Agenda and minutes

The Chairman Councillor George Jeans welcomed everyone to the meeting of the South West Wiltshire Area Board.

Apologies for absence were received from:

·       Mike Franklin – Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service

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

There were none.

To confirm as a correct record and sign the minutes of the previous meeting held on Wednesday 8 October 2014.

The minutes of the previous meeting, held on Wednesday 8 October 2014 were agreed a correct record and signed by the Chairman, subject to the following amendment:

Item 6 – Updates

It was the Wilton Church and Deanery which had started the Credit Union and not the Business Chambers.

The Board will discuss any matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting.

There were none.

To receive any updates from the Chairman

Broadband

A written update on the Broadband roll out for Wilton was circulated at the meeting.

There had been a delay in the expected installation of super fast Broadband in the Wilton area, it had initially been expected in June 2014, but would now be taking place in January 2015. Installation within a community area depends on when individual exchanges within that area are upgraded.

There had been an issue where some Bishopstone residents had been without any phone line for up to eight weeks during the summer. The information website had been regularly monitored, but there was not yet any information other than the postcode checker had changed the date of implementation for the SP5 area to a year later.

Action: CAM to look into the matter.

Dinton had initially been told that they would be included in the Wilton roll out, however now they would be included with Teffont instead.

The Chairman added that wireless and 4G availability would be looked in to after March 2016, as Central Government had allocated an additional £3 million to be used after 2016. By that stage 91% coverage should have been achieved across Wiltshire.

BT planned to discontinue the use of the telephone kiosk in Wilton, but as there was mobile coverage there it would not be such an issue. However, in areas with no mobile coverage this would create a problem.

The Councils reconditioned laptop scheme had a further 200 available at £60 each for those who met the criteria of target groups such as the Elderly. Digital Champions were available to provide training within the community. There was a regular session in Wilton Community Centre on Thursdays from 10 – 12noon.

Taxi Charges Harmonisation

The Council was looking at harmonising taxi rates across Wiltshire, currently Salisbury had the highest minimum charge. Fees across Wiltshire would rise to come in line with those charged in Salisbury.

To note the information on current consultations, to take part and for further information, visit the consultation portal:

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/consultations.htm

The Board noted the current consultations as detailed in the agenda and online at: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/consultations.htm

The Chairman noted that over 15,500 people had responded to the Green Waste consultation, with a preference to option 1, to have a 3 month suspension of the scheme. A decision would be taken by Cabinet within the next few weeks.

To receive any verbal updates from Partners and Community Groups present, including:

·         Police – Neighbourhood Teams

·         Fire & Rescue

·         Local Community Speedwatch Team Leaders

To note the following written updates attached to the agenda:

a) Police (Mere, Tisbury & Wilton)

b) Wiltshire Council Items for Information – Car Parking Review

c) Wilton Town Team minutes

d) Local Neighbourhood Plans Update

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

The Board noted the following written updates attached to the agenda:

a)    Police

b) Wiltshire Council Items for Information – Car Parking Review

c) Wilton Town Team minutes – an updated version was circulated at the meeting and attached to these minutes.

d) Local Neighbourhood Plans (NHP) Update – Tisbury, West Tisbury, Broadchalke, Hindon and Wilton were all in the process of writing NHP’s. Tisbury and West Tisbury had written to the Leader to complain about the lack of professional support available in writing the plans.

Anyone experiencing problems with this should talk to their local Member.

Action: Associate Director Robin Townsend would feed back the comments to Cabinet.

The following verbal updates were received:

Community Speedwatch (CSW)

Christine Wickham from Wilton CSW gave an overview on the scheme. The Wilton group was established in 2010. Some sites were identified to patrol, these were Shaftesbury Road, South Street and Burcombe Lane.

Volunteers had depleted over the years, there were currently 5, who shared the device with other local areas. The volunteers worked in pairs to record the data, which was then downloaded by another volunteer into a spreadsheet.

Following the appointment of the Police and Crime Commissioner, the CSW was revitalised, there were now 126 teams across Wiltshire, and 33,000 vehicles had been logged across Wiltshire in 2014.

Charles Smith was part of the CSW team in Dinton. They operated a three week cycle, during the first week more people were logged than in the second and third weeks.

Anyone caught doing more than 50% of the speed limit would now be visited by the police. The fastest recorded vehicle going through the 30mph part of Dinton was recorded at 63mph.

Stephen Harris, Community area Manager also read out updates form Hindon

Tollard Royal and Teffont CSW schemes.

Police

Inspector David Minty gave an update in addition to the written update attached to the agenda.

Performance was generally very good at present. The Tisbury PCSO had been replaced and would be starting shortly.

