Agenda and minutes

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

Cabinet Member, Cllr Jonathon Seed and Associate Director Parvis Khansari were also in attendance.

Apologies for absence were received from:

·       Police and Crime Commissioner - Angus Macpherson

·       Alvediston Parish Council – Robin Garran

·       Swallowcliffe Parish Council – Diane Atkins

·       Tisbury Parish Council – Sandra Harry

·       Wilton Town Council – Phil Matthews

·       Community Youth Officer – Nicola Sage

·       Associate Director – Robin Townsend

·       NHS – Maddy Ferrari

·       Tisbus – James Scott Clarke

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 10 December 2014, and to discuss any matters arising from the last meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on Wednesday 10 December 2014, were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Budget Setting

A consultation event would take place on Thursday 5 February at The Guild Hall, Salisbury.

Waste and Recycling

Cllr Green gave an update in her capacity as member of the Waste and Recycling Task Group.

It was possible that a charge for collection of green waste would be imposed, following the outcome of the countywide consultation about the service. The most popular option from those who had taken part in the consultation was emerging to be a 3 month collection, however seasonal behaviour could see recycling going into household waste.

Cllr Edge added that if there was a charge for the service, we would see more people putting it in to the household waste than just on a 3 month basis, as like him, many people only had the green bin because it was free.

Balfour Beatty Living Places (BBLP)

The BBLP representative was usually in attendance for 30 minutes during the networking session prior to the start of the meeting, however it was noted that many people did not know he was even there.

Cllr Deane added that at CATG meetings the BBLP rep was often not briefed on matters up for discussion.

Cllr Seed added that this was not a picture that he recognised from his CATG meetings and suggested that the Chairman of the SWW CATG should work more closely with Cabinet member and BBLP to get things done.

Cllr Deane felt that the Highways Officers were very good generally, but were demoralised by BBLP.

Funding

Area Board funding for 2015/16 would be slightly higher than the previous year. The amount of Capital funding would be slightly higher for the whole of Wiltshire, the breakdown figures were not yet known.

Speed Indicating Devices (SIDS)

Insurance for the installation and removal of the SID device when moving it from site to site cost around £250 – 280 a year. Both Cllrs Peter Edge and George Jeans ran local businesses and had agreed to put the devices up and take them down in their areas. Cllr Deane commented that it was kind of Peter and George to agree to do that, however it was down to BBLP to carry this work out.

Angus Macpherson, Police and Crime Commissioner will present information on the Precept Consultation.

Kieran Kilgallen from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner gave a presentation to the Board on the proposals for an increase to the Police element of the precept for 2015/16.

Kieran announced that Wiltshire and Swindon Police Force proposed to join with Avon and Somerset Police for a strategic alliance.

The challenges for next year

·       The big challenge for the 2015-16 financial year, and for the years beyond, will be to maintain and improve performance against reducing budgets.

·       There were key factors which need to be taken into account when considering the precept and these were:

o   There had been a 5.1% cash reduction in grant

o   Net costs had increased by 1.3%

o   The Commissioner could not increase council tax beyond 1.99% without a local referendum

·       Over the next three years the funding gap would continue to increase.

·       The size of the gap was dependent on the level of council tax that was proposed by the Commissioner.

·       A 1.9% increase in council tax compared to no increase merely reduces the funding gap in year 3 by £2.275 million – an increase does not close the funding gap.

Our current funding

·       The largest element of the Commissioner’s budget (62%) was funded from grants provided by the government – it is these grants the government are reducing

·       Just over a third (38%) of the Commissioner’s budget was funded through the policing and crime element of the council tax.

·       Any increase in the precept would therefore only cover part of the 5.1% lost grant. 

·       The two local authorities were funded differently:

o   40% of Wiltshire Council’s funding comes from grants provided by the government

o   48% of Swindon Borough Council’s funding comes from grants provided by the government

o   This is in comparison to the 62% of the Commissioner’s budget which was funded by grants provided by the government

The impact on council tax

·       The policing and crime element of council tax for a Band D property for this financial year equates to £160.92.

·       This is in the lowest in the south west region which consists of Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, Dorset Police, and Gloucestershire Constabulary.

·       The Commissioner was proposing a precept increase of £3.06 per year for the average Band D property.  This equates to a 1.9% increase.

