Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chairman for the forthcoming year. 

Councillor Lionel Grundy OBE sought nominations for the position of Chairman of the Devizes Area Board for the 2011/12 forthcoming year.

Decision

Councillor Laura Mayes was elected Chairman of the Devizes Area Board for the 2011/12 forthcoming year.

Councillor Mayes in the Chair

To elect a Vice Chairman for the forthcoming year.

The Chairman sought nominations for the position of Vice-Chairman of the Devizes Area Board for the 2011/12 forthcoming year.

Decision

Councillor Jane Burton was elected Vice-Chairman of the Devizes Area Board for the 2011/12 forthcoming year.

To appoint Councillors to the outside bodies related to Devizes Area Board.

The appointments to outside bodies which were made by the Board last year would continue for 2011/12.

Devizes Community Area Partnership – Councillor Bryant

Devizes District Association for the Disabled Executive Committee – Councillor Burton and Councillor Ody

Devizes Development Partnership – Councillor Carter and Councillor Gamble

Devizes Youth Issues Group – Councillor Mayes and Councillor Grundy.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting, especially the young people present, and introduced Councillor Stuart Wheeler.

The Chairman drew attention to the Chairman’s announcements, as included in the agenda pack. She underlined the announcement about digital inclusion. Wiltshire Council’s business plan for 2011-15 had prioritised a number of areas for investment, of which digital inclusion and supporting the rollout of superfast broadband for business and home users is a key area. If you would like to contribute to a survey on this issue, details are available between 26 April and 3 June from:

www.wiltshire.gov.uk/digitalinclusion

Printed versions of the survey can be requested by calling 0300 4560100.

The Chairman also highlighted that three sites in the Community Area were included in the consultation on Wiltshire and Swindon proposed submission draft waste site allocations development plan document. These sites were; Hopton Industrial Estate, Nursteed Road Employment Allocation and Wiltshire Waste, Tinkersfield Farm, Monument Hill, Devizes. The consultation period would start on 13 June 2011 and close on 5 August 2011. The Council encouraged anyone wishing to view and comment on the consultation document to use the website, as below:

http://consult.wiltshire.gov.uk/portal

Printed versions of the documents will be available for inspection at Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council main offices as well as all libraries. Please contact the Minerals and Waste Policy Team at Wiltshire Council, on 01225 713429 or mineralsandwastepolicy@wiltshire.gov.uk for further information.     

Apologies had been received from Councillor Nigel Carter, Councillor Jeff Ody, Tony Molland (Potterne Parish Council), Chris Saunders (Easterton Parish Council) and Paula Winchcombe (Devizes Community Area Partnership).

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 21 March 2011.

The minutes of the meeting held on 23 May 2011 were approved and signed as a correct record.

Councillors are requested to declare any personal or prejudicial interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest made.

This item will include information about the Wiltshire Council business plan, information about what we have achieved together and group work to identify ideas and priorities for the future.   

The Chairman provided an end of year review. Main points that were raised included:

·         The national context – the 2010 general election, the budget deficit and the biggest changes to local government since WWII

·         How Wiltshire Council was making savings

·         Wiltshire Council investments

·         The relevance to the Area Board – when resources were scarce it was essential they were targeted. The Area Board worked to ensure decisions were community led

·         52 issues had been closed in the last year - 24 issues had been closed from Devizes and 26 issues had been closed from the villages

·         Results from the traffic working group – these included the Long Street crossing and village gates

·         £52,078 had been awarded in the previous year in Community Area Grants

·         Improvements and changes – working closely with DCAP and the parishes, raising the profile of parish spokesmen at meetings, more opportunities for group discussion and shorter agendas

The Chairman acknowledged the Area Board still had work to do regarding:

·         Input and influencing the Core Strategy

·         A skate park

·         Anti social behaviour

·         Litter

·         Low cost housing for local families

·         Section 106 monies

·         Rat runs

·         Allotments.  

To receive updates from the following partners:

a.    Wiltshire Police

b.    Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

c.    NHS Wiltshire

d.    Devizes Community Area Partnership

e.    Town and Parish Councils – Parish Forum

f.     Young People – to include a DVD about the skate park.

a) The written update from Wiltshire Police was noted. The Chairman introduced the new commander for the Community Area, Inspector Ron Peach. Inspector Peach reinstated the message from Inspector Noble that boundary changes would not affect staffing levels for neighbourhood policing teams. A report was also included in the agenda pack regarding Wiltshire Police Authority. This identified four strategic priorities for policing effort; reducing violent crime, managing the people who cause the most harm in our communities, tackling antisocial behaviour and developing sustainable policing.  

b) The written update from Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service was noted. The written update for April was circulated at the meeting, please find attached. 

c) The written update for May from NHS Wiltshire was noted.

d) The written update from Devizes Community Area Partnership was noted. The Community Area Manager explained that some consultation forms were yet to be delivered and the consultation period had been extended accordingly. 

e) Town and Parish Councils – Parish Forum. The Chairman explained that the forum had reformed and would be developed in the future. 

f) Young people from the Community Area presented a DVD about the skate park. This included young people talking about why a skate park was needed, problems with skating in Devizes at present and provision in other towns, specifically in Marlborough.

