In a Salisbury Journal article today, Wiltshire council finally admit that their plans were “Rushed”, but they are still not listening to the public, who do not want the Library to move and certainly not into a space the size of a shoe box.

Quoting the corporate director, Alistair Cunningham “That was Phase One and it possibly proceeded at a pace that was a wee bit fast for public understanding of why we are doing it, and as an officer of the council we did that and we got that wrong” and “I have to say local members picked up a lot flack because we had not properly engaged so apologies for that”. He further went on to say “They needed to act swiftly to ensure the £6.1 million government funding set aside for the Maltings development was not lost.”

I am aghast at these comments. So, the council think the public are stupid, as their planning application proceeded at a pace a wee bit fast for public understanding? What utter nonsense.

And as for local members getting any flack, these were clearly Conservative Councillors, who did not bother to challenge the council at any stage, keeping their silence to try to protect their party colleagues. They should be ashamed. Their residents will not forget this, like they will.

Our MP should be demanding that this £6.1m should be kept for Salisbury and not have to be used by March 2021. Last year’s event was wholly unusual and is reason to keep it. No other areas around the country could ever challenge this.

We will keep up pressure on the council to see sense, which is not an easy task! The Library needs to stay put. There is no need to move it away from the centre into a shoe box. But Tory councillors cannot see that.