We need a proper joined-up transport strategy

Written October 2023

BY happy coincidence, this week’s Journal carries a story on how our city centre could look, car-free.

I saw it online, just after a meeting with Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for highways, Caroline Thomas, and one of their senior officers on Tuesday.

Your city council had invited them, plus neighbouring parish leaders, to discuss our traffic chaos and the lack of realistic plans to sort it.

We are all being asked to comment on proposed new housing sites in Wiltshire’s Local Plan Review, focused around Harnham, Old Sarum and Laverstock.

These will hugely increase traffic, in particular on the Harnham Gyratory and Castle Road – with knock-on effects on the entire ring road and those brave souls who venture onto it.

But there is no comprehensive transport strategy upon which to base our responses. It’s running late.

To my mind, this makes a nonsense of ‘consultation’. Although I didn’t put it that bluntly to Cllr Thomas, she clearly understood.

But understanding won’t change anything, because the system isn’t about listening to people first and foremost, is it?

It’s about meeting targets imposed by ministers at the behest of developers who pour money into party coffers and are insufficiently challenged by cash-strapped, understaffed councils, cowed by the threat of a builders’ free-for-all if they don’t maintain a five-year land supply.

And it’s totally failing to meet our biggest need, for genuinely affordable rented housing that doesn’t get flogged off.

Readers may know that I help to run a Facebook group, SOS – Save Our Salisbury, launched during the People Friendly Streets/cycle lanes fiasco.

I’m not against making the city centre pleasanter for pedestrians and cyclists, and if this means partial pedestrianisation, so be it. It looks lovely in the AI-generated images in the Journal.

But only if – and it’s a big if – local people have been listened to about how it would work for them. Only if there is adequate, attractive, affordable provision for visitors to park. And only after a parking study – long promised by Wiltshire – shows how this can be achieved.

With our great new attractions, Bradbeers and Primark, Salisbury should tempt shoppers from across the income spectrum.

But I am concerned about the combined effects of roadworks, jams and the current limited parking options.

Some readers will ask: ‘Why can’t they use the park and ride?’ And if a way could be found to ease the queues that the buses get stuck in, I might agree.

Back to square one.

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.

How will Harnham's road infrastructure cope?

Written September 2023

IF YOU were responsible for sorting out a clogged-up junction that’s blighting people’s lives, what would you suggest?

At a guess, I’d say your answer might not be: ‘Build several large housing estates feeding more traffic into it’.

But hey ho, I’m not a Wiltshire Council planner, so I expect they’ll say I don’t know what I’m talking about.

And it’s not my job (thank the Lord) to solve the problem of the Harnham Gyratory in order to justify destroying more of Harnham’s green fields.

Wiltshire’s previous ‘junction improvement’ scheme failed a cost-benefit analysis. So what now?

Here goes: They intend to widen the southbound (uphill) carriageway between New Bridge and the Gyratory to create an extra lane for queuing traffic.

That involves creating a cycle lane up to SIX METRES wide “to meet current design standards” through the wide grass verge, which they reckon can be done without felling any of the lovely mature trees lining this key approach to our city.

Then move the bus stop a bit further downhill, create a crossing with priority for pedestrians and cyclists at Britford Lane, two new crossing points on Combe Road and Downton Road, change the traffic light timings - and Bob’s your uncle. Apparently.

At Monday’s City Council meeting we were shown a modelling video of dinky little imaginary cars moving smoothly through all the arms of the junction under this new scenario.

We were told it accounted for “all the development sites up to 2026” plus a bit extra for “strategic growth rates”.

I find it hard to believe that it will, in fact, cope with the traffic serving the new estates already under construction, let alone the hundreds more homes proposed over the next decade or so on Downton Road, Odstock Road, off the Combe Road, and at the In-Excess garden centre. Not to mention the hospital’s HEAT project.

What’s more, we were warned that the viability of the scheme depends on the as yet unknown cost of digging up and diverting all the utilities that run under the Gyratory.

So what happens if that cost doesn't stack up? Does the traffic just continue to do so?

All this, to save Trowbridge the hassle for a while longer of doing what it admits it should dobut hasn’t got around to – planning for a sustainable new community away from the city and close to major transport links.

