Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and invited the Councillors and Officers present introduce themselves.

Apologies for absence were received from the following:

• Cllr Stewart Dobson
• Cllr Stephen Stacey, Chair of Avebury Parish Council

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meetings held on 24 July 2018.

Resolved:

To approve and sign as a true and correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2018.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

·         Local Government Boundary Commission for England - Consultation

·         Annual Electoral Canvass

·         Marlborough Common parkrun

The Chairman made the following announcements:

·         Local Government Boundary Commission for England – Consultation

The Chairman advised the meeting that there was a written update available at the meeting with full details of the LGBCE Consultation and then summarised the main points. The LGBCE for England had decided on a future council size for Wiltshire Council of 98 with an average elector to councillor ratio of 4291 per councillor. A consultation on the pattern of electoral divisions would run from 28 August 2018 to 5 November 2018. The meetings was encouraged to respond online to the consultation and email submissions to Wiltshire Council.

·         Annual Electoral Canvass

The Chairman encouraged the audience to respond to the Household Enquiry Forms, preferably online.

·         Marlborough Common parkrun

Following a grant from the Area Board, preparations for the Marlborough Common parkrun were going well and the first event would be held soon. Further updates would be provided at future Area Board meetings.

·         Animal Licensing

The Chairman advised the meeting that there was a written update available at the meeting on changes to animal licensing laws.

To note the attached Partner updates and receive any further information partners wish to share:

·         Wiltshire Police

·         Police and Crime Commissioner

·         Wiltshire Fire and Rescue

·         Healthwatch Wiltshire

·         Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

·         MADT (Marlborough Area Development Trust)

·         Transition Marlborough

·         Town / Parish Councils

·         Marlborough Neighbourhood Plan

Attention was drawn to the written reports from partners attached to the agenda. In addition to the written updates, the following verbal updates were given by partners present.

·         Wiltshire Police

Inspector Chris Martin gave a brief update. His new deputy Sergeant Peter Foster had started and there would be a new PCSO, Melissa Camilleri, starting work in Marlborough. Crime was low in the area, however there was an issue with both commercial and dwelling burglaries, so resources would be focused on those. In response to a question from the Chair it was stated that domestic abuse cases were taken very seriously with policies and procedures in place and arrests made where possible.

·         Police and Crime Commissioner

Deputy PCC Jerry Herbert introduced himself to the meeting. Since its establishment the role of PCC and the workload had expanded so much that it was now too much for one person. Therefore the PCC had appointed him as deputy PCC on 1^st August and he works 2 days a week in that role. One of his objectives was to listen to communities to set appropriate priorities. In response to questions regarding Marlborough Police Station it was stated that the PCC had published a strategy for estates across Wiltshire. Many of the estates were traditional police buildings that were no longer fit for purpose and cost a lot to run and maintain. The vast majority of policing today did not take place over the counter in a police station as it used to, so tying officers to a station in this way was limiting. It was felt that a better strategy was to have a smaller number of bigger hubs. The cost of keeping Marlborough Police Station open would be approximately £70,000 per year, which could pay for 3 PCSO’s. However there would be a local “touchdown” place for police in Marlborough. In response to questions it was stated that Wiltshire was a comparatively safe environment and knife crime was not prevalent here. However funding was an issue. The National level of funding was flat, and Wiltshire was one of the least well-funded forces from general taxation. Council Tax precepts made up the rest of the funding and this was set at a local level. It was very hard to decide what the right level was. Living in a resource strained environment they wanted to make sure they got the best value out of the funds they do have. A suitable base in Marlborough had been identified but was not yet in the public domain. They were looking to share facilities if possible. Once the police station was shut there would not necessarily be any new PCSO’s appointed, but the frontline level of policing would be sustained. Whereas if the police station was kept open frontline levels would be affected. 

·         Wiltshire Fire and Rescue

Station Manager Greg Izon was in attendance and encouraged the meeting to test their smoke alarms and to be safe if having bonfires. A written report was available at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.

To receive any update on the Local Youth Network (LYN).

Tyler Bathe from Innov8 Sportz gave a presentation to the meeting. The Local Youth Network were keen for Innov8 Sportz, along with Jenny Bowley from JB Youth Services, to pilot rural youth clubs to determine what numbers of young people would engage and to assess what offer these young people would benefit from. Four areas were selected that did not have a youth group or which contained lots of young people, these were; Ramsbury, Lockeridge, Ogbourne St George and Baydon. Ogbourne St George was a slow starting group with four participants. Baydon was also a slow starting group which ended with five participants. Ramsbury started slowly but ended with 17 young people taking part. Lockeridge was the busiest group with 17 young people engaging. Many different activities were offered over the groups, such as African drumming, graffiti, sports, pottery and cooking. It was stated that transport could be an issue and also that it was very difficult to find volunteers to help run the groups. Advertising was also a struggle but Facebook and word of mouth seemed to be the most effective means of advertising the groups. Strong community backing was important in running a successful youth project. On International Celebration of Youth Day Innov8 Sports ran an event in Marlborough offering amongst other things; archery, street dance, a barbeque, arts and crafts and a skate competition. Unfortunately the skate competition was rained off, however they were hoping to run this in the future as it was a very popular idea with the young people. The event was a success with 136 people attending. Young people who had attended the groups then gave some really positive feedback. Cllr Davies thanked the children and Tyler.

To receive updates on the First World War commemorative tree planting project and other First World War and Second World War commemorations.

