OH dear, they’re at it again! Those pesky developers are having another crack at the little wooded area at the top of Bishops Drive, the one that forms a natural extension to the wildlife corridor of Harnham Slope.

They don’t take no for an answer, do they? Having been refused permission for five homes in 1990, three in 1991, three in 2008 and two in 2010, and having lost two appeals along the way, they’re now back with a planning application for THIRTEEN!

If they get their way they’ll chop down more than 130 trees that are supposed to be protected by a collective preservation order.

Their arguments – that the woodland, which neighbours say they have totally failed to maintain, is becoming a liability.

And that this time around, the houses will be prefabricated and “affordable”.

Everyone knows we need truly affordable homes, but that doesn’t make it fair, does it, that people have to battle over and over again for years on end to save the same precious green space?

Especially when that greenery is a treasured feature of the city skyline, and when planning inspectors have previously ruled that developing it would destroy the character of the area.

On Monday about 30 residents sought support from the city council’s planning committee – which unfortunately under our crazy system doesn’t have the right to decide these things.

It backed them, but warned that in the current build-at-all-costs political climate, Wiltshire Council’s southern area planning committee, where the power lies, might not do so.

They would need to be highly organised and co-ordinate their protest speeches to cover all the angles within three three-minute slots.

And the stopwatches will be out, believe me. Ten seconds over time, and they’ll be cut off in mid-flow. I’ve watched baffled members of the public get caught out by this procedure time and again.

What a system!

My honeymoon with Maggie

WHAT were you doing the day Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister?

We were halfway through our honeymoon in a Welsh cottage.

And we were so excited by the prospect of a woman taking charge at No.10 that we spent the whole night sitting up in bed with a television propped up by our feet.

We’d made a midnight feast, and raised a glass or three as the results trickled in, brushing crumbs off the sheets and thinking: “Well, this has broken the mould. No more yah-boo-sucks-to-you politics now there’s a sensible female in charge.”

Ah, the naivety of youth!

How it all came flooding back at the Playhouse last week as I watched Handbagged - a delightfully daft play that imagines how Maggie and the Queen got on (or rather, didn’t).

Interesting to see one’s own life as history. There were plenty of “Oh gosh, yes, I remember that” moments.

And it was inevitable that as Maggie’s reign ended in tears, we would draw parallels with another beleaguered female Premier.

That ought to put politics into perspective. There’s always another crisis around the corner, so no point in getting too wound up about the current one.

anneriddle36@gmail.com