Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

It makes you wonder what we pay some people for ...

Wiltshire Councillors received a damning email yesterday afternoon. It is reproduced below.

'Dear Councillor,

you will of course be aware of the building work that is currently underway at county hall. This has meant that the lift that was used in the MECH for access to the first floor committee rooms and council chamber for people with limited mobility, is no longer available for use.

On this basis all formal public meetings of committees of the Council will be held elsewhere to ensure that those meetings are as accessible to the public as possible. In the main, meeting rooms within the hubs will be used although this will depend on availability.

Councillors are therefore asked to pay particular attention to the venue for the meeting as set out on the agenda.

Staff in Democratic Services are currently making the appropriate arrangements for this to happen, where possible in consultation with the chairman of the relevant committee.

The full Council meeting in May will be held at the Olympiad in Chippenham and further details on the proposed arrangements will be released in due course.

These arrangements will be in place for the duration of the works at county hall.'

At face value this email seems reasonable. What it fails to state is that it was only this week that meeting venues were suddenly being changed. How long has the work been planned and in progress?

For instance, a meeting of the Standards Committee was suddenly moved from County Hall to the council offices in Chippenham. I then questioned the cost involved in making four or five senior officers travel that distance. The result, it was re-arranged (again). This time to the Bradley Road offices in Trowbridge.

I would have thought that it was obvious to all and sundry that the passenger lift would be out of use for a while while the building work was being carried out and that other provision would need to be made.

Why does it seem to have taken the Conservative led council so long to see the obvious? I hope this isn't typical of their long-term planning ability.