Harnham engulfed by a sea of new housing

Written July 2023

LOOK what’s been quietly unfolding while the entire world seems to have been in convulsions about hanging baskets. A real, concrete threat to whole swathes of our green environment.

It is misleading to claim, as Wiltshire’s Cabinet report did on Tuesday, that there has been ‘significant engagement with the local community’ over the proposed housing sites in its Local Plan Review.

As a leader of the City Council, chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan and vice chairman of the planning committee, I can assure you that nobody from Trowbridge has ‘engaged’ with me about any of this in the two years since I was elected. Even though my ward is hugely affected.

And I’ve had dozens of emails in the past few days from extremely upset residents who feel they’ve been ambushed. None of them had any idea what was in the offing, either.

The two sites identified for a total of 310 houses on either side of Coombe Road will worsen congestion at Harnham Gyratory (as will the extra 280 coming elsewhere in Harnham), and obliterate countryside which is a highly valued recreational resource for the neighbouring community.

Enormous pressure will be put on the birdlife, bugs and wildflowers of the Lime Kiln Down County Wildlife Site next door, where these new residents will naturally want to walk their dogs and let their kids run around.

Wiltshire Council is the part owner (with us) of this lovely little haven, which is maintained by your City Council with the help of dedicated volunteers and is currently alive with butterflies. There’s already another major development mooted bang opposite it, across Odstock Road. How can it survive? Where’s next?

Our Neighbourhood Plan group has had its efforts to suggest brownfield site options, focusing on identified local needs for affordable homes, rejected.

I’d encourage people to respond to this consultation and I hope we can make a difference.

But hundreds of Harnham residents objected to the estates currently gobbling up the fields along Netherhampton Road, and now even the garden centre is at risk.

I will do my very best to represent local people’s views, working across the East/West ward boundary in a non-political partnership with other Harnham councillors on behalf of the whole community.

I hope readers will forgive me if I sound as though I only care about Harnham. That’s not the case. But I’ve run out of space. Rather like Wiltshire Council, I suspect.

You can't make people know what they don't want to know

Written August 2023

IT was 13 years ago. My son, a first-year physiotherapy student, was home from uni for the weekend.

“I think our family must be weird, Mum,” he said. “When I told them we talk about the news at dinnertime, my flatmates were amazed. None of them even knew who the Prime Minister is!”

Gobsmacked? I was. These were intelligent kids, undergraduates. They hadn’t been taught and didn’t care about that stuff.

Fast forward to Tuesday. I was manning a Market Place stall with some fellow councillors and our clerk.

We were asking about people’s priorities for our next budget. After the parish poll furore, I’d expected a barrage of criticism.

Without exception, those I spoke to had grumbles. About the Fisherton Street improvements, River Park disruption, commercial waste bins and bin stores, proposed and ongoing housing developments ….. the trouble being that none of these fall within the remit of the City Council.

When we explained what we are responsible for, the majority had few complaints.

Fourteen years after the district council was replaced by a unitary Wiltshire, leaving Salisbury demoted to parish status, it’s clear that large numbers of residents still don’t understand who does what.

Hence the leaflet we’ve posted to every household within our boundary this week, explaining just that, and how we spend our share of their tax, and inviting them to take part in a survey on whether we should do it differently.

The folk I spoke to were pleased and interested to be asked for their views. But even with our friendly Giant, valiantly manned by Cllr Paul Sample and his band of volunteers, to attract their attention, an awful lot of passers-by just glanced sideways and quickly looked away in that classic British ‘Oh, please don’t ask me to speak to a stranger’ way, before walking on. You can’t tell me they were all tourists.

At the risk of sounding rude, you can consult till you’re blue in the face, but you cannot make people want to know.

Despite lots of publicity, our evening session in the Guildhall attracted just one visitor.

All I can take from this experience so far is that people can’t be that dissatisfied with the service they get from us, or they’d have said so.

However, if you disagree, there are more consultations on Saturday and Tuesday, and online. Details on that leaflet, or our city council website.

Hurry up and restore our City Hall

Written June 2023

ANOTHER update on our City Hall’s future is promised at tonight’s public meeting of the Salisbury Area Board (Five Rivers, 6pm).

