My city council leaders' report June 26

THE City Council were delighted to see our beautiful Churchill Gardens used to such good effect as a backdrop for Wiltshire Creative’s stunning production of The Tempest.

Our first grass cutting round of the season took 30 working days to complete.

The spring weather was ideal for grass to grow quickly, and we have had new team members to train, various bank holidays and some staff vacancies to contend with.

But our team are aiming for 5 grass cuts this year, whereas under the old idVerde contract there were three, so that’s good news.

On the events front, following a busy Coronation weekend, our themed street sellers’ markets continue to be very successful, offering family fun without the need to spend a lot of money. The dog show-themed event was particularly popular, dinosaurs are also proving to be perennial favourites, and we’ve got farm animals coming up next on July 9.

The Motor Show, featuring more than 100 vehicles of all ages, attracted a lot of attention, while this weekend we celebrated Armed Forces Day. Our staff work extremely hard over the summer weekends to put on such a range of events and we are very grateful for their professionalism and enthusiasm.

Our accessibility and inclusion task group is off to a great start, working in conjunction with Wiltshire highways officers on identifying where metal barriers across pathways can make life difficult for wheelchair users and parents with buggies, so that these obstacles can be removed or made more easily negotiable. Some councillors, working with the disability group DIGS, have undertaken disability access audits of our parks and open spaces, and there’s more work to do on this.

The council leaders have begun a conversation with the Conservative group about consultation over future budgets, and survey materials are being prepared to engage with the public. Simultaneously we have been trialling the recording of meetings.

The city now has to meet the bill for the Parish Poll, which was just under £40,000.

The leaders have had a positive conversation with the Police & Crime Commissioner about anti-social behaviour issues. We were pleased to hear that the city will have 10 new officers by September, and that recruitment of PCSOs is continuing. The location of the new policing hub has still not been resolved, and an application to site it at High Post, as part of an industrial development, has just been turned down.

We continue to build relationships with our neighbouring parishes and to participate in the Place Partnership, looking forward to the impact of Bradbeers and Primark on the city’s economy in October, and hoping customers will not be deterred by a combination of ongoing parking issues and Fisherton Street improvement works. We are hoping that the mural on the hoarding outside Debenhams will be re-used within the city.

A contract has been signed for work on our new depot to meet the needs of our teams.

A new contractor has also been signed up to work on our Christmas lights.

We have taken part in two consultation events organised by Wiltshire Council about how the planning system is working (or not) for parishes. 

Our own Neighbourhood Plan is progressing more slowly than we had hoped. It is currently with a designer, being prepared for submission to Wiltshire Council in the form that they require before we can receive their further comments.

Police hub at High Post? Not the best idea, in my opinion

THE inclusion of a potential site for a much-needed policing hub serving the south of the county in an application for a large industrial development at High Post appears to be an attempt to make this highly controversial scheme on greenfield land more widely acceptable at the second time of asking.
The Police and Crime Commissioner is on record as saying that he is continuing to negotiate with landowners about other suitably sized sites, already zoned for ‘employment’ use, closer to Salisbury and with better, sustainable transport links for the city’s residents.
If these other sites are not taken up for such use, developers will soon come back to Wiltshire Council planners saying there is ‘no demand’, and seek permission to fill them with more housing instead, making a mockery of the careful site allocation process that has already taken place.
There is no commitment on the PCC’s part to the High Post site, and approval does not necessarily mean the policing hub will be built there.
What is the point of having land designated for employment use alongside current housing developments on the fringes of the city if it is to be ignored in favour of building on agricultural land, at a junction that is already an accident black spot, that is realistically only likely to be accessed by car? This makes a mockery of Wiltshire’s ‘sustainable’ development criteria.
Further, allocating sites for such large-scale expansion of industrial/business provision should be done in the review of the Local Plan when it would be subjected to wider public consultation which would include all the nearby parishes.
If Wiltshire Council wishes to further develop the A345 corridor between Salisbury and Amesbury, at the very least there should be masterplanning.
Other objectors to the planning application have detailed concerns about the impact of this scheme on the Woodford Valley roads and on the wildlife – in particular, bats – using the development site, and I concur with these.