Wiltshire Live (2026)

19/12/2025

A major rebranding effort has seen new roadside signs installed in West Berkshire, highlighting the area's status as part of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape.

The signs aim to raise awareness and encourage local conservation efforts, with plans to roll out further signage across Oxfordshire and Swindon in the coming months.

Henry Oliver, director of the landscape, said it was a “great opportunity to raise awareness” and hoped it would foster community involvement and influence decision-makers. All 46 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are now recognised as National Landscapes, with a new logo featuring a white horse symbolising the chalk geology and long-standing interaction between people and the environment.

The logo’s colours reflect the “big skies” of the downs, chosen to stand out from typical green branding. Cost details are pending, but funding comes from Defra, with signs planned at every main road entry point to signal this protected landscape. Nine signs will be installed in West Berkshire, alongside efforts to promote the area through rail station signage and visitor partnerships.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Niki Hinman

19/12/2025

Today's weather forecast for Wiltshire

19/12/2025

Parents in Wiltshire are advised to keep chocolates out of reach and monitor fizzy drinks this Christmas, following a rise in childhood obesity.

Nearly 4,500 children were measured through the National Child Measurement Programme, revealing that a quarter are overweight or obese.

While 76 per cent of children were found to be a healthy weight, 14 per cent were overweight and nine per cent obese, with two per cent suffering from severe obesity. The combined total of overweight and obese children was 1,055, representing 23.5 per cent of the sample.

At the healthier end, just 0.6 per cent were underweight. Professor Simon Kenny from NHS England warned that obesity can impact every organ and increase future health risks such as diabetes and cancer.

He emphasised the NHS’s commitment to support affected children through specialised clinics but stressed that tackling childhood obesity requires action from industry, government, and society as a whole.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Peter Davison

18/12/2025

Tomorrow's weather forecast for Wiltshire

18/12/2025

A fierce dispute has erupted in north Wiltshire over a proposed large-scale solar farm, pitting local aristocrats against landowners and community members.

The controversy has caused a rift in the once-close-knit community, with some saying it has 'ripped the community apart.'

Landowners who have signed agreements to rent their land for up to £1,000 an acre for 40 years face opposition from neighbours who oppose the industrialisation of the rural landscape.

Notable landowners involved include the Duke of Beaufort at Badminton House, whose family is reportedly divided over the plans, and the Count and Countess Badeni at Norton.

Other signatories include farmer Jonny Walker, Richard and Lou Turnor of Foxley Manor, and entrepreneur John Branston. Opponents, organised under Stop Lime Down, argue that the project’s scale—covering four miles by two and featuring panels four metres tall—is environmentally and aesthetically damaging.

The project is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, with final approval resting with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband. If approved, it would be the UK’s first solar farm of this size and height, sparking further debate about rural development versus conservation.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Peter Davison

18/12/2025

Most children in Wiltshire enjoy a traditional Christmas, with festive activities like nativity plays, carol services, and the excitement of Christmas Day.

However, a small number face an uncertain future far from home, with no family or friends to share the holiday.

These are Wiltshire’s ‘separated migrant children’, among the thousands arriving in the UK unaccompanied each year. Wiltshire Council does not disclose exact numbers or origins but estimates they make up about ten per cent of the children in care.

Government figures reveal that 7,380 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were in council care across England in March 2024, up from 5,080 in 2020. Most arrive via small boats in Dover, with Kent County Council responsible for their care under a National Transfer Scheme.

In Wiltshire, there are fewer unaccompanied children than neighbouring counties, at around six per 10,000 residents in 2024. Many are fleeing violence and have endured traumatic journeys to reach the UK.

The government funds their care, which continues until they turn 18, either in supported accommodation or foster homes. After turning 18, those whose asylum applications are refused are referred back to the Home Office.

At a recent Wiltshire Council meeting, Cllr Jon Hubbard highlighted these pressures, stating: “Despite being above our internal target, we remain below the national average and regional figures.” He added that demand is driven by both migrant children and youth homelessness.

Since April, 42 young people have presented as homeless or at risk across the county. The council emphasises that none are left without shelter and all receive appropriate support.

Cllr Hubbard told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Our priority is to keep young people safe and supported to remain close to their families and networks.” He stressed Wiltshire’s investment in supported living and independent flats to help young people transition to independence.

“Our goal is simple: to give young people a safe space and the opportunity to build a future here,” he concluded.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Peter Davison

18/12/2025

A surge in the numbers of children being taken into care by Swindon Borough Council over the last year has been a major factor in driving the children’s budget into overspend.

And that, in turn, has been a not insignificant part of the whole council’s parlous financial state.

