A Council of War: A Meeting of Minds

Another Friday and the traffic build-up on the A303 continues.  In some ways, this was like every Friday, but in other ways, this was very different.  We held a war council in Shrewton.  This seems set to be the first of many and, as interest grows, more and more villages will be represented and welcomed into the fold.

You'd think that in this day and age, face-to-face meetings were unnecessary and could be facilitated by technology, but one of the other nasty little secrets of the A303 is that whilst some of the UK's biggest and most important broadband trunks run under it - from London to Cornwall and then off across the Atlantic - the villages that straddle the A303 have some of the worst broadband connectivity in the country.

On the plus side, we have a great sense of community here in rural Wiltshire and whilst villages each have their own identity,  they are also actively linked to other local villages in a sort of mutual support network.   Usually, it doesn't extend much beyond church, fete, pub, etc; unless something crops up to grab our common attention - and the A303, the worsening problems created by the closure of the A344, the idiotic roundabout designs at Longbarrow on the A303 and Airman's Cross by the new Stonehenge visitor centre, has done just that; bringing us closer together in the process.

Earlier this evening, despite lots of earlier email and telephone contacts, a bunch of us met up for something of a war council - representatives of STAG and WiSBAng, local and regional politicos, some folks with media and publicity backgrounds, local business people, long-distance commuters, information scientists, others with some fairly arcane skills that  will become very apparent in the weeks and months to come.  The most striking thing was that this was a meeting of minds, everyone willing to listen and every suggestion given an equal hearing.  There was a willingness to take on tasks and an offering of skills that I have rarely seen before.  This campaign is gaining legs.

We have an engagement plan for the next few weeks that will start to address the breadth of this issue - from the local villages, the problem that is the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, the insensitivity of English Heritage to local needs through to the national and international requirements for rapid, safe and green travel across the UK.

Support for this campaign is growing, not only locally and in the obvious constituency of the A303 corridor, but from all parts of the United Kingdom and beyond, into Europe. 

Whether you live in the shadow of Stonehenge, elsewhere in Wiltshire, further West in Somerset and Devon, anywhere else in the UK and Europe or beyond and you want to help, we want to hear from you.

If you want to get involved,  we would ask you to do two things.  First, leave a message for us using the Contact Form at the very foot of this page - just below our FREE ROCKERY offer!  We will get back to you to find out what skills you have to add, what doors you can open and what leverage you can apply.

Second, please could you pop across to the STAG site and sign the petition.