Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Broad Hinton village hall. The Chairman then invited all the Wiltshire Council members and officers in attendance to introduce themselves to the meeting along with the Parish council representatives in attendance.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Peggy Dow, Joan Davies – Savernake Parish Council, Andrew Ross – Marlborough Town Council, ACC Pat Geenty, Wiltshire Police, Kate Hunter, St John’s School, Richard Clarke, MADT, Karen Davis, Extended Schools and Jan Bowra – Youth Development Service.

a.      To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meetings held on 19 October 2010

b.      Matters arising from the last meeting.

a. The minutes of the meeting held on 19 October 2010 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

b. Matters arising.

i.                    Wiltshire Voices Performance Reward Grant application.

That the Marlborough Area Development Trust be invited to feed into the process, it was agreed that the community area manager would contact the Marlborough Area Development Trust to invite them to any further meetings to discuss the Wiltshire Voices project. The point was made that other local groups were welcome to get involved.

ii.                  Air Quality Issues in Marlborough.

That Marlborough Town Council had voted for option 3, (a blanket Air Quality Management Area plan for the main residential area of the town) on the air quality management plan options for Marlborough.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

To include, but not limited to, the following:

a.      Mobile Phone Safety

b.      Adverse Weather Conditions

c.      Census 2011

d.      Consultation on TICs in Avebury, Corsham, Devizes, Marlborough and Salisbury

e.   Participatory Budgeting for Disabled Access.

a. Mobile Phone Safety

Immobilise, the UK national property register, was running a scheme to help protect your mobile phone and other property in the future.

b. Adverse Winter Weather – Call for Partnership Working

Wiltshire Council was looking to expand its partnership working with the city, town and parish councils should problems be caused by adverse winter conditions.

c. Help tomorrow take shape – the 2011 Census

The 2011 Census was coming - the census has collected information about the population every ten years since 1801 (except in 1941). The next census in England and Wales was to be on 27^th March 2011.

d. Consultation on TICs in Avebury, Corsham, Devizes, Marlborough and Salisbury

Earlier this year Wiltshire Council asked VisitWiltshire (its tourism unit) for recommendations as to the future direction of tourism within the county, taking into account anticipated reductions in Council spending over the next four years.

e. Participatory Budgeting for Disabled Access

Marlborough Area Board intended to invite applications from all community organisations in the Marlborough community area who wish to improve their premises to enable disabled access

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

a.      Wiltshire Police

b.      Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

c.      NHS Wiltshire

d.      Town and Parish Councils

e.      Marlborough and Villages Community Area Partnership (MaVCAP).

Wiltshire Police

The written update distributed with the agenda was noted.

 It was also noted that neighbourhood policing reports were now only available on Facebook which many parish councils do not access.

The Chairman advised that he would follow this up with a view to getting the beat manager’s report e-mailed to parishes.

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

The written update distributed with the agenda was noted.

 Mike Franklin also made the following points:

·        That anyone using an open fire or boiler should ensure that their chimneys were regularly swept to avoid unnecessary chimney fires.

·         Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service was available to carry out home fire safety visits to any vulnerable people in the area.

NHS Wiltshire

The written update distributed with the agenda was noted.

It was also noted that:

·        The inpatient beds had now been reopened at Savernake hospital.

·        The Marlborough Area Board Local Health Forum steering group would be organising a health fair in Marlborough next April, date, time and venue to be confirmed. It was then proposed to take the health fair out to the villages.

·        NHS Wiltshire no longer ran the district nurses service, they now came under the control of the Great Western Hospital, Swindon.

Town or Parish updates

There were no updates.

Marlborough and Villages Community Area Partnership (MaVCAP)

Rich Pitts, (MaVCAP Chairman) advised that:

• MaVCAP would be holding a meeting on 19 January 2011 to define its role.

• The six month report had now been circulated.

• The community area plan project had been positively received.

The Chairman thanked everybody for their updates.

Cllr Fleur de Rhé-Philipe, (Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Risk) will introduce her portfolio and take questions.

Cllr Fleur de Rhé-Philipe, (Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Risk) introduced her portfolio and then took questions from the floor.

