Want to write for Devizes Futures?

I’m looking for contributors to this blog.

It began as a personal venture. I had been a member of one or two local groups on Facebook, but the algorithms of social media don’t encourage extended discussion. Grandstanding and attention seekers don’t help. I set up the site back in 2013. It lasted about a year, but a bout of illness stopped me updating and frankly, no one seemed to miss it, so I didn’t restart. Coming across, rather belatedly, the Atkins report on Devizes Gateway Station and the lack of any critical discussion of the proposals prompted me to start again. For the avoidance of doubt, the phrase ‘critical comment’ simply means looking at a topic carefully and with an open mind.

So far, I’ve picked topics to cover based on a mixture of personal interest and things that just looked interesting. There are other important topics, such as Health and Social Care, where my experience is more as a consumer, and I am less confident I understand the organisational and political background.

I would like to fill those gaps in coverage and widen the range of views expressed. So, if you are concerned about the long term future of Devizes, please get in touch. A knowledge of Health and Social Care, Education or Business/Employment would be great, but if you want to cover some other area, I would still love to hear from you. I’m not looking for political debate, although inevitably politics will come into it. Nor am I looking for people who have the same outlook as me – I’m sure it comes through – the idea after all is to promote debate. If you have sub-editing skills though, I would definitely like to hear from you. I know I have a tendency to write at length, which needs to be curbed!