Agenda and minutes

The Chairman will welcome Councillor Jane Scott, Leader of Wiltshire Council.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to Calne Area Board and Compton Bassett Village Hall and introduced the councillors and officers present. The Chairman welcomed Councillor Jane Scott, Leader of Wiltshire Council.

Apologies were received from Brad Fleet (Service Director), Will Kay (Youth Development Coordinator) and Inspector Martin Schorah (Wiltshire Police).

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 12 June 2012.

The minutes of the meeting held on 12 June 2012 were approved and signed as a correct record.

Councillors are requested to declare any pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chairman will provide information about:

·       Street lighting savings (attached)

·       State of the environment debate (attached)

·       Police and crime commisioners (attached).

The Chairman drew attention to the written announcements included in the agenda pack.

Wiltshire Council was currently seeking views on proposals to reduce street lighting to lessen energy usage and costs. Please visit the website for further information: http://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=633.

The state of environment report 2012 was now available. The report provides a strategic assessment of Wiltshire’s environment and contains detailed information about each community area. Please see the environment section of the Wiltshire Intelligence Network for further information: www.intelligencenetwork.org.uk/environment.

The Chairman explained that all residents would also have the opportunity to vote for the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire Police on Thursday 15 November 2012. Please put the date of this election in your diary.  

To receive an update from the partners listed below:

a.     Wiltshire Police (attached)

b.     Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (attached)

c.     NHS Wiltshire (attached)

d.     Calne Community Area Partnership

e.     Calne CAYPIG (Community Area Young People’s Issues Group)

f.      Town and Parish Councils.

a.    The written update from Wiltshire Police was noted. The representative Inspector Martin Schorah had sent his apologies for the meeting, however he was happy to respond to any questions (there were none at the meeting).

b.    The written update from Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service was noted. Mike Franklin added that the service was about to start consultation on their business plan, as required by law. Further information to follow.

c.    The written update from NHS Wiltshire was noted.

d.    Calne Community Area Partnership were going through a review process and looking into what the partnership should be doing and how to achieve their aims. A more complete update would be provided at the next Calne Area Board meeting. The Chairman congratulated the partnership as the community hub had been shortlisted for a prestigious volunteering award in the Wiltshire Voluntary and Community Sectors Awards.

e.    There was no update from Calne CAYPIG (Community Area Young People’s Issues Group) as the Youth Development Coordinator had sent his apologies.     

f.     The Chairman asked for updates from town and parish councils. Calne Without Parish Council said their white gates project was ongoing and they were looking to install the gates as soon as possible. Hilmarton Parish Council also thanked the area board for the funding towards a refuge at Goatacre.

A new standing item on the agenda to encourage all of the community to get involved in the meeting. The subject this time will be ‘Four Years of Wiltshire Council - how are we doing so far?’ Councillor Jane Scott will begin the conversation.    

The Chairman spoke about how the area board was trying a new format for the meeting to encourage more people to become involved. Each meeting would include a conversation about a featured topic. Area board meetings would start earlier, at 6.30 pm, with the conversation starting at 7.00 pm.  

In this introduction to the trial, the featured topic was ‘Four Years of Wiltshire Council – how are we doing so far?’ and the conversation was led by Councillor Jane Scott, Leader of Wiltshire Council.

Councillor Scott explained that Wiltshire Council was a large and efficient organisation working locally through the eighteen area boards. Efficiency savings of approximately £100/105 million had been made over the last four years in large part due to the move to one unitary council from a county and district councils.

During this period, although there had been a 28% reduction in funding from the Government because of the recession, no services had been cut and there had been no increase in council tax. Over four hundred employees had been lost and the organisation had looked at the management structure in the first instance. Wiltshire Council had now been running successfully for a year without a Chief Executive.

The next challenges faced by Wiltshire Council were the ageing population, provision for vulnerable children and employment.

Councillor Scott then took any questions from the floor and this covered the following main issues:

·       Plans to improve Porte Marsh Industrial Estate to make it more attractive to businesses – Wiltshire Council was working with the Town Council on the neighbourhood plan. This included improving several tired areas in the town. Wiltshire Council funding was limited to providing services and it had a role to play in sourcing funds and pulling them together. Further investment from the private sector was needed.

Decision

Councillor Scott would look into plans for Porte Marsh Industrial Estate and provide further information through the area board.

·       Monitoring outside contractors who look after vulnerable people – the Care Quality Commission regulate, inspect and review all adult care social services in England. In addition to this, Wiltshire Council officers conduct regular cold calling. Wiltshire Council had invested £54 million into adult social care. Please get in touch if you have any questions or concerns about individual cases.

·       Wiltshire Council waste management strategy and a planning application from the Hills group – for legal reasons Councillor Scott was unable to comment on any large planning application. The facilities needed were changing since recycling in the county had progressed dramatically in the last six months as alternate week collection was rolled out across the county.

·       The withdrawal of funding for youth facilities by the Hills group linked to planning issues

Decision

Councillor Scott would look into the withdrawal of funding for youth facilities by the Hills Group and report back through the area board.

