THE county council's determination to push ahead with the relocation of the record office at any cost appears to be part of a long-term strategy aimed at systematically asset-stripping the county town.

First, the county council deliberately torpedoed the attempt to get a judicial review of the decision to close the Trowbridge Magistrate Court. As a result, cases that were previously tried locally, now have to be taken to Chippenham.

Now they are forcing through the record office move to Chippenham, despite having pointed out to them the grave deficiencies of the Cocklebury Road site (owned by North Wiltshire District Council).

And where does the majority of the county council cabinet represent? North Wiltshire and Chippenham!

When parochial interests and local rivalry become the driving forces behind decision making at a county level, rational considerations and the common good are brushed aside.

The county council has discovered is that the people of Trowbridge will stand up for themselves and for their town, and that they have very long memories. Trying to give the impression that it is necessary to lose the record office so that we can get a cinema simply wont wash! There are other sites in Trowbridge where a cinema can be built. The county council cabinet is playing a dangerous game!

GLYN BRIDGES

Alma Street

Trowbridge

Curiously the letter from Elizabeth Kennedy last week (Town is missing out on CCTV coverage) gave a totally wrong account of the issues surrounding CCTV in Chippenham.

We are not awaiting the arrival of CCTV cameras in the town as she suggests, as they have been up and running with a professional monitored system since 1999.

Maybe it is the start of the silly season, with elections so close that has precipitated the misunderstanding, but let me place the facts on record here.

Chippenham Town Council conducted a Best Value Review of CCTV last year. From that the independent consultants suggested that the cost of the professionally monitored system, as opposed to using volunteers or simply recording events, should be picked up by several other agencies alongside our own.

At present it is only the householders within the Chippenham boundary, excluding the Cepen Parks, who pay toward CCTV and this is not fair and equitable.

At budget time the Town Council had not even received replies to our enquiries from the Wiltshire Police, and so our only recourse was to suggest that the present contract to monitor the system would not be renewed in September 2005.

This eventually set everyone in motion, and we now have a situation where a meeting is being convened by the police to establish just how the money can be found in order to re-issue the contract.

S Webb

Leader, Chippenham Town Council