IT SOUNDS unlikely that there’ll be many more silent nights up at Old Sarum.

Why does the airfield have to be either a) a noisy nuisance to its neighbours or b) encircled by large-scale housing development?

Why should that be the choice facing us?

Why can’t it remain a small-scale, historic airfield for light aircraft, set within a conservation area that is actually conserved, with a small amount of development to help pay its way?

It ought to be good news that night-time flying is being reintroduced after a 30-year break.

A few small planes taking off and landing in the evenings shouldn’t pose a problem.

I don’t anticipate a sudden clamour from squadrons of amateur pilots to go zooming around our starry skies when it’s way past their bedtime, just because they can.

Assuming that the Civil Aviation Authority approves, and that the owners’ extra income will cover the costs of additional lighting and staffing, I’d say: “Chocks away, chaps! Good luck!”

But I do have reservations about those search and rescue training helicopters.

They make a very distinctive din, one that’s hard to ignore, and it is already causing intense irritation to some nearby residents, for example in Hilltop Way.

To be fair, no one buying a home up there could have foreseen until very recently that they’d have to put up with chuntering choppers at all hours.

If permission is granted to build 460 houses around the field’s perimeter, I’m sure their occupants will soon swell this chorus of complaint.

That’s if the prospect of living next door to all that hovering doesn’t actually put people off moving there.

I’d love to see our historic flying field continue to fulfil the function for which it was created.

Wiltshire Council planners have commissioned a report on its financial viability.

Unfortunately, the public won’t see this in full, since some of its content will be deemed ‘commercially confidential’.

Which leaves us having to place an enormous amount of trust in our councillors and their officials to reach the right decision.

As indeed we must when they come to other contentious planning matters such as the extension of Brickworth quarry into precious ancient woodland.

How wise the residents of Downton are to have agreed on a Neighbourhood Plan setting out their views on future development in their community.

It has taken three years of hard work to get to this point, but now there can be no doubt in Trowbridge about what these particular council taxpayers want, and it’ll be much more difficult to overrule them.

A question of taste

TRUE confessions time! I’ve never been inside a sex shop and I’m not about to start now.

I can’t think of anything more embarrassing.

At least, however, Erotica-Belle is tucked away at the quiet end of Fisherton Street.

Whereas in the Old George Mall, hordes of families with young children can’t avoid passing by Ann Summers, with its displays of tacky, tarty outfits that objectify women.

If the authorities are going to start blacking out store windows on grounds of bad taste ….

anneriddle36@gmail.com