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Wiltshire - a chance to improve life for everybody

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2009-07-05 09:16:49 - Graham Ellis

Lisa and I were discussing the way that democracy has been effected by the Internet ... on one hand, more access to data, and on the other hand more professional control by the 'powers that be' - unelected / appointed officers who see this extra data access as (frankly) a bit of a nuisance. Some take the attitude that they know best, and that members of the public don't know what they're talking about and call for impractical things to be done. Which is a great shame, because some members of the public do have innovative ideas and suggestions which can and could be helpful.

On a few occasions, I've attended or submitted inputs to consultations where I have felt that my inputs (and the inputs of all the other people who have put thought into what they would say, and spent time and money saying it) provide the consultation runners with the ability to tick a box that says "we are democratic - we have consulted". Would it be possible that I have an unduly cynical view and public input really is considered? I would hope so, but I don't see how the public has any substantive input when the "consultation" is done after decisions are made and there are just a few tiny things that could be changed (Wiltshire budget meetings!), nor how the public's view is truely canvassed when they are asked to make a multiple choice selection from a limited set of options - so limited that the only options on offer are those which suit the canvasser's paymaster. I can recall a travel and transport meeting in Trowbridge where the audience was split into table groups and half the groups (mine included) refused to place an order of importance to the options given, on the grounds that important alternatives had been ignored.

So it has been a great pleasure already this year to see several decisions made which take the public (consultation) views into account. I refer to the decision to give permission for Asda to build a new supermarket in Melksham - something which I believe has much more in favour of it than against, and to the decision to refuse permission of the Westbury Eastern Bypass, where I have great sympathy with the people of Westbury who live alongside the current road, but also extreme disquiet that the solution offered would have been expensive and limited in its effects - some of which would have been to encourage congestion elsewhere.

With the change from a County Council to a Unitary Council, we saw little immediate change save for replacement of 99% of the signs (even though I could swear that I remember an FAQ Answer that said they new authority would not spend a lot of money on an immediate re-branding!) and that was potentially because it was the same old faces in the same old roles through April and May and into June. But now there is an opportunity - and this is an opportunity that was "sold" to us by the people who suggested Unitary - to move forward with a system fit for the next 30 years, rather than one that was good for the 1970s and 1980s.

Here is the old logo, and motto / sound bite:



(I had some trouble finding one of these that hadn't been replaced, and it seems that the new motto / sound bite has been so heavily sold that most people have already forgotten the old one)

And here is the new one:



I would like to thank the team that has put in so much effort for Wiltshire in the past, and also to welcome the newcomers to the team who have a golden opportunity to go forward with both the old and the new motto's in their work. I sincerely hope that they will be Improving life in Wiltshire and remember that Wiltshire is a place Where everybody Matters ... and that includes the rich and the poor, the businesses and the individuals, the healthy and the sick, the urban (the majority of the population of the county now lives in towns with a population of 8000 or more) and the rural, the private transport user and the transport user who cannot (or does not wish) to use private transport, the local voter, the youngsters, the tourists, and the people who work in the county but live outside.