Helping besieged residents to make their voices heard

Written September 2023

TWO main subjects have fought for space in my brain over the past few weeks.

One is housing development, and the other, the City Hall. So, in that order.

There is so much to do in the Harnham area at present, helping residents who feel besieged by developers and who don’t know how to make those in power listen to them .

That’s partly the result of the Wiltshire Council Local Plan Review. How to respond to the public consultation on that particular epic ought to qualify as a specialist subject on Mastermind, there’s so much technical bumf to get to grips with.

So far I’ve been to three public meetings, plus one with neighbouring parishes, a debate by our city’s planning committee and an online share-fest of horror stories with councillors elsewhere in the county who are seeing their communities’ wishes overridden.

At the same time I’ve been trying to help residents fed up with having their public rights of way blocked in the name of elf’n’safety during the builders’ bonanza that’s engulfing Harnham Hill.

On the Wiltshire Plan, we’ve been instructed to confine our comments to whether it is ‘sound’ – a piece of jargon that means nothing to Joe Public.

My advice is not to worry, just get stuck in, tell them what you think and leave it up to the independent inspector to sort out.

You can do it online via www.wiltshire.gov.uk/local-plan . Or if your eyes aren’t up to the scrolling (mine are struggling), pop down to the library on October 17 from 3-7pm and talk to a planning officer. Most important, don’t be put off!

Right, then. The ongoing saga of not much happening that is our City Hall aka war memorial.

In an outbreak of common sense, Trowbridge has ruled out moving the library and Young Gallery into the building.

And the search is on for partner organisations with the commercial nous to relaunch theHall as an entertainment venue. Failing that, Wiltshire might have to do it on their own, which they don’t fancy.

The City Council did make tentative enquiries, by the way, but were told we wouldn’t get any cash to help run it!

So we wait some more. And if nothing emerges in due course, our area board will ask if any community groups can come up with another option, such as a charitable trust.

In the meantime there is a request to open it for Remembrance, which might be a nice gesture.