Trevor Carbin Liberal Democrat

Wiltshire Council and Natural England have created the Wiltshire Environmental Toolkit, (WET) which gives community groups, and town and parish councils, helpful advice to create and improve habitats and the natural environment in their area.

The toolkit is packed with information, ideas and resources to enable communities to create habitats rich in biodiversity. This in turn will create leisure opportunities and encourage visitors to the area, as well as help to fight climate change.

Here's an example of how central government micro-manages local councils. To get money to fix traffic lights WC has to compete with other councils and draw up a bid and submit it to the government under a special time-limited traffic-light-fixing funding scheme. Read the WC announcement:

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Following an investigation by Environmental Health Officers from Wiltshire Council's Food and Safety team, a Wiltshire man has entered a guilty plea to 39 food hygiene offences.

Gent Jakupi of Park St, Devizes and Andover Road, Ludgershall, entered guilty pleas at Swindon Magistrates Court to the offences, following raids in October and November 2020 on illegal meat cutting operations at his hand car washing premises at these addresses.

Wiltshire's CCG area is one of those hit by the growing shortage of GPs, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

It comes as many people are struggling to book an appointment, with services increasingly under pressure from rising demand.

The figures show there is one GP per 1,937 people in our area (June 2021). This is up 6% from the one GP per 1,827 people five years ago, though remains better than the national average of one GP per 2,038 people.

Wiltshire residents can now apply for primary and secondary school places for September 2022 entry, for children starting school for the first time or for children who are moving from a primary to secondary school or from an infant to junior school.

Applications can be submitted online at www.wiltshire.gov.uk until the national deadline dates of 31 October 2021 for secondary schools and 15 January 2022 for primary schools and infant to junior transfer.

Wiltshire Council has issued a £400 Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) for fly-tipping to a Devizes resident, who dumped household waste on the former slaughterhouse land on the corner of Coate Road and Windsor Drive, Devizes. This is the second £400 fine issued in recent months for people dumping at this location.

Wiltshire Council's Cabinet is set to approve a new electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure plan, which looks to improve the council's EV charging network and work with communities to increase the number of charging points in the county.

The council currently has 76 EV charging points (38 units, two points on each) in its car parks, which are operated and managed by BP Pulse. Many of these were installed several years ago, and there is a need to replace the old units with modern, faster chargers.

Wiltshire Council has successfully prosecuted Bryan Burrows, aged 54, of 4 York Place, St Martins, Marlborough after he pleaded guilty to fly-tipping a sofa on Woodborough Road, Pewsey. He was also prosecuted for failing to provide waste transfer notes to the council and for failing in his duty of care in relation to the lawful disposal of commercial waste. He was fined a total of £2,815, including costs, when he appeared at Salisbury Magistrates Court on 28 September.

Despite being partly responsible for events in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence is refusing to help with the consequences of those events.

There are 1,325 empty MoD properties in Wiltshire. These are all outside of the secure areas of Military Bases and many have been empty for years. The MoD have told Wiltshire Council that none are available for Afghan refugees.

Wiltshire Council's Conservative administration has been severely criticised for the way it's dealt with the residents of Furlong Close in Rowde.

Now the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published an inspection report on Furlong Close today after inspectors visited the site recently.

In a statement WC reports that "The council funds 19 residents at Furlong Close, with 13 other residents funded by 12 other local authorities." Note the emphasis on funding.