From April Fool’s Day 2009, Salisbury District Council together with five other District Councils will no longer exist. All the area each controlled will come under the Direct Management of the one Wiltshire Unitary Authority. Possibly the opinions of our Village might carry more weight with the New Authority, had it but one Parochial Voice, rather than appear as is currently the case, akin to a Ventriloquy Act.

Our Village has but the one heart, it needs but the one Parish Council. One Parish Clerk, one set of Office expenses, One Chair Person and one Deputy , and one Treasurer to account for a single Precept at a uniform Parochial Rate. Currently between the separate Parishes ,Council Tax Payers have to pay for everything mentioned above twice over, then too venues and heating have to be paid for twice. Probably an amalgamated Parish would have no call for more than a dozen ELECTED Parish Councillors. Hopefully these fewer vacancies might be the more easily filled by ELECTION.

Hitherto our TWO District Councillors and our County Councillor have been attending two separate Parish Council’s meeting each month, to keep each Parish Council up to date. No idea what will happen after we have elected a Unitary Authority Councillor on June 4th, but it would be a nonsense if he or she too is expected to report back to two separate Tisbury Village Councils.

Consideration was given to amalgamation several years ago. Tisbury Parish Council for one, decided against it, despite that it agreed that particular areas of ‘West’ Tisbury might better be included in TISBURY.

What on Earth else did our then Parish Council think the question was about?

Wherein the problem with Amalgamation? It was recently suggested to me that it was more beneficial to be two Parishes when it came to the allocation of ‘Grants’. As I knew nothing of that, I sought advice from The Salisbury District Council. Its Interim Head of Democratic Services advised me that last year Tisbury had a grant of £750 toward Street Cleaning, and the West Tisbury received £398 for Skip. I am assured this money would have been the same had the Village been but one single Civil Parish. Which then is the reason that Tisbury and West Tisbury do not become one, much as the Church Parochial Parishes did a number of years back?

SORRY!…. BUT TURKEYS DON’T DO THEY? Is this reluctance but Councillors exercising their individual Egos or what? Part of the trouble is that as none of our Parish Councillors has been put to the test at the Ballot Box, there is never an opportunity for Tisbury Residents to deliver a verdict on local Governance. Day to day affairs are managed very well and the Village can be thankful for all such good works. But what vision does either Council have for the Entity of Tisbury in the future?

In Tisbury Parish everything seems to be settled on an ad hoc basis, on the premise that Tisbury likes Tisbury as Tisbury is. I and my family have been here but twenty nine years, long enough though to have witnessed the passing of heaven only knows how many Rectors, Village Shops, Co-opted Parish Councillors, the building of Housing Estates to the left right and centre, and the emergence of what my children referred to as ‘The Garage Doctor’ into an excellent new Surgery. Etc etc. Like it or like it not things are a changing,* and often as not, it is those in the new Developments apart from my good self, who protest the more. One of ‘Our sins of omission’ is that successive Parish Councils have never provided the Village with a purpose built VILLAGE HALL. One knows there are problems and sensibilities involved, but that never excuses anything. If Dinton and Charlton have managed to build such a place, why on the Earth is it that Tisbury has failed to do likewise. One hears tell that the Nadder Hall would not be economically viable if the adjoined School did not hire it for its own use. Well fortunately it does. Problem solved maybe, or is it too early to tell. Another problem is that Villagers can not hire the Nadder Hall, whilst it is contracted out to others. Who else uses the place other than TAG and the Music Café ? Futile Planning Battles have been fought, and predictably lost. We seem too obsessed with the Composting Scheme. Well it would be interesting to see the financial detail of that. After all the money invested in the project, is it yet making the profit promised, is it even Eco Friendly? Anyone with a Garden surely has room for a proportionately sized compost bin, without driving waste to the top of a very steep hill. What will we be hearing of the Allotments this year? Hopefully the Council Tax Payers, will no longer be paying the Water Bill there for.

Such facilities are there for the Residents of either Parish to use, but what Contribution be it financial or otherwise does West Tisbury make to all Tisbury’s largesse? Are some of our present arrangements little short of a monumental waste of time and Council Tax Payers Money ?

Parish Councillors do their best, but how many have any sort of vision of the way ahead?

I am sure there may be a legitimate opinion that our two Parishes should not be united as one, however one wonders whether its right that either Parish Council Should be allowed to make a recommendation one way or the other. After all if the Parishes were to amalgamate, then some of the Parish Council Seats would be no more. Therefore it might be argued that Councillors have a personal interest in voting partially.

Tisbury advised that ‘West Tisbury Parish Council didn’t want to amalgamate.’ the two Parishes. With respect, what West Tisbury might or might not want is not the prime concern of Tisbury Parish Council. All that it needed to consider was whether or not homogeneity was or was not good for TISBURY Parish, and its Village in Particular.
‘The Times, they are a changing’,* what may have worked well in the past no longer necessarily does so. One thing that doesn’t work is having two separate Tisbury Parish Councils. It is an extravagance that Tisbury Council Tax Payers can ill afford.

One hears tell of someone proposing to seek the support of others in the presentation of a Petition to the New Unitary Authority, requesting that it should hold a Community Governance Review. This might or might not decide whether Tisbury Parish should be or shouldn’t be amalgamated with West Tisbury.

IT WOULD BE MORE APPROPRIATE THAT THE PARISH COUNCILS INITIATE SUCH A PROCESS.

*Hear the musical. http://www.taletn.com/dylan/ Tuesday, 17 March 2009