Agenda and minutes

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

Apologies for absence were received from:

• Swallowcliffe PC
• Inspector David Minty – Police
• Mike Franklin - WFRS

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 two meetings held on Wednesday 29 July and Wednesday 2 September 2015.

The minutes of the previous two meetings held on Wednesday 29 July and Wednesday 2 September were agreed a correct record and signed by the Chairman, subject to the following amendment:

Item 5 – Gypsy and Traveller Sites update

The update provided by Cllr Green should have read – Improvement works were to be carried out on the Odstock and the Southampton Road sites – and not as it was recorded ‘Southampton sites’.

·         Community Transport

·         Farmers Item

The Chairman gave the following announcements:

Future agenda items

The Chairman suggested having various future agenda items such as community transport, a farmers perspective item or parish precepts at a future meeting, and asked those present for their view to scope the level of interest.

Community Governance Review

A consultation meeting had been scheduled for Thursday 15 Nov at 4pm

Emergency Planning Workshop

The new date for the SWW Emergency Planning workshop was 23 November, 5.30pm at Dinton Village Hall.

A ‘Challenges ahead for 2016 event would be held on xxx

Parish Council Planning for the year ahead

Parish councils were advised that due to funding cuts, it may be worthwhile considering whether non statutory services provided within their communities by Wiltshire Council would continue indefinitely, and to consider whether to start to precept for them.

CATG

Following advice from the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, it was suggested that CATGs should request a minimum of 25% funding towards all future schemes.

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

·       Police

·       Fire & Rescue

·       Youth – LYN & Seeds for success update

To note the following written updates attached to the agenda:

a)    Youth

b)    Police

c)     Wiltshire Council Items for Information

d)    Wilton Town Team minutes

e)    Community Area Issues System:

http://services.wiltshire.gov.uk/Areaboard/areaboard_issues_search.php

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 – Sergeant Dave Whitby (standing in for Inspector Minty)

In addition to the written report, Dave gave the following update:

·         There had been an increase in non dwelling burglaries in Wilton, including Wilton Shopping Village and at the racecourse.

·         A number of vehicles had been stopped during Operation Midas, which was a cross border initiative which had been carried out during the Dorset Steam fair.

·         Following a spate of incidents where damage was caused to parked vehicles, three individuals had been arrested.

·         There had been a change to the way the Police report statistics could be collated, there was now greater flexibility on the areas which could be included within the update report. If the Board would like to see a particular area included within future reports, they were invited to discuss it with the Inspector.

The Chairman noted that several incidents were still going unreported, and that to enable the Police to report accurate figures for local crime, it was important for people to report all offenses which occurred.

Fire & Rescue – Cllr Edge

A short DVD was shown detailing recent local work of the Fire Brigades across the county. The new headquarters for Wiltshire and Dorset would be in the Salisbury Fiver Rivers Campus.

Youth – Nicola Sage, Community Youth Officer.

The Area Board allocated £60,000 of funding to Seeds For Success, at the meeting held in September. This had now gone through and work could start with Jaki to provide services in the community areas.

The Board considered a Youth funding request for £600 to re-felt a pool table at Wilton Youth Centre and to purchase other pieces of equipment to meet the needs of the centre.

Decision:

The South West Wiltshire Area Board agreed:

1.    To allocate £600 of Youth funding towards the re-felting of a pool table and the purchase of other equipment for the Wilton Youth Centre.

2.    To delegate the decision to the Community Youth Officer in consultation with the Chairman and Wilton Town Council.

To receive a presentation from the Police and Crime Commissioner on the Annual Report and the Police and Crime Plan for 2015-17.

Speaker: Angus Macphearson, Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) presented information on the PCC Annual report 2014/15 and the Police and Crime Plan for 2015/17.

Four priorities of the plan were:

Priority 1: Prevent Crime and anti-social behaviour

Priority 2: Protecting the most vulnerable in society

Priority 3: Putting victims and witnesses at the heart of everything we do

Priority 4: Secure high quality, efficient and trusted services

One aim was to keep Wiltshire and Swindon as one of the safest places in

the country. 

The PCC made three commitments to the public:

1. Neighbourhood teams were at the centre of policing in Wiltshire.
2. Neighbourhood policing would be protected by shifting resources to the front line.
3. Any increase to the police element of council tax would be used to reduce the impact of central funding reductions on neighbourhood policing.

Key work to deliver included:

• Get the best out of Mobile Technology
• Estates and custody efficiencies
• Get value out of every £ spent
• Strategic Alliance with Avon and Somerset
• Deliver £10M savings through efficiencies in 3 years

Questions and comments included:

·       Could you identify how much of your budget was spent on clearing up accidents on Highways roads? Answer: The PCC did not have that information to hand but could source it and feed back.

·       Cllr Deane asked how the rural locations were affected as a result of a member of the community police team in Mere and Tisbury being on long term sickness leave.Answer: PC Greg Ferguson was now in post for that area with 2 PCSO’s. There were more Officers responding from Warminster than were covering previously.

·       How will the new Police phones work in some of the more rural locations where there is little to no mobile reception? Answer: The smart phones can link into local wifi spots. There had been a number of Officers involved in the roll out of these new devices, taking them out across the county so that problems like these could be picked up and resolved. Police cars contained a 4G card to enable Officers to receive reception when out in the rural community. We are also able to access the 4 main network providers networks to gain a signal.

At a special meeting of the Area Board held on 2 September 2015, the Board awarded £2,500 to the Cllr Led Initiative – Wilton Parkway Station project, for Scoping works.

The Board will now receive a presentation on the Wilton Parkway project.

