We had meetings on Tuesday and Thursday nights last week (5th and 7th February 2008)
On Tuesday the Festivals working party got together with Johnathan Loader, President of the Chamber of Commerce. The Council has already concluded that the August High Street Festival is not working well enough to justify the cost. At this meeting there were some good ideas to promote alternate events. It was felt that for 2009 we should try to support a program of events organised by voluntary organisations and businesses in Carnival week. I suggested seeing if any music groups from the Comp would be interested, and to approach staff clubs from the bigger firms like Dolby. For this Christmas we will meet again to think of different entertainments. If anybody has ideas for either of these events please contact me or the Town Council office.
Thursday’s meetings started with planning. There were four house extensions, and an application from Wiltshire County Council to site a road salt store at the back of the District Council depot. This is part of the plan to close the Highways Depot.
At the full Council meeting several members of the public spoke in the open session. There were residents of the High Street and Beaman’s Lane complaining about the District Council’s consultation about High Street parking, and parents commenting on the consultation about merging County Infants and Noremarsh School sites.
Council had a long discussion about the District Council’s process to bring in time limited parking in the High Street. The consultation seems to be just going through the motions and has not explained what’s happening to residents. It’s really just to get the process through as quickly as possible.
Regarding the school merger the Council resolved to write to all parties about the lack of information available during the consultation.
The cheerful item at the meeting was to agree to support the Town Crier, Owen Collier’s proposal to host the Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers Championship on 13th June 2009.