THE Wiltshire Council discussions last week were certainly heated and Cllr Clark’s comments on inconsistency and the dismissive views by some councillors on the recommendations by the working group certainly rang true.

It seemed like a number of councillors saw the new ring road (would that be the Eastern Distributor Road?) as the natural boundary for the parish of West Ashton. Two cabinet members even stated that Old Farm was three miles from the village, apart from that simply being wrong the governance review was supposed to be about residents’ aspirations and their democratic rights. This was admirably carried out by Cllr Wheeler who chaired the Governance Steering Group and was clearly exasperated by the barrage of criticism of their recommendations. After all they had held many consultation meetings and collected evidence via feedback forms and consultation letters.

The recommendation for the parish of West Ashton (Schemes 26, 27 and 28) was to leave it as it was for the time being but, of course, Trowbridge had set its sights on Old Farm, the Employment land and Ashton Park. The decision to move Old Farm and the yet to be developed Employment land into Trowbridge has deprived the parish of a third of its precept revenue but worse still for the residents of Old Farm they will see a six-fold increase in their precept to Trowbridge Town Council, hardly an equitable exchange for them and the overwhelming wish expressed in the consultation feedback.

There were a couple of lone voices among the councillors that thought the governance review was about what the residents wanted but were sadly drowned out by the wave of drawing lines on a map.

Perhaps I should also mention another argument to justify the move, Old Farm residents use the services of Trowbridge and then Tesco and the cinema were given as examples. I may have got this wrong but aren’t they commercial organisations that provide a service to not only Trowbridge but the very much wider area that plays a key part in their viability and success. Oh, and best not to mention the Civic Centre, for which the town council are responsible and its cost to Trowbridge residents.

It would appear that yet again a consultation process and recommendations have been ignored and the land grab allowed to go ahead but... apparently it was a step too far to subsume Ashton Park into Trowbridge, currently a greenfield site, well not subsumed yet at least. Where everybody matters does have a slightly tarnished ring about it.

Richard Covington, West Ashton Parish Council