Marlborough Area Weekly News Archive (January to June 2024)

Please note that this section is presented as an archive of past columns and is not updated. Some web links may no longer be active (usually indicated by a score-through), for instance when a consultation has closed. For reasons of space, the Events, Community Notices and News from Your Local Councils sections have been deleted from the archive posts.

To see the current Marlborough Area Weekly News section, please click here.

Other archives

Thursday 27 June 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes kittens, no waste, pirates, cricket and art – plus a look at Marlborough Town Council’s decision about the market, a mayoral scout takes office, municipal apprenticeships and questions for your local candidates. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include Marlborough Open Studios. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Marlborough’s market

At the Annual Town Meeting earlier the year, a member of the public proposed that Marlborough Town Council (MTC) take over the management and promotion of the Wednesday and Saturday markets from Wiltshire Council. It was proposed that a new approach was needed to keep the Wednesday one in particular viable. The matter was discussed at the MTC meeting on 24 June.

In preparation for this, the Clerk had produced a brief report (which you can see in item 15 of the agenda). This followed “a fact-finding meeting between the Mayor, Councillors Davies and Thomas, the Deputy Town Clerk and representatives from Wiltshire Council (WC) to discuss the current situation of the market and to understand the implications involved in running it.”

The report explained that taking over the market would be neither quick nor cheap and could also involve MTC assuming a number of other CATs (community asset transfers) that WC might like to shed. Instead, it was resolved to set up a specific working party to include engagement from the Council, market traders, High Street traders, retailers and organisations, and other relevant stakeholders to:

establish the current situation;
identify the need, problems and opportunities in respect of the market;
develop a plan for a sustainable and vibrant market.

If you want to book a pitch at Marlborough’s market, please see this page on WC’s website.

• A mayoral scout

On Monday, 24 June Town Mayor Councillor Kym-Marie Cleasby introduced Reuben Davies to the Full Town Council meeting.

This is, a statement from Marlborough Town Council confirmed, a new concept for Marlborough, “The Mayor is keen to involve young people of the town by appointing a Mayoral Scout and congratulated Reuben on being the very first Marlborough Scout to be put forward for this role, which will include accompanying the Mayor at civic events. This will also help Reuben towards his Challenge badge.

“Reuben has a busy time ahead as he will soon be taking up an academic scholarship at Marlborough College; he is also a keen musician and pianist as well as enjoying sport, with triathlon being his main event. Although his studies will prevent him taking up the role for the whole year, the Mayor thanked him for attending the meeting, looked forward to involving him over the next couple of months and to meeting his successor.”

• Apprentices wanted

Marlborough Town Council is also breaking the mould in another way, by offering two in-house apprenticeships: this is, I believe a fairly rare thing for a town council to do. This seems like an excellent initiative and one which will, as well as providing some valuable training and qualifications also give a couple of young people a valuable insight into the varied work that such organisations get up to.

Details on the two positions –Business Administrator Level 3 Apprentice and Apprentice Youth Development Worker – can be found by clicking on the links.

• Fifteen questions

If you haven’t decided who to vote for yet, here’s a quick reminder of the fifteen questions we asked local candidates about their background and topics including climate change, pandemic preparedness, the water companies and disinformation, the changes they’d most like to see to the political system and the most difficult question they’ve been asked as a politician, before rounding off with the all-important matters of their Desert Island Discs’ choices of music, book, film and luxury item.

Click on the appropriate link below for candidates’ answers in your constituency:

• Other news

• Greatwood and Marlborough Town Council collaborated to deliver a good news story this week. A stray cat arrived at the Greatwood yard and a few weeks later it became clear that she had hidden away a litter of kittens in a very narrow space between two walls. T H White came to the rescue; within half an hour managed to retrieve the two kittens. Mum is going to be neutered and the kittens are being adopted by two members of the Greatwood team.

• Great news that local honey is now available at Marlborough’s Packaging Not Included zero waste shop in Hughenden Yard. You can even take in your own jars to fill up.

• Marlborough Town Council need your help on Saturday 13 July at a Summer Pruning Event. Transition Marlborough and Marlborough Community Orchard (MCO) invite you to the upcoming pruning event at the community orchard sites, starting at the Diamond Jubilee Plantation, on the Common, just below the rugby club, then moving on to other sites as needed within the town. The main jobs will be pruning the stone fruit such as plums; summer pruning of the apples; weeding, mulching, tidying, tie and stake adjustments, together with giving the trees some t.l.c..The event will start at 9.30am and will finish at 12.30. Call Gerald on 07771 937183 to find out more. A trowel or small fork, as well as a kneeler, would be useful for weeding around the base of the trees if you would prefer this type of work.

• Aldbourne is hosting its first ever Pirate Party in The Square on Saturday 29 June with prizes for the best dressed, live music from the Raven Kings and a free rum to the pirates.

• Calling all crafters and local businesses, there are still tables available at St Mary’s summer festival craft fair on Saturday 6 July. Only £15 a table. Please email: friends.msm@yahoo.com

• There is still time to visit local artist’s Leanda McConnell’s first Art Exhibition, at The Golden Lion in Ramsbury. It runs until Saturday 29 June between 9.30am to 5pm, or by appointment outside of these hours.

• Marlborough Cricket Club is recruiting new junior members – why not give it a go? Details here.

• ARK – Action for the River Kennet are excited to report the magical sight of a pair of otters in the Kennet in the heart of Marlborough this week, and are grateful to the local resident for sharing their footage which you can see here.

• Don’t forget that there is a Repair Network in Aldbourne with fabulous volunteer fixers who offer a way for you to repair your broken possessions and keep them out of landfill. To get started just email repairs@carbonneutralaldbourne.co.uk and one of the fixers will be in touch, or check out their website here for more details.

• Don’t forget that Marlborough Open Studios will be open 6, 7, 13, 14, 20,21, 27 and 28 July. Specific details will be released soon and we will bring them to you as soon as possible.

• If any of your relatives were involved in WW2 (either in the services or the various organisations who kept the country running at home) the Barleycorn Inn in Collingbourne Kingston is asking for the photographs and stories of local heroes, to be reproduced at their exhibition, and recorded in the E-Book of their D-Day 80 Anniversary E-Book event. Contact info@bi-ck.co.uk or claire@wgwoollies.co.uk.

• Marlborough Cricket Clubis appealing to 5 to 8 yr olds to get involved with cricket. All Stars cricket sessions on Friday evenings are keen to invite youngsters to join in.Places still available.To book your place, click here.

• Wiltshire Regional Talent Centre is calling all aspiring female footballers to join their open sessions exclusively for girls, led by UEFA B coaches. If you’re looking to add an additional session to your training schedule and take your game to the next level, this is your chance.Email griff@wiltssrtc.com for more information and session registration details.

• For latest news from Aldbourne Deli, Store and Post Office, visit their facebook page for mouth-watering photos of Eddie’s amazing menus (take-away and eat-in) and the lovely Wiltshire 2024 calendars now in stock.

News from other areas

• Penny Post area – please see the following separate sections: Hungerford area; Lambourn Valley; Newbury area; Thatcham area; Compton & Downlands; Theale area; Wantage area.
• News and views from across the area and beyond: please see the most recent Weekly News with Brian column.

Thursday 20 June 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes local heroes, cricket, otters and repairs – plus renovations at Marlborough’s Leisure Centre finally get the go-ahead and questions for the local candidates. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include Marlborough Open Gardens & Open Studios. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Fifteen questions

Shortly after the election was announced, we sat down and came up with fifteen questions to ask of all the candidates in four constituencies we cover. These considered their background, topics including climate change, pandemic preparedness, the water companies and disinformation, the changes they’d most like to see to the political system and the most difficult question they’ve been asked as a politician, before rounding off with the all-important matters of their Desert Island Discs’ choices of music, book, film and luxury item.

The constituencies covered are as follows:

Click on the link above to visit the appropriate section to see their responses.

• All change at the leisure centre

When it comes to council finding, leisure centres are (or appear to be) pretty much at the bottom the pile with areas like social care and education getting much more of the attention. Keeping them open during the Covid closures when no money was coming in but most of the bills still going out also must have knocked a big hole in the budgets. As a regular swimmer I’m very aware of how good the centre is in Hungerford, particularly when compared to some of the stories I’ve heard about the centres in Marlborough and Wantage.

When it comes to major refurbishment, this is on the capital budget which is in some ways easier to fund than day-to-day expenses. One piece of good news was announced this week when, as Marlborough News reports, Wiltshire Council finally agreed that long-delayed work on the town’s leisure centre had finally been green-lighted back at HQ. “About time” was, the reporter suggested, probably a fair reflection of the reaction of the Marlborough Town Councillors present.

The author goes on to look at two further questions. “What will happen?” seems fairly easy to answer and the article lists a number of improvements that have been agreed. “When will it happen?” is rather harder to answer. “Later this year” was suggested for the start but it’s the completion date that will be of interest to most people. Not too far into 2025, one hopes.

• Other news

• Don’t miss Marlborough Open Gardens this Sunday 23 June. Enjoy a leisurely wander and take in these hidden gems. Tickets for Open Gardens are available in advance from The Merchants House website here.

• Let your hair down this Saturday 22 June at Lasso the Moon pop-up dance party, Great Bedwyn Village Hall showcasing local talent playing uplifting, euphoric vibes for body, mind and spirit.

• Opening this Saturday 22 June is local artist’s Leanda McConnell’s first Art Exhibition, at The Golden Lion in Ramsbury. It runs until Saturday 29 June between 9.30am to 5pm, or by appointment outside of these hours.

• Marlborough Cricket Club is recruiting new junior members – why not give it a go? Details here.

• There was much excitement at St Michael’s School, Aldbourne this week welcoming two British Army Air Corps pilots who landed their Apache helicopter on the St Michael’s playing field. Read more about this special visit here.

• Don’t forget that Marlborough Open Studios will be open 6, 7, 13, 14, 20,21, 27 and 28 July. Specific details will be released soon and we will bring them to you as soon as possible.

Thursday 13 June 2024

We’ve taken a week off so there’ll be no update until Thursday 20 June. Much of the information below will still be relevant until then.

For information about the local candidates in the general election, please see our Q&A section with those in the East Wiltshire constituency.

Thursday 6 June 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes donation thanks, strimming volunteers, flowers, gardens and stalls – plus a reminder about the opening of a rain garden and the latest Police report to Marlborough Town Council. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include mural opening and live music. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• A rain garden

A reminder that Action for the River Kennet has been working with the community in Great Bedwyn to find ways to manage rain better. By creating rain gardens, installing rain water planters and water butts across the village the project has disconnected over 3,000 sqm of roof area from the drainage network across the village in individual gardens as well as Great Bedwyn Primary School, the village hall and the GP’s surgery.

The school rain garden will be officially opened by Ninna Gibson, Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire at 12.30 on Sunday 16 June in the playground. This will be part of the Great Bedwyn Open Gardens on Sunday 16 June from 1pm, where many gardens will be open to the public for the afternoon until 5pm.

You can also find out more about the project at an open evening at Great Bedwyn Village Hall from 6.45 until 8pm on Wednesday 12 June.

Tickets for the Open Gardens will be available from the church and gardens on the day. More details about the project call Charlotte Hitchmough at ARK 07880 515859.

• Marlborough’s Police report

The following report was delivered by PC Steele at the meeting of Marlborough Town Council on 28 May:

Between January and March there had been 26 reported shoplifting incidents with 10 resulting in charges or summons – a success rate of 35.8% compared to a national average of 14.2% last year. Those charged came from areas including South Gloucestershire, the West Midlands, Hampshire and a larger proportion from Swindon.
It was hoped that a pilot of facial recognition software to enable Officers to match CCTV images to the Police National Database would result in a higher charging rate; the question of whether more cameras could be added to the town centre would be discussed separately with Town Council officers.
Plans were in place to hold a day of action with businesses and shops against a rising trend in business and retail crime, which had risen from £953m to £1.8bn nationwide. Actions businesses could take included not to display high value items (such as champagne) in volume, instead perhaps placing just one on display with more available on request. Improving CCTV cover, changing shop layout, creating barriers near the entrance, visible security and a visible police presence were all measures that could help deter retail crime.
Wiltshire Police had participated in the Sports and Activity Festival on 6 May which had been a great success.
As part of Operation Sceptre and supported by Trading Standards, cadets had made test purchases of knives and bladed articles in market towns including Marlborough. Out of 23 visits, on 15 occasions underage (U18) cadets had been able to purchase bladed items without identity checks. All had been followed up with retailers and this situation would continue to be monitored.

• Other news

• RSPCA Oak and Furrows wants to thank everyone who already donates to their Marlborough charity shop and Wildlife Rescue Centre. Their charity shops raise the majority of the funds needed to run the Wildlife Rescue Centre, pay the bills and staff. To raise funds, we need good quality donations to sell. If you can consider donating clothes and household items that you no longer use and if you’re a UK taxpayer please Gift Aid your donations so they can claim an additional 25% from the sale of your donated goods from the government.

• ARK – Action for the River Kennet wants to thank the strimming volunteers who maintained the sinuous footpath through the scrub habitat area at the east end of Stonebridge Wild River Reserve last weekend. Thanks also go to the regular volunteer litter picker and the volunteer paint and varnish team. Thanks to all volunteers who willingly give a huge number of hours for free to care for this space, keeping it special for others in the community and a high quality habitat for wildlife.

• Marlborough Town Council is looking for anyone who wants to stand as a town councillor to represent West Ward. If you are interested, a copy of the Notice is published on the Wiltshire Council website here.

