Trevor Carbin Liberal Democrat

As forecast on this website, the system of a postcode lottery to determine eligibility for tip visits has collapsed after generating chaos at Wiltshire's Household Recycling Centres.

So the rubbish boffins at WC have come up with another wheeze which might actually have a better chance of success. Here's the announcement:

Following the recent change to guidance, Wiltshire's street markets will be open from Monday 1 June with stallholders now able to sell their full range of goods.

When COVID-19 restrictions were introduced, market stalls were only able to sell food.

Social distancing will be in place, and the public are strongly urged to take notice of the signage and ensure they do everything they can to adhere to the measures and keep at least two meters apart from each other and the stallholders.

Some Wiltshire residents of working age will pay less council tax due to a Government-funded scheme to protect people from the financial impact of COVID-19.

This latest support package, which is being managed locally by Wiltshire Council, is aimed at working age families who already qualify for council tax reduction but still have to pay some council tax.

Wiltshire Council is to receive £227,000 of government funding for temporary and pop-up measures to create a safe environment for walking and cycling.

Following significant changes in travel behaviours during COVID-19 which saw more people choosing to walk and cycle during their daily exercise, these new measures will help encourage walking and cycling activity to continue whilst maintaining social distance. They play a key role in helping to avoid overcrowding on public transport as shops and businesses start to reopen.

A forest fire in Dorset has now been declared a major incident - highlighting the importance for people to take extra care during the hot weather.
The Wareham Forest fire covers more than 180 hectares, with a fire front over three kilometres long.

The National Fire Chiefs Council is urging the public to be vigilant in the coming days if taking exercise in areas of woodland, heath or forestry; especially at a time when fire services are already under pressures due to their response to COVID-19.
At the height of the response, Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) had 25 fire appliances in attendance, additional 4×4 vehicles and around 150 firefighters. In addition, specialist high volume pumps (to draw water from a river), a high volume pump tactical adviser and three wildfire tactical advisers are also in attendance. Some of these are being provided by NFCC's National Resilience function, which means the right support can be mobilised from across the country to assist with a wide range of incidents, including wildfires.

DWFRS Chief Fire Officer, Ben Ansell said: "Due to the tremendous efforts and hard work of my firefighters and those from neighbouring services over the last 24 hours, we believe the fire in Wareham Forest is now under control. Not only do large incidents like this do untold damage to wildlife and the environment, they are also a large drain on resources during a particularly difficult time. Although we do not yet know how this fire started, I would urge people across the country to listen to the advice of their fire and rescue service when visiting areas of natural beauty during the Coronavirus pandemic."

Wiltshire's Conservative administration has announced that parking charges will resume on June 1st.

All parking permits and season tickets will also restart from this date, and parking wardens will enforce parking contraventions.

NHS and care workers will still get free use of council parking until further notice.

Wiltshire has had 552 confirmed cases of COVID-19. This is 104 cases per 100,000 people (compared to the average national rate of 268 per 100,000). There's likely to be an increase in confirmed cases as testing is rolled out across the whole population.

Up to week ending 8 May, there were 128 hospital deaths and 129 care home deaths due to COVID.

The government has changed the rules to make housing development easier on greenfield sites outside of designated town and village policy limits. Where councils don't have a five year supply of building land then the assumption is that development can take place on such sites unless there's a strong reason against, such as Green Belt designation. Whereas previously the existence of a neighbourhood plan also counted as a strong reason against, that has now been restricted to only include NPs less than two years old.

It may be a pathetic little change but at least it's something. The government is looking for a green dividend from coronavirus and is encouraging councils to open road space to pedestrians and cyclists. So WC is reducing the time pedestrians have to wait for the little green man to appear from 30 seconds to 15. There's no reason for any delay except to remind pedestrians of their inferior status, and to give them time to think that they really ought to aspire to be drivers. Here's the announcement:

Wiltshire's Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) will re-open on Monday, but with a dotty postcode lottery scheme which is guaranteed to cause maximum confusion.

For example if you live in Trowbridge and it's Tuesday 19th then you won't be able to use the local HRC, though it'll be open for people from various other parts of the county. If it's Friday 22nd then you would be allowed to use Trowbridge HRC ... except you can't because it's shut. Similarly for all the other towns and their tips. So Wiltshire residents needing to get rid of their stuff will be driving around the county attempting to match their postcode with an open tip.