The two recurrent themes of the Wiltshire Times letters pages are the so-called Vision for Trowbridge, and the removal of the County Records Office from the town.
I have not seen anyone asking if there is a connection between them so I will ask the question.
Starting with the Vision, I recall a picture of the director of Capitalis holding a model of the proposed redevelopment which took in Castle Street right down to Cradle Bridge and included the East Wing of County Hall.
If this is so, where will the library go?
Now for the record office: if this moves to Chippenham, then could it be that the library may move into the vacant premises the reference library is already in part of the building.
All the rest of the East Wing facilities could be housed in temporary, portable buildings during any redevelopment.
The county council has been reported as having already purchased the site for the new record office which is interesting when it is not long since the county council planned to use extra education funding on their roads programme, and were stopped by the Government.
Since then, they have managed to re-lay all the kerbs in Seend, and to narrow London Road in Devizes with a lot more kerb laying.
How will the new record office be financed?
Identifying the benefits to WWDC is a little harder, but consider this: the Shires car park is to be modernised and will then charge for parking. That will leave the multi-story car park as the only free (protected by covenant) car park in Trowbridge.
If the Vision redevelopment pulls down the multi-story car park and then builds a new one for the WWDC, then it is unlikely to be free, and the council will probably have sold a fair bit of land in the process.
So, I ask, is there a connection between the Vision for Trow-bridge scheme, and the WCC determination to move the County Record Office from Trowbridge?
Dr G N Hone,
Avenue Road,
Trowbridge.
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