Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from:

·       Councillor Richard Beattie – Board Member

·       Jaki Farrell – Youth Service Coordinator

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

To receive Chairman’s Announcements including:

·       Confirmation of successful Community Area Grant Applications in 2011/12.

·       Feedback from the Community Planning Event, held on 5 March 2012.

Queens Diamond Jubilee Event – 1^st May

The Board would be hosting a jousting style tent at the Jubilee event due to be held in Cathedral close, Salisbury on 1^st May.

Work was underway to coordinate the exhibits, demonstrations and displays which would take place in the tent. A trial run to establish set up and layout requirements would take place at Farmer Giles, all of those involved were asked to deliver their exhibits/goods to Farmer Giles by 18^th April.

The final deadline for delivery of exhibits/goods to Farmer Giles would be Wednesday 25^th April, so that a bulk one off delivery could be made to Cathedral Close, using a trailer from the farm on 30^th April. Separate deliveries to the jousting tent by individuals must be requested through Stephen Harris, Community Area Manager, to ensure security clearance is in place.

For further details contact Stephen.harris@wiltshire.gov.uk  or 01722 434211.

Confirmation of successful Community Area Grants (CAG) 2011/12

A report detailing all of the CAG’s awarded during 2011/12, by community area, was circulated at the meeting.

Feedback from the Community Planning Event, held on 5 March 2012

A report detailing information collated at the event was circulated at the meeting. Several key issues had been identified, these included improvements to rural broadband, youth transport and community safety. The Chairman proposed to have an item to discuss these findings at a future area board meeting, and asked Stephen Harris, Community Area Manager to produce a discussion paper.

Fortnightly Household Waste Collection

A fortnightly household collection service had now been implimented across the south of Wiltshire. There were slight inaccuracies with the original information flyer distributed to households, this had since been replaced online with correct information.

Election of a Chairman

At the next Area Board meeting on 13 June, the Board would be electing a Chairman for the forthcoming year. The Chairman, Councillor Wayman advised that she would be standing down as Chairman due to other commitments, and thanked everyone who had supported the South West Wiltshire Area Board.

Nadder School Site

The Old Nadder School site in Tisbury had recently been purchase by Wiltshire Council, for use as the Tisbury Area Campus site, due to be developed in 2013.

To receive an update from a member of the Tisbury Campus Shadow Community Operations Board (SCOB).

Cllr Tony Deane

Councillor Tony Deane gave an update to the Board, he also asked for the Tisbury Campus to be called the Tisbury Community Campus, as it would cover the whole area not just central Tisbury.

·       Plans were underway to incorporate a youth training centre in the campus.

·       The old Nadder School site had been purchased by Wiltshire Council, the budget required to develop the site would go to Cabinet in September 2012, for approval.

·       Conversations with the Police had taken place to establish the specification of their requirements should they decide to move into the campus.

·       The opportunity for the Fire & Rescue service to move to the campus site was available, should they wished to.

Councillor Deane urged anyone interested in attending Shadow Community Operations Board (SCOB) meetings to do so, he explained that due to the information discussed by the group, a certain level of confidentiality was involved.

The Board will receive verbal updates from partners present, some written updates are attached.

Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service will be presenting proposals for their Integrated Risk Management Plan for 2012-15.

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (WF&RS).

Scott Taylor, Station Manager presented the WF&RS proposals for their Integrated Risk Management Plan for 2012-15. Consultation documents and a freepost survey had also been circulated around the room.

The risks that Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service face are changing, from a reduction in their budget, through the increased housing within Wiltshire to the type of incidents that they respond to on a daily basis.

Their goal is to meet these challenges and provide an improved service to the public in the most effective and efficient way possible. 

Areas of Change

To achieve this goal, WF&RS have reviewed how they provide the service today and how they should be providing that service to the public in the future.  They have come up with five proposals that will expand their ability to respond to incidents, enhance the knowledge and skills of staff and reduce the overall cost of the Service to the taxpayer.

