Democracy inaction (cont'd)

Were members of the public restricted to a single three-minute intervention and then prevented from questioning subsequent claims by SV board members? If so, why? And who wrote the report (commissioned by SV) which declared that the Queen Victoria Jubilee trees are so diseased that they must be felled? Would SV kindly publish the report?

And if the Salisbury Visionaries are incapable of organising a proper public meeting where there can be a full and frank exchange of views, would they like someone else to arrange it for them? What’s happening at the moment is mock-consultation that’s decidedly undemocratic.

It’s for our own good, apparently…

… the decision to raise the cost of an hour’s parking by 120 percent, that is. According to the Sunday Telegraph – which says fleecing motorists by jacking-up parking costs is the latest local government fundraising wheeze – Wiltshire Council has apparently done it not for profit but for the benefit of us all.

According to a WC spokesman, the cash will go to improving local bus-services. Which services? We don’t know. But five gets you ten they don’t mean Salisbury. We’re just a cash-cow for the North of the county. So they probably mean operating more bus services between the centre of the universe in Trowbridge to places like Cricklade and Melksham.

So when you find yourself paying £2.20 for a ten-minute trip to the doctor, don’t imagine that you’re the victim of daylight robbery. You’re contributing to the greater good.

Still on the subject of the parking ripoff…

… why not fit machines that give change? They have them at the hospital; why not in town? If you buy something for £2.20 in a shop and offer £3 because that’s all you’ve got, you’d call the Police if they took the money but refused to give you any change. Presumably the warning “no change given” makes it legal. But it doesn’t make it right.

On a lighter note…

… my picture shows the bluebell wood on the Martin-Cranborne back-road (you take the turning to Martin on the Blandford Road dual-carriageway section, go right through the village and turn right at the far end). These are the nicest and most extensive bluebells I know – they go on for the best part of a mile. Catch them while they’re still out.

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