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Paul Macdonald takes local issues to MP'
(October 29, 2011)A community campaigner feels encouraged after
attending a 'doctor's' surgery on Friday afternoon asking for help with
three major as yet unresolved complaints that need diagnosis and that in
well reported cases have caused death and major trauma to others
"I met our MP Dr Andrew Murrison and once again raised the question of the decades long loss of life and serious injury on the A36 near Warminster," says Paul Macdonald.
"Despite a government of the southwest report just over five years ago demanding that the improvement between Heytesbury and Codford go-ahead nothing has happened.
The MP had a good understanding of the issue and talked about a meeting at Upton Lovell where the ministry official said that it did not meet the 'criteria'.
(Section 39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 prohibits publication of the names of those 18 and under involved in legal proceeding, other than in exceptional circumstances)
"I met our MP Dr Andrew Murrison and once again raised the question of the decades long loss of life and serious injury on the A36 near Warminster," says Paul Macdonald.
"Despite a government of the southwest report just over five years ago demanding that the improvement between Heytesbury and Codford go-ahead nothing has happened.
"I explained that the major problem to launching
a public campaign is that there is a very small population that can be
activated to demand this and that most of those affected are those
passing through who suffer at the hands of those who stop this scheme.
"But last year once again a local could have
lost his life, and since asking to attend his surgery four weeks ago,
there have been three more accidents."
The MP had a good understanding of the issue and talked about a meeting at Upton Lovell where the ministry official said that it did not meet the 'criteria'.
"How can it be that the government report that
recommended the improvement not just on safety terms which said this was
threefold worse but also added in financial terms in the A36-A46
corridor report that it would be positive has changed?" Paul said was
the question that he wanted Andrew to ask.
One of the first questions Dr. Murrison asked
after being elected as MP was prompted by Paul who at the time was a
'local journalist ' despairing at reporting at the number of tragic
accidents on the A36.
The MP said that he tried to keep the unused
A350 WEstbury by-pass money in the constituency but it went to a rail
scheme in Gloucestershire.
Paul also asked the MP for SW Wiltshire at his
modern suite at the White Horse Business Park to establish the level of
youth employment in Warminster and look into the law that prohibits the
naming of young offenders.
"I told him we need to know who those current
older teenagers are that are causing problems in our local communities
in and around Warminster that are protected by an outdated 1933 law,"
adds Paul.
"Criminality is smarter at an earlier age and
sometimes exploited by those that are older which needs report in our
Warminster Journal and Wiltshire Times naming and shaming them."
(Section 39 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 prohibits publication of the names of those 18 and under involved in legal proceeding, other than in exceptional circumstances)