WF&RS are proposing the following options:

1.    To alter the way they employ firefighters on the Retained Duty System (on-call staff) to guarantee availability and to provide a sustainable system.

2.    To alter the way they crew stations to relocate staff throughout the county to create communities of stations to manage increased risk presented by future developments.

3.    To alter the shift times of operational staff to occur outside of incident peak hours.

4.    To alter duty systems to provide enhanced cover.

5.    To relocate specialist vehicles to provide suitable and sustainable arrangements.

WF&RS welcomes public opinion on the proposed changes; this could be done in a number of ways.  People could register as a stakeholder and receive a survey to complete, or view the consultation document circulated at the meeting and comment using the supplied e-mail address consultation@wiltsfire.gov.uk, or they could view the proposals in the packs and complete the freepost survey also provided. To view the consultation on line, follow the link: http://www.wiltsfire.gov.uk/irmp/index.html

Questions and comments were then taken from the room, these included:

·         To what extent has the staff been consulted on the proposed 12hr shift change? Answer - Current shift patterns were 9hr day shifts and 15 hr night shifts. The proposal for a 12 hr shift for days as well as nights has been investigated for any health & Safety issues due to tiredness.

·         Can you confirm that the 1^st responder service for Mere would not be affected by any of the planned changes? Answer - Scott Taylor confirmed that the current level of service would be maintained.

·         Has any consultation with local employers been undertaken to tackle the issues around employers not permitting staff to be released from duties to act as Retained Fire Fighters? Answer – WF&RS had consulted with current employers and also aimed to make the Retained Fire Fighter role more appealing to those who may not have considered it previously, such as mothers at home.

·         Can you explain how one new unit will be better  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To receive an update from a member of the group.

Councillor: Tony Deane

The Board will also consider the attached SID report.

Officer: Stephen Harris, Community Area Manager

Councillor Tony Deane advised the Board that the small budget allocated to the Community Area Transport Group (CATG) had nearly all been allocated. He advised that funds were available centrally for improvements to council housing estates; he suggested that any bids for improvements such as drop kerbs could be made by local residents, directly to Councillor John Thomson.

Community Area Transport Group (CATG) Funding

The Board considered the recommendations of the CATG for allocation of funds to projects as detailed in the officer’s report, circulated at the meeting.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board ratified the recommendations of the Community Area Transport Group (CATG) to release funds from the CATG budget for 2011/12, to the following projects:

·         £1500 towards dropped kerbs in Charlton

·         £3500 towards Tollard Royal roadside kerbing

·         £3500 towards Tisbury Row footbridge

Speed Indicator Device (SID)

The Board considered the recommendation as set out in the officer’s report relating to the centrally owned SID, and the Area Board purchased SID for the South West Wiltshire community area.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board agreed to delegate responsibility for future discussions and decisions on the allocation of the SIDs to the Community Area Manager in consultation with the Community Area Transport Group. 

Questions and comments were then taken from the room, these included:

·         There was a request for information on the ‘C’ road review. Answer: A map detailing all of the ‘C’ roads within the South West Wilts Community Areas was circulated to the CATG; from this, the C12 road matched most of the suggested criteria, so was chosen for use in a pilot scheme for further scrutiny. The usual process for submission of comments from parishes and the public would be available during the review.

Cabinet member, Councillor John Brady explained that from April 2012, the system of local authority housing finance has been devolved to local authorities to manage themselves and the Council will now gain full control of its housing income and expenditure.

Council house residents in the rural areas were urged to get involved in suggesting how the funds should be spent. Councillor Brady added that it was important to let the tenants decide which schemes for improvements should take place, rather than for the council making those choices for them.

A representative from the Tenants Panel informed the Board that on one site in the South West, there was an issue with limited parking due to the road being too narrow, causing vehicles to be parked half on the pavements. This was causing problems for residents as they were then unable to walk on the pavement very easily, especially for those with pushchairs and wheel chairs. The residents had been trying for two years to get some improvements carried out, but had been told that no funds were available, and that improvements were not possible. On hearing the news from Councillor Brady, the lady agreed to bring the improvement project up again at the next Tenants Panel meeting, and would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Board will consider a bid for Youth Funding as detailed in the officer’s report attached to the agenda. Young people in attendance will be invited to present their bid to the Area Board.