Victim based crime was down 30% and domestic burglary down 40%. Violent crime was up 20.9% over the year, but in figures, this equated to an additional 9 crimes.

Operation Midas was underway with officers working with colleagues cross boarder to tackle cross border crime. Operation Windwhistle was a Wiltshire based operation to tackle rural crime, where local farmers would go out on walks with Police to spot things. This was a good example of the local community coming together to tackle crime.

Introducing Nicola Sage, Community Youth Officer for South West Wiltshire.

The Board will consider the following recommendations:

Recommendations

1.    That in respect of urgent matters that may arise from time to time between meetings, the Community Area Manager, in consultation with the Community Youth Officer and the Chairman of the Area Board, be granted delegated authority to approve expenditure not exceeding £1000 from the youth budget for projects in relation to positive activities for young people. A report explaining any such decision and the reasons why it was considered to be urgent shall be reported to the next ordinary meeting of the Area Board.

2.    That authority be delegated to the Community Area Manager to manage an annual budget of up to £500 to cover expenditure related to the management of the LYN and its activities. A report giving details of any expenditure incurred will be reported to the next ordinary meeting of the South West Wiltshire Area Board.

Nic Sage introduced herself as the new Community Youth Officer for Mere, Tisbury and Wilton. Work had been underway to develop a Local Youth Network (LYN) for each of the community areas and a LYN Management Group. Nic would be making sure that young people would be central to the planning of how the Youth funds would be allocated.

Nic would be focusing on mapping the provision of what was already available across the areas, increasing volunteer numbers and providing support to organisations applying for funding.

Youth groups still had the use of the Wiltshire Council minibuses and Urby van in the area.

The Wilton youth centre was well up and running, with support from the Town Council and the Wilton Educational Trust. There would be two open sessions a week.

In Tisbury the St John’s organisation was running two sessions a month, working with Seeds for Success Nic was hoping to get more sessions up and running.

A new Cadet detachment was starting up in Tisbury, they were hoping to be ready to march in March 2015.

The Tisbury Community Campus would be opening in a year’s time; young people had been involved with the planning stage of that.

In Mere, the parish council owned the youth centre; they were waiting for the building to be made straight and in good running order, with the help of Seeds for Success, so that sessions could be held there soon.

Comments and questions were then received, these included:

·         Tisbury parish council allocates £2,500 a year from the precept to youth, other parishes could do the same and allocate some funding towards youth facilities.

·         Wilton Town Council had taken on the lease of the youth centre, but the facility was used by other villages not just young people in Wilton. We could ask the villages if they would be willing to give some funding towards it. Answer: Asking outlaying villages to contribute to the funding may prevent the young people from attending; this is not what we are working towards.

The Board considered the recommendations detailed in the agenda

Decision

The South West Wiltshire area Board agreed the following:

1.    That in respect of urgent matters that may arise from time to time between meetings, the Community Area Manager, in consultation with the Community Youth Officer the Chairman of the Area Board and the local Member, be granted delegated authority to approve expenditure not exceeding £1000 from the youth budget for projects in relation to positive activities for young people. A report explaining any such decision and the reasons why it was considered to be urgent shall be reported to the next ordinary meeting of the Area Board.

2.    That authority be delegated to the Community Area Manager to manage an annual budget of up to £500 to cover expenditure related to the management of the LYN and its activities. A report giving details of any expenditure incurred will be reported to the next ordinary meeting of the South West Wiltshire  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

A member of Wiltshire Council’s Weather team will provide an overview of the response plan that has been created for the South West Wiltshire area.

And to receive information on the following:

·         First Aid Project - the Board will consider the proposals as detailed in the attached report.

·         Area Board Project and Priorities Update – report attached

Winter Weather

Andrew Perrett gave an overview of the response plan that has been created for the area.

In South West Wiltshire, we operate a volunteer farmer’s scheme, where farmers and landowners across the three community areas had agreed to assist in spreading grit or operating a plough if bad weather requires it. The assistance varies; some will plough their road whilst other will come out and help on an agreed route. These routes were shown on a map on the screen.

All of the areas assets were also logged on this map, Andrew asked that if people knew of any other assets then to let him know so that they could aslso be logged.

There was the 1 ton salt bag scheme in operation across the county, where parishes could arrange to have a delivery of 1 ton of salt which they would store and make ready for use when required.

Ten pedestrian spreaders would shortly be delivered for distribution around the parishes.

When it snows, local farmers would go out and plough the routes, then the gritters can go in and grit the routes earlier. This was a pilot scheme which was running primarily across South West Wiltshire.

All of these operations needed to be underpinned by parish snow plans.

