody-minded Salisbury? Or simply thinking for ourselves?

CALL me cynical, but sometimes I suspect that our local politicians plan their contributions to meetings with headlines in mind.

There was a classic at the online (on-and-off line might be a better description due to various technical malfunctions) meeting of Wiltshire’s strategic planning committee on Wednesday.

“The fundamental bloody-mindedness of Salisbury” was what planners needed to reckon on, according to Cllr Fred Westmoreland.

“If you try to change something you had better have a pretty good argument.”

Well, one person’s bloody-mindedness is another’s independence of thought, I say. But he had a point.

Which was that the latest vision for revitalising our city, known as the Central Area Framework, would end in tears unless residents were on board.

For example, there have long been aspirations by successive local authorities to redevelop the Brown Street and Salt Lane car parks, and they haven’t gone away.

People who live nearby have no option but to use these for evening parking, Cllr Westmoreland pointed out.

Major projects team leader David Milton reassured him that no car parks would be built on unless the community were happy with alternative parking arrangements.

Cllr Stewart Dobson pointed out that market towns such as ours rely on people coming in from outlying villages, and they in turn rely on their cars.

They can’t be expected to cycle for miles, and won’t always find it convenient to hang around for a park and ride bus.

“Planners don’t seem to realise that personal transport isn’t going to die,” he declared. “It will change to be electric, which will solve air pollution. But there’s nothing in this document to do with encouraging charging points.

“It’s a thing of the moment to say that market towns ought to go pedestrian. But we are going to seriously affect the retail businesses that rely on people being able to easily get in.”

Transport was actually the only element of this well-researched and generally well-received exercise that provoked any real debate.

And understandably it added to some members’ worries about the separate issue of the experimental ban on through traffic, or People Friendly Streets scheme, which is about to hit us.

Cllr Andrew Davis asked how this would affect tradespeople trying to work on, or deliver to, homes in the city centre.

No answer.

Cllr Brian Dalton asked if the scheme’s introduction could be delayed slightly. Given the closure of the A338 for three weeks, at the same time as the return to school, he foresaw “a perfect storm of chocked traffic”.

And who could disagree?

But it wasn’t strictly the committee’s province. So we’ll just have to wait and see how it pans out.

 

 

 

 

 

Voice of business is the voice of common sense

 ANOTHER day, another business warning that the plans to make Salisbury more pedestrian and cycle friendly will cost them a fortune.

This time it's the Cathedral View B&B in Exeter Street, where residents' parking will make way for a cycle lane. The proprietor reckons it will lose him 50% of his takings.

Who drew up these plans? Was it in Salisbury or Trowbridge? I find it really hard to imagine it can have been anyone familiar with what's where in Salisbury. The principle of making our city greener is great. The practicalities just haven't been thought through well enough.

It's not difficult to work out that B&Bs catering to our vital tourist industry need parking space. Any more than it was to realise that a launderette needs a drop-off point, or a sick animal might need to be transported to the vet in a vehicle. I pointed these things out weeks ago.

Now even the cycling pressure group COGS, which is generally over the moon about the People Friendly Streets trial, is saying on Twitter that it didn't call for this particular cycle lane. I should hope not. The street is clogged up enough as it is, without losing a few feet of carriageway to anyone brave enough to risk it on two wheels.

"Gosh," says COGS, "we really hope you don't lose 50% of your business - that would not be acceptable." It goes on to ask how COGS, the city council and the BID can help "further promote" the B&B. 

I should have thought it was obvious. Don't prevent guests from parking.

To add insult to injury, I'm hearing that not one resident of Exeter Street has been officially notified yet about this scheme.

I honestly don't see why people can't cycle on the very wide pavement there instead. Obviously they'd have to go carefully, especially at school opening and closing times, but it wouldn't be impossible. I know, because I've done it! Sorry, officer! But it seemed the safest bet at the time.