·       An increase of this amount would provide funding of £345,000 in 2015-16, and £728,000 in 2016-17.  This would help reduce the effects of the lost grant albeit only by a small amount.  It would, however, help the long term funding position when further grant reductions were expected.  

Questions and comments were the received, these included:

·       An increase of £3.06 per band D household would only bring in 10% of what was needed. Have you ruled out a referendum and how much would one cost? Answer: The first port of call was the alliance with Avon and Somerset Police. It could cost around £300,000

·       Had it been decided how many jobs would go once the merger  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Board is asked to:

·       Note the progress of schemes for 2014/15

·       Agree the 2015/16 Highways Maintenance schemes for South West Wiltshire Community Area

·       To suggest sites for consideration for inclusion in future year’s highways maintenance and resurfacing programmes.

as detailed in the attached report and appendices.

Parvis Khansari, Associate Director for Highways and Transport, presented information to the Board, as attached to the agenda. He then asked the Board to:

·         Note the progress of schemes for 2014/15

·         Agree the 2015/16 Highways Maintenance schemes for South West Wiltshire Community Area

·         To suggest sites for consideration for inclusion in future year’s highways maintenance and resurfacing programmes.

Comments were then received, these included:

·         The resurfacing work on Calais Hill, Semley had not actually been carried out as was reported on the document in the agenda.

·         The work at Pythouse Farm appears to be happening at both ends of the road, but the patch in the middle was not included on the list. Answer: There was work going on at the junction of Savagebridge and Pithouse Farm, that may lead to the road being dug up, so it would be best to wait until that had finished before the resurfacing work was carried out.

·         Cllr Green noted that the 15 smaller villages that she represented were not very well represented on the list. She felt that the ticket system operated by the Community Highways Coordinator and BB did not work. Answer: Filling potholes was not a good use of money, despite the massive investment Wiltshire Council was putting in to Highways Maintenance, it was still not enough money, they could not do everything.

·         Mr Subton from East Knoyle commented that at A350 junction with B3089 the lighting was too excessive and contributed to light pollution. Cllr Wayman agreed that there were too many lights. Answer: Parvis agreed to feed this back to the team so that they could look at the situation.

·         Cllr Jeans noted that A30 was looking good, particularly on the Dorset border.

·         Cllr Wayman added that if you totted up the meterage of all of the roads resurfacing it was looking really good and would make a real difference over time.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board:

·         Noted the progress of schemes for 2014/15

·         Agreed the 2015/16 Highways Maintenance schemes for South West Wiltshire Community Area as detailed in the report.

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

To note the report and recommendations from the last meeting of the CATG held on 12 January 2015.

The Board noted the report and recommendations from the last meeting of the CATG held on 12 January 2015, as detailed in the papers attached to the agenda.

Decision:

The South West Wiltshire Area Board approved the following CATG funding requests for 2014/15:

To hear from Councillor Jonathon Seed Cabinet Member for Communities, Campuses, Area Boards, Leisure, Libraries and Flooding on some of the areas of his work, followed by an opportunity to ask questions.

The Board heard from Councillor Jonathon Seed Cabinet Member for Communities, Campuses, Area Boards, Leisure, Libraries and Flooding on some of the areas of his work.

Cllr Seed was helped by five other Cllrs, one on Leisure, one on Area Boards and Libraries and three on Flooding. Without the help form our communities we would not be able to do as much as we do, especially the help of the volunteers with libraries and flooding.

Campus Project

The Campus project was born out of a Leisure Review which showed that it would cost £117 million to maintain facilities. The decision then came to look at new buildings with services being put together.

This was a rolling programme, by 2017, half of Wiltshire’s campuses would be up and running. No leisure centres had been closed and there were no plans to close any.

Libraries

Cllr Seed looked after 31 Libraries, both mobile and around the county. With new systems in place, including an automatic service, internet access and local volunteers meant that libraries could open for longer than was previously possible.

Flooding

The Council had put £1 million of its own discretionary budget towards Flooding prevention work. Wiltshire experienced a great deal of flooding last year, more than was seen in Somerset.

