Edinburgh Festivals - Day 7

Our final day brings a relentless week of shows, exhibitions, walking, eating, drinking and socialising to a close. I am so relieved I posted everything I experienced on twitter as I would never have remembered it all otherwise!

The week was brought to a memorable climax for me on Friday night at the Preview of Caledonia at The Kings Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. This co-production between the Edinburgh International Festival and National Theatre of Scotland told the extraordinary tale of how Scotland had ambitions at empire at the end of the 17^th century – and nearly made it happen. If they had been successful it could well have changed the course of history – our history – and the UK may never have been created.

I knew a bit about the founding of a Scottish colony in Darien on the narrow isthmus of Panama which would have been a valuable transhipment route between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

But it was an unmitigated disaster resulting in the loss of over 2,000 people and a virtually bankrupt Scotland which paved the way for the end of the nation's independent status and the signing of the 1707 Treaty of Union with England. What an extraordinary story and one with resonances for today. Here is a clip from the rehearsals: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009cs7g

Well that concludes my Edinburgh diary for one year. The next stage is to sift through our notes to see what we might realistically bring to Corsham, Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire in the year ahead. I just wish Caledonia was a smaller production as it would be great at The Pound!

Corsham Almshouses saved - for now!

Wiltshire Council's planning meeting last night was livelier than usual with controversial plans for building nine single person's flats in the grounds of this grade 1 listed building on the agenda.

I spoke representing Corsham Town Council's unanimous recommendation for refusal of this this proposal and reminding the committee that this was backed up by overwhelming local opposition which demonstrated very strongly that this proposal is inappropriate.

As expected the meeting was packed with the good folk of Corsham (including a good few hecklers!). The debate lasted over an hour and a resolution was eventually proposed to reject the application which was carried by 6 votes to 3 (with one abstention).

So that is the end of round one! But I suspect this is not the end. The trustees may appeal - or submit an amended plan. But this must be costing them an enormous amount of money and questions may be asked as to whether this is an appropriate use of the charity's funds.

It was good to see how local opinion can make a difference - particularly when it is so strong, so vociferous and overwhelming that to override those views would be ill judged and a smack in the face of local democracy.

Off the buses!

An article in Corsham People (7 April www.corshampeople.co.uk ) makes a strange assertion that 'better buses would mean more housing'

As a result of the current deregulation of bus services we have a system where virtually anyone can set up a bus service to run wherever or whenever they like. This will clearly be driven by commercial considerations as they would hope to make a profit. Yes this is more difficult in a rural environment compared to a more urban one – although there will be more competition in the urban context.

However the local authority (Wiltshire Council in this case) may chose to provide a subsidised service if there is evidence of demand or hardship – or if there are gaps in a privately run service.

In the Corsham People article Mr Taylor the councillor for Gastard has quite rightly referred to the deplorable No72/73 subsidised service from Corsham to Melksham which goes through Gastard. There are virtually no timetables or bus stops along the entire route, local residents have reported the service to be unreliable and sometimes failing to turn up, and if you go to the traveline website: www.travelinesw.com the service does not even exist! Combine that with a published timetable (if you can find one in Gastard) which offers a very fragmented service. There is little wonder the passenger numbers are low with the perception of a service which is next to useless.

So it is all boils down to priorities and what people feel is most important. As I see it there are several routes we could go down if we genuinely do want a better bus service:

• Getting those who use buses to pay more for it - hardly an incentive to increase bus usage and really hits those less able to pay
• Increase the allocation from local authorities to provide better subsidised services – increasingly difficult in a time we are told there must be greater efficiencies and higher savings.
• A more creative approach to bus provision in rural areas such as the wigglybus service now called Connect2Wiltshire which is essentially a dial-a-ride service - although we do not have one of these in the Corsham Area except to get to the RUH
• Increase the power given to local authorities to allow them to have stricter agreements with bus providers – that would require a considerable change in political will as it would be meddling in a currently ‘free’ market.

Strangely, I bumped into Theresa Villiers, the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in Corsham High Street today and asked her what she would do to change our failing deregulated policy on bus service provision – I reminded her it was a measure brought in by the Tories under Margaret Thatcher. I was told that the Conservatives would support partnerships between local authorities and bus providers so they could talk to each other to solve problems. Rather a simplistic solution methinks!

As for the 'better buses would mean more housing' statement we began with you only have to look at Katherine Park to see that more housing has nothing to do with better buses - there is not a single bus stop in sight!