The Chairman explained the Area Board had committed two years ago to providing a skate park in the town. The Area Board were frustrated with the progress of this project as a site had not been found and a temporary skate park had been stolen. She launched a campaign to find a suitable site for a skate park and the following suggestions were put forward from the floor:

·         Former army quarters at Eastleigh Road

·         The Green – representatives from the Town Council commented that when this site had been investigated it was within a conservation area and a skate park here was disliked by the community

·         Devizes Sports Club

·         Devizes School

·         Devizes Leisure Centre.

Please get in touch with the Community Area Manager, Richard Rogers, on 07771 547522 or richard.rogers@wiltshire.gov.uk if you have any suggestions for a suitable site for a skate park in the Community Area.    

Councillor Stuart Wheeler will provide a short overview of his role as Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture.

Councillor Stuart Wheeler provided a short overview of his role as Cabinet Member for Campus Development and Culture, including Leisure, Sport and Libraries.

His main role was the launch of eight campus projects in the county. The intention of the new campuses would be to bring facilities and services together into one modern building. This would be more efficient and generate cost savings.

Councillor Wheeler also spoke about the Women of Wiltshire (WoW) scheme to encourage women to become more active in the county. This was because women exercise proportionally less than men in the same age group.

Councillor Wheeler’s overview was followed by a short question and answer session. This included the following:

·         Concerns were raised regarding the closure of Devizes Tourist Information Centre – ‘Visit Wiltshire’ had been created to attract visitors to the county, often from overseas. Tourist Information Centres had been found to cater mostly for people already within the county.

·         Concern was raised regarding the capital cost of moving facilities and services into one building – some of the old buildings were not fit for purpose and new buildings would be less expensive to build and run. Capital receipts from the sale of old buildings would go into the budget for the new buildings.

·         A letter had been received by Wiltshire Heritage Museum regarding the pay back of rate relief. Councillor Wheeler was aware of the issue and working to resolve it.       

Nicholas Bate, Emergency Planning Officer, will give a short presentation about local emergency plans.

Nick Bate, Emergency Planning Officer, gave a presentation on town and parish emergency plans. Given the bad weather over Christmas, particularly rain and snow, the production of emergency plans was very relevant and Town and Parish Councils were being asked to assist with this initiative.

The plans were compiled using national ‘at risk’ data as well as local risk information from the individual parishes. A nominated person would take responsibility for preparing the plan and ensuring that it was kept up to date.

The Government had produced a template to assist with the production of emergency plans, which had been circulated to Town and Parish Councils via their clerks.

The Chairman thanked Nick for attending the meeting to highlight this issue. If Parish Councils would like to find out more, please contact Nick directly, on nicholas.bate@wiltshire.gov.uk.   

The Area Board will consider a request from the Chairman to ring fence £5,000 of Area Board funding for festivals and events in the Community Area.

Decision

The Area Board would ring fence £5,000 of Area Board funding for festivals and events in the Community Area.

Councillors will be asked to consider the following application made to the Community Area Grants Scheme:

Devizes Carnival, seeking £3,500 to expand a community involvement project that has brought many new people into Devizes Carnival.   

Councillors were asked to consider the Community Area Grants Report and make recommendations on the applications received:

Decision

Devizes Carnival were not awarded £3,500 to expand a community involvement project.

Reason

Concerns had been raised that the amount of funding was excessive in relation to the number of people who would benefit from the project.

To agree that in respect of urgent matters that may arise from time to time between meetings of an Area Board, the Community Area Manager, in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Area Board concerned, be granted delegated authority to approve expenditure not exceeding £500 from the budget delegated to the relevant Board. A report explaining the decisions and the reasons why it was considered to be urgent shall be reported to the next ordinary meeting of the Area Board to ensure that such decisions are subject to public examination.

Decision

The Area Board agreed that in relation to urgent matters that may arise from time to time between meetings of an Area Board, the Community Area Manager, in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Area Board, be granted delegated authority to approve expenditure not exceeding £500 from the budget delegated to the Board. A report explaining the decisions and the reasons why it was considered to be urgent would be reported to the next ordinary meeting of the Area Board to ensure that such delegations were subject to public examination.

The Chairman thanked those at the meeting. The next Area Board meeting would take place on Monday 18 July at 7.00 pm at Lavington School.