But council bosses say they are confident they have a grip on the way that young people’s needs are assessed, and that a similar surge should not occur next year.

The administration’s cabinet member for children’s services, Councillor Paul Dixon appeared before the specialist Children’s and Adults’ Overview and Scrutiny Committee to discuss the budget for social services for this financial year and the next, starting in April 2026.

He told the committee that the total gross budget for Children’s Social Care in 2025/26 is £57.4 million, with an additional £3.9 million allocated to Early Intervention and Prevention services. This brings the overall budget for the year to £61.3 million.

He added: “Children’s Services is projecting an outturn pressure of £7.7 million. This variance is primarily driven by an increase in the number of children being cared for by the local authority and a significant rise in placements within residential care settings.

“The financial pressure is largely attributable to residential provision, where the budget was based on 44 children; however, by the end of September, there were 64 children in residential care.”

The average cost of a residential place is £7,300 per week – meaning every residential place costs, on average, around £380,000 per year.

Adding 20 unplanned-for residential placements would have stressed the budget by adding £7.6m to the council’s costs, not coincidentally almost precisely the predicted overspend for children’s services.

Asked by the committee chairman Councillor Stanka Wilson whether planned savings in next year’s budget were realistic, especially given the overspend in this year’s budget, Cllr Dixon said: “The shortfall this year has been caused by the increase in children coming into care

“But we have gone through a rigorous process of assessing all of the demand throughout the service. At the moment, we are confident we can make the savings necessary.”

While Cllr Dixon said it wasn’t always possible to predict the demand for residential placements, especially ones with high-levels of support and care.

Cllr Wilson said: “How are you addressing the issues with your forecasting?

“If one additional placement can add pressure to the budget, and this year there were 20 placements more than forecast, that’s why we are questioning your confidence.”

The council’s new head of corporate parenting, Seth Harris-White, said: “Additional rigour in the assessment process led to this increase.

“We’ve worked with out finance team and the data team to look through previous trends to try to make an accurate forecast, and we’re not projecting such an increase.”

The director of children’s services told the committee that the National Audit Office has calculated the average cost of a residential place nationwide was £6,100 per week compared to our £7,000 per week.

“So, we are not out of line.”

She added: “The NAO has described it as a “dysfunctional market”.

“Ofsted has reported that the South West region has the lowest level of residential care providers in the country. The North West has the highest. So residential care is further away from us because of a mismatch in this dysfunctional market.”

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Aled Thomas

18/12/2025

A plan to build a new estate of homes just off the notorious Cold Harbour junction has been put on ice, at least for the time being.

In October, Cardiff-based developer BS Estates Ltd put in a proposal to build nine houses a rectangle of rough grassland north of the roundabout junction on the B4019 Broad Bush, squeezed between Ermin Street and the new houses in Farrier Street and Smithy Close.

At the time the developers told Swindon Borough Council planners they were proposing: “a higher-quality living environment that aligns more appropriately with the local context.

“The ‘Garden Gateway’ identified to be delivered southwest of site will be provided as a smaller landscaped grass area to ensure that trees on site can be retained.

“The proposed development appropriately responds to the wider context allowing for integration of the new development into the existing built environment while also promoting the formation of a new, sustainable community. Each dwelling is supported by sufficient infrastructure such as parking, storage and private amenity.”

The plans showed that the single access road would enter the site at its south west, off Ermin Street and then describe a 90-degree turn from north east to north west.

The nine houses would be arranged on either side of that road, but with only two of them on the western side.

Green space and trees and hedgerow would feature on the outside reaches of the site

But the plans looked like the ty might be in trouble judging by responses from neighbours, Blunsdon Parish Council and some of the borough councillor’s own consultees.

A neighbour living in Farririer Close objected on the grounds of loss of privacy and daylight and added: “The field serves as a thriving habitat for a wide range of wildlife.

“The removal of this land will destroy local biodiversity and permanently remove an important natural environment in the area.”

Blunson parish council also objected saying: “The proposed site access is positioned at the Cold Harbour entrance, immediately adjacent to an existing pedestrian crossing and layby. This creates a constrained junction arrangement with limited visibility and manoeuvrability

“Ermin Street is already subject to significant traffic volumes and congestion, particularly during peak hours, and the pedestrian crossing falls directly beside the proposed exit point for the dwellings. This raises a serious conflict between vehicle movements and pedestrian activity, increasing the risk of accidents.”

Just this month, a long-delayed proposal, first put forward in 2020, to build 80 homes on the other side of Broad Bush, directly behind the Cold Harbour pub, and bound to the west by Turnpike Lane was approved by members of the borough council’s planning committee.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Aled Thomas

18/12/2025

“It’s a complete game changer. If this had been here when we started, it would have made a huge difference.”

