The Devizes Guardians organised a presentation from Mouchel Parkman on Thursday night, following their AGM. It was to explain some of the options to sort out our traffic problems. More than sixty people attended, but it was a bit disappointing to see that there were probably only three or four who were younger than me. And only three or four town councillors bothered to turn up and it was worse from our district and county representatives.

Anyway, various options were put forward and most discounted. You'll doubtless get more details in next week's Gazette as Jill Crooks was there, getting all the news that's fit to print. Basically, the by-pass is a non-starter and it looks like they'll try to sort our problems out with traffic lights. The computer-generated model we were shown suggested this was the best option.

One of the most interesting things to come out of the meeting was that they have now done a proper traffic survey at rush hour. A lot of people didn't like what they heard but it backed up what I'd felt all along. The survey showed that only 10% of the traffic is through traffic. Round about 60% starts or finishes in town - the remaining third is starts and finishes in Devizes.

It's this third that we need to tackle. We all know people who regularly drive ludicrously short distances - and I’m not talking about when they're laden with heavy shopping or the like. Someone who lives along by me used to work in one of the town centre supermarkets and they would drive the six hundred yards or so to work. Rather than expecting the road planners to do it all, a lot of us need to be putting our own houses in order as well. Sometimes, it’s easier said than done, I know.

Finally, there was a little sub-plot playing out around this meeting. It seems the Tories were upset at being out-thought and outflanked by a little local party. So they tried to get the meeting called off, claiming it was political. In the end, a compromise was reached whereby a Conservative County Council Cabinet member chaired it. Pathetic, really pathetic.