BET you never thought I’d say this.

Three cheers for Wiltshire Council planning department.

Yes, really!

At long last, they’ve lost patience with Matthew Hudson, owner of Old Sarum airfield, and told him publicly that he has “unrealistic expectations” if he thinks they’ll let him surround the historic flying strip with 460 homes.

The Canadian developer – currently residing in the Bahamas, poor dear – is fuming, having ploughed millions into buying out noisy industrial neighbour Equinox and employing successive firms of planning consultants, to whom I can only offer my sympathy.

He’s declared his intention to quadruple flights and make Old Sarum the busiest grass airfield in the UK.

Basically, he’s warning residents: “It’ll be noisy, the operating hours will be anti-social, and if you don’t like it, blame the council.”

Never mind whether he has unlimited flying rights or not. Neither side in this game of hardball seems eager to make the evidence public at this stage.

If Mr Hudson had asked for a modest, justifiable amount of housing to support the airfield’s income – what the council calls “a suitable scheme” - he’d have got the OK.

He simply demanded too much.

NB For all his bluster, he hasn’t withdrawn his application.

Vote for the person, not the party

READER George Brutton emailed me with an interesting point this week.

With local elections looming, he believes that most people who bother to vote at all are likely to support candidates according to their party label, knowing nothing about their individual qualities.

They may glance at the flyers that land on their doormat, but probably not. More fodder for the recycling collections.

He suggested that candidates could upload brief video presentations on YouTube, to help electors make better-informed choices.

I think he’s pinpointed a problem, but not necessarily the most effective solution. A simpler idea would be for councils to host an informal ‘Meet the Candidates’ evening or to stage ‘hustings’ where prospective councillors could answer audience questions.

Would anybody turn up? Or has voters’ disillusionment gone beyond that?

I don’t think for a moment that Wiltshire Council will end up anything but Conservative anyway, given the social make-up of the county as a whole.

But in Salisbury, power is very finely balanced between the Tories and the combined Labour, LibDem, Green and independent members, and the result could make a huge difference to the future of the city and to what it offers surrounding villages as a cultural and commercial centre.

It’s not really good enough to choose our representatives solely on the basis of party allegiance.

Not if we reserve the right to complain about what they do afterwards with our money and our public services.

anneriddle36@gmail.com