Hayley and Richard, who live in Blunsdon, have been foster carers for 15 years, helping to raise children in are in all sorts of different situations, including where the foster child’s natural parent also lives in their house, and they provide mentoring to them.

Now they are at the heart of a new type of fostering arrangement which has been brought into Swindon in the last year Mockingbird fostering.

This is a system where a number of foster carers and the children they look after are linked in a network with “hub home carers” – experienced foster carers who can help and advise.

And those carers run the hub home, a place where both the youngsters and their carers can gather for a social event, or the hub carers like Hayley and Richard, can have the child over for a sleep-over.

Hayley and Richard have a network of 12 looked-after children said: “It’s all about creating a sort of family network – the children get to know all the other children and carers and so do the carers.

“It provides a lot more support for everyone and it works so well.

“It would have been amazing to have had this when we were new foster carers.”

Warming to the theme of the Mockingbird network working like an extended family, Richard added: “We organise events and days out for the group, to Longleat of the West Midlands Safari park, or places like that.

The couple spoke to the Local Democracy Reporter the day after hosting an evening social for the adult carers.

Richard said: “The idea is that there is a network.

“We can offer advice and help and support to the foster carers. And of course, they develop links between themselves – so one might go and pick up another carer’s child from school, if they need it.

“They all have social workers who will also help, but sometimes you want to be able to let off a little steam with someone who understands the situation – if someone comes to talk to use and they’re a bit frustrated, we understand that it’s nearly always just a need to express that and get a bit of understanding and then the pressure is relieved.”

They say it has helped keep carers in the network and one carer who was initially signed up to provide respite care only, has progressed to having a child living with them.

Hayley said: “Having respite carers in the network really helps, because the child knows where they are going to stay, whereas in the old system they might not have known, and gone somewhere strange.

“And they love coming here for a sleepover. We respect the boundaries that have been set by their foster carers, but we relax them a little. It’s like we’re grandparents, we give the children the same care and boundaries, but spoil them just a bit more. The children really enjoy it.”

Swindon Borough Council is looking to recruit new foster carers and has recently increased the allowances paid to them. For more information visit www.swindon.gov.uk/fostering.

From their perspective, Hayley and Richard see Swindon’s first Mockingbird fostering network as being very much a success and they say they’d love to see another one.

In fact, they want to be at the hub of a second one. Hayley said: “Another one would be great, or make this one bigger, and add people. Hayley said: “The more the better really.

“It works so well – it really helps all the carers and the children.”

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Aled Thomas

18/12/2025

A pedestrian and cyclist underpass in central Swindon, which is part of the town’s main Flyer cycle networkhas remained flooded for days in the recent bad weather.

The subway at Marlowe Avenue which carries foot and cycle traffic under the exceedingly busy four lanes of Drakes Way is, itself, under several inches of water, and has been since the current spell of stormy and rainy weather began last week.

And it would appear there is not much progress towards acknowledged clarity about which public body should take ultimate responsibility for sorting it out.

Historically, there has been some dispute between Swindon Borough Council and Thames Water over who is responsible for the issue.

The Swindon Advertiser reported in 2022 that Thames Water seemed to accept that it had responsibility and that the issue was a surface water pipe that runs from the underpass down to the nearby River Cole, and the pipe backs up when the stream is full, flooding the underpass.

And it was certainly the council’s understanding of the problem at the time, but when it flooded again last year, the water company said it was Swindon Borough Council’s responsibility as the Lead Local Flood Authority.

Earlier this year the council said it was drawing up a major flooding report following significant flooding in Autumn 2023, with one of the major outcomes being clarity on where responsibilities lie between Thames Water, Swindon Borough Council, the Environment Agency and private landowners

Published earlier this year that “Section 19” report does not mention Marlowe Avenue or any underpasses by name and does not appear to specify where responsibility lies.

A spokesperson from Thames Water said: “We recognise the serious impact that surface water flooding has on residents and customers.

“Flooding in areas that are susceptible to floods, like the underpass on Marlowe Avenue in Swindon, involving rivers and surface water can be complex.

“That’s why we continue to closely work with multiple organisations who are responsible for flooding, such as local authorities, to respond to incidents and mitigate future risks.”

A spokesman for Swindon Borough Council said: “As the Thames Water representative has explained, this problem is not easy to fix. This is because Thames Water’s outfall is submerged by the River Cole so, when it rains, surface water is unable to discharge into the river and backs up, flooding the subway.

“The only way to solve this issue is to reduce the depth of the river, but this requires the approval of the Environment Agency and would be extremely costly.