• Marlborough St Mary’s Primary School still has space for a few more stalls at its craft fair on Saturday 6 July for as many different businesses as possible. So no matter what you have to offer please get in touch with Nadine Johnson at friends.msm@yahoo.com

• Ramsbury’s D-Day 80 Flower Festival continues until Sunday 9 June in Holy Cross Church on the High Street, open to the public between 9.30am and 4pm (please note there will be a church service on Sunday morning).

• Also Ramsbury Open Gardens is taking place 2 to 6pm on Sunday 16 June. Seven lovely gardens are available with tea and cakes, Pimms and a plant sale. Adults £7.50, accompanied under 18s free. Assistance dogs only, please. A map of the gardens can be found in The Square, Ramsbury. Tickets can be purchased at each garden. Proceeds to Prospect Hospice and Wiltshire Air Ambulance.

• Don’t forget that Marlborough Open Studios will be open 6, 7, 13, 14, 20,21, 27 and 28 July. Specific details will be released soon and we will bring them to you as soon as possible.

• ARK – Action for the River Kennet was thrilled that the Stonebridge mural was officially opened on Saturday 1 June by Deputy Lieutenant for Wiltshire Ninna Gibson. It was a well attended event, with Janey Jane the mural artist, Marlborough Mayor Kym-Marie Cleasby, TH WHITE ‘s Director, Marlborough Town Council councillors, the ARK – Action for the River Kennet team (staff, trustees and volunteers) and lots of the community.

• The Merchant’s House is excited about the gardens in and around Marlborough High Street bursting in flower as everyone beavers in readiness for this year’s Marlborough Open Gardens. On Sunday 23 June enjoy a leisurely wander and take in these hidden gems. Tickets for Open Gardens are available in advance from The Merchants House website here.

• Bedwyn Music Society is delighted to welcome back virtuoso pianist Yuanfan Yang for their summer concert at St Mary’s Church on Friday 14 June. Yang’s performance will include: Haydn- Sonata in E minor, Chopin-Nocturne in E flat, Debussy- Reflets dans l’eau, Chopin- Sonata no. 2, Schumann- Carnaval, Op. 9 as well as improvisations on themes suggested by the audience! Tickets cost £15 on the door. Children are free. For more information please call 01672 870079.

• From Friday 7 to Sunday 9 June Textile & Stitch Around Marlborough will be holding their first exhibition for over 5 years. They are planning a wonderful display of textile art including hand stitching, free machine embroidery, felting, quilting & patchwork and printing. Further information here.

• A reminder for those of you with felines in the family, that from Monday 10 June, your cat must be microchipped. This new law cites that if you do not microchip and register your cat on a database by the time they are twenty weeks old, you can be fined up to £500. See full details here.

• St Michael’s School in Aldbourne is requesting prizes for their Summer Silent Auction & Raffle. By donating a prize, you’ll not only promote your business but also invest in our children’s futures. Every contribution goes directly to enriching resources and experiences for our students. Join us in making a difference! Please leave donations at the school for the attention of Sadie Darling-Hewitt.

• Marlborough Library is excited to be offering an online course Supporting Myself to Support My Child on Friday 7, 14 and 21 June from 10am to noon. To book email familyandcommunitylearning@wiltshire.gov.uk or call 01225 770478.

• Businesses have until 14 June to apply for Vibrant Wiltshire’s vacant unit grants programme, aimed at supporting businesses in the county to reinvigorate empty shops and commercial areas. See here for full details.

Thursday 30 May 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes instruments, open gardens, music., Paisley Park, honey and textiles – plus the chance to visit a new rain garden in Great Bedwyn. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include mural opening and live music. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• A rain garden

Action for the River Kennet has been working with the community in Great Bedwyn to find ways to manage rain better.

By creating rain gardens, installing rain water planters and water butts across the village the project has disconnected over 3,000 sqm of roof area from the drainage network across the village in individual gardens as well as Great Bedwyn Primary School, the village hall and the GP’s surgery.

You can also find out more about the project at an open evening at Great Bedwyn Village Hall from 6.45 until 8pm on Wednesday 12 June.

Tickets for the Open Gardens will be available from the church and gardens on the day. More details about the project call Charlotte Hitchmough at ARK 07880 515859.

• Other news

• Marlborough Town Council has a keyboard, organ and a drum kit which they would like to donate to a local club, organisation or group. They are keen for this to be of benefit to a local group rather than an individual. Please get in touch if you are interested phone 01672 512487 or email enquiries@marlborough-tc.gov.uk.

• Only a week to go before the curtain goes up on The Marlborough Players’ production of Noel Coward’s classic comedy ‘Blithe Spirit‘. For more information and purchase of ticketsvfrom Thursday 6 to Saturday 8 June, click here.

• Fri 14 Jun Bedwyn Music Society presents: pianist Yuanfan Yang, St Mary’s Church, Great Bedwyn

• Greatwood is excited to announce that Grade 1 Cheltenham Festival winner Paisley Park will be parading on Saturday 15 June at their Open day. For more information call 01672 514535 or email info@greatwoodcharity.org

• We are entering the swarming season for honey bees at the moment. If you see a swarm of honeybees, go online and click on the swarm collection link at the British beekeepers association here.

• Wiltshire Council will be installing new parking machines across the county to make it easier to pay for parking in their car parks. The new machines will accept cash or contactless with a card or mobile device. You can also pay with the MiPermit app. For more details click here.

• Discover some of the history of Marlborough on a gentle walk along the margins of the River Kennet and through ‘Treacle Bolly’ – with Wiltshire History Man aka Nick Baxter on Monday 3 June. Nick will tell you the fascinating tales linked to Treacle Bolly – an ancient footpath which was bordered by fields, once the site of a great medieval castle. The castle motte, in the grounds of Marlborough College and known locally as ‘The Mound’, overlooks the margins of the Kennet. Tickets available here.

• Don’t forget that The Parade Cinema Marlborough is hosting an exciting Live Q&A with Claire Mackensie, the producer of ‘Six Inches Of Soil’ on Friday 7 June at 5.10pm. This excellent documentary tells the inspiring story of young English farmers standing up against the industrial food system and transforming the way they produce food – to heal the soil and our health and provide for local communities. Also on the panel will be Rob Hues of The Farm at Avebury, George Hosier of Wexcombe Farm, Simon Smart of Black Sheep Countryside Management, Sarah Mytom-Hart of Packaging Not Included, and James Wallace of River Action UK. Tickets are just £10 and are available to book here. by phone at 01672 646232, or in-house.

• Marlborough Cricket Club is appealing to 5 to 8 yr olds to get involved with cricket. All Stars cricket sessions on Friday evenings are keen to invite youngsters to join in. Places still available. To book your place, click here.

• Wiltshire Regional Talent Centre is calling all aspiring female footballers to join their open sessions exclusively for girls, led by UEFA B coaches. If you’re looking to add an additional session to your training schedule and take your game to the next level, this is your chance. Email griff@wiltssrtc.com for more information and session registration details.

Thursday 23 May 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes vegetation, honey, a walk, an auction and grants – plus a look at a four-pointed letter sent by two local campaign groups to Thames Water and others. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include virtuoso violinist in Great Bedwyn and car boot in Marlborough. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Four points for Thames Water

A few weeks ago, the Angling Trust and Action for the River Kennet (ARK) issued “an urgent appeal to the water services industry regulator OFWAT, the Environment Agency (EA), and Steve Barclay MP, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)” regarding “significant concerns regarding ongoing sewage pollution issues in the Kennet, Lambourn and Pang river catchments, overseen by Thames Water.”

You can read the full text of the letter here. There were four specific suggestions:

Government intervention. Thames Water is no longer fit for purpose and must be taken into special measure immediately to protect consumers and the environment. Unless action is taken, we have no confidence that even the limited measures in their current AMP 8 proposals will actually be funded given the near bankrupt status of the company.
An urgent investigation is needed by both industry regulators – OFWAT and the EA – into Thames Water’s operations and plans in West Berkshire and Wiltshire. The lack of oversight by the regulators has allowed Thames Water to operate with hopelessly inadequate infrastructure in an area of housing growth and to pollute local rivers and chalk streams with impunity.
Urgent upgrades are needed to Marlborough WWTW now. The planned works are not currently due to be completed until the end of 2026 – a deadline that will be missed as the work has not even been designed yet. The current plans indicate that Marlborough will not meet targets for storm overflows until 2030/35. This is too long and the business plan needs revising accordingly.
Thames Water must bring forward plans to tackle groundwater ingress (which is not a legally permitted reason to dispose of sewage in a waterway). They must bring forward ground water pipe sealing in the upper catchment into AMP 8 as currently these works are not scheduled for completion until 2045, and the limited work carried out to date has, according to the Environment Agency, resulted in ‘not much improvement’.

All of these are good points and, coming from these organisations that know exactly what they’re talking about and whose staff and members spent a good deal of time actually in the rivers in question, carry extra weight. As of 23 May, no response had been received.

The matter was also referred to in the Gazette and Herald on 16 May. The paper managed to get a couple of comments from TW, though whether these were specifically in response to this letter I can’t say. The first was that “While all discharges are unacceptable, unfortunately in some circumstances they are necessary. The consequences of not relieving pressure on the system would risk it overflowing into people’s homes.”

We’ve heard this before and is slightly like saying that it’s OK to be being attacked by a dog because otherwise you’d be dealing with a bear.

The second was that “we were the first water company to publish a real-time data map on our website.”

Really, TW can’t keep on claiming this as an achievement as, from memory, this was launched over a year ago. In any case, the data is misleading as it only shows, for each event duration monitor (EDM), the most recent discharge and not (which would be much more useful) the cumulative discharges over a specified period. Repeated attempts to get them to amend this have not produced any results.

The statement also includes that familiar corporate trope that “We’ve put transparency at the heart of what we do.”

Well, not in the case of the EDM maps, as mentioned above. Nor, of course, is there anything very transparent about the water. That’s the problem…

• Other news

• ARK – Action for the River Kennet thanks its volunteer strimmers for their great job clearing the vegetation encroaching onto the wooden boardwalk at Stonebridge Wild River Reserve, this week to maintain access.The water meadow on the opposite bank of the reserve is looking gloriously yellow with flag iris blooming in the wetland and buttercups surrounding it. Marlborough Town Council has mown sinuous paths through this area, so plants are left to flower, you are welcome to leave the paths and enjoy the whole of this space.

• We are entering the swarming season for honey bees at the moment. If you see a swarm of honeybees go online and click on the swarm collection link at the British beekeepers association here, You can then check your local area for the contact details of a local beekeeper who will come and collect them. Please do not try to move them on by squirting them with a hose or throwing things at them. They may sound scary when there is such a large amount of them but, they are quite placid. They gorge themselves on honey before leaving the hive and are just resting while looking for a new home. Please don’t kill them, just call your local swarm collector who will remove them. This is normally a free service.

• Packaging Not Included zero waste shop in Hughenden Yard has everything you need to prepare for the Bank Holiday Weekend from sunscreen to extra virgin olive oil.

• Marlborough Cricket Club is appealing to 5 to 8 yr olds to get involved with cricket. All Stars cricket sessions on Friday evenings are keen to invite youngsters to join in. Places still available. To book your place, click here.

• Wiltshire Regional Talent Centre is calling all aspiring female footballers to join their open sessions exclusively for girls, led by UEFA B coaches. If you’re looking to add an additional session to your training schedule and take your game to the next level, this is your chance. Email griff@wiltssrtc.com for more information and session registration details.

Thursday 16 May 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes a new Mayor, a gentle walk, Bach, grant applications, herbs and a dig. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include choral concert and ecstatic dance. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Phantom roadworks

A wonderfully feisty article here in Marlborough News which takes what seems to be a well-deserved pop at two of the town’s perennial bogeymen – seemingly pointless traffic delays and Thames Water. This took place last Saturday but this is not, as the author is quick to point out the first time and it probably won’t be the last.

The problem was on the A4 (Bridewell) near the College where there were all the trappings of major road works but no work actually being done. The article admits that Thames Water, like all utilities, does have the right to do such works and the author refers to the One.network site to show the details of the works. “But it doesn’t,” he adds through gritted teeth, “say anything about setting up lights to stop traffic just for the sheer hell of it.” This is, he goes on to point out, “in addition to Thames Water’s exploits dumping raw sewage into the Kennet and charging us all ridiculous amounts for the privilege of their incompetence and lack of concern for their customers.” Ouch…

The article also refers to its previous coverage of similar issues which resulted in the troubled water giant having been fined for exceeding approval times. There is indeed something very galling about being held up for no apparent reason by seemingly non-existent road works conducted by a company which is currently the area’s number-one pariah. Marlborough News is right to highlight such issues. Who knows, maybe someone senior from Thames Water will read that article, or this one, and realise that the company must do better in every regard, including this one. There’s a long way to go but every little nudge helps.

• Other news

• Marlborough Town Council has welcomed its new Mayor, Councillor Kym-Marie Cleasby and Deputy Mayor Councillor Emily Trow this week . They will be representing residents for the 2024-2025 period.

• To celebrate International Compost Awareness Week, Our Wiltshire have teamed up with Great Green Systems to offer Marlborough residents subsidised hot composters, called a Green Johanna, for only £68 (subsidised from £144.99).To find out more and claim yours, click here.

• A heads up that if your organisation needs funding support for an upcoming project, there is still time to make a grant application to Wiltshire Council Area Boards. The Marlborough Area Board grant deadline is approaching, so contact them here before Tuesday 21 May.

