Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Derek Brown welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Salisbury Area Board and invited the members of the Board to introduce themselves.

Apologies for absence had been received from:

• Cllr John Walsh
• Cllr Mary Douglas

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 24^th January 2019.

Decision

The minutes of the last meeting held on Thursday 24^th January 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

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

There were none.

The Chairman will give an update on outcomes and actions arising from previous meetings of the Area Board.

The Chairman gave the following updates:

• National Armed Forces Day – A reminder that this year, the event would be hosted here in Salisbury over a three day period at the end of June.

To note the written information items as detailed in the agenda:

a.    Healthwatch Wiltshire

b.    Care Commissioning Group

c.     Wiltshire Council – Children’s Centres & Electoral Review

The Board noted the written information items as detailed in the agenda:

a. Healthwatch Wiltshire

b. Care Commissioning Group

c. Wiltshire Council – Children’s Centres & Electoral Review

To note the written updates attached to the agenda and to receive any verbal updates from representatives present.

a)    Police

b)    Fire

c)    Salisbury City Council (SCC)

d)    Laverstock and Ford Parish Council

e)    Salisbury BID

f)     Crime & Community Safety Group

g)    Child Wellbeing Group

h)    Community Engagement Manager

Note: Speakers are reminded that they each have a 3 minutes slot, unless they have previously discussed alternative arrangements with the Chairman.

The Board noted the written updates attached to the agenda and received the following verbal updates from partners present:

Police

In addition to the written update attached to the agenda, Inspector Sparrow highlighted the following points:

There had been a lot of publicity about knife crime recently across the country, however in Wiltshire this type of crime had fallen. There were a lot of youths being drawn into this. He urged people to be alert to the young people in their homes/families, if they seem to have new phones, clothes or trainers, and you have not given them the money, then consider that they are getting it from somewhere.

Our Specials had provided over 1900hrs of voluntary time in South Wiltshire this year – that equated to £19k of staff hours.

We had seen a rise in burglaries, so we are advising people to be proactive and mark any tools and equipment in their outbuildings with bright paint.

Comments and questions included:

·       How many specials were in South Wiltshire Answer: There were about 40, we are also recruiting now for the next batch, for PCSO’s.

·       The Chairman asked that Pete pass on the thanks of the Board to all Officers for all the work they did.

·       Are you actually recruiting for PC’s? Answer: I think the doors are closed, but they are now brining the people through that were previously recruited for training.

·       1900 hours was really impressive, what were you doing to promote this and encourage more? Answer: There was a reward and recognition panel. One of my Escort Officers had moved through the training and would become an officer later this year, he is of Turkish Nationality …

·       I spoke to the assistant Chief Officer regarding the City Security Officer’s; The Chief Constable still supports the principle of increasing their powers. He hoped it would happen in the next couple of months, if you could add any support to this we would be grateful. Answer: The security company was being vetted through Hampshire, we were waiting for the vetting to come back.

The Chairman thanked the Inspector for the written report,  adding that it was very comprehensive.

Salisbury City Council (SCC)

Cllr Jeremy Nettle – Leader of SCC

We have been pleased with the street cleaning services, and had started to see the roads and paths being cleaned outside of the ring road for the first time in 8 years. Since the asset transfer we had been able to push our teams further.

SCC was working closely with many agencies in Salisbury since the Novichok incidents, and was seen as a positive thing to have come out of it. High-street funding was more joined up in these areas, and it was hoped that it would continue in other areas.

We need to bring more people into the City. The Events team had been looking at what events could be put on and would display this info on the website, which would include French  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

A presentation on housing relevant to the Salisbury area and an update on homelessness following our themed meeting in 2018.

Officer: Nicole Smith, Head of Housing Operations

Nicole Smith, Head of Housing Operations delivered a presentation on housing relevant to the Salisbury area and gave an update on homelessness following the themed meeting the Board held last year.

The Council had spent the last 12 months updating its Strategy and were currently in consultation across Wiltshire. The Strategy was not a standalone document, the Council was working with its partners to take this forward.

The term homelessness was often considered to apply to those people ‘sleeping rough’, but we were considering the wider context for this review. 

