On Friday it was a great pleasure to visit two very different local educational establishments, Fairfield Farm College in Dilton Marsh and Clarendon Academy, Trowbridge.

I have been to Clarendon before of course but was delighted by the way it has developed as part of The Education Fellowship.

The key in secondary education, it seems to me, is being ambitious for your students and refusing to settle for second best even in adversity.

Kids only get one chance, a fact that parents are generally all too aware of, particularly if in their day they enjoyed a poor or indifferent school experience.

Fairfield maximises skills for young people with special needs. Many people are best suited to mainstream education but it is important, in my view, that choice is available to give every chance of independent living. Fairfield provides that.

I took a look at plans for development to the west of Warminster in the civic hall.

Surprisingly relatively few people had been through by the time I arrived at 7pm. There’s a mixture of housing and employment accommodation planned and even allotments allocated.

Some of this is, no doubt, necessary but once green fields are gone they are gone forever.

Residents need to understand that what is proposed on their doorstep is extensive and would have a big impact on the size and feel of the town.

There is a primary school planned, but a development of this scale must be attended by a full suite of services if existing facilities are not to be stressed. I have had letters expressing fears about flooding on the site.

It seems to me that this, at least, should be capable of a technical solution if the proposals went ahead, but, given last year’s experience, people will want to be assured that their homes are not at risk under any reasonably foreseeable set of conditions.

I’d welcome your views.