Let’s hope things have progressed in a more positive direction since we heard that the building needed £2.1million spending to make it usable, that no third party had yet been found to run it, and that redevelopment might be a better option.

In its absence, I’ve rediscovered the Arts Centre, which beats it hands down for atmosphere. On Friday I really enjoyed a Beatles tribute night, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Fab Four’s one and only visit to our city. But we desperately need a bigger venue again if Salisbury is to regain its status as a cultural destination for all tastes.

Over the years at the City Hall I’ve watched acts like Paul Merton, Bill Bailey, the late lamented John Martyn, Billy Bragg … I even went to an Abba tribute night, which was great fun, not least because half the audience were dressed as their heroes.

I’ve laughed my socks off at a recording of Just A Minute, hosted by the inimitable Jack Dee. I’ve served teas at a Community Choir concert. I’ve watched my 13-year-old son (yes, it was a long time ago) and his mates from the old Rock School gigging in the foyer. So I do value it as a resource for all our community.

Whatever is done with it has to respect its status as a Second World War memorial, and if Wiltshire Council does decide to redevelop, maybe a new, standalone memorial could be built, following consultation with the Royal British Legion and the wider public?

Anyway, there’s yet another ‘regeneration’ plan for the Maltings coming shortly from its latest owners, according to the area board paperwork, though it doesn’t sound as if much detail will be available tonight.

So goodness knows whether the Cultural Quarter, incorporating a relocated library, is seriously back in the offing.

Sadly I’m going to miss this meeting as I’ll be listening to a talk on an even more pressing issue. The president of the National Farmers’ Union, Minette Batters, is the speaker at our Civic Society’s agm, and her subject is The Future of the Countryside and Food Production.

The future of the City Hall or the future of the nation’s food supply. Which of these knotty problems do you think will be solved first?

Canine capers in the Market Place

May 2023

FREE, family-focused events are among many things for which our City Council deserves to be congratulated.

Take the themed Sunday Street Sellers markets, which run monthly throughout the summer.

Last weekend’s canine-focused entertainment was a dog lover’s delight, and you didn’t have to splash any cash to join in with your pooch or just sit in the sun and watch the fun.

After attending the annual civic service at St Thomas’s, I swapped my robe and hat (what a relief, that hat is so uncomfortable) for jeans and trainers, and pitched in.

I particularly wanted to do my bit for the unsung heroes of Solstice Missing Dogs, a small team of very knowledgeable volunteers who give help and advice at all hours to anyone whose pet goes awol. It’s amazing how busy they are, in addition to their day jobs.

As well as tracking and recapturing hounds that are often traumatised and panicky after being on the loose, sometimes for days or even weeks on end, they are keen to educate people on what to do and what not to do if they’re trying to help in a search. You can find out more on their Facebook page.

I was soon roped in to help judge the ‘dog with the best trick’ and ‘best rescue dog’ categories, a mission impossible when they were all so cute and their owners so proud, some with such moving stories to tell.

Other worthy canine causes featured among the stalls, alongside a range of arts and crafts, and there was even a mini agility arena. I hope this truly good-natured and inclusive event will be back next year.

A pat on the back for all the competitors, and for our hardworking staff, who also had a whole weekend of Mayor-making celebrations to organise.

Herding councillors back and forth across town is not the easiest of tasks, as we’d all agree. Even after two years I still need to be reminded of where to stand in the procession!

But that brings to mind the need to say thanks to another unassuming hero, our outgoing

Mayor Tom Corbin, who has worked incredibly hard over the past year and taken such genuine interest in the many engagements he’s undertaken.

Congratulations and good luck to his successor, Atiqul Hoque, who I am sure will be just as brilliant!