Crisis defines Homelessness as follows:-

“Homelessness is about more than rooflessness.  A home is not just a physical space, it also has a legal and social dimension.  A home provides roots, identity, a sense of belonging and a place of emotional wellbeing.  Homelessness is about the loss of all these.  It is an isolating and destructive experience and homeless people are some of the most vulnerable and social excluded in our society”

Wiltshire is a place where we all work together to strengthen our communities, to prevent and relieve homelessness and rough sleeping

Our Aims

Homelessness: Working together to help prevent homelessness and where homelessness cannot be avoided help people secure and keep a suitable home

Rough Sleeping:  Working together to help reduce the number of people who were rough sleeping

• To reduce rough sleeping
• To identify and prevent homelessness at the earliest possible stage
• To ensure services are designed to prevent homelessness and support those who are homeless.
• To ensure those who are threatened with homelessness or who are homeless can secure and keep a suitable home.
• To maintain effective strategic direction and partnership working

Rough Sleeper Initiative funding (RSI)

•       RSI funding 2018/19 £312,245  2019/20  £305,491

•       Rough sleeping outreach team x 6 – with a dedicated officer for Salisbury - Laura Woodhouse

•       Trowbridge 7 bed winter provision

•       6 intensive support bed spaces

•       10 winter provision in Chippenham

•       18 Severe weather places

•       Personal budget and private let funding

Comments and Questions included:

·       Salisbury had a significant problem with rough sleeping with 40% of all rough sleepers in Wiltshire in the Salisbury area. I spoke to sleepers in Catherine Street, they told me that all of the hostel provision was full at the start of March. I have met Laura Woodhouse, who was doing a good job, if people report rough sleepers she will go and find those people. The role of the drop-in centre at Alabare was essential, it gives people dignity and security, that was a major step in beginning to engage with people and get to the root of what their problems are. Answer: Street.org.uk is an online service where you can report sightings of homeless people. It gets reported nationally and then we are emailed with the details for our area. We go out immediately. This was a really important tool that we should all be actively using. In Salisbury we have a couple of clients that have been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

To receive an update on the Salisbury Maltings Development.

Officer: Richard Walters, Head of Service – Major Projects

Richard Walters, Head of Major Projects gave an update on the Maltings Development. Focusing principally on the emerging Maltings Masterplan with a brief update at the end of the presentation on the Hotel / Library application.  

It had been agreed that the Area Board would play a central role in the Consultation process for the Maltings regeneration. Since the last Area Board meeting officers had been working to keep members informed and involved and agreed to provide this update to the public meeting. 

I am here to share information on the emerging Maltings Masterplan on which formal consultation will commence next month. 

This was the first time that these plans had been shown in public and they were being presented in advance of the formal commencement of the Masterplan Consultation scheduled for 15^th April.

The plans and images shown may change and evolve between now and then so it was requested that they be viewed as a ‘work in progress’ rather than the definitive article.    

It had always been intended that development of the Maltings regeneration area be guided by a Masterplan.

Various draft plans had been prepared by the Council’s development partners and in some cases presented to the community, but as market conditions had changed and uncertainties increased these have become out of date and undeliverable. 

Funding and delivery pressures had meant that the initial application for Phase 1 – the Hotel and Library on the former BHF block has had to come forward in the absence of a contextualising Masterplan, which had been an issue in the consultation feedback.

The Council had therefore with the agreement and support of its development partner accelerated its own masterplan that would be consulted upon at the same time as revised plans are submitted for the hotel and library.

It will provide that wider framework and address the major issues relevant to the delivery of future phases in the wider maltings area.

Key amongst these were the management of flood risk and the delivery of high quality public realm alongside commercially deliverable development.

The issue of flooding in particular had been key as the latest evidence from the Environment Agency shows that the flood risk to large parts of Salisbury City Centre were greatly increased. 

The team had been working closely with the EA in the development of the draft masterplan that seeks to find a way to address this and incorporate flood mitigation measures into the overall design solution, making the development resilient and part of the wider strategy for flood risk mitigation across the wider city.

A slide shown, identified the principal design principles that underpin the masterplan. Some were long standing aspirations that had been articulated for many years, such as the desire to see an enhanced Creative / Cultural quarter.

Others were driven by known constraints and issues and come out of engagement with consultees such as flooding, highways and conservation.

There were also commercial considerations, such as the need to create a flexible framework  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

A new £675 million Future High Streets Fund has been set up by Central Government to help local areas to respond to and adapt to changes and support local areas to prepare long-term strategies for their high streets and town centers.  

Officer: Victoria Moloney, Head of South Wiltshire Recovery

Victoria Moloney, Head of South Wiltshire Recovery, and Cllr Pauline Church, Cabinet Member for Salisbury Recovery, provided information on the Future High Street Fund, available from Central Government.

