Trevor Carbin Liberal Democrat

Wiltshire Council is making changes to your kerbside recycling collection service.

Letters are being sent to every household in Wiltshire to inform them of their new collection day. Residents can also go online and check their collection day and print off a bespoke collection calendar at www.wiltshire.gov.uk/waste.

The government has announced its support to fund two major road schemes in Wiltshire: the A350 Melksham bypass and the A338 at Salisbury.

Wiltshire Council will develop outline business cases for the two schemes to enable them to progress to the next stage of development under the government's Major Road Network (MRN) and Large Local Majors (LLM) programmes.

A report to February's 'cabinet' reveals that the figures for the end of December 2019 show an overspend of over £10million. That's £2.76m on the general fund and £7.3m on schools. To be fair the council has little control over schools budgets, though the overspending on the general fund can be attributed to a lack of competence on the part of the Conservative administration.

On any day in Wiltshire 60 new sets of road works hit the streets, but as of April Wiltshire Council will require the utilities who dig up our roads to get a permit in advance of the work. Scores of companies have a legal right to excavate the road whenever they want to, and that won't change. However the new system will allow the council to know which roads are to be affected, and to take a more active role in planning and coordinating streetworks. There will be sanctions against operators who don't get their permit or who don't stick to their timetable. There will of course be exemptions for emergency work such as gas or water main leaks.

Great crested newts are protected by law, so when building takes place in newty areas the developers have to provide and manage bits of land where the amphibians can survive. Planning permissions include conditions to ensure that happens.

In practice the suspicion is that once planning is granted, the measures to protect the newts are not carried out particularly enthusiastically and the habitats decline.

Wiltshire Council will be fixing the traffic lights at the junction of the A365 and B3353 from 2 March for around five weeks.

The lights are clapped out, and as they need to be replaced, the council is also taking the opportunity to make other changes to the junction.

This will see the replacement of all the infrastructure associated with the traffic signals; repairs to the drainage on both sides of the A365; and the complete resurfacing of the A365 and B3353 junction and approaches. The junction will also be remodelled to incorporate a pedestrian phase.

Bath council will impose an 18-tonne weight restriction on Cleveland Bridge as of February 3^rd. They say the bridge is in need of repair. They don't yet have the money to do the repair, so the closure could last a long time until they find the cash. When that happens (the best case scenario is summer 2020), the bridge will be closed to all traffic for the duration of the work.

The pressure for developing the space between Trowbridge and Southwick continues with an outline application from Waddeton Park Ltd for up to 180 houses, along with open space and associated planting; creation of new roads, accesses and paths; installation of services; and drainage infrastructure.

The development would stretch from the A361 to Axe and Cleaver Lane in North Bradley.

Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Board rejects results of its own consultation!

The Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group promised to respect the results of the Maternity Transformation consultation but when those results showed that residents wanted to keep the Trowbridge and Paulton Birthing Units open [62% - 1200 respondents out of 1800 replies], the CCG are now desperately trying to move the goalposts.