For and against the expansion of Salisbury parish

Written April 2023

THE buzz phrase among those who worry about how our city can finance its services without bankrupting its council tax payers is ‘boundary review’.
It’s not fair, people say, that the residents of Laverstock & Ford, or Netherhampton, or basically anywhere within ten miles of the Guildhall, should continue to enjoy the central and essential facilities funded by the city council without contributing to their cost.
So they want to seek Wiltshire’s permission to expand Salisbury’s parish boundaries to take over these potentially lucrative neighbours and make them chip in.
I know, I know, this is a battle that’s been fought and lost before. I remember reporting on an acrimonious meeting in 2017 where one speaker conjured up a vision of a tin-helmeted Mayor leading an invasion force of Panzer tanks along Pearce Way. Hilarious.
There was a lot of bad feeling back then about the city council’s failure to support Ford residents who were opposing a huge housing development on Old Sarum airfield.
What’s that you say? A huge housing development is being proposed right now on that same historic airfield? Well, fancy that! Nothing much changes, does it?
The city did change its mind about the airfield. But too late. Relations were damaged.
And there was more. Laverstockers didn’t want to be subjected to the party political argy-bargy that is a distressingly regular feature of city council life. They didn’t believe it was necessary. (I don’t blame them. That’s why I stood as an Independent.)
They didn’t want to be minnows in a bigger pool. When you look at what life under Wiltshire Council has achieved for Salisbury, I don’t blame them for that, either.
On Monday, at our annual parish meeting, the boundary issue raised its head again.
My response was to ask why on earth Wiltshire Council would wish to approve anything that looked even remotely like a potential challenger authority emerging in the south,
covering much of the old district council area. I may be wrong. I sometimes am.
Anyway, I hope that the handful of members of the public at Monday’s meeting left with a greater understanding of what the city council does, why it costs what it does, and how hard it is to decide what to cut.
Just some things to think about when and if you cast your vote at the parish poll today.
There is no easy answer.

Airfield battle goes on

Written March 2023

STRICTLY speaking, you could say it’s none of my business as a mere city councillor. Our little airfield is outside the Salisbury parish border. Yet everything that goes on at Old Sarum impacts city residents. Especially issues around planning.

So what’s bothering me now? Housing development in unsuitable places and unsuitable quantities, you may not be surprised to hear.

The World War One airfield’s owners are undeterred by losing their battle against an inspector’s verdict that plonking 460 homes in this Conservation Area would cause “inordinate” harm to our historic environment.

They’re talking about 320 this time. Still not exactly conservation, in my opinion.Yesterday all and sundry were invited to what their PR people called a ‘public consultation’.

Which it couldn’t be, because there is as yet no concrete (unfortunate choice of word, perhaps!) masterplan to consult us on. More of a presentation of non-binding possibilities that nobody asked for.

Just consider what the extra traffic from 320 properties will do to the jams and the quality of life for residents on Castle Road.
Consider the impact on the residents of Ford, officially designated a small village by Wiltshire Council.

Ask yourself what you want to see when you stroll up Castle Hill country park or the Old Sarum monument. How about an airfield-sized green respite amid the ever-expanding vista of new-builds? Even a few light aircraft bringing the place back to life?

For those new to the subject it’s worth explaining that the real villain of the piece is Core Policy 25 of the Wiltshire Core Strategy – a woolly policy in a strategy well overdue for revision.

This allows for an unspecified amount of “sympathetic” new development on the airfield perimeter, as long as it enhances the historic environment and retains and safeguards flying activity whilst limiting aircraft noise.              

All that it’s achieved is a lengthy wrangle.          

 
The Grade II* listed Hangar Three has rotted to such an extent that it’s had to be shored up under the guidance of Historic England. Why hasn’t it been made wind and watertight?

According to a Journal report, it’ll be completely refurbished if the new redevelopment plans get the nod. What if they don’t?

 
The Core Strategy stipulates that the masterplan for the whole airfield should be developed in consultation with the community, planning authority and developer “prior to any application being considered”.
That would be a start.

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.

