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.