No progress on Bratton Road chaos
Dear Editor
I see nobody came on the bus from the council to look at the chaos on Bratton Road. I know, because I was stuck behind it last night, and I mean stuck!
When we finally moved, it was because all the traffic on the hill going down to the crossroads was up on the pavement and the queue stretched round the corner towards Bratton.
Possibly someone did read my article, as a couple of days after it was in the paper, a gang of workmen turned up, and I asked, “ Yellow lines?” To be told they were trimming back the hedge and curb…wow, a whole 18” of extra road. Somebody at the council offices just isn’t living in the same world as the rest of us.
Joyce Piper, Westbury
Congratulations for achieving nothing for the people of Westbury
Dear Editor
Reply to Andrew Murrison’s letter (A Conservative government would have canned Westbury incinerator/Issue 828, 26th September 2024)
There are a few issues I would remind Andrew Murrison MP. Issue 1, the incinerator. In the first place, Wiltshire council voted 7 to 5 for the construction in favour of the incinerator,18 months later voted 8 to 1 against the incinerator. A Conservative council of course, obviously too late.
Michael Gove was the levelling up minister at the time, replaced by Robert JenrIck so nothing happened, resulting in a new incinerator being built by 2028.
Issue 2. Westbury has been the subject of a bypass for well over 100 years. All this time Westbury has had a Conservative M.P. To my knowledge, plenty of time for a bypass to be constructed. There were 2 aborted attempts; one in the mid-80s and one in the early 2000s.
Austerity by a Conservative government meant no bypass. Also, we in Westbury lost our beautiful hospital at the same time.
So, in a rather large nutshell, you and a Conservative government plus council, have done nothing for Westbury except build excessive housing estates with still, no bypass. So, congratulations for achieving nothing for the people of Westbury.
Cavan Algar, Westbury
A failure to deliver on promises
Dear Editor
Mr Murrison’s assertion (WHN 26/9) that the incinerator would not have been built had the Tories won the election, brings a wry, if sad, smile at the irony of it all.
Analogy: Had I not gone out and had a massive curry last night and washed it down with 7 pints of lager I’d be running a marathon this morning. Honest, I really would…
While I doubt the Tories would have stopped it, and I admire Mr Murrison continuing to fight the cause. If you put yourselves in a position where you cannot deliver your promises, you need to look at yourselves first. I’ll leave it there.
Paul Mitchell, Westbury
Deadlines…
“DEPEND upon it, sir,” wrote Dr Johnson. “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” The editor of this publication has not threatened to hang me yet. But he does set strict deadlines.
They have the effect of concentrating this writer’s mind wonderfully. Especially when nothing has thus far entered his mind as a topic for the next edition of the magazine. There’s a deadline to meet. A blank Word document to fill up. Better get on with it, then.
From the grandest columnist for The Times newspaper to the humble contributor to your local paper, scribblers live and die by editorial time limits. In fact, there’s a deadline looming over us all. The day will come when we are called to give an account of our lives to our Maker and Judge.
That thought should certainly concentrate our minds. For whom of us can say that the copy book of their life is without blot or blemish? The good news is that God has done everything necessary for us to be prepared to meet him.
He sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, to die on the cross that the record of our sins may be wiped clean. The Holy Spirit has been poured out to give us new life. A grand invitation is made for us to ‘seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near’.
Well, if you’re reading this, it means I was ready for the deadline. Always important, that, and not just for writers.
Pastor Guy Davies
Write to White Horse News, 31 Market Place, Melksham. SN12 6ES or email news@whitehorsenews.co.uk
Please include your name, address and a daytime telephone number
