Archive for category: News

Earlier in the week Wiltshire Council Leader Cllr Richard Clewer and Cabinet Member for Finance Cllr Nick Botterill hosted a Public Budget Webinar to talk through the 2025/26 budget proposals in more detail and answer questions.

The webinar can be viewed here 

 

Flooding update

Following heavy rain over the weekend and more forecast for the next few days, there are several flooding issues in Wiltshire and there may be more over the coming days. Our teams are working hard throughout the county to provide support and our Local Authority Incident Officers (LAIOs) are on standby.

Flood warnings and alerts
There are several flood warnings (flooding is expected) and flood alerts (flooding is possible) in place across the county. Please keep an eye on the Government’s flood alerts and warnings webpage for the latest and encourage people to sign up for flood warnings. There is also more advice on what do when flood warnings/alerts are in place.

Our teams are working throughout the county today to resolve any issues reported to us. All gully tankers are working to clear gullies where required and we are also clearing debris, grips and gully grates.

Road closures
We continue to keep our webpage with advice and the latest road closures as up to date as possible, but please be aware that this is a changing situation. There may be other roads, particularly side roads and smaller roads, that are experiencing flooding in the county.

Advice
Our advice to residents continues to be to take note of any signage, to not attempt to drive through flood water and to allow extra time for their journeys. Residents should follow the advice given from emergency services and the council.

Please report any issues in your communities using MyWilts as usual. Residents should also use MyWilts or call 0300 456 0105 to report issues, and we would continue to encourage you to liaise with your Flood Wardens to avoid duplicate reporting of issues where possible.

People affected by flooding
If there are any homeowners or households affected by flooding, they should contact us at  with their name, address and email address, and if any support becomes available, we can then notify them.

Waste collections
Our waste and recycling service disruption page continues to be updated with details of any issues with collections. Our advice to residents if their waste/recycling hasn’t been collected because of delays, is to leave their bin out and it will be emptied as soon as possible.

Further information and useful links
We’ll keep our flooding webpage as up to date as possible and will continue to post regular updates on our Facebook page. Local community Facebook pages such as the Spotted-type pages have also been regularly updated by residents throughout the day.

Here are some other useful links:

• Flooding information
• Sign up for flood warnings
• Flooding emergencies – Who to contact
• What to do during and after a flood
• Flooding advice for homeowners
• Flooding advice for businesses

Following this week’s publication of Wiltshire Council’s draft budget proposals for 2025/26, a public webinar is taking place soon for people to find out more and ask questions.

Wiltshire Council Leader Cllr Richard Clewer and Cabinet Member for Finance Cllr Nick Botterill will be hosting the webinar on 4 February from 6pm to talk through the proposals in more detail.

For a link to the draft proposals and information on how to join the webinar people should visit https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council-democracy-budgets-spending. People can submit any question in advance to .

Wiltshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner is asking all residents to use their voice and identify how much extra they would be prepared to pay for policing – and why.

PCC Philip’s Wilkinson’s annual Use Your Voice: Budget and Precept survey seeks the views of residents and stakeholders as the budget for policing and commissioned services for the next financial year (2025/6) is developed.

Respondents are asked whether their household would be prepared to invest more in policing through the police precept element of their council tax.

This, alongside a grant from the government, accounts for the entire budget for policing in the county. As it stands, due to the national police funding formula, Wiltshire Police is the third lowest funded police force in the country per head of capita.

A Band D household currently pays £269 per year for policing and Mr Wilkinson is looking at options to increase this by just over 5% – £14 per year extra, or an additional £1.16 a month. This is the most that can be asked for without a Local Referendum.

The survey runs until Friday 31 January 2025 and is available here 

We are continuing to encourage people over the state pension age to check their eligibility with the Government for Pension Credit and the Winter Fuel Payment.

Pension Credit gives people extra money to help with their living costs if they’re over State Pension age and on a low income.

Checking entitlement is easy with the government online calculator.

In addition to Pension Credit, those who qualify could also receive Winter Fuel Payment and other support such as help with housing costs, help with Council Tax and a free TV licence for those aged 75 and over.