I am keeping a very close eye on the potential development of some 400+ near to the Cattle Market.

The land in question, has been ‘eyed up’ by developers, who were seen on site surveying by residents.

The land was NEVER deleted for development by the Tory administration several years ago, who now face pressure to develop more homes from their Westminster Tory peers.

Wiltshire council will announce at a later date which sites will be included for development. The Harnham Gyratory is now already at a standstill. Does it really need more traffic?

More news about this site will appear in the near future.

Wishing all  Harnham residents a very Happy New Year. I hope Christmas went well. I look forward to meeting many of you over the coming months and please do contact me anytime. I’m here to help you.

Wiltshire council are carrying out a consultation on bus services which they subsidise. They will be cutting funding to these and Harnham buses are likely to be affected. That’s the r1 and r5 sertvices.

I strongly encourage you  to take the survey and give your views. We already have no r5 service on Sundays after 7pm.

Please click the link to take part. Many thanks.

If you live adjacent to Harnham (or Salisbury), please click the link and have your say whether you wish to ‘move’ into the City or not.

Your Council Tax will massively increase if you do!

Please click here.

Salisbury City Council is pushing to extend its boundary, including swallowing up parts of the Netherhampton and Coombe Bissett Parishes, adding them into the Harnham ward.

The areas adjacent to Harnham are the old Wellworthy site on Netherhampton Rd, which is part of Netherhampton Parish, and the new Lywood Close development at the top of Old Blandford Rd, which is part of the Britford Parish.

The proposal, pushed by the Tories, would bolster the City council coffers, as Council Tax collected from these areas would then go to the City council.

Their scheme included wanting to swallow up Wilton and Laverstock, but Tories backed down on Wilton. Empire building without consultation? Sounds like they got this idea from their creation of Wiltshire Council!

Wiltshire Council have asked Parishes if they wanted to look at their Boundaries and the City council have upset their neighbours doing this, especially Laverstock.

Wiltshire will make a final decision at a special council meeting on November 24th, in Trowbridge.

While the proposal to include some parts into Harnham may sound a logical idea, those residents will see their Council Tax rocket, if the proposal goes ahead, as the City precept is far higher than their current Parish precept.

For example, in 2015/16 tax year, a Council

Tax Band D property would pay a precept of:

Britford Parish £15.88

Netherhampton Parish £9.04

City Council £105.00

A massive increase, with no gain to the resident!

If residents in these areas, after consultation, agree to ‘move’ into the City, and subsequently Harnham ward, then they would be welcomed with open arms. To force them just for financial gain into the City, is neither right or democratic.

Wiltshire council will be switching off almost half its street lights after midnight, in a bid to save money. Some permanently.

Click HERE to read their report. And click HERE for Map 1 of Salisbury and HERE for Map 2 of Salisbury.

Whilst i’m aware the council needs to save money, their consultation falls way short. It was carried out in 2012 and only had 264 responses in total across Wiltshire – very poor. 

There has been an issue with the stickers sent out by the council for the Green Bins. If yours is not sticking to the Bin, please call the council and they will send out a new one to you. Their number is (01225) 713 000.

Wiltshire Council has axed funding to the Vision board, which the public really has no confidence in anyway. Board members, were allegedly not even made aware of the decision.

Click here to read the Journal report.

Wiltshire Council quizzed on residents’ consultation on being swallowed up into the City – and will pay a huge council tax increase. Click HERE to hear my query to the cabinet member.

Montague Rd is having major patching works done and works are due to start very soon. A road closure order, to enable to works to carry out has been advertised. More details to follow.

The Conservatives have suggested that by making current parking charges 10p cheaper, and making two well-underused car parks £1 an hour, will be good for Salisbury and solve the car parking issue that they created.

The two car parks proposed at £1 an hour will be Culver Street and Southampton Rd, opposite the College. The WC report clearly shows that these car parks are well-underused. Culver Street is only ever 27% full at best and Southampton Rd a paltry 1%.

Southampton Rd, owned by the City council (but managed by WC) is currently free. This is because it is cheaper to make it free than collect the small sums made by charging. Just who is going to pay the proposed £8 a day to park here?

I made this case yesterday, and stated that many in Salisbury choose to go to either Bournemouth (60p an hour in their Central car park) or West Quay in Southampton, where it’s cheaper to park. I even quoted the parking charges from the West Quay website at committee. John Thomson, the cabinet member suggested that i was making this up, but shut up when i said that i was reading direct from the website, which i immediately forwarded onto him!

While i applaud council officers looking at the issue this time (the Tories spent £50,000 on consultants last time), making these two car parks £1 an hour will not solve the parking issue here and shows just how out of touch and remote Trowbridge is. Makes the case for a south Wiltshire council even stronger.

The recommendations may be subject to change at the cabinet meeting in due course. The full report can be read here. It is item 6a and appendix 3 shows the proposed new charges, which will be variable across all car parks.