Well just a few days of snow and our County seems to grind to a halt.  WCC claim they had 8,500 tonnes of grit for the winter and have used 7,500 in a few days.

There is an answer to this:  There must be a political decision to spend more money on stockpiling more grit in future years.  We have had mild winters for the past few years.  Just how did we manage years ago.

I have been inundated with complaints on this issue and will raise it at the next County Council meeting later this month.

We must start to grit minor roads and Bus routes.  These have been cut back over the years and it’s just not acceptable.  But the Tories have slashed the Highways Budget year on year, spending £2m less this year than last.  They blamed the government, but have even underspent and must now spend on road maintenance.

The condition of the roads in Salisbury are an absolute disgrace.  They’ve been neglected for years and cannot even be cleared in inclement weather.  This is the Conservative County Council idea for roads in our area.

I understand that the Electoral Commission are meeting on February 11th to finally decide the Boundaries to the new Wiltshire Council.

I also understand that they have received substantial objections from Harnham Residents, regarding the proposed Harnham Boundaries.

The Electoral Commission’s decision will be final to any proposed Boundaries.  Many Harnham Residents have had their democratic say during this ‘public’ consultation.

I hope the Commission will listen to what Residents have to say.  This will be ‘democracy’.

I hope that you’ve had a wonderful Christmas.  May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year for 2009.

Thank you to all residents who came along to the meeting.  It looks like there will (again!) be many letters of objection to the Electoral Commission on the proposed Boundary for Harnham.

A further public meeting has been arranged to offer advice about the Boundary issue affecting Harnham.  This will be on:

Thursday 18th December

7pm -9pm

St Georges Hall, Lower St, West Harnham.

Please come along anytime during this period, where advice will be offered.  Residents need to object to the Electoral Commission, who will now have the final say on our Boundary’s.

The Boundary Committee (BC) has just published its “Final Recommendations” for new Divisions to the new Wiltshire Council.

Despite a barrage of objections from Harnham Residents, they have confirmed their “Draft Recommendations” as “Final” and will split Harnham along Netherhampton, Harnham, New Harnham & Downton Rds.

The area to the South of this line will remain in Harnham, whilst the North will be ‘moved’ into St Martin & Cathedral; e.g Harnham Water Meadows, St Georges Church, the Old Mill, Rose & Crown Hotel etc will now be in St Martin!

You can read their final report here:  http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/boundary-reviews/all-reviews/south-west/wiltshire/wiltshire-electoral-review

I have always lived in West Harnham and this i believe is very bad news for our community.  We will now technically have a North & South Harnham.  So many residents had voiced this to me over the past few months.  I feel very sorry that i personally, was unable to do more.

I will be further pursuing this with the Electoral Commission, making further objections (the last hurdle) as the BC have supported a Division which will be 6.43% above their permitted tolerance.  This they have ignored and make no mention of it in their report.

I will be putting out a FOCUS leaflet to this area within the next few weeks.

The Boundary Committee (BC) have delayed their “Final Recommendations” by two weeks and will now announce them on Friday 14th November. It is hoped that the Tory recommendations to split Harnham will be amended due to the amount of local opposition received by the BC. But we have to wait until the 14th to officially learn of their proposals.

The split in the Harnham boundary was drawn up by local Tories in Salisbury and pushed through county hall by their administration.  Harnham Residents are outraged at this proposal.

The Boundary Committee (BC) reports its “Final Recommendations” for new Wiltshire Council Boundary’s on Friday 31st October.

The objections that have come from the Harnham area have been phenomenal, these have already been placed on the BC website ahead of Fridays announcement.

For their website, please click: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/boundary-reviews/all-reviews/south-west/wiltshire/wiltshire-electoral-review

For Residents objections, please click:  http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/_media/response-submission/the-boundary-committee/wiltshire-submissions/Residents.pdf

For councillors objections, please click: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/67378/Cllrs.pdf

We await their announcement on Friday, when the “Final Recommendations” will be posted on their website.

Highbury Primary School has just held an exhibition “Time For Change” in the school hall.  The exhibiton was very well attended by former pupils and local residents.

On display was the school’s history, dating back to 1924, including personal accounts from former pupils along with numerous class and whole school photos, including a school photo from 1970.

The exhibition will be shown again in Salisbury Library from:

4th November – 20th November

If you missed it, go along, it was a fantastic display of nostalgia.

My Father attended the school in the 1930’s, and my Brother from 1967-1972.

The current building will be demolished, as the school will move to their long awaited new building adjacent to the current building, hopefully before half term in February 2009.

At long last, Real Time Passenger Information, RTPI, is finally being installed at some of our Bus stops in West Harnham.

Units have already been installed in Essex Sq & Norfolk Rd and it looks as if Middle St will soon be done, as the lamp post has been replaced.  Works are being prepared on converting some of our other stops around West Harnham.

West Harnham was originally omitted from the scheme in 2003 and Murial and I have campaigned ever since to be included.  Funds are being used which have come from the former Wellworthy site, which were allocated to West Harnham for transport issues.

The converted stops will eventually count down from 20 minutes, to when the Bus actually arrives.