We would be requesting £25m

• The ‘recovery’ economic programme has the high street as a focus and hence have been developing potential projects
• High street funding announced in Dec ‘18 – deadline March 22^nd
• If successful then funding could come through later in the year, and we are working with the support of the LEP on emerging projects
• The EoI needs to describe the place, the challenges, strategic ambitions, links with other strategies and potential projects.
• Have had a number of engagement events; undertaking surveys.

• Salisbury City Council – 11^th March
• Salisbury Area Board – Next formal meeting post 22^nd March deadline. Cllrs brief 8^th March
• Business Improvement District – 12^th March
• Chamber of Commerce – 13^th March
• Young People – 18-30 – 5^th March
• Salisbury Independents – 14^th March
• Wiltshire College, Schools and Young People – 11^th March
• Online Survey -  13 February to 11 March 2019 (474 responses)
• Facebook (173 comments)
• Business Summit and Survey – (130 questionnaires)

As much information we have is shared on our website at:

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/salisbury-amesbury

Footfall was down, although 2017 managed to buck the national trend, 2018 hit us with a vengeance.  The nerve attacks exacerbated and potentially brought forward decline of footfall and then spend.  We heard from the previous speaker the national issues that the high street was facing.

Strategic Ambitions – 4 Themes

• Ensure a great experience of the high street
• Salisbury is a tourist destination
• Bring young people into the city
• Support businesses growth.
• The city’s retail offer should be varied, providing experience as well as product                               
• Non-retail services should be high quality, varied and integrated into the retail offer                 
• The city centre will be a well curated place, with a programme of events   
• Strong evening and night time economy
• Shoppers and visitors should find it easy to travel and move around the city                            
• Technology should enhance the shopping experience           

Invest in Salisbury’s image - access to river side, heritage shop fronts, cafés

• Supporting businesses to adjust to changing environment
• Providing internet technology to enable businesses to thrive                  
• Improving the gateways to the city & focus on better management of the city centre    
• Creating work/make/sell spaces
• Supporting new businesses in establishing themselves

Indicative Projects Including:                                                

• Railway station and environment.                   
• Accessibility of Salisbury (car, bus, cycle, pedestrian)
• Creating work/make/sell spaces from current uses (rebalancing the place)
• Residential living ’above the shop’ concept
• Public realm enhancement
• Integration with Creative Quarter
• New tourist experience from Station
• Experiences, lighting, projections

Illuminating Salisbury:

• The night time economy has been particularly impacted, suffering a 20% loss in footfall, an estimated £15m loss.
• Intention is to develop a new visitor attraction using light and sound
• Enhance Salisbury’s night-time offer, as a visitor attraction and through keeping the city vibrant into the evening hours
• Complementing and showcasing our existing cultural  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

A Highways Officer will be in attendance to present the report, which the Board is asked to consider and approve the following recommendations:

The Area Board is asked to:

(i)            Welcome the road surfacing work and repairs carried out in 2018/19 and notes the improvement in the overall condition of Wiltshire’s roads in recent years, but acknowledges that further investment is still required.

(ii)          Approve the highway maintenance scheme list for 2019/20 prepared for the Area Board.

(iii)         Note the new provisional five year programme, which will reviewed annually to ensure best value for money and whole life costing for the highways asset.

Parvis Khansari, Director for Highways & Transport presented information on the proposed works in 2019/20 in the Salisbury area, as detailed in the agenda pack.

Highways funding had previously been divided out across the 18 Community Areas by road mileage, this year it had been allocated on the basis of condition of roads.

The presentation detailed road conditions on A, B and C roads within Salisbury. The roads were assessed for works by the survey vehicle which produced data and maps.

There were planned works of around £400k worth of repairs in Salisbury for this year.

Parvis added that if people knew of areas that they felt had been missed, to let them know, so that the Highways Officers could take a look and feedback.

It was not just traffic that did the damage but also the weather, we had had to put an additional £1m in to the budget for weather damage last summer.

Highways also had an additional £6m from central Government towards roads.

Questions and comments included:

Are we getting value for money, as pothole patching was not good value? The length of time that new tarmac was lasting seemed to be less than it used to? Answer: We are doing a lot of things to make sure we are getting value for money. Nationally we are putting in a fraction of funding needed to look after roads properly. Looking back, the schemes that were rolled out lasted, however nowadays the responsibility is the same but we have to come up with ways to keep the roads safe with less money. We should move to planned maintenance, but we need budgets to do that.

With the extra funding for works. everyone should download the ‘My Wiltshire’ App to report everything they see. Who decides the priority lists, as in some areas where there are many elderly people, those roads were down far on the list. Answer: Local knowledge, and experience of engineers and last stage it comes here for comments from the Area Board.

