Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Wiltshire Council news from Ernie Clark.

Your Independent councillor for Hilperton.

As the euphoria of the Olympics fades into our memories the more mundane things of life come back into focus!!

The official consultation period on the Trowbridge Campus has now closed but late comments will still be accepted.

I have now received confirmation of the changes to the mini recycling centres in Hilperton. Both school sites (Hilperton Primary and The Mead) will be officially removed from 1st October whilst the plastic bottle and cardboard bins will be removed and replaced with paper, glass and can bins from at Paxcroft Mead Local Centre. Again, this will be from 1st October.

The move to Individual Electoral Registration is well underway, and will be in place by the end of 2014. The Electoral Registration and Administration Bill working its way through parliament will introduce a major change to our system of electoral registration – Individual Electoral Registration (IER), which will require electors to register individually rather than through heads of household as happens now.

The government responded to preliminary consultation by removing the ‘opt-out’ option from its original proposals, and there will be a civil penalty for individuals who fail to register following a system of reminders. It has also made some concessions on the timetable, although the aim is still to have IER in place for the general election in 2015.

Community Speed Watch continues to operate in the village and I have received some interesting statistics from the coordinator. Apparently, exceeding the speed limit is reported as a factor in just 5% of recorded collisions but these account for 17% of fatalities. At least one of either ‘exceeding the speed limit’ or ‘travelling too fast for the conditions’ were reported in 13% of all recorded collisions and these account for 27% of fatalities. Basically, speeding doesn’t cause most accidents but it does cause a far higher percentage of deaths.

The revised planning application for Trowbridge Rugby Club is slowly working its way through the system. It seems that, by objecting to the submitted plans, the WC highways department is going to cause the application to be taken to the WC western area planning committee. However, as the original plan has permission, the rugby club will be starting work on preparing the playing surfaces in the near future. This will involve lorries using the by-way at the side of the site so, if you use the by-way, take extra care for the duration.