'Make your mind up' time

NOW here's a funny thing.
In Romsey, seven candidates have described themselves as Independents for the town (parish) council elections.
Yet according to the Hampshire Chronicle, they are on the candidate list for the borough elections, which are taking place at the same time, under the Local Conservative label.

https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/23452357.romsey-conservatives-criticised-listed-independents/

Boundary debate rears its head again

THE buzz phrase among those who worry about how our city can finance its services without bankrupting its council tax payers is ‘boundary review’.
It’s not fair, people say, that the residents of Laverstock & Ford, or Netherhampton, or basically anywhere within ten miles of the Guildhall, should continue to enjoy the central and essential facilities funded by the city council without contributing to their cost.
So they want to seek Wiltshire’s permission to expand Salisbury’s parish boundaries to take over these potentially lucrative neighbours and make them chip in.
I know, I know, this is a battle that’s been fought and lost before. I remember reporting on an acrimonious meeting in 2017 where one speaker conjured up a vision of a tin-helmeted Mayor leading an invasion force of Panzer tanks along Pearce Way. Hilarious.
There was a lot of bad feeling back then about the city council’s failure to support Ford residents who were opposing a huge housing development on Old Sarum airfield.
What’s that you say? A huge housing development is being proposed right now on that same historic airfield? Well, fancy that! Nothing much changes, does it?
The city did change its mind about the airfield. But too late. Relations were damaged.
And there was more. Laverstockers didn’t want to be subjected to the party political argy-bargy that is a distressingly regular feature of city council life. They didn’t believe it was necessary. (I don’t blame them. That’s why I stood as an Independent.)
They didn’t want to be minnows in a bigger pool. When you look at what life under Wiltshire Council has achieved for Salisbury, I don’t blame them for that, either.
On Monday, at our annual parish meeting, the boundary issue raised its head again.
My response was to ask why on earth Wiltshire Council would wish to approve anything that looked even remotely like a potential challenger authority emerging in the south, covering much of the old district council area. I may be wrong. I sometimes am.
Anyway, I hope that the handful of members of the public at Monday’s meeting left with a greater understanding of what the city council does, why it costs what it does, and how hard it is to decide what to cut. 
Just some things to think about when and if you cast your vote at the parish poll today. There is no easy answer.

(This article appeared in the Salisbury Journal on April 20, the day of the parish poll on future council tax rises)

Why airfield plans matter to the whole of Salisbury

STRICTLY speaking, you could say it’s none of my business as a mere city councillor. Our little airfield is outside the Salisbury parish border.

Yet everything that goes on at Old Sarum impacts city residents. Especially issues around planning.

So what’s bothering me now? Housing development in unsuitable places and unsuitable quantities, you may not be surprised to hear.

The World War One airfield’s owners are undeterred by losing their battle against an inspector’s verdict that plonking 460 homes in this Conservation Area would cause “inordinate” harm to our historic environment.

They’re talking about 320 this time. Still not exactly conservation, in my opinion.

Yesterday people were invited to what their PR team called a ‘public consultation’. Yet there is no concrete (unfortunate choice of word, perhaps!) masterplan to consult on. More of a presentation of possibilities that won’t necessarily be binding on any future builder.

Just consider what the extra traffic from 320 properties will do to the jams and the quality of life for residents on Castle Road. 

Consider the impact on the residents of Ford, officially designated a small village by Wiltshire Council.

Ask yourself what you want to see when you stroll up Castle Hill country park or the Old Sarum monument. How about an airfield-sized green respite amid the ever-expanding vista of new-builds? Even a few light aircraft bringing the place back to life?

For those new to the subject it’s worth explaining that the real villain of the piece is Core Policy 25 of the Wiltshire Core Strategy – a woolly policy in a strategy well overdue for revision.

This allows for an unspecified amount of “sympathetic” new development on the airfield perimeter, as long as it enhances the historic environment and retains and safeguards flying activity whilst limiting aircraft noise.

All that it’s achieved is a lengthy, costly wrangle.

The Grade II* listed Hangar Three has rotted to such an extent that it’s had to be shored up under the guidance of Historic England. Why hasn’t it been made wind and watertight? 

According to a Journal report, it’ll be completely refurbished if the new development plans get the nod. What if they don’t?

The Core Strategy stipulates that the masterplan for the whole airfield that “protects the amenity of existing residents” should be worked up in consultation with the community, planning authority and developer “prior to any application being considered”.

That would be a start.

Panto is a hit, oh yes it is!