• The local branch of Citizens’ Climate Lobby UK is delighted to launch their election-year climate campaign with a screening of the astonishing film, 2040, which illuminates the brilliant possibilities of a post-carbon future. The film will be shown on Thursday 23 May at Marlborough Town Hall, 18 years – almost to the day – since Marlborough hosted the first big public meeting on the climate crisis, with a presentation by the much-admired and passionately committed MP, the late Michael Meacher. See here for more details and how to book.

• Crofton Beam Engines invites families to their Teddy Bears picnic this Saturday 18 May to explore the site, lawn games and story and craft sessions. Entry is free and you are encouraged to bring your own picnic.

• Music lovers don’t miss the Complete Bach Orchestral Suites arranged and performed by Maggie Faultless on Friday 24 May in Great Bedwyn Church. This is an opportunity to hear all four suites together in a single concert. Fautless is the holder of the Becket Chair of Historical Performance at The Royal Academy of Music, a Professor of the University of London and an Honorary Fellow of Birmingham Conservatoire, and Musician in Residence at St John’s, Cambridge. Book your tickets here.

• For an overciew of the finds from Operation Nightingale‘s recent archaeological dig in Aldbourne in connection with the 101st Airborne (Band of Brothers), visit facebook.com/aldbourneheritage.

• Packaging Not Included zero waste shop in Hughenden Yard is offering free herbs that are growing infront of their popular refill grocery store and they invite local residents to come and help themselves.

• Savernake Parish Council invites all residents to its Annual Parish Meeting at 7.30pm on Wednesday 22 May at the Marlborough Community & Youth Centre, St Margaret’s Mead.

• Marlborough Cricket Club is appealing to 5 to 8 yr olds to get involved with cricket. All Stars cricket sessions on Friday evenings are keen to invite youngsters to join in. Places still available. To book your place, click here.

• Wiltshire Council Area Boards are encouraging Wiltshire residents and partner organisations to look at the Community Area Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (CAJSNA) data & complete a short survey on what’s important to you. The survey ends on Sunday 5 May so check it out online here.

• Wiltshire Regional Talent Centre is calling all aspiring female footballers to join their open sessions exclusively for girls, led by UEFA B coaches. If you’re looking to add an additional session to your training schedule and take your game to the next level, this is your chance. Email griff@wiltssrtc.com for more information and session registration details.

• 2nd Marlborough Scout Group is honoured and extremely grateful to be part of the Tesco blue token scheme, in the Marlborough store. This scheme will help them to subsidise group camp this year. If you put one token in their box every time you shop, they would be extremely grateful.

Thursday 9 May 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes a dig, free herbs, volunteers, sewage and tours of the mound – plus, in the company of Marlborough News, a look at a very old tree which s not living up to its name. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include live music and car boot sale. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• The King of Limbs

An interesting article here in Marlborough News written by David Oliver on the subject of the “veteran trees” in the Savarnake Forest, not all of which are in the condition that they could or should be. His central thesis is that up until about thirty years ago a combination of professional managers and, before that, experienced “old-school arborists” maintained the ancient forest to a pretty good state of repair. Since then, he claims, the Forestry Commission has allowed this rather to crumble apart; and some of the trees likewise. He points to several examples of venerable inhabitants like the Crockmere and Big Belly Oaks which have either fallen or are in danger of doing so.

He also refers to the another once-magnificent oak, the King of Limbs, whose name is, he points out, no longer accurate “because they’ve all fallen off.” He suggests it’s about 1,130 years old which would mean that Alfred the Great might have passed by it as a sapling, en route from Wantage to burn his famous cakes in the Somerset Levels. What’s more certain is that it’s the only tree to have inspired the title of a Radiohead album. This article in The Guardian suggests that the tree “has been shedding branches, rotting down slowly for decades, possibly centuries.” If this is the case and it’s all part of the natural but slow circle of arboreal life, should we be bothering to intervene?

David Oliver’s point is that we should – partly because humans in general have, through our impact on the climate, already intervened. He suggests that the as the unusually warm, wet and windy weather that we have almost certainly contributed to becomes more normal, so the process of decay speeds up. It’s also the case that we don’t have many of these forests left and those that remain deserve our special care. Each tree supports an eco-system the complexity and fragility of which we will probably never fully understand. Now is no time to let them wither away.

He ends by saying that he is “awaiting a response from Forestry England”, adding that he “sort of blackmailed them a bit” my mentioning he’d already written to the King on the subject. Time was when the landowners, chief of whom was the king, had sweeping and increasingly unpopular powers over everything that fell under forest law. Those days are long gone: but perhaps a little of the old royal power and magic still remains…

• Other news

• Operation Nightingale team is carrying out another archaeological dig on Aldbourne’s football field and within Rectory Wood to see what further artefacts they can find in connection with the 101st Airborne (Band of Brothers). The digs will take place between 8-15 May and there is a village open day on Sunday 12 May, from 11am to 3pm for everyone to come and see what has been found, and to share any items and information you may have with the dig team.

• Savernake Parish Council invites all residents to its Annual Parish Meeting at 7.30pm on Wednesday 22 May at the Marlborough Community & Youth Centre, St Margaret’s Mead.

• Action for the River Kennet (ARK) is devastated to report that the Marlborough sewage treatment works is once again discharging untreated poo straight into the River Kennet. The current duration is 15 hours and still going. The Winterbourne Stream (which flows into the Lambourn, which in turn flows into the Kennet) is currently at a staggering 1,057 hours of receiving continuous untreated and still going.

• Age UK Wiltshire’s new Marlborough shop is recruiting volunteers. If you can spare a regular morning or afternoon weekly, they would love to hear from you. You will be joining a brand new team of friendly volunteers. Please pop in to the shop to find out more or apply online here.

• Marlborough Cricket Club is appealing to 5 to 8 yr olds to get involved with cricket. All Stars cricket sessions on Friday evenings are keen to invite youngsters to join in. Places still available. To book your place, click here.

• Marlborough College and the Mound Trust are hosting another one-day exhibition and tours of the Marlborough Mound on Monday 27 May. There are 4 tours throughout the day, limited to 25 people at each for safety and conservation reasons. The tour times are 9am, 11am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm.The event is free but only people who have pre-registered and secured a ticket can attend – there will be no entry without a pre-booked ticket. Click here to book your FREE ticket now.

• The Barleycorn Inn has announced a fabulous and free family event on Day 2 of the D-Day 80th Anniversary Event in the grounds of Collingbourne Kingston Village Hall on Friday 7 June. The Salisbury Big Band will play nostalgic WW2 music for two hours, from 6pm to 8 pm. Go along with your blanket, picnic basket, and picnic, then kick back and relax.

• Wiltshire Regional Talent Centre is calling all aspiring female footballers to join their open sessions exclusively for girls, led by UEFA B coaches. If you’re looking to add an additional session to your training schedule and take your game to the next level, this is your chance. Email griff@wiltssrtc.com for more information and session registration details.

• A quick reminder that Our Wiltshire Connect on-demand bus service which operates in the Pewsey Vale and Marlborough areas is offering fares for just £1 for all rides booked until Saturday 29 June. Find out more here.

• Please support Aldbourne Youth Council’s Community Market on the Village Green this Sunday 5 May to raise funds for their vital charity which provides a welcoming, safe, warm environment for many young people 10 to 18 years old. There will be lots of stalls including plants, food, drinks and crafts, Morris Dancers, BBQ, tea and cakes.

• Please think about signing up for The Wiltshire Three Peaks Challenge on Saturday 8 June. Run, jog or walk either a 10km or a Half Marathon trail route to raise funds for local young people. To find out more, click here.

• ARK – Action for the River Kennet are looking for keen volunteers, who can make a long-term commitment to about 2 hours a month every month (site conditions permitting) to be a riverfly monitor. Currently they are looking for volunteers for sites just to the east of Marlborough, in Hungerford and Shalbourne. Full training and kit provided. To find out more visit online here and contact anna@riverkennet.org to express your interest.

Thursday 2 May 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes sewage, fabric scraps, sports funding, tours of the mound and priorities – plus Marlborough’s market and ARK & the anglers write a letter. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include Aldbourne Community Market, Marlborough dachshunds walk and sports festival. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Marlborough’s market

We mentioned last week (see below) that one idea raised at the recent Town meeting was that Marlborough’s market be transferred from the control of Wiltshire Council to the Town Council. This was reported in an article in Marlborough News. The idea seemed to be an interesting one. However, I wasn’t sure if this was merely the view of a few people of something Marlborough TC was actively considering.

I spoke to the Town Clerk on 2 may who agreed that there had been some initial interest in this. He stressed, however, that no transfer of any service from one local authority to another at a different level is ever straightforward and there were a number of things that would have to be looked at to see whether it would be a better solutions and one that financially viable for MTC. I understand that an interim report will be drafted for the Council to consider and discuss perhaps as early as its June meeting. We shall know more after that.

• ARK and the Anglers

Staying with Marlborough News, a good article here describing an “urgent appeal” which The Angling Trust and Action for the River Kennet (ARK) have made “to the water services industry regulator OFWAT, the Environment Agency (EA), and Steve Barclay MP, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA over significant concerns regarding ongoing sewage pollution issues in the Kennet, Lambourn and Pang river catchments.” The article also has a link to the full text of the letter.

The article goes on to list several complaints and representations made by a number of groups in recent months. “Notable areas of concern,” the piece states, “include the River Lambourn and the River Pang, both of which have suffered extensively due to inadequate infrastructure and operational oversight.” The last five words sum up the situation pretty well. “Financial instability” could perhaps have been added.

Of course, we’ve heard these matters raised before. I don’t know how many times I’ve typed the word “sewage recently. It’s perhaps not quite as many as 16,990 (the number of sewage spills Thames Water was responsible for in 2023) but out almost feels like it. But, you’ve just got to keep banging away, haven’t you? organisations like ARK and The Angling Trust do so on a daily and probably hourly basis. The problem will recede as the groundwater levels do: however, that’s the worst time for us all to take our eyes off the problem as that’s the best time for TW to do the repairs, so we all need to make sure that this happens – if it hasn’t gone bust, of course…

• Other news

• ARK – Action for the River Kennet is devastated to report that the Marlborough sewage treatment works is once again discharging untreated poo straight into the River Kennet. The current duration is 15 hours and still going. The Winterbourne Stream (which flows into the Lambourn, which in turn flows into the Kennet) is currently at a staggering 1,057 hours of receiving continuous untreated and still going.

• As reported above, our rivers are in trouble and ARK is asking for your help by joining the The Rivers Trust #BigRiverWatch this Bank Holiday weekend between Friday 3 and Monday 6 May. By reporting what you see in your local river, you’ll be contributing to the citizen science survey and help paint a big picture of the health of our rivers in the UK and Ireland. The more that we know about them, the better we can restore our vital waterways and demand action for rivers. Search for ‘Big River Watch’ in your app store or click here to download and get started.

• Year 2 pupils at St Michael’s School Aldbourne are about to begin a sewing project and would love donations of fabric scraps, felt , buttons, sequins, old shoelaces, as well as cord etc. that can be used to add decoration. If you have anything you could donate, please do pop into school.

• Don’t forget to register for the Marlborough Sports and Activity Festival on Mon 6 May.The Youth Centre will also be open from 10am to 2.30pm for the sale of drinks and cake to raise money for Marlborough Community Youth Project.

• Marlborough Cricket Club is appealing to 5 to 8 yr olds to get involved with cricket. All Stars cricket sessions on Friday evenings are keen to invite youngsters to join in. Places still available. To book your place, click here.

• Marlborough Town Council is asking people to share their key concerns about Marlborough to help to inform Wiltshire Council’s planning for the coming years and also help to shape Marlborough Area Board’s priorities for the coming year, to channel resources into making changes where they’re wanted. The survey is open for the next two weeks and will close on Tuesday 7 May.

• Wiltshire Regional Talent Centre is calling all aspiring female footballers to join their open sessions exclusively for girls, led by UEFA B coaches. If you’re looking to add an additional session to your training schedule and take your game to the next level, this is your chance. Email griff@wiltssrtc.com for more information and session registration details.

Thursday 25 April 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes a postponed spirit, pink cakes, a police consultation, local priorities and the next level – plus a look, in conjunction with Marlborough News, at which council is better placed to run Marlborough’s markets. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include movie and live music. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Marlborough’s market

Marlborough News reports that at the recent annual Town Meeting, it was suggested that Marlborough’s markets be taken back from Wiltshire Council and placed under the control of the Town Council. The article quotes opinions at the meeting as ranging from the fact that the market was “tired” to the more serious one that it was “dying”. The photograph at the head of the article did nothing to dispel either impression.

I tried to contact Marlborough Town Council to see if this proposal was one it was seriously considering but the person I needed to talk to wasn’t around. I’ll call back and let you know. I must say that I was surprised that this was the kind of thing that Wiltshire Council still operated.

So far as I’m aware, all the markets in West Berkshire are organised by the town or parish councils (or by the Town and Manor in Hungerford) although WBC may well help promote them from time to time. I would imagine that the hand of a county council on such matters can be both distant and heavy, neither of which are ideal. A local council should be able to be more responsible to local need and, of course, is more answerable organisation to shoppers and traders alike.