Speakers: Cllr Horace Prickett, Portfolio Holder for Transport

and Paul Johnson from TransWilts

Further information is available on the Blog page:

http://southwestwilts.ourcommunitymatters.org.uk/news/wilton-parkway-station-proposal-find-out-more/

Cllr Horace Prickett, Portfolio Holder for Passenger Transport delivered a presentation on the Proposals for the Wilton Parkway, following the special meeting of the Area Board held on 2 September 2015, where the Board awarded £2,500 to a Cllr Led Initiative for Scoping works.

The presentation included:

·       The land where the station was to be developed was chosen as it is on a long lease to Wiltshire Council.

·       Wilton was chosen as it already had a good railway infrastructure in place.

·       There was a 6ft height difference between the Exeter and Great Western lines, which would have required two additional platforms for the Exeter line.

·       The original quote for £10 million was too high, so an independent company SLC of Birmingham was approached for a quotation for the work. The suggested figure from SLC to TransWilts was £5.5 million.

·       As part of the Stonehenge Management Plan, the management team had been consulted on how it could get people to and from the Stonehenge Visitors Centre.

·       A commercial unit within the Park and Ride (P&R) at Wilton could be provided and let as a cycle hire shop.

·       We would use around 300 vacant parking spaces in existing P&R for Parkway Station, plus Shuttle Bus to Stonehenge and Cycle Hire point.

·       Salisbury Reds bus service had been approached to see whether they would be interested in taking a route up past the Avebury and Stonehenge sites.

·       The Royal Artillery plan to have the equivalent of Bovington Camp, which would have around 130,000 visitors a year. If 20% of those visitors arrived by train from the Wilton Parkway, we would be pleased with that.

·       Cycle routes could be implemented which linked three sites, to enable people to access all three in one day.

·       With the right support it was thought that the project could be delivered within 4 to 5 years, but this would depend on Network Rail and finding space in Control Period 5

·       The project would have to follow the GRIP process with 8 stages, of which it was at stage zero.

·       A process was underway to assess this project for potential inclusion in the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) capital transport schemes. At that point a feasibility study would be carried out, if the LEP decided to support the scheme.¹

Questions and comments were the received, these included:

·       There was a problem with Swindon station recognising that TransWilts exists, when travelling from there to Salisbury, they do not include the most direct route via TransWilts.²

·       Could something be done with the land in-between the lines? Answer: No as there was a 6ft height difference between the two lines.

·       Most of our community area was west of Wilton, it is interesting to hear how the station would service Stonehenge, but people living in the Donheads can access trains from Gillingham and Shaftesbury, but to use Salisbury as a departure point for London, they need to arrive before 6am to find a parking space. Answer: We have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To receive an overview on Emergency Planning, ahead of the scheduled workshop to be held on 29 October 2015.

Officer: Surriya Subramaniam, Head of Public Protection.

SurriyaSubramaniam, Head of Public Protection delivered an overview on Emergency Planning, ahead of the scheduled workshop to be held on 23 November 2015 5.30 – 7.00pm at Dinton Village Hall.

The presentation included:

Community Resilience

·       Communities that were organised fare better in emergencies and incidents.

·       Communities needed to consider how they would cope without support from the Council and emergency services.

·       To identify within the community whether you had expertise, local knowledge, resources.

The biggest threat which faced the country was a Flu pandemic, where 2.5% of the population would die.

The South West Wiltshire Area Board would be holding a Multi-agency workshop for all Parish and Town Councils to join with the Community Area Team, Emergency Planning, Flood Team, Snow Team, Public Health, Animal Health and the Police Neighbourhood Team.

In addition, people were urged to circulate the invite to Voluntary Sector/businesses and Neighbourhood watch, etc.

A selection of Emergency Planning templates would be available at the workshop and assistance would be available for people to complete them.

The Community Engagement Manager would circulate a reminder of the event to all parish councils.

The Chairman of the Campus board, Cllr Tony Deane gave an update to the Board.

The contract was proceeding on schedule, with people aiming to start moving in by January 2016. The Police Neighbourhood Team had now confirmed that they would also be using space at the Campus.

The Community Engagement Manager had been tasked with making the Campus a vibrant success.

A new Leisure Activities Engagement Manager was now in post. A planned leisure offer and preschool would be in place from January 2016 with other services following on after that.

The Community Operations Board had been disbanded and a new advisory group had been set up.

A brand new fitness suite with pulse equipment would occupy the first floor, with great views looking out over Tucking Mill and the valley.

There would be longer opening hours and the library would be completely voluntarily run, so additional volunteers were sought to enable this to happen.

Community Area Grants

The Board members will consider 2 applications for funding from the Community Area Grants Scheme:

·       Circular Arts - £1000

·       Tisbury Bowls Club - £2250

Note: Application details are now available by following the link on the report front page.

The Board considered two applications for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2015/16 as detailed in the report pack.

Applicants present were invited to speak in support of their projects. Following discussion the Board voted on each application in turn.

Decision

Circular Arts was awarded £1,000 towards the We Can project.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant criteria for 2015/16.

Decision

Tisbury Bowls Club was awarded £2,250 towards the refurbishment of the green.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant criteria for 2015/16.

The Community Engagement Manager gave an update on the funding awarded at the Extraordinary meeting on 2 September 2015. Wilton Town Council had now agreed to provide £1,250 and Wilton Community Land Trust £1,250 towards the project.

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

Chairman of the CATG, Councillor Deane noted that the next CATG meeting was scheduled for 2 November 2015.

Any requests or queries relating to white line painting should be processed through the online Issues System.

The next meeting of the Board is on Wednesday 9 December 2015, at 6.30pm.

The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.

The next meeting of the South west Wiltshire Area Board will be held on Wednesday 9 December 2015, 6.30pm at The Grove Buildings, Mere.