THE last time I went to a panto at the Playhouse, Robin Hood - who happened to be lodging with mates of mine - got his nose broken in a fracas after a visit to a local hostelry. Can you guess which one?
Wiltshire Creative refused to confirm or deny it but I know it for a fact.
Both these things, to me, say a lot about Salisbury which we simply shouldn’t gloss over, even though we might wish we could do so.
We’ve waited through some depressing times since then for the return of the Christmas highlight that our theatre always does so well.
And they didn’t disappoint. Cinderella was a triumph of traditional daftness over the grimness of today’s world.

The sense of anticipation in the audience was palpable. They really wanted this wacky alternative reality – which is in fact so much a part of our national identity – to succeed in taking them to a happier place.
I thought the jokes were more adult than previously. Sometimes I found myself looking at children’s faces in the audience to see what they made of references to things they really shouldn’t have known about. I know double-entendres are a staple ingredient of panto, but looking back on the days when my boys were small, I wouldn’t have wanted to field the inevitable questions. 
In fact, the whole setting was more modern, with the Ugly Sisters as social media influencers and Cinders, while still being a put-upon maid of all work, having a sideline as an  inventor of improbable machines just to show a bit of female empowerment.
Having said which, this was a cracking show. The solo singers all had really strong voices, the costumes were as fantasmagorical as a box of Liquorice Allsorts, the hardworking musicians were great, and it would be wrong to pick out any individual members of such a talented ensemble cast.
I hope it’s the commercial success it deserves to be.
What my Ukrainian guests will make of this stylised lunacy I don’t know, but I’m buying them tickets for Christmas. And telling them that this is what they need to see to understand the English, haha!

Pictures by The Other Richard

Good Luck, Playhouse, with this great new comedy

DAFT, hilarious, a terrific cheerer-upper. That’s Good Luck Studio, on at the Playhouse till November 5. And who doesn’t need to lose themselves in laughter right now amid the encircling gloom?

The set is a children’s TV programme, featuring a singing dragon, a frog puppet and a princess dressed as a pineapple, plus a Brian Blessed-style over-the-top wicked king bellowing atop a castle turret, and there’s plenty of panto-style slapstick. 

But it’s not for the kiddies. There’s a darker side to this farce, involving a rejected actor with a gun. And a lot of the jokes are definitely for adult ears.

It’s from the team behind those ‘Play That Goes Wrong’ comedies – described in the Telegraph as “the funniest theatre troupe in Britain”.

The opening few minutes were a bit slow with the necessary scene-setting but soon calamity started piling on calamity, and it got so silly that the audience were quite carried away with it, and many were on their feet applauding at the end.

I was surprised to find one of my favourite comedians, Tom Walker – better known by millions for his spoof news reports as ranting political correspondent Jonathan Pie – playing the absolutely horrible director, Andy, to perfection. Having loved a couple of his live solo shows, I’d never have expected to see him in an ensemble like this, but this was a real team effort, and it worked brilliantly.

A special mention also for Greg Tannahill as first aider Kevin, and an inspired scene in which he superglues his trousers. Doesn’t sound much when you put it like that, but you have to have been there.

Picture by Pamela Raith

Another little gem from Salisbury playwright Barney Norris

IT’S hard to categorise The Wellspring, and maybe that’s why there was a disappointingly small audience for the beginning of its brief run at the Playhouse yesterday.

Mass entertainment it most certainly isn’t, but this latest offering from Salisbury playwright Barney Norris – described by him as a ‘memory cycle’ - is moving, entertaining and thought-provoking. 
It’s very brave to reveal the vulnerability that Barney in particular shares as he and his dad, pianist and composer David Owen Norris, in turn look back on events either humorous or traumatic from their early lives, revealing how after a family break-up they have managed to create a bond that works for them, and what brought them individually to where they are now. This particular onlooker was completely drawn in.
As always with Barney, there’s a lot about home, the continuing search for it and what it means. His dad seems altogether more comfortable with where he’s at.
The beautiful piano interludes and haunting folk songs, absorbing in their own right, are finely judged to both underline and lighten the intensity of the spoken words, which is just as well or there are points where you might feel close to tears.
Having said which, there are plenty of the self-deprecating, rueful, smiley moments that Barney does so well, and his dad’s a born raconteur.
Cleverly set against a backdrop of ancient family cine film, this was a little gem.

All we need is a person on the end of a phone - is it too much to ask?

