Category Archives: Politics

Out here in the sticks we can enjoy beautiful country walks, village pubs and a better sense of community than residents in busy towns. However, from a transport perspective we are less fortunate than residents in Trowbridge, Salisbury or Chippenham who have train stations, regular bus connections and better cycling and walking infrastructure.   At […]

Housing developments are always sure to divide opinion. I write this having attended the Eastern Area Planning Committee at the Corn Exchange in Devizes this afternoon where the Long Field development of up to fourteen houses and a new Co-Op store was just approved for Market Lavington.   Strong and balanced representations were made by […]

I hope you had a lovely summer and saw some sunshine, either at home in The Lavingtons or further afield. There were lots of local events held across the area and thankfully I got to enjoy several in between work and childcare. It was good to catch-up with many of you on my travels. As […]

I Jinxed it. I am truly sorry! My July article started with a comment about the beautiful sunshine and went on to mention the football. As I write this article for August it has been cold and grey for weeks and England have just lost the Euros final to Spain. This morning, Wiltshire Council’s regular […]

As I write this the sun has been shining for two days in a row… it feels like a long time since that happened! With a month of international football to watch, my fingers are fully crossed that our local pubs can fill their gardens, put some cash in their tills and catch up on […]

Politics… I despise it at times; most of the time in fact. It often leads to what James O’Brien (LBC presenter) calls “footballification”, where people offer blind support to anyone on the same “team”. The same thing happens the other way around where, just like the famous Liverpudlian rivalry, some people “hate” anything in Evertonian […]

The A-road through West Lavington has been renewed and the finished surface is a huge improvement. Last week, following scrutiny of the resurfacing schedule for the wider Devizes area, I asked for Market Lavington’s B3098 to be re-prioritised. The stretch between the West Lavington crossroads and Lavington School is particularly bad and whilst I appreciate […]

Wiltshire Council agreed its budget for 2024/25 at the mammoth 10-hour Full Council meeting on Tuesday 20th February. I am pleased that the Council plans to continue with its focus on prevention and early-intervention; this has proved to work fantastically well in Children’s Services which was recently graded Outstanding by Ofsted. As an example, Wiltshire […]

2024 started with a bang and sparked lots of ideas for change, including proposals in Highways and Planning which will be of interest to us all. Poor funding from central government has led to less gully and drain clearances by Wiltshire Council. Likewise, there has been no incentive for landowners to reduce water run-off from fields, […]

By the time you read this there is a good chance you will have your Christmas tree up! If you haven’t, there is still time, although you will be WAY behind Shaun and Kelly at The Churchill Arms who got theirs up at the beginning of November! I once decided to put a tree up […]