Cllr Nick Fogg MBE gave a short update regarding the commemoration event due to take place on 10^th November at the Town Hall. The event would commemorate those who fought in the great war. Amongst those being commemorated would be Elsie Knocker, who was the most decorated person from Marlborough, receiving medals for her work as a nurse and ambulance driver during WW1. There would also be an event on 4 November, Royal Shakespeare actors would be reading poetry and letters by Wilfred Owen who was one of the leading poets during WW1. The 4^th November marks the centenary of his death.

Andrew Jack, Community Engagement Manager, gave an update on the World War 1 Commemorative Tree Planting project. Marlborough had a good response to the project with 8 different projects in the Marlborough Area which would be planting around 1,000 trees in total.

Claire Costello updated the meeting regarding the Ramsbury Airfield Remembrance Project. Ramsbury Airfield was used during WW2 with airborne forces departing from there for the D-Day invasion. New woodland was being created using the WW1 commemorative project. Cub Scouts, primary school children and volunteers would be planting the trees on 10^th November. A memorial stone would be placed on the airfield to commemorate WW2.

Mary Spender from the Marlborough Historical Society gave a presentation regarding research she had undertaken on war memorials. Mary contacted all villages within the Marlborough Area Board area and requested a current picture of their war memorial, it’s location and any research that they had done on the memorial. All 18 villages responded and Mary also undertook further research herself regarding the memorials such as when they had been put up, by whom and who had designed them. Details would be put on the Marlborough Historical Society website along with a map of the sites. The historical society was also taking part in the WW1 Commemorative Tree Planting project. Mary was helping to plan commemorative events including a “knees-up tea” and community events.

Diann Barnett of Ramsbury and Axford Parish Council gave a presentation regarding researching war memorials. Diann had undertaken research on the Ramsbury war memorial which had 67 names. The resident vicar at the time of the great war listed every man that went to WW1, so his records were a useful source. However there were no criteria for war memorials, anyone can put them up and religious issues may mean that certain people were not included on certain memorials. It transpired that their memorial was missing 9 names, these would be added to the memorial. Resources online were useful when researching the project, particularly the Wiltshire Soldiers website and Commonwealth War Graves website. However Diann found the most effective way to find things out was often to go and talk to the archivists.

Mervyn Hall of Marlborough Town Council gave a brief update of commemorative events in Marlborough:

·         4 November – Wilfred Owen evening

·         9 November – Laying of wreaths at the 7th Wilts Memorial (procession  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

Andrew Jack, Community Engagement Manager (CEM) to provide an update.

Andrew Jack gave an update stating that the deadline for community area grants for the next meeting was 16 October 2018. Grant budgets were at an acceptable level at present. Andrew encouraged anyone with ideas for projects that might need funding to get in touch with him.

To receive any update.

To consider the following application for Health and Wellbeing Funding:

·         Alzheimer’s Support, £3,350.18 towards the Mildenhall Memory Group project.

An application for Health and Wellbeing Funding, as detailed in the agenda, was considered.

A representative of Alzheimer’s Support spoke in support of their application. After a report commissioned with Healthwatch Wiltshire the area to the East of Marlborough had been identified as being deficient in services supporting people with Alzheimers and their carers. Therefore they started a group in that area. There was a mix of activities on the rota and there were always people with specialist knowledge of Alzheimer’s in attendance that carers could speak to. Their grant request was to finance 24 sessions covering the rest of the financial year.

In response to questions from the Board regarding future funding they stated that in future they would charge £1 per session. This would help to cover costs, but would also mean the service was still accessible.

It was;

Resolved:

To grant Alzheimer’s Support, £3,350.18 towards the Mildenhall Memory Group project.

To consider funding the following project from the capital budget:

·         Wiltshire Walking Project, £1000, towards the costs of the local element of the project.

The Area Board considered funding from the capital budget the Wiltshire Walking Project, as detailed in the agenda.

Andrew Jack (CEM) introduced the application. The Area Board were being asked to contribute £1000. The Wiltshire Walking project would develop an app for smart phones that would record people’s walks and allow others to see and undertake the same walk. They would also detail extra local information and photographs of the walks to make routes more interesting.

The Board had concerns regarding people walking over private land and sharing this as a route. It was confirmed that this would be fed back to the developers.

Resolved:

To grant the Wiltshire Walking Project, £1000, towards the costs of the

local element of the project.

The Chairman will invite any questions from the floor.

Milly from Transition Marlborough asked the Board to update on progress regarding making Marlborough High Street safer and the idling of engines.

Andrew Jack confirmed that idling ones engine can be an offence and a parking warden could ask one to turn their engine off. However this is not statutory across England and you have to ask permission from the Secretary of State in order to enforce this. Wiltshire at present does not have permission and therefore cannot enforce. Requesting this ability would be a long and expensive process. Voluntary and community led schemes encouraging drivers to turn off their engines may be more effective. Andrew had asked for volunteers to help with this but had not received any response. The Area Board could fund signs, however these would only be advisory.

The Area Board requested that the Cabinet member for Highways be approached and formally asked to request the power from the Secretary of State to enforce no idling.

The Board also asked the Community Engagement Manager to contact the five other Air Quality Areas in Wiltshire to request that they group together to try to get action on this issue.

Any other items of business which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.

The next meeting of the Marlborough Area Board will be held on Tuesday 6 November 2018 at 7pm at The Assembly Room, Marlborough Town Hall.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Marlborough Area Board would be on Tuesday 6 November 2018 at 7pm at The Assembly Room, Marlborough Town Hall.