Jenny’s Wootton Bassett Blog

Town Council Planning Committee on Thursday 24^th January was considering its comments to the District Council about plans to move the Town’s outdoor sports facilities.The meeting was held in the middle hall and it was full of people wanting to give their views and hear the discussion.In public question time there were 8 people who lived close to the proposed housing development on the Gerard Buxton Ground who gave their objection, and one who would be affected by the club extension at Ballards Ash. Several representatives of the Sports Association spoke in support. Many objectors accepted the inevitability of the housing development but thought it too dense and worried about the increase in traffic in Longleaze.In the Committee discussion points were made accepting the developments but wanting changes. My comment was that the housing development was too dense and in particular did not have enough green space to make up for the loss of the green environment there at present. One of the objectors had mentioned bats that roost in the trees. The end of the consultation period for this application is 14/02/2008.

At the Revenue and Resources meeting which followed the Committee agreed to replace the 9 year old computer system in the Council office, and to invite two of the consultants, who have tendered for carrying out a service review, to present their proposals in person to the Members.

I was not able to attend the meetings on January 10^th as I was away.

At the December Council meeting the Committee was not happy about an area of the New Road Play Area needing to be fenced off around access to an underground storage tank. A representative of Wessex Water brought changed proposals to this meeting which meant that only a small area of the play area would be used and maintenance would be done in future from the highway. I think that means the area would not need to be fenced off once construction was complete.

The working party reviewing the festivals concluded that the Christmas Lights evening was successful, but that the August Festival might be better replaced by other types of events. Another meeting of the working party will be arranged where representatives of the Wootton Bassett Chamber of Commerce could be present.

The Council meeting on December 6^th confirmed the budget as discussed at the

Revenue & Resources meeting.

The meeting resolved not to delay the actual setting of the precept to take account of the work of the Festivals Working Party, but to include the budget figures for the Festivals and ask the Working Party to continue their work bringing recommendations back for consideration in the New Year.

The meeting had a presentation by a representative of Atkins about a proposal by Wessex Water to build a flood alleviation scheme on the New Road play area. We were concerned that when the scheme was completed, they were proposing that the access would have to be fenced off permanently to make maintenance work safe. We could forsee the inevitability of balls going into the area and children being forced to trespass to retrieve them. We were not convinced that Wessex Water had considered alternatives to this site and decided to ask a representative of Wessex Water to come to talk to us.