The Westbury Mayor cllr Mike Sutton has questioned why Wiltshire Council was shortlisted for ‘Local Authority of the Year’ given that the council has neglected to improve air quality in Westbury in over 20 years, when ‘it is impossible to find a pothole free road in Westbury’ and the council has failed to introduce any meaningful measures on climate change.
Wiltshire Council narrowly missed out on becoming ‘Local Authority of the Year’ at this year’s Local Government Achievement Awards – a ceremony that celebrates success and recognise excellence in local government.
Wiltshire Council’s award entry submission referred to some of its recent achievements, including being one of the leading authorities in England for supporting Ukrainian refugees, innovating to reduce homelessness, adult education and children’s services rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted, creating teams to support people to thrive at home, reducing hospital admissions and delays in discharge, and area boards supporting projects valued at more than £8m.
Cllr Sutton says that in reality Wiltshire Council is continuingly piling pressure onto town councils to put up council tax and added that they are doing little to improve air quality in Westbury despite the area being declared an air quality management zone in 2001.
He said, “Wiltshire Council congratulating itself on being in the running for an award as a good council seems like it has been left over from April 1st. This is a council that continually increases council tax whilst delivering less and less each year and informs smaller councils that if they want better services they must pay more and put-up local council tax.
“This is a council where it is impossible to find a pothole free road in Westbury and where those that are fixed break up again weeks later. A council that in 2001 declared Westbury an air quality action zone and since then has not even managed a single action to the detriment of local residents who have to suffer pollution.
“A council that promised Westbury a campus and then decided to reward it to other towns. We have the worst public transport of any unitary authority with whole areas devoid of a service and they have failed to introduce any meaningful measures on climate change. If this is an example of an award-winning council, then the country is even worse off than previously thought.”
