Christmas: a time of peace on earth, and good will toward men – and the perfect opportunity to remember the times it kicked off at Wiltshire Council.
The political year started in May, with an election in which the Liberal Democrats won the most seats, unseating the Conservatives from 25 years of power.
Having narrowly won a blind ballot to form the next administration the new leader of Wiltshire Council, Ian Thorn, was congratulated by Tory leader Richard Clewer, who crossed the floor to shake his hand.
“I’m very aware of the election maths. It will force us to work across the chamber,” said Cllr Thorn, setting the theoretical countdown to the first political bust-up.
“Politics doesn’t need to be destructive and we need to do the most sensible things collectively,” said Cllr Clewer.
We’ll see…
The Lib Dems have a plan
At the beginning of July the Lib Dems showed off a draft of the council’s new ten year plan.
The Conservatives couldn’t see the point. They said they’d already published a very good plan.
“I’m struggling to see why you changed it,” complained Cllr Clewer.
“I suppose because we won more votes and more seats than anybody else,” retorted Cllr Thorn, shooting his opponent a withering glance.
Later, Cllr Clewer would dismiss the plan as “a financial suicide pact written in a word salad of disjointed, undeliverable, fluffy words.”
War on net zero
Meanwhile, new kids on the block Reform UK were planning to blindside the administration.
With no boats to stop in landlocked Wiltshire, they had campaigned on financial waste, a “war on woke,” and gunning for net zero.
At the first full general meeting of the council, they put forward a motion to overturn the council’s 2019 climate crisis declaration.
“It’s time for Wiltshire to move on from virtue signalling and focus on practical, deliverable priorities,” said Reform leader Ed Rimmer.
Defending the council’s position Cllr Paul Sample, cabinet member for the environment and climate, urged members to “look at the facts; not something that has been made up by GB News or Donald Trump.”
The vote was closer than anyone had expected: 23 votes for the motion, 45 against, and 19 abstentions.
Safe spaces for women
The serenity of the August holidays was broken by a row over unisex toilets.
In the lobby of County Hall the council’s deputy leader, Mel Jacob, was “ambushed” by women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen sparking a row on safe spaces for women.
Unhappy that trans women might be allowed access to ladies’ loos, the activist’s video quickly garnered tens of thousands of views on YouTube.
Later in the year a motion that would have affirmed Wiltshire Council’s support for LGBTQIA+ residents was torpedoed by Conservative and Reform councillors.
Reform leader Cllr Ed Rimmer, called the motion “irresponsible and inflammatory” and accused the Lib Dems of “virtue signalling,” while Cllr Clewer said outside the meeting: “The Lib Dems wanted to be able to say, ‘Look how caring we are, look how nasty those people are’.”
Asylum seekers
Meanwhile, Reform UK was keen to take advantage of a summer of heightened tensions over asylum.
At meeting of the cabinet, Reform’s Augusta Urquhart-Nicholls had questions about the number of refugees being housed in Wiltshire.
Cllr Thorn set a firebreak by opening the meeting with a admonishment of “harassment being directed at members of the Afghan community not just in one, but in several parts of our county.”
Undeterred, Cllr Urquhart-Nicholls pressed on with her questions, which Cllr Thorn called “insidious” and “inappropriate”.
Credit where credit’s due
Elsewhere, the council had a good news story to tell on the reduction in pothole complaints.
The Conservatives, however, had their own complaint – that their work in attracting government funding and getting potholes filled had not been acknowledged.
Cllr Clewer said the Lib Dems were trying to take the credit. Cllr Thorn said the Tories were trying to score points.
Onwards and upwards
October was to spell trouble on so many levels – and yes, that’s a multi-storey car park pun.
One of the new administration’s “unwelcome inheritances” was the ailing St Stephen’s Place car park in Trowbridge.
A covenant made it impossible to do anything with the 50-year-old structure without the blessing of the owner of the adjoining shopping centre.
And so Wiltshire Council did the only thing it thought it could do – offer the shopping centre owner £2.5 million to take the car park off their hands and demolish the lot.
The public only knows that because someone leaked secret briefing papers onto social media.
Trowbridge folk, who had enjoyed 50 years of free parking, remain understandably furious.
What a waste
And in December, the administration attracted the ire of residents in the north of the county when they voted to close two recycling centres without any provision for a replacement.
Town and parish councils are furious, and two of the county’s Lib Dem MPs are shuffling nervously.
And for the opposition? It’s the icing on the Christmas cake.
Pictured: Cllr Ian Thorn and Cllr Richard Clewer