Comments and questions were then received, these included:

·         Would the mobile library attending Hindon be cut? Answer: We have had to reduce the budget by £13 million across the Board. The first step would be to look at reducing the number of stops as some villages were receiving 3 stops. We would not withdraw the visit to any parish. We have to justify the use. If the mobile library service currently visited your village, then that will continue, providing it was shown that the library bus was well used. So make sure people use the service if you wish to keep it.

·         Mike Ash, Bishopstone PC – During the flooding last year, 6 houses were flooded in the village. Since then a flood plan had been written with the assistance of Wiltshire Council and the Environment Agency, we were promised two lots of sand bags, but these had not arrived. Answer: The distribution of sand bags was behind the schedule, however the situation was currently being improved and all deliveries should be received within the next few weeks. If your allocation does not arrive, please contact me.

·         Cllr Deane noted that Tisbury had a Campus underway, which was progressing so far so good. However, each year since the Area Board was formed, Councillors had had to lobby for increased allocation for finances for the three community areas. Could we have your assurance that we would be treated as we should if there was a proportionate reduction to budgets for Youth, Grants, CATG etc? Answer: Cllr Wayman had been in correspondence with Cllr Seed on the matter and a letter had been issued earlier that day. Once Full Council had agreed the funding, the Board would have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To receive an update from the Chairman of the Tisbury Campus Shadow Community Operations Board (SCOB); Councillor Tony Deane.

To acknowledge  the notes of the last COB meetings held on 15 January 2015 and 4 December 2014. Also to note that Lydia Porter has replaced Belinda James as the Tisbury Swimming Pool representative on the Tisbury Community Operations Board.

The Chairman of the Tisbury Community Operations Board (COB), Cllr Tony Deane gave an update to the Board.

The start date for work at the Campus was 5 January, with the majority of the bulky work expected to be finished by the end of 2015. It was expected that as the work progressed, there would be more interest and local community needs would change.

Questions:

·         Was there a definition of the catchment area for this Campus? Answer: We would accommodate anyone from the SWW community areas.

·         Would there be a NHS dentist in the Campus? Answer: There were no current plans to put a new dentist practice in to the Campus. The Council had been liaising with Health, and space was available should they wish to be involved.

An interactive presentation on ‘Is your community ready for the Wiltshire Energy Challenge?’ Which will cover the achievements in reducing our energy demands and related carbon emissions, that we have made as a Council across the whole of Wiltshire as well as to highlight the local initiatives relevant to the community area.

Information on the next steps for the team, as it develops Wiltshire Council’s Energy Resilience Plan.

Officer: Ariane Crampton from the Green Economy Team

ArianeCrampton, Head of Service - Account Management and her team had been asked by Cabinet to give a presentation to every Area Board about how the Council is tackling the energy challenge, and highlight the activity in each community area.

In September 2014, Wiltshire Council signed up to the Local Government Association’s Climate Local initiative, which replaced the Nottingham Declaration on climate change. Wiltshire Council had been taking action on climate change since 2009 and continued to drive down carbon emissions across the county.

The Climate Local initiative was a way for us to communicate and recognise these achievements.

By signing up to Climate Local, councils across the country are capturing the opportunities and benefits of action on a changing climate, through:

• leading by example,
• saving on their energy bills,
• generating income from renewable energy,
• attracting new jobs and investment,
• reducing flood risks and
• managing the impacts of extreme weather. 

Schemes carried out in the South West Wilts community area included a Carbon Management Plan which had enabled investment across the county in a range of projects on the council’s own buildings and estate. As part of this large programme the following ‘invest to save’ projects have been implemented:

Lighting upgrades

Lighting upgrades took place at Wilton Park & Ride in 2012. This involved changing to modern energy efficient lighting and installing motion detectors where appropriate, to ensure lighting is only in use when needed.

Boiler replacement

Wilton Depot has undergone a boiler replacement, upgrading the inefficient gas boiler to a modern high-efficiency boiler.

Questions included:

·         How maintained were the electrical charging points? Answer: Our charge points were all fairly recent, the council was monitoring the usage of them.

·         What were low carbon jobs? Answer: Jobs related to the low carbon economy.

·         What was the behaviour programme for work with schools? Answer: There was one level with primary schools and another with secondary schools. In the primary schools, the children are encouraged to switch things off and check boilers, where as in the secondary schools they are trained as energy assessors.

