Sirs,
These photos were taken on Friday, 20 August 2021. The signpost is in George Lane opposite the entrance to the car park.
I know that the current pretence is that the Cameron/Osborne/LibDem austerity cuts never happened and I know that County Hall is a long way from Marlborough. However, we know in Marlborough that the Sure Start Children’s Centre was closed by Wiltshire Council in 2016.
The Sure Start Centre building – known as The Corner House – in the George Lane car park was then left empty for several years and is now the town’s police “Touchdown Point” (like the Sure Start Centre, the town’s Police Station has also been closed.)
I wonder how many young parents have noticed the signpost and been disappointed to find there is no Sure Start Centre.
This out of date signpost may simply be a silly, five-year long mistake or oversight. But Wiltshire Council has recent form in wishing away or hiding their history of cuts. Wiltshire Council closed the Youth Centre at the Recreation Ground in 2014. It was only rescued by some very determined town councillors and Town Clerk Shelley Parker.
However Wiltshire Council’s polling cards for this week’s unnecessary re-vote for the Police and Crime Commissioner post asked me to go to the “St Margarets’s Mead Youth Centre”. Wiltshire Council must know by now it is called the “Marlborough Community and Youth Centre”.
There are obviously some drawbacks to living in a ‘sleepy market town’ far away from Trowbridge.
Yours,
Tony Millett
Near a signpost to Marlborough