·       Overcrowding and housing conditions in certain housing association properties – the neighbourhood plan looked to replace poor housing stock in the town. Councillor Hill commented that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Karen Scott, Voluntary and Community Sector Development Manager, and Janice Fortune, CEO of Develop for the Volunteer Centre, will give a presentation to inform Calne Area Board of the work being undertaken with partners to develop and support volunteering in Wiltshire.

Karen Scott, Voluntary and Community Sector Development Manager, and Janice Fortune, CEO of Develop for the Volunteer Centre, gave a presentation about volunteering in Wiltshire.

This covered the volunteering plan and a time credits initiative. The volunteering plan was available to view on the Wiltshire Council website, or please email Karen on karen.scott@wiltshire.gov.uk. The main aim of the plan was to promote a partnership approach to volunteering with quality volunteering opportunities across the county to meet the needs of those concerned. The Volunteer Centre was also seeking to make the usual recipients of services their providers, for example using mentors to work alongside volunteers with learning difficulties.

An exciting time credits initiative was being piloted in Chippenham. Time credits were a way of thanking people for any time they choose to give to their community. If a person gave one hour of time to a community organisation, they earned one time credit. Time credits could then be spent on a range of activities in the local area, for example swimming pool sessions. The initiative was looking to involve more private companies, such as Bowood House, and national chains, such as Odeon cinemas.

Officers were in discussion with Calne Area Partmership about how best to roll out the time credits initiative from Chippenham further into Calne, with a potential base at the community hub.  

The majority of organisations engaged with volunteering were seeking more volunteers. If you would like to become involved in volunteering, please call 0845 034 5250 or visit www.volunteercentrewiltshire.org.uk.

To raise awareness of the digital literacy project which is due to start rolling out. To recruit local people to act as digital champion volunteers to support local people to get online.

The presentation to raise awareness of the digital literacy project would be given at the next Calne Area Board meeting.

Councillors will provide an update on community issues and progress on area board working groups. This will include:

a.     Skate board park working group

b.     Highways working group (CATG) (attached)

c.     Calne campus working group (attached)

d.     Sandpit Road (Section 106) working group (attached)

e.     Air quality working group.

Councillors provided an update on community issues and progress on Calne Area Board working groups. 

a.     Councillor Marshall reported the young people involved in the skate board park working group were committed to fundraising. They had arranged a dress down day, a car wash using facilities at the fire station and bag packing at Sainsburys. As mentioned earlier in the meeting, funding from the Hills Group was on hold, however another application had been submitted to Viridor.

b.     The Chairman provided an update about the highways working group, as included in the agenda pack. Since the update was written, the two roads put forward in the review of speed limits on C and unclassified roads at Compton Bassett and Kellaways had been accepted for the countywide review. The bid for the Goatacre refuge scheme to the substantive highways scheme had been successful. The footpath at Lake View was now virtually complete. Councillor Hill passed on thanks from the residents to the area board. The Quemerford Community Speedwatch volunteers had also now been fully trained.

A member of the public raised a query about an issue at Patford House Surgery in Calne where some bricks needed removing to improve wheelchair access. Councillor Marshall had looked at the site and agreed the issue needed to be addressed.

Decision

The highways working group (Community Area Transport Group) would consider the issue of wheelchair access at Patford House Surgery at their next meeting.     

c.     The written update from Calne campus working group was noted. Councillor Hill added that the project would now be presented to Cabinet on 23 October 2012, with a view to obtaining the necessary funding to create the campus.

d.     The written update from the Sandpit Road (Section 106) working group was noted. Councillor Trotman went through the update and the following recommendations from the group were endorsed by the area board:

Decision

Calne Area Board would commission a metro count at the unadopted part of Oxford Road (next to the Murco garage).

Decision

Calne Area Board would approve a consultation process with local residents on Oxford Road/Woodhill Rise.

Decision

Calne Area Board would approve a four week trial of traffic calming measures in the vicinity of Portemarsh Road/Oxford Road junction, conditional upon a ground survey proving that it was a feasible programme of work.

Decision

To move forward the Woodhill Rise – the Glebe cycle link forward ahead of the rest of the plan, in light of recent accidents in the area.

To consider a request for approval for core funding to Calne Community Area Partnership covering the financial year 2012/13 linked to the Community Area Partnership Agreement.

Councillors were then asked to approve core funding for Calne Community Area Partnership covering the financial year 2012/13. The Chairman commented how pleased she had been with the work of the Partnership over the last twelve months and with the community hub in particular.  

Decision

Calne Community Area Partnership were awarded the whole year’s core funding of £8,465 with an agreement to release the first tranche of £4,233 immediately and the second tranche at an area board meeting in early 2013, on condition the Partnership Development Officer and the area board were content to do so.  

This will include an evaluation of the new meeting format and collecting ideas about how to encourage more people to attend our meetings. The Chairman will then set out arrangements for the next meeting.   

The next area board meeting would be held again at the new start time of 6.30 pm on Tuesday 16 October at John Bentley School, with refreshments available from 6.00 pm. The Chairman thanked Councillor Scott and all who had attended the meeting for their contributions.