The quarry proposals are back for consultation. The proposed submission draft along with evidence reports has been put up for final formal consultation providing the opportunity to comment only on the "soundness" of the plan before it is submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination.
The Consultation will last for 6 weeks starting Monday January 30th and ending at 5.00pm on Monday March 12th.
Details can be found on the Wiltshire Council website
Wiltshire Police and Wiltshire Police Authority (WPA) are holding a live public online chat on Monday 23 January 2012.
Deputy Chief Constable Patrick Geenty, Assistant Chief Constable Mike Veale and WPA Chairman Chris Hoare will be online from 7pm - 8pm to answer questions from members of the public.
The live session will provide you with an opportunity to submit questions directly to Wiltshire Police Chief Officers and the WPA on any subject you may wish to raise.
It is also a chance for you to have your say on what the Force should be doing in the coming year so that it can consider this feedback when setting Force priorities.
Submitting a question is simple. Visit http://www.wiltshire.police.uk/ on the evening and follow the instructions. More information about the chat is also on the Force website.
THE graves of two children in Devizes Cemetery have been vandalised and the grieving mums have appealed for information.
Julie Barnett and her daughter, Kylie Thomas, who both live in Bromham, were horrified to get a phone call on the Sunday before Christmas telling them the gravestones of the two children had been attacked.
It brought back the heartache they felt the last time the graves were vandalised in August 2010.
Mrs Barnett, who lost her son Charlie to a heart defect in 1996, said: “We were here the Friday before and everything was fine. Then, on Sunday, I had a phone call. I couldn’t believe it. The gravestones had been pushed back and one of them was twisted out of place as well.”
Mrs Thomas, whose son Callum died, aged two, from a respiratory infection in March 2008, said: “We think we know who did it, but unless we get some evidence, we can’t do anything about it.
“It is very upsetting at any time of year, but so close to Christmas it is heartbreaking.”
Damage was done to the gravestones in August 2010 and town council parks staff were able to stake the memorials to make them safe. This time, however, the damage is so severe that the stones will have to be reset.
Mrs Barnett said: “I don’t know where we’ll find the money. It will cost thousands.”
Carole Berry, the town council’s direct services manager, said: “Our parks staff were made aware of the damage and have made the monuments safe. I understand the police have been informed.”
The graves of the two tots have been a source of heartache for the two women since Callum’s death nearly four years ago. They had created a little shrine in front of the headstones, with toys, figures and flowers.
But in April 2010 they came into conflict with the town council over the extent of the garden in front of the graves but reached a compromise and agreed to reduce the size.
Inspector Ron Peach of Devizes police said: “It seems from records that this is the second time the headstones have been damaged. There have been no reports of other stones being attacked. The implications being that this family is possibly being targeted. This is a heartless offence – we will do everything we can to identify and deal the person or persons responsible.”
Anyone with information about the vandalism is asked to contact Devizes police via the non-emergency 101 number or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
This is Wiltshire - Friday 23rd December 2011
STEVE and Nicky Wragg, the licensees of the Green Dragon at Market Lavington, were surprised and delighted to be named Wadworth’s community pub of the year at last week’s presentation evening organised by the Devizes brewers.
Mrs Wragg, who has run the pub in the High Street with her husband for the last nine years, said: “We knew we were being nominated for something, but we had no idea what. “It was a lovely surprise.”. The couple support many local groups from the village’s junior football team to the local book club. They also offer a particular service to their older customers. Mrs Wragg said: “We take meals round to older people in the village when they can’t get out themselves. “It is not a meals-on-wheels service. It is just something we do.” Before they arrived at the Green Dragon, they ran the Cavalier in Eastleigh Road, Devizes, for nine and a half years as very much a community pub. Mr Wragg said: “It’s important when you get put in the middle of a community to get involved, otherwise what’s the point?” Regular charity events are a feature of the pubs and their regulars raised £3,371 for Dorothy House Hospice Care over the last five years through a variety of events. The pub hosts monthly craft fairs and is the venue for committee meetings of many village groups.
Among other pubs in the Devizes area to receive awards last week was the Greyhound at Bromham which won the prestigious Managed Cellar Master – Perfect Pint prize in recognition of the high quality of its cask ale and ale keeping.
Publicans Louise and Kevin Fraser received their award from Adrian Wood of Wadworth’s.
Mr Fraser said: “Although we knew we had a high standard of cellar keeping, we couldn’t believe we’d won out of all the establishments competing. It was very satisfying.”
Other local winners included the Barge at Seend Cleeve, which took the award for Food Pub of the Year - Managed House and the Raven at Poulshot, which was runner-up in the Food Pub of Year – Tenants.
Gazette and Herald - Sunday 18 December 2011
Great-great grandmother Elsie Paget survived rheumatic fever at the age of 19 to receive a telemessage from the Queen on her 100th birthday last Wednesday.
