Trevor Carbin Liberal Democrat

From Terence Herbert, Chief Executive, Wiltshire Council:

"Following the Police and Crime Commissioner election count on Monday I have taken appropriate legal advice and spoken with the Cabinet Office, Wiltshire Police and the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner. There is a clear legal process for me to follow.

The count for the Wiltshire and Swindon Police and Crime Commissioner elections has been completed today (Monday 10 May).

The results of the first preference votes are as follows:

• Junab Ali (Labour): 34147
• Julian Malins (Reform UK): 4348
• Brig Oubridge (Green): 16606
• Mike Rees (Independent): 31722
• Jonathon Seed (Conservative): 84885
• Liz Webster (Liberal Democrats): 35013

Wiltshire's outgoing Conservative administration is afraid its treatment of residents of Furlong Close in Rowde is not going down well with the electorate, so is frantically putting out press releases via County Hall. Campaigners though have pointed out that the latest of these contains the usual self-justifying contortions. Emails seen by the campaigners reveal the administration's complicity in attempting to close the facility without consideration for or consultation with the residents and their families.

The former pub site has remained vacant for a number of years. Now Selwood Housing are hoping to build houses on it.

They say the site will be developed into a mix of affordable homes, some available for rent and some for purchase through shared ownership. Subject to planning, 10 affordable homes will be built on the site with high-quality design and energy efficiency being at the core of the build.

Further details and a consultation feedback form can be found on their website.

The green fields and productive farmland of the Avon and Marden Valley area must be protected from the plans to build 7500 houses and a new, expensive and publicly funded distributor road to service them.

If you live in the Chippenham area you will be getting election leaflets through your door. Maybe from candidates for Wiltshire Council, or maybe your local town or both. In any case there are bound to be contact phone and / or email details there. It's a chance to contact them while they are looking for votes. One way is to simply ask if they support these plans. That way they are more or less bound to respond. And then there is the chance to tell them what you think of their answer, and why the plans are a disaster.

Wiltshire Council has paid out more than £11m in the recently announced Restart Grants to 1,520 businesses, and is now opening the window for new applications to support businesses as they reopen following the easing of lockdown. In total, £156m has been paid so far during the pandemic.

From Tuesday 27 April, new applications in sectors such as non-essential retail businesses, and hospitality businesses such as personal care, pubs, leisure and hotels, can apply for these grants to help them recover from the pandemic - if they haven't already received a grant.

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