Trevor Carbin Liberal Democrat

Wiltshire Council has successfully bid for £4.4m from the Government's Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to reduce carbon emissions.

The award, which totals £4,452,281, will be spent on a series of energy efficiency and decarbonisation schemes that will update the heating systems and generate electricity at several Wiltshire Council buildings.

Twenty-two of the county's libraries and three mobile libraries reopened on 12 April, as did the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.

People will be able to continue accessing bookable public computers, except at Aldbourne Library due to lack of space. Tidworth Library will offer browsing at weekends only, with Order and Collect during the week.

All 20 leisure centres in the county reopened on Monday 12 April.

All 10 of the council managed leisure centres are open with gym, swimming and some racket sport court hire where available. Indoor group exercise classes are scheduled to resume from17 May. The council's online class programme will continue until the end of May, for more information visit www.wiltshire.gov.uk/leisure-online-classes.

250 Wiltshire families have not got their primary school preference for this September with only 95% being offered their first preference. About 50 parents didn't get any of their three choices.

Parents who applied online can see which school their child will attend by going to https://admissions.wiltshire.gov.uk/prefs.php

Eligible Wiltshire students and their families are being reminded of the support available if they need to self-isolate as a household due to COVID-19.

If a college or school pupil tests positive for COVID-19 this means the whole household will need to self-isolate for 10 days.

Affected families who are on low incomes and eligible for support can claim a £500 support payment. The information on how to apply is available at https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/benefits-test-and-trace

Wiltshire Council continues to peddle misleading information defending the outgoing Conservative administration's position, which is: "The evictions are nothing to do with us. HfT, which owns and runs the site, has decided to close it so that's that."

Campaigners seeking to save the site and allow the residents to stay in their homes say:

Here's a Parliamentary Petition raised by 'Nature Ally' to protect our Green Belt and Farm land.

They say:

"There is an abundance nationally of brownfield sites that have stood idle and neglected whilst greedy developers are on a daily basis, and aided by central government, procuring green belt land and farm land which in turn is taking away some of our most wonderful and beautiful landscapes transforming them from natural green to concrete grey or asphalt black.

Wiltshire Council has worked with local partners Places Leisure and others to apply for funding from the Government's National Leisure Recovery Fund, and has been allocated £865k.

The Fund was established to help local authority contracted facilities to reopen. £100m has been given by the Government to Sport England.

Non-essential retail, outdoor hospitality and personal care premises such as hairdressers and nail salons are set to reopen on 12 April.

From this date indoor leisure facilities can reopen for use by people on their own or in household groups. Most outdoor attractions, including hospitality venues, safari parks and drive-in cinemas can also open, while self-contained accommodation such as campsites and holiday lets may reopen so long as indoor facilities are not shared with other households.

Here's a crowdfunding appeal for Transport for New Homes to continue campaigning.

As https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/homes-without-jams explains:

Why are we getting sprawling, car dependent housing estates that add to traffic jams, air pollution and carbon emissions? Why, with all the talk about encouraging walking and cycling, are we getting housebuilding in places that are not connected by streets to our towns and cities and have few local facilities?