Mrs Paget, who has four sons, 14 grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild, has no explanation for her longevity.
Now living at Southfields residential home in Devizes, Mrs Paget said: “There’s no history of it in our family. My mother died when she was 50. By rights, I shouldn’t be here today. I had rheumatic fever when I was 19 and I should have gone then.
“I have my good days and not-so-good days but in the main I feel all right. I never thought I would see my 100th birthday, though.”
Mrs Paget was born at Atworth, near Melksham, on October 26 1911, the sixth child of ten of Ernest and Edith Escott. Her twin sister and brother, 95, are still living but live too far away to have attended last week’s party.
The family moved to Seend in 1919 when Mr Escott took on New House Farm.
Mrs Paget attended Seend School where she learned to play the piano, which she continued to enjoy until just a few years ago.
When she left school at 13 she worked in the glove factory at Atworth before going into service in Bristol.
She became housekeeper/companion to a Miss Poole, where part of her duties included driving. She never passed a test as this was not required in those days.
In 1936 she married Donald Paget of Bromham and they were together for 63 years. Mr Paget passed away in 1999.
Her four sons, Clive, Peter, Ralph and Gordon, were all at her birthday party at Southfields last week among other members of her family. Sadly, her daughter, Mary, died in May.
Mrs Paget lived all her married life in Bromham, where her son Peter is chairman of the parish council.
She moved to Southfields 18 months ago and says she is very happy there.
Gazette and Herald - Saturday 5 November 2011
Bishop Nicholas, the new Bishop of Salisbury, will be presiding and preaching at the Family Communion service in St Nicholas church on Sunday 4th December 2011 at 0930. This will be a great opportunity to meet him, as we celebrate our Patron Saint. All are welcome, and there will be refreshments after the service.
Do join us!
Hundreds of family, friends and workmates of 29-year-old furniture worker Lee Wells turned up to bid a sad farewell to him on Friday.
Mr Wells, who was born in Bromham but lived in Melksham, died when he was involved in an accident while cycling at Sandridge on Friday, September 30.
Mourners met up outside the Greyhound pub in Bromham and then followed the cortege to the West Wiltshire Crematorium in Semington.
Most of the mourners carried single red roses, which they lay on Mr Wells’s coffin after the short service. Many were in tears. There were dozens of workers from Mark Wilkinson Furniture, where Mr Wells had spent his entire working life, including the firm’s founder, Mark Wilkinson.
The coffin was carried in by members of Mr Wells’ family, including his 19-year-old brother, Jamie. Also among the mourners were his mother, Linda, and stepfather, Terry Pyle.
The Rev John Darling, who took the service, read a tribute from Mr Wells’s friends which said that, although Mr Wells and his family had moved to Melk-sham when he was ten, he was Brom-ham through and through.
Mr Wells had a vast collection of over 1,000 music albums, on vinyl and CD, and would invite his friends round to enjoy music with him.
Mr Darling said: “I can’t tell you why bad things happen to good people and good things to bad people. But seeing so many of you here today is tribute to Lee and the kind of man he was.”
Mourners filled every corner of the chapel at the crematorium while others had to listen from outside the building. Following the service, mourners were invited to Bromham Social Centre for a reception.
This is Wiltshire - Thursday 27 October 2011
A company set up by Bromham milkman’s daughter Kate Giles has won a contract to provide the kit being worn by the crews in next year’s Oxford and Cambridge boat race on the River Thames in London.
The race is one of the major events in the British sporting calendar and clinching the contract is a feather in the cap for Miss Giles, whose business career began with her father’s milk round.
She said: “Getting up that early in the morning to help with dad’s round started me on a very good habit. I was always up at 4am on a Saturday.
“The habit continued when I went to university in Kingston. I took up rowing because it started so early and gave me something to do.”
Miss Giles’s parents, John and Janet, also ran The Olde Pie Shoppe in Devizes Market Place, where Miss Giles also used to help out when not studying at John Bentley School in Calne.
The couple were also councillors on Kennet District Council.
Her uncles, Frank and Freddie, are also well-known local businessmen and her cousins Jim and Edward own Roses the Ironmongers.
Although Miss Giles enjoyed her rowing, she never achieved international status like her friends Guin and Miriam Batten, the Dauntsey’s School former pupils who were members of the silver medal winning quad sculls crew at the 2000 Olympics.
Miss Giles became involved in designing and supplying training kit when she contracted pneumonia while rowing due to the clothes she was wearing, which were inadequate for the severe weather conditions.
She formed Crewroom, which designs and supplies technical kit for rowers and other endurance sports.
The contract to supply both crews in next year’s Boat Race came out of the blue.
Miss Giles said: “We had supplied GB racing for seven years and the organisers approached us about supplying kit to the boat race crews.
“To be an integral part of this historic event is something all of us at Crewroom are very proud of.”
Gazette and Herald - Sunday 23 October 2011