Andrew asked all to feed back any comments after the winter period to aid with best practice for the rest of the County.

Stephen Harris, Community Area Manager provided information on the following:

First Aid Project

The Board considered the proposals to fund this Cllr Led Initiative, proposed by Cllr Jose Green, as detailed in the attached report.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board agreed to allocate £450 towards the Area Board Project to improve the number of first aid trained people in Towns and Villages and access to lifesaving equipment such as community defibrillators.

The Board noted the update on Area Board Project and Priorities as attached to the agenda.

To receive an update from the Chairman of the Tisbury Campus Shadow Community Operations Board (SCOB); Councillor Tony Deane, and to note the minutes from the last meeting of the SCOB, as attached to the agenda.

Chairman of the Community Operations Board, Cllr Tony Deane gave an update to the Board.

The contractor for the Tisbury Community Campus had been appointed; it was Rydon, the same contractor working on the Salisbury Campus.

Work would start on 5^th January 2015 and would be a 12 month contract. It was hoped that the Campus would be open by the start of 2016 and have an official opening in early April 2016.

The COB was evolving all the time, with people leaving and new people joining.

Questions:

• Would there be a link road through the new housing estate during construction? Answer: No there would not be a link road. There would be some traffic during the building phase, but not as much as when there was a school there.

·         Can we advise the contractor of a preferred route for their vehicles? Answer: Yes we can advise them.

To receive an update from the Chairman of the group; Councillor Tony Deane.

To note the minutes of the last meeting held on Monday 10 November 2014 and to consider the recommendations contained in the report.

Chairman of the group Councillor Tony Deane gave an update to the Board.

The CATG asks in principle to a town or parish council contributing to a proposed scheme, to show their support for the project.

Questions:

·       Had there been any reactions by parishes to the suggestion that they contribute funding towards the SIDs scheme? Answer: Some parishes had never seen a SID, they would like to see one before contributing any funding. Our SID was not part of the Wiltshire Council scheme. We would need to await all the responses before we could decide what the next steps would be.

·       We need to retain the SIDs, after the Metro count, the next stage is to deploy a SID. This would be pointless if we did not have one to put up.

·       The Boards SID was currently sitting in a garage, not being used. This was not solely due to an insurance issue but a physical requirement to climb a ladder and install it correctly.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board noted the minutes of the last meeting held on Monday 10 November 2014 agreed the recommendations for funding schemes from the CATG budget for 2014/15, as detailed in the report attached to the agenda and shown below.

Fingerpost Funding

To consider a bid to the Area Board Project – Finger Post Funding Scheme for 2014/15, submitted by Sutton Mandeville Parish Council, as detailed in the attached report.

Community Area Grants

The Board members will consider 3 applications for funding from the Community Area Grants Scheme, for 2014/15, as detailed in the attached report.

1.    Wilton Town Council - £750 towards creating a new Wilton Community Website.

2.    Barford St Martin Parish Council - £2,344 towards new fencing along the river Nadder.

3.    Quidhampton Village Hall Committee - £1,600 towards refurbishment of toilets.

Fingerpost Funding

The Board considered a bid to the Area Board Project – Finger Post Funding Scheme for 2014/15, submitted by Sutton Mandeville Parish Council, as detailed in the attached report attached to the agenda.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board awarded £495 to Sutton Mandeville parish council form the Fingerpost Funding budget for 2014/15.

Community Area Grants

The Board members considered 3 applications for funding from the Community Area Grants Scheme, for 2014/15, as detailed in the report attached to the agenda.

Decision

Wilton Town Council was awarded £750 from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2014/15, towards creating a new Wilton Community Website.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2014/15.

Decision

Barford St Martin Parish Council was awarded £2,344 from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2014/15, towards new fencing along the river Nadder.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2014/15.

Decision

Quidhampton Village Hall Committee was awarded £1,450 from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2014/15, towards refurbishment of toilets.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2014/15.

Note: The parish council was giving £150 towards the project, so rather than award the requested amount of £1,600, the Board reduced the award to £1,450.

To note the table of current Issues on the system, as detailed in the attached report, and to consider the recommendation to close the issues as marked in green on the report.

The Board noted the table of current Issues on the online system, as detailed in the report attached to the agenda, and considered the recommendation to closed issues as marked.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board agreed to close issue numbers 2680, 3263 and 3568 as detailed in the report.

The next meeting of the Board is on Wednesday 4 February 2015, 6.30pm at East Knoyle Village Hall.

The next meeting of the South west Wiltshire Area Board will be held on Wednesday 4 February 2015, as East Knoyle Village Hall, 6.30pm start.