Milford Mill Bridge has been quite badly damaged, and there was a huge amount of interest to look at this. Answer: We have put a statement out. That is a 14C bridge, there is a stone at the end of the parapet which often gets hit, however, it is designed to move when hit. We are aware of it and we look after it, it is a grade 1 listed bridge. There is a lot of signage in place to advise road users.

Nice to see some residential streets being resurfaced at last. The wear on the tarmac, in Norfolk road was done 4 years ago and it is already collapsing in the middle. When planning the works, are the service providers considered, as BT openworld will be coming along to put fibre optic through Salisbury. We see areas where the services come along after a road has been done and dig it up. Please look at the junction of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

To consider the funding recommendations of the CATG arising from the last meeting, as detailed in the report attached.

·         To allocate £3401.39 – Street nameplate repainting

·         Issue no’s: 6781 & 6852 – to allocate £4326 to bus shelter works

Cllr Sven Hocking

Cllr Sven Hocking, gave an update on behalf of the CATG, following its last meeting.

Questions and Comments:

Mr David Brown – The bus shelters that had been installed were not fit for purpose, will you go back to the manufacturer to see if they will swap them? Answer: We were limited by budget as to what we could do. The ones that we have used, the Perspex was a bit flimsy, however the shelters were replaced on a like for like arrangement.

The Board considered the recommendations of the CATG as set out in the repost attached to the agenda.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board approved the recommendations of the CATG:

·       To allocate £3401.39 – Street nameplate repainting

·       Issue no’s: 6781 & 6852 – to allocate £4326 to bus shelter works

Community Area Grant Scheme

To consider 4 applications for funding from the Community Area Grants Scheme, as detailed in the attached report.

Health & Wellbeing Funding

To consider 2 bids for funding from the Health & Wellbeing budget, as detailed in the attached report.

The Board considered the funding requests as detailed in the reports attached to the agenda.

Community Area Grant Funding

Salisbury Cathedral - requested £3000 towards the Salisbury 2020 a City on the move project.

Comments and questions:

·       It was disappointing when people did not attend when they request funding.

·       Was there enough in the pot to fund these? Answer: There is a shortfall in this year’s budget, but you are able to use some from next year’s budget.

Decision

The application from Salisbury Cathedral, towards the Salisbury 2020a City on the Move project was deferred.

Reason

The Area Board felt that a representative for the application should be in attendance to answer questions.

Action: CEM to liaise with applicant to ensure their attendance at the next meeting.

Salisbury Garden Volunteers - requested £2162 towards the Bourne Hill Potager project.

NOTE: Planning had been in contact with the Board to mention that as Bourne Hill was a listed building, any raised beds within the grounds would be subject to the applicant checking with the Planning Department as to whether Planning Permission was required.

Comments and questions:

This was an excellent project which the volunteers had been working on for some time. Cllr Hoque moved the full award. This motion was not carried.

The motion to fund half was supported and considered by the Board.

 Decision

The Salisbury Area Board awarded £1081 to Salisbury Garden Volunteers towards the Bourne Hill Potager project, with the following condition:

1.     The applicant liaised with the Planning Department to establish if Planning Permission was first required, before any funds were released.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Board Grant Criteria 2018/19.

Advisory: The Board suggested that the applicant could approach other funding streams for the remaining amount.

Salisbury Trust for the Homeless - requested £4080 towards a new kitchen at 13 Centurion Close.

Comments and questions:

You have a high reserve. Answer: We work hard to do what we do, it is a valid request. We are providing match funding of 50%.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board awarded £4080 to Salisbury Trust for the Homeless towards a new kitchen at 13 Centurion Close.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Board Grant Criteria 2018/19.

Salisbury BID requested £2500 to purchase some Salisbury City Centre Bunting.

It was noted that if this grant was supported, the funding would need to be allocated from the next financial budget 2019/20.

Comments and questions:

This was a fantastic initiative. Total amount for this project is £5k.

The Board was asked to put in more public money than any other organisation. Would the bunting be available for use by other groups around Salisbury? – Answer: It would stay up for the whole season, most of the residents from Salisbury would come in to the city and benefit from it.

After the events of last year it was so important to dress the city and make it look as attractive as possible.

Decision

The Salisbury  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

The date of the next meeting is 16^th May 2019, 7pm at City Hall, Salisbury.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and noted that the next meeting of the Salisbury Area Board would be held on 16 May 2019, 7.00pm at 5 Rivers Health & Wellbeing Centre, Salisbury.