“As the Lead Local Flood Authority we are more than happy to work cooperatively with partners on any solution they wish to implement, which ensures our local residents can continue to use this subway regardless of the weather.”

In 2022 two other flood-prone underpasses, crossing Queen’s Drive and Marlborough Coate Water was closed up, with a light-controlled pedestrian crossing installed at street level on Queen’s Drive to allow walkers and cyclists to cross the busy road safely.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Aled Thomas

18/12/2025

It’s known as the town of funky street furniture, but digital advertising hoardings from communications giant BT might be a step too far for Wiltshire’s county town of Trowbridge.

Having been refused planning permission by Wiltshire Council for two ‘Street Hubs’ in the town centre, BT have put a call in to the Planning Inspectorate for a second opinion.

BT says the three metre tall hubs offer free 5G wi-fi access to members of the public, while the advertising screen generates revenue to pay for the service.

The firm says they “provide a sleek and modern answer to the demands of a digitally connected society.”

Besides housing 5G nodes, the structures can also be fitted with “sensors that count pedestrian, cyclist and vehicle movements as well as monitor air, sound and light.”

They are also interactive: offering information about local council services, weather forecasts, and connection to national charities at the touch of a button.

However, Wiltshire Council’s highways team said the hubs – given their position near a junction and a roundabout – would pose a traffic risk.

BT disagrees, saying “the positive impact that the proposal will bring to the area will outweigh the negative impact,” and pointing out that the hubs would directly replace two telephone kiosks, which are being removed.

The appeal will be determined by written representations.

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Peter Davison

18/12/2025

A decision over whether a massive data centre can be built on the edge of a Wiltshire village has been put off until the new year – to the fury of the company behind the project.

Rob Silvester , chief revenue at Corsham-headquartered Ark Data Centres said Wiltshire Council’s decision – with just 24 hours’ notice – to delay determination on whether a 60ft tall data centre could be built at its Spring Park Campus was “shocking.”

His firm wants to built the data centre on an 18-acre site known locally as the Donkey Field, near the villages of Westwells and Neston and close to Wadswick Green retirement village.

The proposed building will be 18.7 metres (61 feet) tall at its highest point and approximately 180 metres, or nearly 600 ft, long.

At its closest point, the proposed development would be 44 metres (144 ft) from the nearest house.

Ark says the data centre will help meet soaring demand for data storage, related in a large part to the public’s adoption of AI, cloud storage, and streaming services.

Its clients include businesses including telecoms firms, banks, and video streaming services, and the government.

“I’ve been a chartered surveyor for 35 years been working in development for that period of time and have never seen anything like this,” Mr Silvester told the council’s strategic planning committee yesterday (Tuesday, December 16).

“After 18 months of thorough interrogation by highly qualified planning engineering and technical experts officers, recommended our application was approved.

“Data centres play a crucial role in all of our lives. None of us could operate without data centres. It’s critical national infrastructure. It’s really, really important.”

He said the development of the firm’s seventh data centre at the Spring Park Campus – the former MOD Corsham – represented £300 million of a total £1 billion investment on the site.

And he warned: “As a local business, we’re committed to investing in our own county when, frankly, we can make investments elsewhere.

“We are trying to continue to invest in Corsham. This is a strategic investment. It’s a large investment. We have sites

in London, Brussels, Barcelona. We have a decision to make.”

Wiltshire Council departments including highways, rights of way, conservation, archaeology, public protection, landscape, ecology and drainage offer no objections ahead of the meeting.

But over the weekend a 17-page rebuttal of the 55-page planning officers’ report was submitted by Neston Westwells Action Group – an affiliation of locals opposed to the plan – was submitted.

The officer’s report, the meeting heard, was not made public until a week before the meeting – leaving NWAG little time to formulate their response.

The response prompted a rethink from flooding experts at the council, who had originally said they had no concerns over flood risks posed by the development.

Council lawyers said that without considering the action group’s response, there was a risk of any decision being taken to court.

“I can’t in all good conscience at this stage advise the committee that they have all the information that they need in order to make a proper decision,” the council’s in-house lawyer told the meeting

“Any decision that you made today to either grant or refuse permission would be vulnerable to judicial review, and that is not in your interest and it is not in the applicant’s interest.”

Proposing to defer the matter until the January or at the very latest February meeting of the strategic planning committee, chairman Ernie Clark said: “It’s both disappointing and very unusual, but some of the matters that were raised would be substantial enough that, if this was approved today, we would get taken off to judicial review.

But he warned those opposing the scheme: “Please don’t think that it will be deferred again, because it won’t be. When it comes back there will be a decision made.”

✍Original copy via Local Democracy Service by Peter Davison

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