Markets are, as the MN article points out, vital parts of a town’s tradition and also provide an opportunity not only to escape from the homogeneity of the supermarket experience but also pick up things that just aren’t available anywhere else. Like the high streets that they operate in and are of a part of, they need constantly to adapt if they’re going to thrive and survive. Whether Marlborough TC can provide this I can’t say but there would seem to be good chance and it’s worth trying. What seems more likely, and which most at the meeting appeared to agree, is that Wiltshire Council can’t.

• Other news

• Due to a technical problem, Marlborough Players has made the difficult decision to postpone their production of Blithe Spirit until 6, 7 and 8 June. If you have already purchased your tickets, cash refunds are available from the White Horse Bookshops in exchange for your paper ticket. WeGotTickets have already issued online ticket refunds directly to the bank accounts from which they were purchased and will continue to do so.

• The Big Pink Cake Van will be outside Ramsbury Memorial Hall this Friday 26 April from 3pm to 5pm selling lovely cupcakes, tiffins, brownies and cookie pies with ‘free from’ options. 10% of proceeds will go to the locally based ATE Action Through Enterprise charity that supports rural communities in northern Ghana. See details here.

• Enjoy An Evening with Rev Richard Coles – one half of 1980s band The Communards, turned Church of England vicar, broadcaster and best-selling author who will be appearing at The Memorial Hall, Marlborough College on Tuesday 9 July. Phone 01672 892388 or email admin@summerschool.co.uk for more details.

• Aldbourne Parish Council is keen to inform residents that PCSO Camilleri will be in The Square in the police mobile station on Friday 26 April between 5pm and 6pm. Drop in to raise any local concerns you have, such as speeding, antisocial behaviour, burglary or theft. Advice on home and vehicle security will also be available.

• Congratulations to Emma Doughty Jones who succeeded in completing the London Marathon in support of Marlborough Scouts & the Salvation Army. If you want to contribute to her fundraising her Justgiving link can still be accessed here.

• Wiltshire Regional Talent Centre is calling all aspiring female footballers to join their open sessions exclusively for girls, led by UEFA B coaches. If you’re looking to add an additional session to your training schedule and take your game to the next level, this is your chance. Email griff@wiltssrtc.com for more information and session registration details.

• If you live in or around Poulton Hill, Kingsbury Street or Bath Road and are concerned about speeding and road safety in the area, perhaps you have a few hours to spare, on a regular basis, to help address these issues. Marlborough Town Council is supporting Wiltshire Police with the setting up of Community Speed Watch schemes for each of these areas but need willing volunteers who will be trained up by Wiltshire Police and will be given all the equipment needed to do the job. If you are interested please contact Clare Harris at Marlborough Town Council via email charris@marlborough-tc.gov.uk or give her a call on 01672 512487.

• Aldbourne Youth Council is organising a Community Market on the Village Green on Sunday 5 May to raise funds for their vital charity which provides a welcoming, safe, warm environment for many young people 10 to 18 years old. Their doors at the Community Junction are open six days a week for young people to have fun, learn or simply be. Please support the market which will have lots of stalls including plants, food, drinks and crafts, Morris Dancers, BBQ, tea and cakes. If you would like a pitch contact Valerie on hoodvalerie@gmail.com.

Thursday 18 April 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes a survey, footballers, reduced fares, a festival and three peaks – plus perhaps the shortest-ever agenda for Marlborough’s forthcoming annual town meeting. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include spring concert and car boot sale. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Marlborough’s meeting

Marlborough News has reminded residents that Marlborough Town Council will be holding its annual meeting at 6pm in the Town Hall. All parish and town councils are required by law to hold such a meeting every year between 1 March and 1 June, starting some time after 6pm.

This will provide an opportunity for the councillors to explain what the Council has been up to these last twelve months and what plans it has for the future. It is also, as the article points out, an opportunity for “residents of the town to ask questions to Councillors – the Mayor and all Committee Chairs will be present – about anything that needs an answer.”

It also quotes the agenda for the meeting, which is masterpiece of minimalism:

Welcome and overview of MTC’s work in 2023/24.
Public questions.

…which says it all, really. All residents are invited at attend to hear point 1 and supply point 2 for themselves.

• Other news

• Wiltshire Regional Talent Centre is calling all aspiring female footballers to join their open sessions exclusively for girls, led by UEFA B coaches. If you’re looking to add an additional session to your training schedule and take your game to the next level, this is your chance. Email griff@wiltssrtc.com for more information and session registration details.

• Expect to see a lot of classic cars on the road this Sunday 21 April as it’s the annual Drive It Day to raise awareness of motoring history. To see some beautiful vehicles close up, as well as steam engine history, pop along to the Drive It Day at Crofton Beam Engines where the main car park will be dedicated to cars who are taking part in Drive-It-Day. There will be Drive-It Day plaques for sale on the day, if you haven’t already got yours. Some Crofton volunteers will display their classic cars including a fabulous Stanley Steam Car. There will be offering light refreshments available. Since 2021 Drive It Day has raised over £100,000 for the NSPCC’s Childline to help support vulnerable children and young people.

• On Thursday 25 April from 2pm to 3.30pm The Prospect Hospice is hosting a Bereavement Help Point at the Castle and Ball Hotel. The Bereavement Help Point is a safe and comfortable space to meet and talk with people currently experiencing similar feelings, supported by staff and trained volunteers.It is open to anybody who is experiencing grief or loss. You do not need to have experienced Prospect Hospice’s services and your loss does not have to be recent. For more information, please visit online here.

• Marlborough Town Council is giving advanced warning of evening closures for carriageway repair works on A346 Herd St. between Port Hill and The Green from Tuesday 23 to Thursday 25 April from 7pm to 11pm.

Thursday 11 April 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes a sports festival, a grant, valuable wood, three peaks and a free door – plus a look at a couple of local housing associations. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include dachshund walk and folk music. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Getting too big?

In my This Week with Brian column on 28 March (scroll down to “Moving up”), I had a look at West Berkshire Council’s changing relationship with Sovereign Housing, the housing association that owns and manages the majority of social-rent homes in the district. Sovereign was founded in 1989 and was then entirely a West Berkshire creature. Since then, its property portfolio has expanded twelvefold and the acquisitions and mergers continue. It may once have seen West Berkshire Council (or Newbury District Council as it was then) as its major municipal partner but that is clearly no longer the case.

“To what extent this breakneck expansion has benefitted its tenants and the interests of the housing departments in the areas in which it owns property is debatable” I suggested last week. “Every organisation will all have detractors and there’s little to be gained from picking out individual cases and holding them up to be typical. I do not know how customer satisfaction is measured nor whether this might have fallen in recent years. None the less, scaling up causes problems as well as solving them. Many housing associations now uncomfortably more closely resemble large property firms than they do organisations designed to address local needs.”

This recent article in Marlborough News paints a very similar picture with regard to Aster Homes. With 36,000 properties it’s less than half of Sovereign’s size but perhaps has ambitions to overtake it. I shall leave the author to explain the issues but the two sites that have recently sparked controversy are in Marlborough and in Burbage. Both were, the article explains, “former elderly resident accommodations, now to become mainly ‘affordable’ housing units for those who ‘can afford’.” This calls to mind Sovereign’s less than deft handling of the clearance of Windmill Court in Mortimer a couple of years ago.

The article also quotes local MP Danny Kruger, speaking at the Burbage meeting, as saying that “when the current wave of housing associations emerged, they weren’t like “big public bureaucracies, but were locally accountable small charities, responsive to the needs of the community”. He noted that in a marketplace that doesn’t work, Aster had merged with other associations and was now acting “like a big plc that operates like a commercial company.” These are similar sentiments to ones I expressed on 28 March.

As the MN article points out, housing associations can be dated back to the 13th century. Their real growth period, however, was kick-started due to legislative changes in the mid 1970s and 1980s. From origins which in many cases were closely associated with the council areas from which many of them (like Sovereign) obtained their first properties, those that have survived have grown much further afield. The local connection has thus been lost, as has anything much in the way of influence that the local authority has over their activities. If an association sells a property, it’s obliged to plough the money back into other social housing: however, unless there’s a specific covenant to the contrary, there’s nothing to say that it has to do so in the same district. The council has thus lost control over the affordable and social stock in its area – with the compensating benefit, admittedly, of not having to pay for its repairs and maintenance.

In short, the interests of the two organisations are no longer as aligned as they once more (or as many think, or wish, they still are). This is inevitable when you have two organisations that are driven by different priorities. The solution for councils is to start building their own homes again, though this would prove a mammoth task as few have anything approaching the level of in-house skill that most enjoyed in the council-home-building heyday of the 1970s. Mind you, everything moves in cycles. If the flared trousers and glam rock from that age can swing back into fashion at a later date, then so perhaps can municipal housing. The need for it certainly seems to be there and does not appear to being completely met by the current arrangements.

• Other news

• Enjoy a free sport and physical activity festival for young people aged 10-19yrs on Monday 6 May from 9.30 am to 3.30pm at Marlborough Recreation Ground. Check online here, for full details.

• It was reported on the BBC this week that Marlborough’s historic Free Door has been returned to the High Street. The Free’s Door is one of Marlborough’s lesser-known original features and was created by a craftsman of the Free family in 1925. It has been restored by craftsman Andrew Brennan, supported by the Marlborough History Society and you can see the footage online here.

• Local resident Ian Wyld reminds anyone who is having a Laburnum tree cut down, that the wood is highly valued by wood turners and carvers. He has found homes for the wood from his own fairly large Laburnum and suggests if anyone else is having a Laburnum tree taken out then put a note the Marlborough Facebook page as there are people who will be very happy to take the wood.

• ARK – Action for the River Kennet are looking for keen volunteers, who can make a long-term commitment to about 2 hours a month every month (site conditions permitting) to be a riverfly monitor. Currently they are looking for volunteers for sites just to the east of Marlborough,in Hungerford and Shalbourne. Full training and kit provided. To find out more visit online here and contact anna@riverkennet.org to express your interest.

• The Merchant’s House is very grateful for a grant of £15,000 towards its roof appeal, which helps them secure the future of The Merchant’s House for the next 30 years. If you would like to support their roof appeal, click here

• Earlybird tickets (offering some great savings) are now on sale for the Newbury Show on 21 and 22 September and there are also sponsorship opportunities still available. See more here.

Thursday 4 April 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes a park run, a van, three peaks, scouts and a community garden – plus a shock announcement from Marlborough News about a by-pass through the Savernake. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include dachshund walk and folk music. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• No by-pass yet

I enjoyed Marlborough News’ April Fool this year about the plans for a north-south by-pass around the town and through the Savernake. The trick with these things is to take a genuine concern or problem and then develop it in a way that becomes progressively more absurd until, even if they haven’t clocked the date, people eventually realise what’s going on. It doesn’t do to hold back in this regard. A few years ago I did a 1 April fool article about some alarming new Facebook features and was told by some knowledgable friends that all of these were easily possible and may yet come to pass.

In fact, the concept of a by-pass around Marlborough was for a time at least not merely a piece of fantasy. This 2020 letter in the Gazette and Herald refers to discussions about the idea in the late 1990s which was, the writer claims, killed off by a combination of cost, technical problems, environmental concerns and nimbyism. I doubt any of these would be less serious obstacles now.

Then, while searching for more on this, I came across an article headlined “New rail bypass on track to replace 107-year-old tunnel in Marlborough.” Wow, I thought: that’s one April fool I missed. It didn’t take long for me to realise that this was Marlborough in New Zealand…

• Other news

• Marlborough Common parkrun will celebrate their 200th park run this weekend on Sat 6 April at 9am on Marlborough Common, and are hoping that at least 200 participants will turn up to celebrate this milestone. There were 172 runners and 26 volunteers at the very first parkrun so they hope to emulate that.

• Aldbourne Youth Council are organising a Community Market on the Village Green on Sunday 5 May to raise funds for their vital charity which provides a welcoming, safe, warm environment for many young people 10 to 18 years old. Their doors at the Community Junction are open six days a week for young people to have fun, learn or simply be. Please support the market which will have lots of stalls including plants, food, drinks and crafts, Morris Dancers, BBQ, tea and cakes. If you would like a pitch contact Valerie on hoodvalerie@gmail.com.

• Last September a 15-seat minibus was stolen from the lovely Sunflowers at Grafton nursery, pre school in East Grafton, and was found burnt out the following day. At 7.30am 0n Tuesday 2 April , a 12-seat minibus was stolen again and found by Wiltshire Police burnt out near East Kennet. Sunflowers are understandably devastated. If you have any information please call 01672 810478 or email admin@sunflowers-grafton.org.uk

• Aldbourne Community Garden kicks off the 2024 growing season with a Spring Planting Session on Wednesday 10 April between 10.30am and 12.30pm. Activities will include: potato planting, seed sowing, preparing the raised beds, harvesting rhubarb and creating new signs for the raised beds. All welcome at the Community Garden on Whitley Road, Aldbourne, SN8 2BU.

• ARK – Action for the River Kennet are looking for keen volunteers, who can make a long-term commitment to about 2 hours a month every month (site conditions permitting) to be a riverfly monitor. Currently they are looking for volunteers for sites just to the east of Marlborough,in Hungerford and Shalbourne. Full training and kit provided. To find out more visit online here and contact anna@riverkennet.org to express your interest.

• The Merchan’s House also invite you to an Easter Egg Hunt on Friday 5 April and from Tuesday 9 April until Friday 12 April each day from 10am until last entry at 3pm. Spot the eggs hidden by the mischievous rabbits throughout the House and Museum. Each egg will have a secret letter – collect all eight, spell an Easter word and win a chocolate medal.

