PLANS for the relocation of the Wiltshire and Swindon Records Office took a new twist on Wednesday, November 28, when Swindon councillors decided their town was the best site for the archives.

Swindon Borough Council is a partner in the project board looking at where the records office should go, and councillors at the meeting placed Wiltshire County Council's choice, Devizes, second.

Trowbridge Mayor and county councillor Jeff Osborn, who is at the forefront of the campaign to keep the office in Trowbridge, said: "Clearly councillors in Swindon have shown some sense by not choosing Devizes as their first choice.

"It's all up in the air and back to the drawing board now as the longer it goes on the case against Devizes becomes more apparent."

The Trowbridge campaigners say they will consider every option open to them, including court action.

Their call for Wiltshire County Council to carry out an urgent review was refused last week after the council decided a review had already been considered by two of its committees.

Cllr Osborn said: "To go for Devizes is contrary to the evidence. Of the nine criteria they came up with, Devizes came last, or in the last two for many of the points.

"We are prepared to do what is necessary. We could go to the district auditor, the ombudsman or even judicial review. Ideally we would like to get this sorted out in the county council but we are not going to pack up and go home."

The campaigners were upset when Conservative councillor Tony Moore failed to vote with them despite earlier pledging his support for the campaign.

Cllr Jeff Osborn said: "He seems to have succumbed to pressure from the Tory group. We deliberately went for a recorded vote to see where people went, and William Spiers, a Conservative, abstained."

But Cllr Moore, who has defended his action, said: "Trowbridge didn't stand a chance at the meeting and I don't like to abstain.

"If we hadn't made a decision people from London may well have come and taken the records office away from the county completely.

"But, I am Trowbridge born and bred and I want the records office here."

The decision to relocate the records office to Devizes was made at a meeting on November 6.

Town councillor Angela Milroy, said: "I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the campaign."

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