Officer: Stephen Harris, Community Area Manager.

To consider a bid for funding a replacement finger post, from Teffont Parish Council, as detailed in the attached officer’s report.

Officer: Stephen Harris, Community Area Manager

The Board considered the report detailing a bid from Teffont Parish Council for funding towards the replacement/refurbishment of a finger post within the parish during 2012/13. Councillor Deane proposed that the Board raised the amount of the award to cover the additional £200 cost incurred as a result of Highways having to be used to take down and then reinstate the finger posts.

The Area Board considered the proposal and voted on increasing the available amount by £200 for all bids to be considered from here on.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board agreed that parishes could apply for up to £350 towards a finger post repair/replacement and a further £200 towards the Highways element of the necessary works to take down and reinstate the posts.

The Board then considered the bid from Teffont Parish Council.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board approved an award of £550 of funds to Teffont Parish Council towards the replacement/refurbishment of a finger post (£200 of this amount would be used to pay for the Highways element of the work), with the condition that each Parish Council that receives funding to replace or refurbish a finger post must provide evidence of doing so within twelve months.

The Board will consider bids for funding from the Jubilee and Olympic Community Event Funding budget, as detailed on the officer’s report.

Officer: Stephen Harris, Community Area Manager

The Board members will consider one application for funding from the Community Area Grants Scheme from Zeals Youth Trust and will consider additional funding for Broad Chalke Village Hall Committee following their bid at the previous grants meeting on 29 February 2012, as detailed in the officer’s report.

Officer: Stephen Harris, Community Area Manager

The Board considered one new application for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2012/13 from Zeals Youth Trust, in addition to this the Board revisited an application submitted at the previous meeting in February 2012 from Broad Chalke Village Hall Management committee as further information had been requested regarding a three year warranty for £500 which had formed part of the initial grant bid.

The Board considered the applications, following discussion they voted on each in turn.

Decision

Zeals Youth Trust was awarded £1,770 towards their project to purchase storage cabins for equipment.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2011/12 and demonstrates a link to the Wiltshire Community Plan 2011 – 2026 as detailed in the officer’s report.

Decision

Broad Chalke Village Hall Management Committee was awarded a further £275 towards their project to purchase a sound system (This added to the previously awarded amount of £1,663 would total £1,938 which was half of the project cost if the warranty was deducted from the bid).

Reason

The Board did not support the warranty aspect of the bid as they felt a warranty constituted ongoing costs and should therefore be paid for by the applicant.

To receive an update on the progress of issues to date.

Officer: Stephen Harris, Community Area Manager

The Community Area Manager, Stephen Harris had circulated an updated table of current Issues.

The Chairman announced that the issue number 2043, Planning matter in Bower Chalke would now be closed as the person who raised the issue had had the opportunity to present his case to the Inspector.

The Chairman also proposed to close other issues on the system which were deemed by the Chairman to have been developed as far as was possible under the Area Boards remit.

A Chilmark parish councillor asked for further consideration in relation to an issue of flooding at a particular part in Chilmark where no drainage was present. Around this area, landowners had been asked to cut hedges back, subsequently a build up of clippings and leaves had accumulated over several years on a verge, which had now become slippery.

The Chairman suggested that the matter be passed to the CATG for discussion and asked for the parish councillor to produce a document with photos of the issue, to be passed to Stephen Harris, Community Area Manager.

Action: Community Area Manager to include the item for discussion at a future CATG meeting.

A copy of the Forward Plan is attached for information.

The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.

Thanks were given to Councillor Wayman for her work as Chairman of the South West Wiltshire Area Board over the past few years.

The next meeting of the South West Wiltshire Area Board will be held on Wednesday 13 June 2012 at Bishopstone Village Hall.