• Marlborough Choral Society will be performing their Spring Concert on Saturday 20 April at 7.30pm at St Mary’s Church in Marlborough. The concert includes the wonderful Faure Requiem along with Zadok the Priest, Ave Verum Corpus and The Lord is My Shepherd. The two soloists are soprano Emma Pooley and bass James Ballance. Tickets are on sale now at Sound Knowledge in Hughenden Yard and can also be purchased from choir members or at the door. To find out more or reserve tickets click here.

• Earlybird tickets (offering some great savings) are now on sale for the Newbury Show on 21 and 22 September and there are also sponsorship opportunities still available. See more here.

Thursday 28 March 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes a flash mob, steam, thanks, eggs and kit hire – plus a look at Marlborough Town Council’s options with regard to tourism promotion. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include boozy bingo and dachshund walk. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Marlborough’s tourists

In this column on 22 February, I covered the issue of Marlborough Town Council’s withdrawal from the Great West Way project. The issue is also looked at in this article in Marlborough News from 27 March.

Last month, I suggested that this decision – and Wiltshire Council’s decision to withdraw funding from Visit Wiltshire which runs the GWW project – was part of a process of churn that takes place in all commercial relationships. Each needs periodically to be tested and checked and, if it’s found wanting, modified or discarded. This isn’t necessarily anything against any of the bodies concerned. It may just be that the fit between them is not as good as it once was or as it was hoped it would be. It may also be – which seems to be the case here – that the client body feels that it can perhaps do the job better itself rather than working through an umbrella organisation. In these digitally connected times, these are perhaps of less importance than they used to be in any case.

These are my thoughts and don’t necessarily reflect the views of Marlborough TC or anyone else. What I do know, however, having spoken to a spokesperson from Marlborough TC on 28 March, that the Council is certainly not oblivious to the importance of tourism to the town. The debate that’s being had currently, and which will continue, is how best this can be accomplished given the limited resources and power at any town council’s disposal. The GWW may be back on the table again soon. Nothing is for ever. It’s also worth pointing that the GWW withdrawal was referring to a decision that was taken about a year ago and which comes into force about now. What decisions are taken in the future are for the council to decide and everyone is free to express their views.

However, two things are not going to change. The first is that Marlborough TC will not ignore the importance of attracting visitors, overnight or otherwise. The second is that Marlborough itself will remain an attractive town on, as an earlier Marlborough news article pointed out, the original great west way about two thirds of the way along the route from London to Bristol. This locational advantage will remain, whatever organisations the town is or is not a part of. What might change are the ways in which it exports and promotes itself to all the people who might be minded to visit it.

• Other news

• Congratulations to Marlborough Musical Theatre Choir for their flash mob last Saturday 24 March in Waitrose raising awareness of the food bank who have a current need for UHT milk, long life juice, long life puddings and instant mash. There are 70 members in Marlborough Musical Theatre Choir but they have space for 100. If you’d like to join they meet every Wednesday in term time in St Mary’s Church from 7.30 to 9pm and next term commences on Wednesday 24 April.

• It would also like to invite you to an Easter Egg Hunt from Tuesday 2 April until Friday 5 April and from Tuesday 9 April until Friday 12 April each day from 10am until last entry at 3pm Spot the eggs hidden by the mischievous rabbits throughout the House and Museum. Each egg will have a secret letter – collect all eight, spell an Easter word and win a chocolate medal.

• Looking forward to Easter? Make your own delicious praline-filled Easter Egg at a workshop at Amy Levin’s chocolate cookery school in Marlbrorough from 10am to noon on Easter Saturday 30 March.

• Good news that Crofton Beam Engines have passed their annual boiler steaming test and look forward to welcoming visitors for their Easter Steaming Weekend. Wilton Windmill is also open over the Easter weekend.

• Easter news from Packaging Not Included zero waste shop in Hughenden Yard includes an ultra chocolate cupcake recipe, organic bread and veg orders and Easter opening times.

• Burbage Primary School has come up with a great idea to save the planet with an eco-friendly party kit hire to reduce waste and help the planet. Click here to apply.

• Capital funding has been earmarked by Wiltshire Council to make improvements to some of the county’s fitness facilities in its leisure centres. It is anticipated this investment will help increase leisure memberships, which will have long-term benefits for the health and wellbeing of residents and support the council’s finances. Marlborough will benefit with Marlborough Leisure Centre benefitting with plans to include, not only improvements but an extension to the fitness suite, and improvements to the wet change area. Read the full details here.

• Greatwood are keen to remind anyone who has ever thought of working with horses and are aged between 16 and 24 years that they still have places available on their highly successful FREE accredited Get Going programme during the Easter holidays. No previous experience with horses needed. For more information or to book your place please phone 01672 514535 or email education@greatwoodcharity.org.

• Earlybird tickets (offering some great savings) are now on sale for the Newbury Show on 21 and 22 September and there are also sponsorship opportunities still available. See more here.

Thursday 21 March 2024

Gremlin update: our website migration to a dedicated server in the UK is scheduled for 11am on Monday 25 March so the website and emails might be down for a couple of hours. Hopefully after that all the problems we’ve recently had will be solved. It will double our hosting costs but should be money well spent if the website doesn’t crash any more. Huge thanks to those who’ve donated recently to help us keep the show on the road. If you are considering making a donation, please see here for the options.

Our usual round-up of local news includes chocolate, loving books, Marlborough at war, zero waste and a spring clean – plus a thanks from the Town Council for the good response to the appeal for flood wardens. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include folk music and boozy bingo. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Marlborough’s wardens

Many communities are currently looking for volunteer flood wardens (Hungerford, for instance, has the word out at present). Marlborough is, as it were, in the same boat and earlier this week held a recruitment event. The aim was “to develop an active network of volunteers across the whole town. Ideally, flood wardens should not live in a property that is vulnerable to flooding as it is harder to fulfil their role if they are trying to prevent their own property from flooding, However, involvement and input from those residents at other times would really valuable.”

All very necessary work. Fortunately, the Town Council was able to report that there was high level of local interest.

“We were really happy with the response we received to our Flood Warden initiative and the attendance on the night was great,” Deputy Town Clerk Calire Harris told Penny Post on 21 March. “We have twelve volunteers signed up and we will be offering them all some formal training going forward. Each and every one of them has something different to offer and they all have excellent local knowledge which is especially valuable in this role.”

• Other news

• Looking forward to Easter? Make your own delicious praline-filled Easter Egg at a workshop at Amy Levin’s chocolate cookery school in Marlbrorough from 10am to noon this Sunday 24 or Saturday 30 March.

• Marlborough Literary Festival is launching its fifth Love Books Competition. Explain your choice of a favourite book, poem or play in up to 750 words, with prizes of £300 and £100 in each age category. The annual competition is open to anyone across the country in three age groups: 13-15 years, 16-19 years and 20 years and above. The closing deadline for entries is Friday 28 June. More details here.

• Quick reminder about new ‘Marlborough at War’ exhibition at The Merchant’s House, that reflects on the town’s involvement in the Civil War and the First and Second World Wars.

• Love Marlborough Kids Meals requests tax-free charitable donations from local businesses to help children & families in the local area with much needed hot meals. Contributions that your company can make include one-off donations or regular sponsorship or seconding employees as volunteers). Contact hello@lovemarlboroughkidsmeals.org if your company would like to help.

• Easter news from Packaging Not Included zero waste shop in Hughenden Yard includes an ultra chocolate cupcake recipe, organic bread and veg orders and Easter opening times.

• Marlborough Town Council next litter picking event as part of Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean is on Thursday 28 March from 2pm to 3.30pm. Equipment will be supplied as well as useful guidance for you to follow. Please contact Clare Harris on charris@marlborough-tc.gov.uk or 07395 793018.

• Hunt for Easter eggs on Easter Saturday 30 March from 11am. The Easter Bunny has hidden lots of egg-tokens around Coopers Meadow and along to Priory Gardens. Book your space here.

• The Bereavement Help Point is a community based drop-in service where all people who are bereaved are welcome and they will be convening at The Castle & Ball on Thursday 28 March at 10am. It’s a space to meet and talk with others who may be experiencing similar thoughts and feelings, in an informal and supportive setting. All sessions are free of charge and there’s no need to book, just come along. This group is a partnership between Prospect Hospice and Carer Support Wiltshire.

• Marlborough resident Emma Doughty Jones is taking part in this year’s marathon on Saturday 21 April and is looking for your support. She has chosen to fundraise for 2nd Marlborough Scouts (to fund building repairs and help send disadvantaged children to summer camp), and The Salvation Army. Times are tough, but if you can spare a pound or two to support her, please go to her Just Giving page here.

• Click here for information about how the Town Council vacancy for the Marlborough West ward will be filled.

Thursday 14 March 2024

Gremlin update: we have started the process of migrating our whole website, emails and hosting to a new UK-based company – so, fingers crossed this goes smoothly next week but please bear with us if there any hiccups. Thanks again to those who have already helped cover our extra costs, including Joan from Newbury who says “I’ve learned so much from following your weekly bulletins over the years and I have at last arranged for a small monthly donation. Thank you so much for all you do.” This kind of feedback means the world to us. If you are considering making us a donation, please see here for the options.

Our usual round-up of local news includes legal tips, zero waste, silver for the brass band, a re-opening and chocolate – plus a reminder about a forthcoming flood-warden recruitment event in Marlborough and a look, thanks to Marlborough News, at the closure of the town’s last bank later this year. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include folk music and boozy bingo. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Marlborough’s wardens

Marlborough Town Council, working in partnership with Wiltshire Council and Wiltshire & Swindon Prepared, is running a recruitment drive for Flood Wardens at the Town Hall on Wednesday 20 March from 6pm to 7pm. This will be an informal session focussing on the role of a flood warden and what it entails.

The role of a flood warden will be key in helping the community prepare for, respond to and recover from flooding and will work closely with the Town Council and other partner agencies.

They want to develop an active network of volunteers across the whole town. Ideally, flood wardens should not live in a property that is vulnerable to flooding as it is harder to fulfil their role if they are trying to prevent their own property from flooding, However, involvement and input from those residents at other times would really valuable.

Also, it doesn’t matter if residents don’t live near a watercourse –there are many other sources of flooding too including surface water, groundwater, drainage and sewers. So, a good cross-section of volunteers across the whole town would be great. They need people to help communicate about flooding events and flood resilience and help people at risk to understand how to be better prepared.

The Town Council is urging anyone with an interest to come along, find out more about the role and what it involves and hopefully sign up to the role. Full training will be given.

For more information, please contact Marlborough Town Council on 01672 512487 or email charris@marlborough-tc.gov.uk.

• The last bank

Marlborough News reports that Lloyds, the last high-street bank in Marlborough, will close on 25 November. The article looks at some local reaction to this and also provides a link for those wanting further information about how financial life goes on thereafter.

“Is this a shock?” the article ask. “Yes, but a surprise, no. Lloyds was inevitably going to follow Barclays, HSBC and Nat West.” Hungerford which also used to have three banks now has none. They have been turned into a clothes shop, a coffee shop and a private house: which probably tells its own story as to where our priorities now lie. What’s perhaps remarkable is how adaptable people are. We groan and grumble about such a change for a while but soon find other ways to get stuff done. Before long we forget that things were ever any other way.

This is why the closure of places like Post Offices, pharmacies, banks, shops and pubs tends to be irreversible. Once they’re gone, it only takes a few months for our habits to change and the case for a replacement therefore less strong. People may be able to adapt to the new ways of doing things. The bigger question is whether our high streets can.

• Other news

• In their latest podcast, Karen, Peyton and Alex from Marlborough Law cover hot topics that affect both your work and home life including the merits of LPAs (Lasting Power of Attorneys) and Shareholder Agreements.

• Easter news from Packaging Not Included zero waste shop in Hughenden Yard includes an ultra chocolate cupcake recipe, organic bread and veg orders and Easter opening times.

• After 14 incredible years as the landlord of The Crown in Aldbourne, Alan is bidding farewell to this chapter of his life and a fitting party will be thrown with live music and food to thank him and wish him well in his future.

• The Aldbourne Carnival Stores on Farm Lane are currently being redecorated and restored to give them a face lift for spring. Residents are asked that the area in front of them are free and unobstructed by parked vehicles to allow the works to be carried out.

• Aldbourne Band were delighted with its second place at the WEBBA Area Championships qualifying them for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain at the Royal Albert Hall.

• The Merchant’s House will be re-opening on Tuesday 19 March. If you would like to join them or help in any way, please email trustmanager@themerchantshouse.co.uk.

• Marlborough Town Council are joining Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean, which runs from Fri 15 March to Sunday 31 March, to clear litter from streets, parks and play areas in Marlborough. There are two litter picking events on Tuesday 19 March from 10.30am to 12 noon and Thursday 28 March from 2pm to 3.30pm. Equipment will be supplied as well as useful guidance for you to follow. Please contact Clare Harris on charris@marlborough-tc.gov.uk or 07395 793018.

• Looking forward to Easter? Make your own praline-filled Easter Egg at a workshop at Amy Levin’s chocolate cookery school in Marlborough 6 to 8pm Wed 13 March or 10am to noon Sunday 24 and Saturday 30 March.

• Hunt for Easter eggs on Easter Saturday 30 March from 11am. The Easter Bunny has hidden lots of egg-tokens around Coopers Meadow and along to Priory Gardens. Book your space here.

• Click here for information about how the Town Council vacancy for the Marlborough West ward will be filled.

