I hope you all had a lovely summer and found some time to enjoy the sunshine, see friends and family and have at least one BBQ! The weather has been amazing although my lawn would disagree if it could talk. Driving past the Crammer in Devizes it is now nearly empty. I have never seen that despite having lived in the Devizes area my entire life.
If you have been through Market Lavington and Easterton you will have seen the lovely new road surface and pristine lining that has been completed. Thank you to everyone who, like me, has had to plan ahead to avoid the road closures, take diversions and put up with confused motorists at each end of the road. It has been painful at times, especially for those living along the site or operating a business in the marketplace. I found the contractors to be incredibly helpful and polite, and the job looks to have been done well. I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief.
Just as we recover from the upheaval of resurfacing in one place we need to prepare for more works elsewhere. The long-awaited update to Black Dog crossroads, which neighbouring councillor Tamara Reay and I secured last year, will begin this month. The difficult bit has always been getting electricity to the site without relying on landowners along the stretch. There will be a period of temporary traffic lights as a feed is brought up the road from the Freith direction. Before long we will have traffic lights and a reduced speed limit of 40mph in place. As with any Highways work, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs; I am looking forward to having a solution to the ongoing accidents at the junction once and for all.
On to far more troubling news, we had an incident in Market Lavington in August where a teenager was followed through the village all the way to their home by a man who proceeded to let himself in. Thankfully the teenager’s parent was at home and challenged the man. At the time of writing this, the man has been arrested and the police investigation is proceeding. If you saw the original post on Facebook at the time, you will have seen that there was clearly some confusion from the attending officers at the time of the incident. I was able to intervene and raise concerns expressed by many of us over the handling of the matter and things began to move rapidly in a positive direction.
I wanted to include this point in my update because I want all residents to know that I am happy to assist with any issue you are dealing with, even if it is being handled by a different agency (Police, Housing Association, Trading Standards etc). Sometimes I may be able to help, other times I may not, but I am always happy to try. So, if you get stuck with anything, just drop me a line.
You may contact me about this or any other matter by email to dominic.muns@wiltshire.gov.uk or by phone on 07585 394 178.
