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Let’s get stuck in

WE filled two large plastic bags of rubbish in just over an hour on Monday, working in the Westbury Conservation area of Fore Street and Frogmore Road. It was a case of trash lined kerbs, rubbish trapped between parked cars with pedestrians walking through it. A lot of discarded rubbish was also collected from around the grounds of the Tesco Express store.

What had happened is that bags of rubbish had been knocked over and scattered during the high winds that came with the storms the week before. It really looked awful, there was plastic, paper, cardboard and glass, everything that you might expect in a bin; you could see that much of it had been crushed and prepared for disposal. On this occasion high winds were clearly to blame.

A little more critically, these bins were put out because collections were made later that day or the next day and what happened clearly occurred prior to the bin collection. If that is indeed the case, it is a great shame that Wiltshire Council’s waste collection contractor left the site without either tidying it or making any arrangements for cleaning up the mess later. We would suggest that Wiltshire Council makes sure this does not happen again.

We would also like residents to know that equipment like those we are pictured using is available on request, free of charge, from Westbury Town Council.

Equipment borrowed must be returned and can be booked by phone or email and collected from the town council. Email info@westburytowncouncil.gov.uk. use www.westburytowncouncil.gov.uk or call 01373 822232.

Waste picked up by resident’s litter picking in their street must be included in your waste for collection at the appropriate time. The litter we picked up today has been added to the waste in our own bin.

Together we can make Westbury a pleasant place to live, work and play if we all worked together taking care of our neighbourhoods.

Cllrs Gordon & Carole King

Westbury Town Council

The Laverton, Bratton Road, Westbury

Whose will is this?

WHAT a relief that after three and a half years we are no longer hearing about The Will of the People, as demonstrated by the 17.5 million who voted to Leave in the 2016 referendum. As a Liberal Democrat member and campaigner to Remain, that was the main argument I heard from Leave supporters.

Now we have had a general election and the Tories have a majority of 80. So they have complete power to make whatever Brexit deal (or no-deal) and trade agreements they are able to. The Will of the People has spoken again … or has it? Firstly, thanks to our first-past-the-post electoral system, the Tories gained 47 extra seats with an increase of only 1.2% in their vote share. Spare a thought for the poor old Lib Dems, whose vote share increased by 4.2%, but who ended up with one fewer seat than before (and their leader ousted by 149 votes). Secondly, only 45.6% of the votes went to Brexit-supporting parties. And guess how many people voted for parties that supported a People’s Vote: yes, 17.5 million!

Jasper Selwyn, Great Western Close, Devizes

Look at figures

WHATEVER readers feel about the election results, they may be interested in the following figures released by The Electoral Reform Society.

Votes cast nationally for the party of each Conservative MP: 38,300

Labour MP: 50,817

Lib Dem: 334,122

Green: 864,743

Scottish NP: 25,882.

Various electoral systems used in other countries produce parliaments that reflect people’s votes more closely.

David Leighton, Walnut Close, Pewsey

Best Xmas gift

WITH Christmas fast approaching, I’m sure some of your readers, like myself, will have shopping left to do. I would like to suggest a simple but powerful last-minute gift that will change lives.

This December, Mary’s Meals is hosting a virtual Christmas dinner raising funds to feed hungry children around the world. For just £13.90 – enough to feed a child every day for an entire school year – people in the South West can set a place at our table for their friends and family. Their name will appear online and we’ll provide a digital placemat to pass on as a gift.

Mary’s Meals feeds more than 1.5 million children every school day in some of the world’s poorest countries. The promise of a nutritious meal attracts them into the classroom, where they receive an education that can, in the future, be their ladder out of poverty.

Find out more at www.marysmeals.org.uk. Thank you

Stephanie Fox, Communications Officer, Mary’s Meals UK