LATE September means party conference season where MPs visit seaside towns, or in my case Manchester, to meet with party members.

The party conference has changed considerably over recent years; fifteen years ago it meant an opportunity for party members to mingle freely with MPs and influence policy.

Sadly, in recent years the conferences have become a different sort of event where lobbyists predominate and the informality of previous years has been largely lost as party managers seek to present a clear set of messages to the wider electorate.

I will be making the long trek to Manchester on Sunday afternoon – partly in my role as PPS or “bag-carrier” to Eric Pickles. I will be involved in meetings with local authority leaders from up and down the country with Eric as well as offering assistance to ministers throughout the week. I will also be speaking at some “fringe” events.

Conference is always a time where party leaders seek to gain some headlines and to win over the electorate.

I won’t use the privilege of this column to offer commentary on what I have heard from Brighton or Glasgow but I suspect electorates will form a view more on the basis of a calmer judgement over competence in the management of the economy as well as the leadership issue.

The next 18 months will bring intensification in the scrutiny of the different agendas being offered. I look forward to that debate with relish.

Prior to Manchester I was happy to meet with STAG (Shrewton Traffic Action Group) who expressed their frustration at the recent increase in traffic following the closure of the A344.

This meeting followed one on Tuesday with a representative of Amesbury Town Council who shared an assessment of how things could be resolved.

Going forward, I will look to work closely with Cllr Ian West and others to both bring about short-term measures around signage as well as lobby for an acceleration in work on defining the long-term solution which many believe must involve a dualling of the A303, although I am very aware that this has proved a blind alley in the past.

Nevertheless, it is clear that the wasteful congestion which irritates so many local road users cannot continue to go unaddressed.