YOU might well wonder, since it’s gone so quiet.

I did, too, so off I went to a public meeting on the subject, organised by Salisbury Civic Society at the City Hall last Wednesday.

Well done, them. It was packed. The discussion was constructive and, I hope, productive in terms of getting things moving.

On the panel were John Glen, two councillors from Devizes, Nicola Lipscombe of the Greenspace Partnership, and Peter Horwood from Salisbury Transition City.

Our MP told us how he and Call Me Jane are working hard on a “sensitive campaign” to bring 1,500 jobs to Boscombe.

He talked about the impossibility of sorting out the mess that is Churchfields, with its multitude of landowners, any time soon.

He said he is seeking government cash to sort out the polluted ground at the Central Car Park. The cost is deterring developers.

Interestingly, he declined to answer questions about who will own the land once it is developed, citing “commercial confidentiality”.

The Devizes duo reported on how their two adjoining parishes, once at loggerheads over boundaries (remind you of anyone?) buried the hatchet to draw up a Neighbourhood Plan, and how well it is protecting them from inappropriate large-scale development.

Nicola showed us maps drawn up by the Greenspacers that prove how pointless it is for parishes to make plans in isolation, as wildlife is no respecter of man-made boundaries and needs joined-up routes through our urban landscape if it is to thrive.

Peter took a philosophical tack. When we talk about a Vision, what does it mean?

We should, he suggested, be thinking about what kind of city (and South Wiltshire) we’d like to see in 50 years’ time.

What kind of economy? Based on tourism? High-tech innovation? The arts?

Only once our local communities have agreed on that can we set policy priorities to make it happen, and consider what kind of development we need, and where, to make it work for us.

Above all, the message of the evening was this: Salisbury City Council, it is up to you, as the biggest parish in the area, to get the ball rolling.

City councillors worry they won’t be able to afford it if their tax precept is capped by the government, and say they’ll need professional help from Wiltshire Council’s strategic planners. Both true.

But until we have a Neighbourhood Plan, which could encompass separate plans for individual wards and villages, we remain at risk of development where nobody wants it.

Now I remember being told the same thing pre-Core Strategy.

Yet that has failed to protect us from disasters like the drive-thru and hotel on Southampton Road, the loss of our youth hostel, and umpteen threats to greenfield sites.

So why believe things will be any better with a Neighbourhood Plan?

The pressure from developers is so tremendous, and the government so dead-set on building its way out of economic trouble, that it is sensible to be cynical.

Yet we have to do something, for the sake of our children and the environment they will inherit.

anneriddle36@gmail.com