• ARK (Action for the River Kennet) is looking for your help. Can you support its River School project by voting when in Marlborough Tesco by putting tokens, when you pay for your purchase in store, in their slot. Help them get more local children discovering their local chalk stream in 2024.

• Enjoy exploring the local history and cultural heritage of Marlborough on the ‘Explore Wiltshire’ heritage app. The free app has been created by Wiltshire Council in collaboration with town and parish councils. Explore Wiltshire can be downloaded to Apple and Android devices.

• Our Wiltshire is encouraging residents to head to your local household recycling centre and browse the free water-based paint that is on offer. Look out for the separate yellow cabinet or ask a member of staff to help you.Further info here.

Thursday 7 March 2024

Gremlin alert: some people have recently had problems loading our web pages. We believe we’re close to solving this but you may find, if you return to this page later, that it’s unavailable. Please accept our apologies and try again in a bit. The solution involves upgrading our website server which we have put off as it costs more money. But the time has come when we have no choice. So, as we’ve said before, any small monthly donation you can make towards this cost would be very much appreciated. See here for ways to donate. And thanks again to those who have already done so.

Our usual round-up of local news includes dogs, chocolate, a spring-clean, scouts and eggs – plus a quick look at Shalbourne’s winery and Aldbourne Parish Council’s recent response to flooding and sewage issues. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include folk music and boozy bingo. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Shalbourne’s winery

I’ve been contacted by two people who have concerns about application PL/2023/10755 at Carvers Hill Farm, Carvers Hill, Shalbourne, SN8 3PS for “Demolition of existing agricultural buildings. Construction of new buildings for the production of wine with ancillary wine tasting and events facilities and storage, with associated access, landscaping and drainage.”

You can see the relevant documents by clicking here and then entering the reference number PL/2023/10755 in the keyword search box.

I know something of this application and the general direction of travel at the winery, partly because we’ve often visited and picked vegetables in the wonderful Shalbourne Community Growers market garden nearby. Due to some unexpected and welcome web-hosting problems this week, I’ve not, however, been able to find out enough about the details of this application to express an opinion on it or to suggest any particular problems. All I can suggest is that you have a look at the application on the Wiltshire Council planning portal (see details above) and perhaps see what neighbours, the parish council or your county councillor thinks about it.

Although the official consultation deadline has passed the matter has yet to be decided (10 April is the projected date) so any comments, in favour or against, should still be able to be considered. If more than ten people object (or if the County Councillor has decided to call it in) the matter will go to a planning committee. if not, the officers will decide. Any decision can be the subject of an appeal.

• Aldbourne’s water

The following is taken verbatim from the 7 February meeting of Aldbourne Parish Council:

181/24 Consider further letters to Thames Water and Wiltshire Council in relation to flooding and the existing sewer system in Aldbourne

It was RESOLVED unanimously that the Clerk will send the letters drafted by Cllr Josephy to Thames Water and Wiltshire Council to re-iterate the concerns about the impact of flooding on the current sewer system and how any development at Lottage Farm will exacerbate this issue. The letters will be copied to the area MP.

It was RESOLVED unanimously that a meeting with the Environment Agency, Thames Water and Wiltshire Council will be arranged to discuss the ongoing issues of flooding across the village. An invite to the area MP will also be extended.

182/24 Review of recent flooding and response from outside agencies

There were several areas and properties that suffered flooding which have never had any issues previously. Sadly, the overall the response from Wiltshire Council was disappointing. Whilst understanding they were under pressure across the county, there was little to no communication forthcoming, and the appearance of a lack of action on issues raised.

However, this week the parish steward has done a sterling job of clearing four of the drains along Lottage Road around Kandahar. Within about 20 minutes of him carrying out this work the bulk of the water had cleared. Wiltshire Council have confirmed the gulley jetting machine is booked to come out the end of February. The road sweeper is also booked, with a date to be advised to allow the Parish Council to attempt to get Lottage Road clear of vehicles prior to the visit.

Several banks along Lottage Road have been severely eroded by the water. This has been raised with Wiltshire Council. The winterbourne around the Goddards Lane section will need to be dug out before next winter by Wiltshire Council.

• Other news

• A reminder, from Marlborough Town Council that as from Friday 1 March, that all dogs are to be kept on leads at all times when at Stonebridge Wild River Reserve, Marlborough. This refers to the whole site for bird nesting season and the designated wildlife site also has a breeding population of water vole, as well as many other vulnerable species.

• Marlborough Town Council are joining Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean, which runs from Fri 15 March to Sunday 31 March, to clear litter from streets, parks and play areas in Marlborough. There are two litter picking events on on Tuesday 19 March from 10.30am to 12 noon and Thursday 28 March from 2pm to 3.30pm. Equipment will be supplied as well as useful guidance for you to follow. Go it alone or team up with friends, family, work colleagues and neighbours. If you would like to get involved either as part of one of the organised events or going it alone, please contact Clare Harris by email charris@marlborough-tc.gov.uk or give her a call on 07395 793018.

• Would you like to play a key role in helping your community prepare for, respond to and recover from flooding? Marlborough Town Council, with Wiltshire Council and Wiltshire & Swindon Prepared, is holding a flood warden recruitment event at the Town Hall on Wednesday 20 March from 6pm to 7pm. They want to develop an active network of volunteers across the whole town. Ideally flood wardens should not live in a property that is vulnerable to flooding, as it is harder to fulfil their role if they are trying to prevent their own property from flooding, but involvement and input from those residents at other times would be really valuable. See more details here.

• Hunt for Easter eggs on Easter Saturday 30 March from 11am. The Easter Bunny has hidden lots of egg-tokens around Coopers Meadow and along to Priory Gardens. Go to The Parade Cinema Marlborough and pick up the details and start hunting – you may even find the Easter Bunny himself along the route! Easter Treats are offered to everyone taking part, subject to finding the tokens. Book your space here.

• This is a reminder from Transition Marlborough (TM) and Marlborough Community Orchard (MCO) about the pruning event this Saturday 9 March. It will begin at 9.30 am at Wye House Garden in Marlborough, before moving on to St Mary’s churchyard, then to the espalier trees in Waitrose car park as well as those in Priory Gardens, ending at St Peter’s churchyard. The main jobs will be to take care of any necessary pruning as well as weeding, mulching, tidying, tie and stake adjustments, giving the trees some much needed tlc. The event will end at approx. 12.30pm. If you are unable to attend at the start, call Philippa Davenport on 07963 313822 or Gerald Payne on 07771 937183 to find out where they are.

• Marlborough College Summer School is offering the opportunity to explore the natural art of beekeeping with ‘Log Hives and Alternatives’. Led by experts Helen Leaf and Matt Somerville, this course dives into sustainable beekeeping through log hives, mimicking honeybees’ natural habitats. Engage in hands-on hive-making, gain insights into bee lives, and participate in field trips. Perfect for all abilities. Support bee populations and learn new skills in this fantastic course here.

• Click here for information about how the Town Council vacancy for the Marlborough West ward will be filled.

• A quick reminder that The Marlborough Players require two male actors to complete the cast for their production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, to be performed on 25 to 27 April. If you are interested about either role, please ring director, Alison on 01672 539641, or email aogreaves@gmail.com.

• ARK (Action for the River Kennet) is looking for your help. Can yousupport its River School project by voting when in Marlborough Tesco by putting tokens, when you pay for your purchase in store, in their slot. Help them get more local children discovering their local chalk stream in 2024.

• Wiltshire Council‘s new Vibrant Wiltshire vacant unit grants programme, aimed at supporting businesses in the county to reinvigorate empty shops and commercial areas, is now open for applications. See here for full details.

Thursday 29 February 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes dachshunds, pruning, bee-keeping, chocolate and paint. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include music and a market. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• This week’s news

• Calling all Dachshunds of Marlborough and surrounding areas. The monthly walk is on Sunday 3 March at 10am on the Common below the Football Pitch.

• The Parade Cinema Marlborough is offering another Open Mic Night in its covered, heated courtyard on Friday 8 March. Enjoy a drink with dinner, and listen to a spot of local talent. If you fancy playing, come along early on the night and sign up for a slot. Sign-up will be first come first served. If you have any questions, please contact us hello@theparadecinema.com ,

• This is a reminder from Transition Marlborough (TM) and Marlborough Community Orchard (MCO) for the upcoming pruning event that will take place on Saturday 9 March. It will begin starting at 9.30 am at Wye House Garden in Marlborough, before moving on to St Mary’s churchyard, then to the espalier trees in Waitrose car park as well as those in Priory Gardens, ending at St Peter’s churchyard. The main jobs will be to take care of any necessary pruning as well as carrying out weeding, mulching, tidying, tie and stake adjustments, giving the trees some much needed tlc. The event will end at approx. 12.30pm. If you are unable to attend at the start you are most welcome to call Philippa Davenport on 07963313822 or Gerald Payne on 07771 937183 to find out where they are, if you wish to join us later.

• Marlborough Town Council has closed Coopers Meadow because of flooded-footpaths. Priory Gardens may also be closed if levels rise further. This will be concerning for those who were so recently affected by flood water, however, at this stage property flooding is not expected.

• Are you a film-maker? ‘Sofa screenings’ `are looking for a female film-maker to speak on international women’s day. . Please send Louise Norbury a DM if you are interested in learning more.

• Click here for information about how the Town Council vacancy for the Marlborough West ward will be filled.

• Are you struggling to keep warm this winter? If you or a friend, relative or neighbour in Wiltshire is having difficulty staying warm and safe, ask at Marlborough Library about the help available including free warmpacks (containing a scarf, thermal hat and gloves, fleece blanket, a hot water bottle and information about energy saving, insulation and support with the cost of living). For more details please see the news item on the library’s warm welcome here.

• Make your own praline-filled Easter Egg at a workshop at Amy Levin’s chocolate cookery school in Marlborough 6 to 8pm Wed 13 March or 10am to noon Sunday 24 and Saturday 30 March.

Thursday 22 February 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes a crier, a meadows closure, a female film-maker, male actors and creativity – plus a look at Marlborough Town Council’s decision to pull out of the Great West Way project. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include a fair and an open-mic night. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Pulling out

A recent article in Marlborough News refers to the decisions by Wiltshire Council to stop funding Visit Wiltshire (VW) and by Marlborough Town Council to do the same for VW’s Great West Way initiative. Marlborough’s decision was taken last year as part of its budget discussions in 2022-23 and will become effective from 1 April: hence why the matter is in the news again now.

As the article points out, the town is still on the original great west way, now known as the A4, although “promotion to the national/international travel industry as part of this initiative will stop.” It goes on to point out that Wiltshire’s decision regarding VW means “that the county won’t be promoted by ‘Visit Britain’ or ‘Visit England’ so when tour organisers add Stonehenge to an itinerary, there won’t be the extra push to go ‘via Marlborough’ or include Avebury, Salisbury or one of the many other beautiful Wiltshire places that tourists would be drawn to if there were encouragement.”

The question that both Wiltshire Council and Marlborough TC have doubtless asked themselves is whether all this matters. I have no particular view for or against the Great West Way scheme (which Hungerford is also part of) but I do know that it’s very hard to measure the success of such projects. These are therefore vulnerable at times of financial constraints. To have a Great West Way which doesn’t feature Marlborough or a promotion of England’s tourist attractions that doesn’t mention Wiltshire is clearly absurd. Non-participation in such quasi-commercial projects doesn’t air-brush them away. Stonehenge isn’t going anywhere. An atlas of Britain shows all the settlements at the relevant scale, not just the ones that have paid to be included.

The decisions perhaps cast doubt on the whole future of such umbrella bodies. Years ago, when I was involved in running a travel publishing company, local and national tourist offices were bodies of considerable importance and the main source of information and promotion about the areas they represented. I doubt that’s the case now. Back then, if you wanted to visit somewhere you’d need to rely largely on information provided by the tourist office. If HQ wanted to big up a certain area, we all got to hear about it to the exclusion of the others. The more money a tourist office spent, the more visitors it tended to get.

Since then, the internet has come along. There are now a hundred ways you can, in a few seconds, find out about any destination from North Dakota to North Korea that catches your fancy. There are no longer any “well kept secrets”, a phrase beloved of tourist offices back in the day when they wanted to promote a hitherto under-visited part of their country. Information on the whole world is now available 24/7.

The article goes on to argue that these funding decisions will inevitably lead to a decline in numbers. For the reasons suggested above, I’m not so sure. I don’t think that there’s any suggestion that either Wiltshire or Marlborough is anti-tourist. Each, however, seems to feel it can better spend promotional money itself rather than through larger organisations whose priorities may not always be completely aligned with their own. In so far as these results can be measured, time will tell if they are right.

• Other news

• Marlborough Town Council is inviting applications for the position of Town Crier. If you have an outgoing personality, excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to project your voice, email civic@marlborough-tc.gov.uk or call on 01672 512487.

• Louise Norbury is reaching out to any filmmakers. Are you a film-maker? Do you work in film? ‘Sofa screenings’ are looking for creatives to speak at their sofa screening events at Create Studios on Friday evenings. They are particularly looking for a female film-maker to speak on international women’s day. Please send Louise a DM if you are interested in learning more.

• The popular ‘Make and Create’ with Wiltshire Scrapstore & Resource Centre is coming to Marlborough Library on Thursday 29 February. Call 0800 970 4669 to book your FREE space or request a call back here.

• On Saturday 24 February, there will be a photography exhibition to mark the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine at St. Peter’s Church, Marlborough from 10am to 4pm. There will also be a guest speaker at 11am, Simon Ellis, who is a British volunteer.

