The FORMER deputy leader of the council has been voted into the chief role after Philip Whitehead stepped back last week.

Richard Clewer, who represents Downton and Ebble Valley, has been chosen to head up Wiltshire Council for the next four years. He said the future was both “exciting and a little daunting.”

Speaking after the first in-person meeting since the start of the pandemic, Cllr Clewer told the Gazette the main priority of the new administration was to support high streets.

“There’s a lot to do as we emerge into a post-Covid world and work out what that means,” he said. “The high street has been kept going through the government and furlough, but there are a number of vacancies you can see across our towns.

Wiltshire Times: New Wiltshire Council leader, Richard Clewer with his cabinet outside of County Hall in Trowbridge

“Sadly, there are other shops now closing down and we don’t know what the scale of that will be.”

Cllr Clewer said the pandemic has amplified the trend towards online shopping and suggested high streets need to be reimagined.

“We have to make sure it’s not just about shopping, but it’s also about leisure, culture, eating out and bringing people out for events,” the leader continued.

There are plans to roll the Heritage Trail app – soft-launched in Salisbury – out across the county, including the villages.

As well as this, Cllr Clewer added the What’s on in Wiltshire app would be a space dedicated to alerting locals to events in their communities to encourage people to get into the town centres.

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The county is also rich with produce and industry and this is something Cllr Clewer wants to billboard calling it “the wealth of Wiltshire.”.

He said: “If you look at what’s being done in New Forest National Park with the New Forest mark which is a way of identifying produce that is produced in New Forest or by artisans working there – you can say ‘this is New Forest produce.’

“We want the same for Wiltshire. We can then, whether it be in a farm shop or selling in the middle of Trowbridge or any of our towns, enable people to understand that what they are buying is something local and something Wiltshire.”

Retrofitting, which is the process of updating the heating and insulation of buildings, will be another large priority for the new administration.

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All 5,400 of the local authority’s council houses are promised to receive the difficult retrofitting treatment which Cllr Clewer said would kickstart a new industry in Wiltshire.

The leader added that during the election “it was very clear” that there was a lot of concern in Wiltshire over the level of house building proposed under the local plan.

“I want to assure people that we have listened,” he added. “We will take action on that through the process of consultation on the local plan.

“As the consultation responses come in we’ll have a look and we’ll take appropriate action to follow up on the concerns the public have raised with us.”