Points made by Cllr de Rhé-Philipe included:

• Wiltshire Council was committed to make savings and protecting vital services.

• Wiltshire Council would not be raising council tax next year.

• Over the next four years Central government grants to Wiltshire Council were to be cut by 28%.

• All Wiltshire Council departments were facing 12% cuts in their budgets.

• The Council may have to postpone some of its planned investment.

• There was a priority to protect the most vulnerable people in our community.

• Wiltshire Council was not looking to close libraries.

Questions raised from the floor included:

• Does Wiltshire Council expect that there will be any cuts to the education budget?

A – Too early to say.

• Will Academy Status Schools be beneficial to the education budget?

A – Too early to say, although schools transport could be an issue.

• Highways projects and cost benefits – Pewsey Road bridge.

A – When a bridge is failing then it has to be repaired.

Chairman thanked Cllr de Rhé-Philipe for attending the meeting.

A list of questions raised by Cllr Tony Prior and given to Cllr de Rhé-Philipe in advance of the meeting is set out below.

Q1. An awareness of the WC Finances is an important interest to parish council representatives now that we are in the second year of unitary.  Please could the cabinet rep respond to the following:

1. Is there an equivalent list to the previous “Current Spending on Council Services” for this year for area board information?

Q1.1 - We don't have a list equivalent for 2010-11, but attached is a different listing which agrees back to the councils original approved budget and also has 2009-10 for comparison.

2. I believe a figure of a saving of £18m was forecast following unitary re-organisation. What savings were achieved in the first year?

Q1.2 - The savings achieved & detailed with respect to unitary are as follows:

2009/10 = £8.2m (actual as per NI.179 submission)

2010/11 = £5.8m (forecast as per budget setting report)

3. What was the staff numbers for Wiltshire DC’s in 2008-09 and WC in 2009-10?

Q1.3 - The following figures show the number of staff in Districts and Wiltshire County Council during September 2008. Figures are non-schools.

On the 1^st of April most District Council staff transferred to the new Wiltshire Council giving a staff headcount of 5857. By March 2010 this staff headcount had reduced to 5638 (-219).

4. Were there any redundancies in the first year of unitary? If so, how much did they cost?

Q1.4 - The total cost in the 2009-10 of all for all redundancy and related retirements was £9.5m.  Note 2 to the accounts  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

a.            Customer Services for Marlborough

Councillor Alison Bucknell, (Portfolio Holder for Customer Care, Wiltshire Council) andWayne Smith, Customer Services Operations Manager, will give a presentation on proposals for a new customer services point in Marlborough.

b.            Car Parking Strategy Consultation

Cllr Richard Gamble and David Bullock, Highway Improvements Manager, will give a presentation and respond to any questions.

c.            Local Transport Plan Funding Allocation

To note the recommendations made by the Community Area Transport Group.

d.            Highways Winter Maintenance

To note the recommendations for the area board’s 2010 allocation of grit bins.

a. Customer Services for Marlborough

Councillor Alison Bucknell (Portfolio Holder for Customer Care, Wiltshire Council) and John Rogers (Head of Customer Access) gave a DVD presentation on proposals for a new approach to face to face customer access.

Points made from the floor included:

• The importance of the public getting through to the right officer, an example was given of a member of the public who had found it frustrating talking to various call centre staff and getting nowhere. John Rogers advised that he would investigate this issue.

• Wiltshire Council needed to think about its customers who do not have internet access.

• People would welcome not having to travel and wait at council offices when they needed to access council services.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Bucknell and John Rogers for their presentation and attending the meeting.

b. Car Parking Strategy Consultation

Cllr Richard Gamble (Portfolio Holder for Public Transport) gave a brief presentation and responded to questions.

Points made by Councillor Gamble included:

• It was necessary to review car parking policy as the move towards One Council had brought together four policies from the former district councils.

• There had been some six hundred responses to the consultation and one petition.

• Countywide responses on the objectives of the strategy, banding and town council opportunities showed:

i. Overwhelming support for economy as the most important objective.

ii. Next highest support for meeting residents’ needs for parking.

iii. Majority support for concept of banding towns andproposed land- use zones.

iv. A small majority disagree with proposed bands.

v. A large majority agreed that town and parish councils should be offered ‘buy back’ and car park management opportunities.