• On Sunday 25, February, Aldbourne Memorial Hall is hosting a Mother’s Day and Easter Fair, from 11am to 2pm with a chance to meet the Easter Bunny himself from 12pm to 2pm, there will be a range of gifts for Mother’s Day and Easter from local businesses and crafters and a tombola.

• Officers from the Neighbourhood Policing Team from the Marlborough Police will be conducting community drop-in sessions on Thursday 22 February at the Premier Inn, Marlborough, from 9am to 10am. Another session is also due to be held at the Marlborough Town Hall from 2pm and 6pm in conjunction with the Marlborough Town Council, Wiltshire Council and the Environment Agency to discuss the impact of Storm Henk. The session is to allow local residents to share information and discuss the incident to help support future planning. Officers will be present for part of this event to allow residents to discuss this incident and any other local issues.

• Click here for information about how the Town Council vacancy for the Marlborough West ward will be filled.

• The Marlborough Players require two male actors to complete the cast for their production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, to be performed on 25 to 27 April. Actors are required to play, Charles Condomine, a bright, sophisticated, articulate, and debonair novelist and Dr George Bradman. If you are interested about either role, please ring director, Alison on 01672 539641, or email aogreaves@gmail.com.

• Remember that Help Ukraine Group Support (HUGS) will hold their first Ukraine Donation Day of 2024 at Marlborough Town Football Club on Tuesday 27 February. Please see HUGS website helptoukraine.co.uk for more details and a detailed list of current needs.

• A Lasso the Moon dance party is back in Bedwyn village hall 7.30pm to midnight Saturday 24 February for Part II with three talented, local DJs. Book your £10 tickets here. You can also follow the organisers, Little Red Poncho Events on facebook.

Thursday 15 February 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes an election, two actors, a river school, nearly new, a heritage app and a drop-in flooding event. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include a market and a read dance. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• A flooding drop-in

If you were affected by the recent flooding, Marlborough Town Council has arranged a drop-in session at Marlborough Town Hall on Tuesday, 20 February.

Please call in at any time between 2pm and 6pm to share your experience with officers from Wiltshire Council’s drainage and community resilience teams to help build a detailed picture of the impact of Storm Henk.Information will be shared with the Environment Agency and other partners to help with future planning.

Information that would be useful includes:

Photos, videos or other recordings.
Date and time when flooding occurred.
Marked plans of flow paths.
Route of any flooding.
Depth of water.
Location of flooded properties.
Location of flooded businesses.
Your questions and any other information that may be helpful.

• Other news

• After being hit hard by the floods last month, Krumbz Café have come out the other side and are back where they belong. Roy, Sylvia and the rest of the team are grateful beyond measure, for the kind words, kind faces and kind donations that have helped them get back to trading so quickly.

• Marlborough News reports that Wiltshire Council is holding a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) Consultation regarding a proposal to change the parking and waiting restrictions in Kennet Place, Marlborough. You have until 19 February to make your views known.

• Click here for information about how the Town Council vacancy for the Marlborough West ward will be filled.

• Aldbourne Methodist Chapel on Lottage Road, SN8 2DL will be selling new, nearly new and designer ladies’ and children’s clothing and accessories at bargain prices on Saturday 17 February from 10.30am to 3pm. All proceeds will go to the Ukraine Appeal and Aldbourne Methodist Chapel.

Thursday 8 February 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes: blithe spirit, lassoing the moon, paint, warmth and heritage – plus a look at the latest objections to the redevelopment of the old St Peter’s school and a precept rise for the Police. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include: Valentine’s dinner and clothing sale. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Objections at St Peter’s

Marlborough News reports that on 5 February Marlborough Town Council’s Planning Committee voted to oppose the latest application for the re-development of St Peter’s School. The application, which you can see here, is for “conversion of three former school buildings into residential use to provide two houses, four maisonettes and seven flats along with the construction of seven new houses on land to the rear, giving a total of twenty new dwellings. In addition, the construction of a new combined refuse, re cycling and bike storage building. All with associated external works including a new electrical sub-station and parking for a total of forty four cars.”

The development is in two parts. Seven new homes have already been built (though not occupied). This application is to convert the old school buildings. The original plan was that this would be turned into a hotel and restaurant but the developers seem to have decided that homes would be a more viable alternative.

In general, this will have been welcomed by Marlborough TC which last year declared a housing crisis. What will not is the fact that the development currently provides for no affordable or social-rent homes. Wilshire’s own local plan, now bolstered by Marlborough’s NDP, is for 40%, ie eight homes on this site. (Even this would only reduce the town’s waiting list for housing by 10%.)

Developers are adept at getting out of their responsibilities to build such dwellings. If they don’t provide these then they can enter into Section 106 agreement with the planning authority to make a payment by way of mitigation. They’re quite adept at getting out of those as well. Each is a separate legal agreement that, depending on how its drafted, may be time-limited (the money needs to be spent by a certain time) or limited to specific projects (which may be abandoned). In either ofd these cases, the money may then need to be returned.

On 8 February, I asked one member of MTC’s Planning Committee if they felt that Wiltshire would insist on the affordable homes being built or, failing that, that it would agree a suitable S106 that would directly help Marlborough’s housing problems. I was told that confidence was not high on these points.

There are also concerns about flooding (Marlborough News reported last month that the site had very nearly been breached during Storm Henk) and also the slightly less usual question of what has happened to the school bell, forged in Aldbourne over 200 years ago, which seems to have disappeared.

Planning authorities have policies on a vast number of matters including housing and flooding – though perhaps not bells – but the question is always how much they’re prepared to enforce them. Enforcement costs money, something developers tend to have more of than do councils.

The one positive aspect here is that, as I understand matters, the seven new homes cannot be occupied until the old school has been converted. This might encourage the developers to agree an acceptable solution sooner rather than later. A condition could be imposed by Wiltshire that the new dwellings can’t be occupied until the specified number of affordable homes are created in the change of use. Even if this is agreed, of course, it still needs to be enforced…

• The police precept

A recent statement from the Wiltshire and Swindon Police and Crime Commissioner’s office says that “Wiltshire Police will see further investment in key policing services to continue making improvements after a majority decision of eight to two to back Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson’s budget,” a decision that was backed by a cross-party group of councillors from the two authorities.

The statement adds that this will “raise the policing precept in Wiltshire by 5.2% – an extra £1.09 a month or £13 a year for the average Band D property.” It notes that this, alongside a grant from the government, accounts for the core budget for policing in the county.

There are no specific plans mentioned that will affect policing in and around Marlborough (though perhaps these exist). It does, however, confirm, that the policing budget includes the redevelopment of the Devizes HQ which will, it’s hoped, help realise “the vision of a more accessible and visible policing service for residents.” The budget also “builds on achievements delivered in the past year including a fourfold improvement in positive outcomes for rape and serious sexual offences and Wiltshire Police becoming one of the top performing forces nationally in disrupting county lines.”

The force was placed in special measures in 2022, the BBC reporting that the Inspectorate of Constabulary criticised “a wide range of Wiltshire Police functions” including “crime prevention, investigation and support for victims.” PCC Philip Wilkinson said in August 2023 that he was “confident that we will be out of special measures by March 2024.” The most immediate test of his tenure is thus to see if that happens.

• Other news

• If you missed the The Marlborough Players audition on Thursday 8 February, fear not as they have another audition for their production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit this Sunday 11 February at 2.30pm at The Quaker Meeting House.

• Visitors and local residents can now enjoy exploring the local history and cultural heritage of Marlborough on the ‘Explore Wiltshire’ heritage app. The free, easy to use location-aware app will now also include information about historical landmarks, cultural sites and significant historical events in Marlborough. The app has been created by Wiltshire Council in collaboration with town and parish councils. Explore Wiltshire can be downloaded to Apple and Android devices by searching ‘Explore Wiltshire’ on your chosen platform.

• There will be a temporary road closure on Bayardo Lane, from its junction with Lockeridge Lane on Wednesday 14 February from 9.30 am to 3.30pm. For full details click here.

• Help Ukraine Group Support (HUGS) will hold their first Ukraine Donation Day of 2024 at Marlborough Town Football Club on Tuesday 27 February. Please see HUGS website helptoukraine.co.uk for more details and a detailed list of current needs. If you have any questions or are unable to get there on the day and wish to make alternative arrangements, please contact Tony (07999 693399) or Mandy (07762 935804).

• Aldbourne Methodist Chapel on Lottage Road, SN8 2DL has two dates for your diary, Friday 16 February from 10.30am to 4pm and Saturday 17 February from 10.30am to 3pm, when they will be selling new, nearly new and designer ladies’ and children’s clothing and accessories at bargain prices. All proceeds will go to the Ukraine Appeal and Aldbourne Methodist Chapel.

• After a fantastic night of dancing last October, Lasso the Moon dance party is back in Bedwyn village hall 7.30pm to midnight Saturday 24 February for Part II with three talented, local DJs – DJ Soundy getting the party started with funky, electronic tunes, DJ Jay with breakbeats to get you strutting your stuff on the dance floor and DJ Silver returning with euphoric dance tunes old and new to lift your spirits and make you smile. Lasso is an inclusive event for those who want to dance all night without a long drive home…Book your £10 tickets here. You can also follow the organisers, Little Red Poncho Events on facebook.

• Greatwood Charity in Clench Common runs Animal Assisted Intervention educational programmes and is focusing on Children’s Mental Health Week which runs from 5 to 11 February. It is recorded that 10% of children and young people (aged 5 to 16 years) have a clinically diagnosable mental problem, yet only 30% of children and adolescents who experience mental health problems have appropriate interventions at a sufficiently early age. Contact Greatwood to see how they can help on info@greatwoodcharity.org or 01672 514535.

Thursday 1 February 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes: witnesses wanted, warm spaces, heels, fallen trees and the Devil’s Den – plus decision day looms for the former St Peter’s School and Marlborough Town Council looks at local property sell-offs. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include: Valentine’s dinner and clothing sale. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• No boutique

An article in Marlborough News looks at what the future might hold for the former St Peter’s School, a rather elegant building that closed its doors to pupils in 2017. The piece looks at previously proposed uses, including a boutique hotel, a fast-food outlet, offices and what the author feels was a facetious proposal for a “multi-level garden centre”. Now, he continues; “application PL/2024/0019 has landed” and provides a future use that’s a lot less eye-catching than any of these but certainly a good deal more practical: “two houses, four maisonettes and seven flats.” With “seven houses already in the first stage of the development”, this will give the town twenty news dwellings

The matter will be discussed at Marlborough TC’s Planning Committee next week although, as in all such matters, Wiltshire Council’s planners and (if it comes to that) planning committee will have the final say. One thing both councils may well consider is the flood risk – Marlborough News points out out that that the building seemed to have escaped the recent floods, but “only just.”

• Marlborough’s sell-off

The following is taken from the minutes of the 22 January meeting of Marlborough Town Council:

“Councillor Farrell asked Wiltshire Councillors whether they knew if Aster had any plans to sell flats at The Priory. Estate agents and surveyors had been seen and tenants had raised concerns with her. Councillor Davies was aware that properties were often surveyed to check the status of services such as heating. She knew of no other plans for The Priory and agreed to write to Aster Homes to enquire.

“Councillor Cleasby referred to housing associations having the right to sell properties where extensive works would be required to meet government standards such as Energy Performance Ratings. She was concerned that Aster set a low cut-off of £1,500 for these works and that any homes requiring more than that were sold, and asked whether there was any way to find out whether this was true and challenge it.Councillor Davies referred to the recent declaration of a housing emergency for Marlborough, and recent flooding meant that unsuitable cottages in London Road owned by a housing association would now also be sold. She would be happy to cosign a letter from the Town Council to ask the question.

“She had already raised the issue of the selling of social housing stock with Homes4Wiltshire. It was a shame that the plans to build 10 new Wiltshire Council homes in Cherry Orchard had not yet come to fruition. Different housing associations had different policies, for example about the weighting applied for potential tenants with local links. Policies about multiple occupation, for example not to take account of three friends with similar needs but who were not in romantic relationships or with family connections were also a concern.

Action: Town Clerk to set up a meeting with White Horse Housing Association to understand more about its approach and policies
Action: Town Clerk to set up a meeting with other housing associations to discuss issues raised by residents and Councillors

“All interested Town Councillors would be notified and invited to the meetings, and it was suggested that a meeting with other parish councils who worked with the same housing associations would also be useful.”

• Other news

• Marlborough Police are appealing for witnesses after an ATM was attacked and money stolen within Nationwide Building Society, Marlborough. Offenders have broken into the branch and have stolen an unknown quantity of money after attacking the machine. If you were driving through Marlborough between 1am and 1.30 am on January 29, can you please check any dash camera with a view to seeing if there are any registration numbers you are able to pass to the police. Equally if anyone was present in the high street or saw any suspects out of windows etc please contact the police and quote case no. 54240010695.

• Great news about Ramsbury’s Community Charity Shop re-opening in new premises next to the Memorial Hall. The shop is run by volunteers and profits of £125,000 have been donated to local organisations since 2009. See more details here including opening times and donations welcomed.

• Congratulation to Great Bedwyn’s Three Tuns team for raising funds for Bruce Boats fully accessible canal holidays. There is still time to donate here to this good cause that provides breaks for vulnerable people. They are also looking for more volunteers and have a wide range of interesting roles available.