WHEN it comes to public services, it seems to me this Conservative government will do absolutely anything except employ people and reward them properly for their work.
We see it with the refusal to train enough doctors, with the devastating shortages of nurses, midwives, teachers, police, with the current bout of nastiness directed at ‘91,000 unnecessary civil servants’ who can’t answer back …
To which I’d reply: “If you think you can do without 91,000 of your staff, why have you done nothing about it in your last 12 years in power?”
It suggests to me that this is softening up the population for more and more privatisation, enabling ministers to argue that our current systems ‘aren’t working’ and could be ‘more efficiently run by the private sector’ when actually the problems are political incompetence and interference, the creation of unnecessary layers of complex management and regulatory structures, and too little trust in professionals.  
We also see it in the nigh-impossibility of actually speaking to an adviser on any of our so-called ‘help lines’.
I’ve been trying (not for the first time) to get through to the Child Benefit number to inform them that the Ukrainian refugee and her young daughter who lived with us for three months or so have now gone back home. Basically because she could see no prospect of them being able to afford to live here independently.
Our former guest is supposed to let them know about her departure, but her computer’s broken (not easy to sort out in wartime) and she can’t get through to a human being on the phone line for callers from abroad. It’s very expensive to spend hours at a time on her mobile in the vain hope of getting an answer.
All she wants to do is stop them paying her money she’s no longer entitled to. UK taxpayers’ money.
She’s increasingly worried that she will be in trouble for not informing them about her change in circumstances. So she asked me to help.
But I can’t get through on the phone either, and I’m not sure ‘data protection’ will allow them to speak to me even if I eventually succeed.
Wiltshire Council’s refugee advisers tell they can’t do anything and she’ll have to contact Child Benefit herself. 
The website does give a postal address, so I’ve advised her to write a letter and hope that will do the trick. She’s been told it could take at least a fortnight to arrive.
A few words with an actual person might have saved all this. 
‘Just because we can’ isn’t a justification for doing anything and that includes removing the human element from essential public services.

A sad farewell to our new Ukrainian friends

OUR Ukrainian guests have gone home. Or at least, my husband’s driving them to Luton airport.  I waved them off an hour ago, biting my lip until they were out of sight. “Don’t cry,” said Mary, “or you’ll make me cry, too.”
So I’ve been walking aimlessly round the house, stumbling across discarded things. A pair of slippers and another of winter boots in the utility room. Kids’ travel sickness pills and an assembled Lego funfair with a big wheel, a reminder of an outing to the London Eye, ready to pass on to some other child, in the dining room. Shampoo and conditioner by the sink in the bathroom, the bottles too bulky for travel.
In the spare room wardrobe, neatly folded clothes – too many to pack without exceeding the baggage allowance, some of them kindly donated by wellwishers, along with Anna’s school uniform. I ought to return it to be used by some other needy family, but I’ll hang on to it for a while, just in case the war takes a turn for the worse and they have to come back. If not, I’ll return it to the school in a term or two. 
Hoping they’ll come back. Hoping they won’t.
I’m going to miss them terribly. We all are, even the dog, who loved her new nine-year-old playmate and is now just lying quietly at my feet, sensing that something’s changed and life won’t revert to the way it was yesterday. 
We’ve told them they’ll always be welcome to come back. But if they do, it’ll mean things in Ukraine have got even worse. It’ll mean failure, not least the failure of world leaders to deal with Vladimir Putin once and for all.
We in Salisbury understood already how little he cares for the suffering of ordinary people. How he feels free to subject innocent civilians to terrifyingly random acts of cruelty. We still can’t make sense of it. And now he’s doing the same thing on a global scale. 
Meanwhile, our would-be leaders faff about pretending to their party members that they have the ability to make everyday British lives better. They don’t actually have the faintest notion of how to deal with a monster holding the Western world to ransom. They don’t even know how to deal with the people who have fled here, seeking sanctuary. Not in the longer term. Housing, jobs – jobs that pay enough for single parents to live independently, I mean – childcare …. Not a clue.
I barely knew, before all this, anything about Ukraine. I’d never needed to know. And as a result I didn’t question the oversimplified way foreign news can be reported to us.
Now I’ve begun to grasp a little about this complicated, divided country. Mary is a native Ukrainian speaker, though she speaks Russian, too. She told us that many Ukrainians actually supported Russia – even some of those who have found their way here, their homes flattened by the dictator they so admire. 
So among her fellow countrymen here in Salisbury she never completely relaxed, never really knew who to trust. 
She trusted us, but there were so many ways in which we couldn’t help. 
For 12 years she taught English in a school in Lviv to children across the primary and secondary age range. But schools here don’t need people, however highly qualified, to teach English as she did, as a foreign language. 
And she didn’t have the right pieces of paper to work in a language school. You have to pay to study for a Celta certificate in Britain. She didn’t have the money. 
She couldn’t even get an interview as a classroom assistant. Mostly, the vacancies were for supermarket cleaners and shelf-stackers, care assistants …. Shiftwork impossible to fit round childcare or school holidays for a lone mother, which is what so many of our Ukrainian guests are, with their other halves forbidden to leave their country.
She’d say: “How will I ever earn enough money for a deposit and rent on a flat?” I had no answer.
I asked Wiltshire Council leader Richard Clewer. Not unreasonably, he told me: “What do you think the people who’ve been on our waiting list for years would say if they saw refugees jumping the housing queue?”
Then came the decider. Her headteacher in Ukraine said she could not hold her job open any longer. 
We’d offered her a home for a year. We couldn’t commit to longer. She stayed for 14 weeks.