Points made from the floor included:

·        Marlborough town council would like to operate its own car parking, is this likely to happen?

A – not in the short term.

• Are Marlborough parking costs expected to be lowered when the new Tesco store opens?

A – no change of the tariff is envisaged.

• The large consultative document had discouraged people to complete it and take part in the survey.

• If there were to be any future changes to parking tariffs would you be coming back to the area board to discuss?

A – yes, area boards are the forum to discuss such matters.

• There were concerns over the banding policy that residents and users of town A may pay more than town B.

A – Eventually all towns across Wiltshire will have a single tariff.

• Have Wiltshire Council looked how neighbouring councils operate their car parking policies?

Yes, Wiltshire Council had looked at others councils policies.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Gamble for attending the meeting and his presentation.

c. Local Transport Plan Funding Allocation

The 18 Area Boards had been allocated a discretionary budget of £250,000 for the assessment and selection of small-scale transport schemes to be progressed in their community areas - Marlborough Area Board had been allocated £13,600.

The Head of Traffic and Network Management stated that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

The Wiltshire Councillors will consider two applications to the Community Area Grants Scheme 2010/11, as follows:

a.      Aldbourne Website Group request £3,490 to purchase and install weather station and webcam equipment, conditional upon the balance of funding be in place.

b.      Kennet Valley Hall Association request £2,000 to remove the obsolete heating system and replace with a new more efficient and economical system, conditional on the balance of funding being in place.

Total Amount Requested: £5,490

Allocation of Grant Funding to date:

·        Aldbourne Scout and Guide Supporters - £1,738 towards the refurbishment of the Scouting and Guide Hall

·        Kennet Valley Village Hall - £1000 for two matching reinforced frames to house wall hanging & photo montage

·        Aldbourne Festival Committee - £1,250 towards 17th Century re-enactment as part of Aldbourne Ten Year Festival

·        Baydon Cricket Club - £515 for the purchase of new equipment

·        Aldbourne Parish Council - £773 to upgrade the footpath to improve access for all to the play area and village green

·        Marlborough Apple Day - £709 to raise awareness of local apple varieties and orchard habitats and launch a Community Orchard

·        Ramsbury Allotment Association - £697 to install water pipe to allotments

To date, £6,682 in Community Area Grants, £2,800 in Area Board Projects (Youth) and £4,488 to Marlborough and Villages Community Area Partnership has been awarded from the Area Board budget of £52,881.  This leaves a remainder of £38,911.

Copies of the completed application forms and grant application packs for the

Community Area Grants Scheme are available from the Community Area

Manager or electronically at

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/areaboardscommunitygrantsscheme.htm

The Wiltshire Councillors considered two applications to the Community Area Grants Scheme 2010/11, as follows:

Representation was made by Mr Rupert Bound on behalf of Aldbourne Website Group,

Representation was made by Mr Rob Duckett on behalf of Kennet Valley Village Hall.

Decision

Aldbourne Website Group was awarded £3,490 to purchase and install weather station and webcam equipment. 

Reason

The above application met the Community Area Grant criteria for 2010/11 and this project demonstrated a link to Wiltshire Council’s priorities in the Local Agreement for Wiltshire that aimed to build ‘resilient communities’ with high social capital through people feeling socially included, enabled people and communities to build skills, abilities, knowledge and confidence to take effective action and play leading roles in the development of their communities and so enhance their quality of life.

Decision

Kennet Valley Village Hall was awarded £2,000 to remove the obsolete heating system and replace with a new more efficient and economical system.

Reason

The above application met the Community Area Grant criteria for 2010/11 and demonstrated a direct links to the 2004-2014 Marlborough Community Plan as it encouraged community events that created a sense of pride and well-being, involved young people in activities and increased the number of appropriate cultural venues.

The Chairman will invite any remaining questions from the floor.

There were no questions.

Please note that the next meeting will be held on 8 February 2011 at St John’s School, Marlborough.

The Chairman thanked everybody for attending and advised that the next meeting would be on Tuesday, 8 February 2011 at St John’s School.