A MILFORD parish councillor has praised the changes to be made to Salisbury City Council - and has criticised the current city councillors for the area.

As part of the Community Governance Review, which began in November 2019, the Salisbury City wards of Salisbury Milford and Salisbury St Mark’s and Bishopdown are to be merged into a single ward of three councillors, "coterminous with the Salisbury Milford Electoral Division".

David Lovibond, parish councillor for Laverstock and Milford, said it is "entirely welcome that Milford and its environs will now have three SCC Councillors rather than two", but added: "We urgently need councillors at county and parish level who take the concerns of residents seriously and respond to them appropriately - something some of the current crop contemptuously fail to do.”

Mr Lovibond, who is also part of the Milford Preservation Group, said: “Essentially, there is nothing to see here – merely a rational tidying up of what appears to have been a clerical or cartographical error.

“It is entirely welcome that Milford and its environs will now have three SCC Councillors rather than two. The semi-rural lanes and roads of Milford and Laverstock face the daily challenge of ever-increasing volumes of traffic; and the much-cherished Grade 1 Listed Milford Mill Road bridge is beset with HGVs of unprecedented weight and length.

"The plans for the pedestrianisation of the city centre will inevitably lead to a worsening of these problems. We urgently need Councillors at County and Parish level who take the concerns of residents seriously and respond to them appropriately – something some of the current crop contemptuously fail to do.”