• Broken Shadows, a new psychological suspense novel by Sorrel Pitts, set around Marlborough’s iconic Devil’s Den is about to hit the bookshops. It follows the abduction of 11-year-old Callum from Wiltshire in 1994, whose body is found six months later by older brother Tom near a Neolithic henge called the Shadowing Stones.

• With the rain, and wind that we have been experiencing, if you spot a fallen tree, an obstruction or any debris on the roads, please report it via Our Wiltshire and drive to the conditions at all times. Report now here.

• Marlborough Town Council are advising that if you spot an Asian Hornet please report it hereor email alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk

• On Friday 2 February from 9.30am to 3.30pm Bayardo Lane will be closed from its junction with A4 to its junction with Lockeridge Lane. For full details click here.

• Merlin Court Care Home in Marlborough is requesting Ascot-style hats for their ‘ladies who lunch’ group. If you can help please drop hats to the Care Home or contact Priscilla, Care Coordinator on 01672 512454 to arrange collection.

• The charity Wiltshire Mind is inviting you to rejuvenate a sensory garden space at Greatwood Charity whilst meeting new people and enjoying the outdoors. They meet fortnightly for two hours, facilitated by an experienced Wiltshire Mind wellbeing team. If you’d like to find out more, please email supportgroups@wiltshiremind.co.uk.

• Quick reminder about the new women’s physiotherapy service in Marlborough run by Kat Suchet from Hatch Athletics. An HCPC and POGP registered Women’s Health Physiotherapist with a special interest in supporting pre and postnatal clients, Kat offers postpartum MOT, pregnancy training and postpartum return to sport, and help with abdominal separation, pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence and more.

• Marlborough Rugby Club has applied to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for consent under section 38 of the Commons Act 2006 to carry out restricted works on Marlborough Common. The Planning Inspectorate will decide the application on behalf of the Secretary of State. Click here for for the official notice.

Thursday 25 January 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes: keeping warm, Ramsbury’s re-opening, hornets, logs and hats – plus a look at a planning application in Marlborough about which some (including the Town Council) have reservations. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include: Valentine’s dinner and clothing sale. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Opposing the plans

The Gazette and Herald reports that plans to demolish Elm Tree Motors on Pelhams Court in Marlborough and replace the site with houses have faced “multiple objections”. You can see the application – for “Demolition of all buildings on the site and erection of 13 dwellings, a new office building and associated works” – by clicking here. Comments should be made by 1 March 2024 though may be accepted after this date if the matter has not been determined.

A spokesperson for the planning consultants involved told the newspaper that “the site is under-utilised by the car sales business and given its central location within Marlborough, a more efficient use could be found. The intention is therefore to redevelop the site for a mixed-use development and relocate the car sales business elsewhere within Marlborough.” Where this might be has yet to be confirmed.

A number of local residents have objected to various aspects of the design and access, while Marlborough Town Council is particularly concerned by the lack of affordable housing. The article refers to Marlborough’s neighbourhood development plan (which, having been “made” is now part of Wiltshire’s local plan) which states that “developments of 10 dwellings or more need to be made up of 40 per cent affordable homes.”

I haven’t had time to check but this may be 30% for brown-field sites (which this is). This development is, however, for only nine homes. If Wiltshire’s policy is anything like West Berkshire’s than developments of five to none homes should have a 20% provision – so at least one affordable home plus some S106 funds to make up the difference (or an S1§06 agreement in exchange for discharging all of this obligation).

Another point the article makes is that the site is “designated employment land, and if the current proposal for the site goes ahead, it will become an almost entirely residential area, bar one office building.” This can be got round if the planning authority wishes to do so, perhaps by “flipping” it with some land designated for residential use elsewhere which can be turned into employment land to compensate. The needs that land needs to be put to change, as they have here. Town-centre sites might once have been desirable for car showrooms but many would now prefer more flexible space on the outskirts, funded by the development of the original site. Time will tell what Wiltshire Council’s planners think of the idea.

• Other news

• Are you struggling to keep warm this winter? If you or a friend, relative or neighbour in Wiltshire is having difficulty staying warm and safe, ask at Marlborough Library about the help available including free warmpacks (containing a scarf, thermal hat and gloves, fleece blanket, a hot water bottle and information about energy saving, insulation and support with the cost of living). For more details please see the news item on the library’s warm welcome here.

• The much loved business, ‘Krumbz Cafe’ was hit incredibly hard during the recent floods, as you’ve probably have seen. In response to kind offers of help to get back on their feet, owners Roy and Sylwia have set up a Just Giving page for people to be able to donate here.

• See the 18 January column below (“After the floods“) for an account of the discussions at the recent extraordinary meeting of Marlborough Town Council to consider what future actions should be taken to protect the town and lobby the responsible organisations.

• Broken Shadows, a new psychological suspense novel by Sorrel Pitts, set around Marlborough’s iconic Devil’s Den is about to hit the bookshops. It follows the abduction of 11-year-old Callum from Wiltshire in 1994, whose body is found six months later by older brother Tom near a Neolithic henge called the Shadowing Stones.

• With the rain, and wind that we have been experiencing, if you spot a fallen tree, an obstruction or any debris on the roads, please report it via Our Wiltshire and drive to the conditions at all times. Report now here.

• Marlborough Town Council are keen for anyone who can make use of some large, unseasoned logs, located at The Common, Frees Avenue, opposite the entrance to the Victorian Cemetery to help themselves for no cost.

• Marlborough Town Council are advising that if you spot an Asian Hornet please report it here or email alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk

• On Friday 2 February from 9.30am to 3.30pm Bayardo Lane will be closed from its junction with A4 to its junction with Lockeridge Lane. For full details click here.

• Wiltshire Council‘s new Vibrant Wiltshire vacant unit grants programme, aimed at supporting businesses in the county to reinvigorate empty shops and commercial areas, is now open for applications. Part of the Wiltshire Towns Programme, the grants are worth up to £10,000 and will help small-scale, micro and start-up businesses to occupy previously vacant commercial spaces in town centres across the county. Applications could come from businesses that offer services or engage in creative, cultural, and community-oriented activities and also town and parish councils. Application closing date is 15 February. See here for full details.

Thursday 18 January 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes: a closure, a sensory garden, a deli, vacant units and Mike Tubman– plus a look, in the company of Marlborough News, at recent flood-related discussions and some advice for Marlborough Town Council. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include: wrestling and a clothing sale. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Marlborough Town Council has updated flood debris clearance information for businesses on their website here, explaining that Wiltshire Council unfortunately cannot assist with the clearance of commercial waste.

• On Friday 2 February from 9.30am to 3.30pm Bayardo Lane will be closed from its junction with A4 to its junction with Lockeridge Lane. For full details click here.

• Our condolences to the family of Mike Tubman MBE who served as Marlborough’s Town Crier since 2016 and was also a well known and much loved special constable in the town. His funeral will take place at All Saints Church in Burbage on Monday 5 February at 11am, followed by a cremation at North Wilts Crematorium, Royal Wootton Bassett and a wake at Marlborough Golf Club. All welcome.

• Packaging Not Included zero waste shop in Hughenden Yard in Marlborough now stocks sunflower mince as a great plant-based option.

• Wiltshire Council has issued advice on travel and flooding and up to date information on a live map showing road closures. Wiltshire Council is the Highways Authority and only they or the police can close a road. Town and Parish Councils do not have these powers so if you spot a road not listed that is affected by flooding or fallen trees please report it to Wiltshire Council directly here.

• After the floods

Marlborough suffered badly from the recent deluges, as the excellent but rather harrowing picture at the head of this article in Marlborough News makes clear. The piece covers a recent extraordinary meeting of Marlborough Town Council attended by many members of the public which “listened, discussed, and agreed a way forward that will – hopefully – mitigate against a recurrence of events of that Friday and Saturday.”

One of the upshots was that a Working Party be convened – “not just restricted to Councillors, but to include members of the community, particularly those who were affected by flooding, or who nearly were.”

Not surprisingly, the focus was also on the the role played by Thames Water and its “actions/lack of them.” There were some “harrowing and graphic accounts” of the floods from a number of residents in which the word “sewage” featured prominently. It was suggested and agreed by Councillors that Thames Water representatives be invited to attend a Full Town Council meeting “to present what is happening in Marlborough regarding what they are responsible for and what plans they have.”

This happened in our village of East Garston just before Christmas and Marlborough residents might be interested to read this report of the event as some of the issues mentioned (and answers provided) might be relevant to Marlborough. This meeting was itself inspired by a larger-scale event at West Berkshire Council Scrutiny Commission in October 2023. My advice to Marlborough Town Council is to ensure that there are also senior representatives from the Environment Agency and Wiltshire Council (the lead flood authority) present. These three organisations are responsible for different aspects of aquatic issues and having all of them present will reduce the risk of any buck-passing and increase the chances of some concerted action.

• More pain on the trains

The indefatigable Bedwyn Train Passenger Group sent out its latest newsletter this week and you can read the main points of this in this separate post.

Two of the issues that are covered are all too familiar: the next wave of strikes; and the indifferent service levels on the Bedwyn to Newbury stretch of line. In fairness to GWR, there’s some good news as well. There’s also some encouraging news about the appointment of a travel co-ordinator at Newbury to help at times of disruption and replacement buses and news of a new return service from west of Bedwyn. The BTPG also passes on a request for passengers to treat GWR staff with respect, something that didn’t happen in one incident at Newbury shortly before Christmas.

The Bedwyn Train Passenger Group has been campaigning for improved rail services from Bedwyn, Hungerford, Kintbury and Newbury since 2006. If you use these stations, we recommend subscribing to the BTPG newsletters by emailing info@bedwyntrains.org.uk.

Thursday 11 January 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes: floods, vacant units, a sensory garden, clothes and open spaces – plus an item-disposal initiative from Wiltshire Council. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include: wrestling, table tennis and bell-ringing. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Front and centre of news to report this week is of course the fallout of Storm Henk. The Town Council opened the Town Hall for residents who felt that they are unable to remain in their properties and Waitrose donated refreshments. A Go Fund Me page has been set up here to help flooded residents and businesses who can’t get flood insurance. See also this article from Marlborough News on the subject. See below for help with disposing of large items damaged by floodwater.

• There’s an Amenities & Open Spaces Committee Meeting in the Town Hall on Monday 15 January starting at 7pm with public question time. For full details click here.

• All local businesses are welcome at the Marlborough Business Networking at The Parade Cinema 5.30pm Thursday 18 January. See here for more details.

• Quick reminder about the new women’s physiotherapy service in Marlborough run by Kat Suchet from Hatch Athlethics. An HCPC and POGP registered Women’s Health Physiotherapist with a special interest in supporting pre and postnatal clients, Kat offers postpartum MOT, pregnancy training and postpartum return to sport, and help with abdominal separation, pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence and more.

• Marlborough Community Fridge is grateful to have received generous donations recently. Check their facebook page for details and opening times.

• Clearing up after the flood

Wiltshire Council’s waste team has arranged for its contractors to visit affected areas and remove large items (such carpets, furniture, appliances) that have been damaged or contaminated by floodwater . Once you have checked with your insurers that the items can be disposed of, please place large items outside the property clearly visible but without obstructing traffic or pedestrians and grouped as close together as you can manage. Please focus on bulky items that would be difficult for you to dispose of yourself and take smaller items to the Household Recycling Centre.

Collections are starting from known flooded streets including London Road, Wagon Yard, Harley Court, The Parade, Kennet Place, Kennet Mews and Culvermead Close.

If you need help with your property on a different street please contact Marlborough Town Council on 01672 512487 or email enquiries@marlborough-tc.gov.uk.

Thursday 4 January 2024

Our usual round-up of local news includes: a closure, a new physio, a look back at a lunch, donations and a happy café. See also below for community notices and news from your local council.

Upcoming Marlborough area events include: wrestling, table tennis and bell-ringing. See below for details, plus regular events and group activities.

• Marlborough Town Council is keen to inform residents that with river levels set to continue to rise for a little while yet, the permissive path through Coopers Meadow as well as the path on the Town Mill side of the river are under water and so the Coopers Meadow footpath is temporarily closed. Please find an alternative route and for your own safety do not attempt to walk through flood water. To learn about permissive paths, click here. For flood alerts and warnings, click here.

• Our condolences go to the businesses and residents whose properties have been flooded. The Parade Cinema had to close at lunchtime on Friday 5 January and apologies for any inconvenience.

• Marlborough News looks back at the 2023 Christmas Day lunch which welcomed 40 people to the Town Hall and delivered meals to 25 others who could not leave their homes. Congratulations to all involved.

• There is a new women’s physiotherapy service in Marlborough run by Kat Suchet from Hatch Athlethics. An HCPC and POGP registered Women’s Health Physiotherapist with a special interest in supporting pre and postnatal clients, Kat offers postpartum MOT, pregnancy training and postpartum return to sport, and help with abdominal separation, pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence and more.

• Marlborough Community Fridge is grateful to have received generous donations recently. Check their facebook page for details and opening times.

• Our local hospitals are under extra pressure during the Junior Doctor strike until Tuesday 9 January. For latest updates and advice please follow Great Western Hospital’s facebook page.

• From Thursday 11 January Marlborough will be part of the Happy Cafe Network courtesy of The Mustard Seed Book & Coffeeshop. The aim is to offer a safe space for those interested in wellbeing to chat and give mutual support. The Mustard Seed will offer this opportunity every Thursday from 10.30am to 12.30pm. For enquiries contact Emma on 07436 036843.

To see the current Marlborough Area Weekly News section, please click here.