·         There did not seem to be much joined up thinking on this initiative, as in our parish, when a new estate was built, the parish said that they did not want street lighting, but Highways said that we had to have it. The parish was working to reduce the energy consumption but the message did not seem to get across to some teams such as planning. Answer: There are some standards and statutory requirements which we have to meet.

·         I live in a four bedroom house, I would like an infa-red  survey carried out to show where I can make savings. Answer: Usually a community clubs together to buy a device which they then share. The Community Land Trust had one, try contacting them.

The Board will receive a verbal update from the Community Youth Officer, Nicola Sage, as well as:

-          To note the Local LYN minutes attached

-          Details of delegated funding spent

-          Info about a grant application from Juno Theatre, who are applying for £1,000 for ‘KICKSTART: Making Theatre Outreach Workshops for Young Women’.

Note: The above application is due to be considered by the Mere LYN on Wednesday 28^th Jan. The recommendation will then be presented to the Board for consideration at the meeting.

The Board noted the LYN minutes and details of delegated funding spent, as detailed in the papers attached to the agenda.

The Board then considered the recommendations of the LYN, regarding the funding request made by Juno Theatre as detailed in the report circulated at the meeting and attached to the minutes.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board refused the funding request of Juno Theatre Group, as per the recommendation as set out in the Mere LYN report.

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

·         Police – Neighbourhood Teams

·         Fire & Rescue

To note the following written updates attached to the agenda:

a)  Police

b)  Healthwatch Wiltshire

c)  CCG - Performance Risk Management Plan

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

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

Police

Inspector Webb had been called away to a firearms incident, so had sent his apologies. The Board noted the written updates attached to the agenda.

Fire – Mike Franklin

On 11 November the Fire Authority voted in favour of a combined service with Dorset. It was hoped that this would come in to effect by 1 April 2016.

The proposal had been submitted to central government and was being deliberated by Eric Pickles.

A grant of £5.54 million would be awarded and part of that would be used to form a hub near to Salisbury/Wilton area. The site would also provide facilities for a Safewise Centre, road safety and fire safety.

Questions:

·         Charles Smith in Dinton had completed a fire safety home check card and not yet heard anything back. Answer: Mike would look in to this.

·         Would there be an increase to the precept for the Fire Service element? Answer: The budget was due to be approved the following week, however it was thought that there would be a 1.98% increase, which was approximately £5 per band D household.

Decision

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

a)  Police

b)  Healthwatch Wiltshire

c)  CCG - Performance Risk Management Plan

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

To note the update form the Community Area Manager and to consider the request to allocate further £3,000 of funding to the Councillor Led Initiative – First Aid Training as detailed in the attached report. An update with full details of the progress of this project will come to the next Board meeting.

The Board noted the Projects and Priorities update attached to the agenda and considered the recommendation to allocate a further £3,000 of funding to the Councillor Initiative - First Aid Training Project which had received £450 of funding at the previous meeting, due to the high level of interest from the parishes to take part.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board allocated £3,000 of funding to the Cllr Led Initiative – Firs Aid Training Project for 2014/15, as detailed in the papers attached to the agenda.

Community Area Grants

The Board members will consider 3 applications for funding from the Community Area Grants Scheme:

·       Mere and District Railway Modellers

·       Royal British Legion

·       Tisbury Parish Council

The Board considered 3 applications for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2014/15, as detailed in the report.

Decision

Mere & District Railway Modellers was awarded £1,000 towards furnishing and equipping Mere Band Hut, subject to all safeguarding requirements being in place.

Reason

The Board allocated less than was requested, as it felt that the parish council should contribute to the project. The project met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2014/15.

Decision

Royal British Legion in Tisbury was awarded £413 towards events to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Battle for Gallipoli.
Reason

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

Decision

Tisbury Parish Council was awarded £1,900 towards a Great Tisbury Brocante and Antiques Fair event with the following conditions:

1.    That £1,600 be ring-fenced for the marshalling cost and that Tisbury Parish Council investigate the possibility of involving young people in this, through Leisure Credits or other means.

2.    If the event made a profit, then 50% of that would be paid back to the Area Board.

Reason

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

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 number 3485 as detailed in the report.

The next meeting of the Board is on Wednesday 25 March 2015, at 6.30pm

The next meeting of the South west Wiltshire Area Board will be held on Wednesday 25 March 2015, 6.30pm at Dinton Village Hall.