It must be holiday time as all has been quiet here at the Town Council over the course of this week so our teams have been able to get on with delivering services rather than responding to things, I have asked them to do.
Members of the Shambles Working Party have been reviewing the consultation that was recently undertaken, and we are grateful so many people gave their views. The principles of ensuring that the building supports community events, encourages business enterprise and promotes Devizes as a great place to visit were all endorsed by the consultation. It was also recognised that there may be lots of ways in which this can be achieved. However, it was also highlighted that the building needs to be a pleasant place to visit without destroying its character. This is where we are initially going to concentrate our efforts to ensure the Shambles is fit for purpose for the next generation of shoppers and visitors.
Once again, the seating area in The Market Place has proved to be popular and therefore we are already starting to see how we can improve this further for next year, particularly around how we improve the space with trees, shrub planting and events.
Whilst we are still enjoying the summer, we are also turning our attention to Christmas and plans are being put in place to select the Christmas Trees for The Market Place and Albion Place. As you might imagine, it is a bit of a “poisoned chalice” task, as we visit the forest and select the trees ourselves. Many of you will know, that selecting the right Christmas tree for your own home can be difficult, checking it’s the right size and the right shape. Are there any bald patches? And are the branches too far apart to support the decorations? We do the same for our trees, but 1000’s of people will look at them and many will tell us if we have made the right choice. I have every confidence in my team and look forward to enjoying the tall and perfectly shaped trees in The Market Place and in Albion Place.
As always, over the last few weekends and continuing into September, Hillworth Park has hosted a range of music events and we are grateful that our friends at Fantasy Radio have worked with us to organise them. Still to come are the annual proms with the Town Band on the first two Sunday afternoons in September and our Twilight Cinema on Saturday 10th September where we are showing “Singalong” Grease. There are still a few tickets available.
On the 3rd of September Devizes will host the Traditional Confetti Battle, run by DOCA and whilst it is great fun for those taking park, we know that it can leave our streets looking like they are full of litter. To support the event, our street cleaners will be out straight after the event to clean up, and we are keen to see how our road sweeper will make lighter work of this task. I am sure my inbox will give me a clue!
Town Clerk, Simon Fisher