NB I wrote this a month ago but waited to post it till I was sure they weren't planning on coming back.

How saving nature can save money for councils too

WHEN I volunteered to attend the Wiltshire Council Environment Summit on Friday I feared that a lot of what was said might go over my head. 
But I wanted to represent our city council, and I’m glad I did. Listening to Dr Phil Sterling – now of Butterfly Conservation, previously of Dorset Council – was inspiring. 
I hadn’t heard of him before, but on regular family visits to Dorset I’ve seen the results of this ecologist’s work. The household recycling centre at Bridport is a revelation. Yes, a tip can be a revelation! 
In summer its central reservation and the perimeter planting are a mass of wildflowers, seeded several years ago as part of a roadside verge trial. They always make me smile. (Not to mention the fact that you can leave your unwanted goods there and anyone can help themselves for a token sum. I got an ironing board for £1. Proper recycling. NB Wiltshire Council!)
Dr Sterling is also the man behind the lovely chalk wildflower banks that line the Weymouth relief road. Thirty species of butterfly have been recorded there. Yes. 30! On the side of a busy road!
And you don’t get to that point just by chucking a few packs of seeds about.
First, as he explained, we’ve got to forget our ideas about the desirability of neatly-mown lush green grass everywhere and persuade our communities to trust us on this journey and not moan about short-term ‘untidiness’. So, work with schools, with wildlife groups, put up explanatory signs …
Because the best grasslands for bees, butterflies and wildflowers develop on the poorest soils.
You cut back on mowing. And use ‘cut and collect’ machines that pick up the mown grass, which you take away for composting. Don’t leave it lying there to enrich the soil.
Do these things and coarse grasses won’t thrive and choke out everything else. So, you will need to mow less. Think of the savings in manpower and fuel!
Sow a wildflower seed mix including things like kidney vetch and yellow rattle, bird’s foot trefoil, field scabious, bee orchid ….. not just poppies and cornflowers! And start counting the creatures that visit these food-rich sites. 
Dr Sterling showed us how under this regime the money spent on highway verge management in Dorset reduced from £927,000 in 2014/15 to £650,000 in 2018/19 – and it’s even lower now.
I could see the enthusiasm shining on Wiltshire faces at the prospect of savings like that. So maybe the prospect of healthier finances will speed the unitary juggernaut’s conversion to a healthier environment.
And as someone muttered … Stonehenge tunnel, new road cuttings! I’m not getting into the rights and wrongs of that project here, but if ever it does go ahead – and that’s a big if - let’s take our lead from Dorset and make it as beautiful and as wildlife-friendly as we can.
PS Our city council recently sent one of our officers on a wildflower training course to give us in-house expertise, and we are working hard on our tree and eco strategy for Salisbury, which you will hear more about in September.