Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Richard Britton welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Southern Wiltshire Area Board.

He welcomed back Associate Director Tracy Carter, to the Board.

Apologies for absence were received from:

• Tom Brolan – Dorset and Wiltshire Fire & Rescue
• Sue Wight – Age UK Wiltshire

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 29 September 2016.

Cllr Randall asked for his informative note regarding speed limits to be added to the minutes.

Decision

Subject to the inclusion of the note written by Cllr Randall, the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 29 September 2016 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.

To receive Chairman’s Announcements including:

·       Our Community Matters (JSA) event – 16 February 2017, Winterslow Village Hall, 7pm

·       Update on Fly Tipping surveillance camera project.

The Chairman made the following announcements:

Southern Wiltshire Community Event

The Board would be hosting an ‘Our Community Matters’ (JSA) event on 16 February 2017, at Winterslow Village Hall from 7pm.

The Board would draw ideas from that session for future projects and issues to  be addressed.

Fly Tipping surveillance camera project update

The camera would be in operation from the following week, the location of this would not be disclosed. The Board was in the process of arranging an informative note which would be included in all planning consent for tree work, where applicants would be told explicitly of their responsibility for disposal of the waste by a licensed contractor.

2017/18 Funding

There had been questions recently regarding next year’s funding arrangements for the Area Board. There would be an Area Board Chairman’s meeting on 19 December, where it was hoped further information would be made available, this would in turn then be circulated.

·       Fire & Rescue Service

·       Wiltshire Council Updates – Wiltshire Online, Healthwatch & CCG

·       Current consultations

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

The Board noted the written updates and information available online, as detailed in the agenda.

The following verbal updates were also received:

Fire & Rescue Service

Cllr Devine noted that over the next 3 to 4 years the Fire Service would lose 25% of funding from central Government. It was likely that there would be a precept increase of 1.9 %. He urged anyone with any suggestions about the budget to contact him.

Wiltshire Council Updates – Wiltshire Online, Healthwatch & CCG

The Chairman noted that data showed there were 15,500 missed appointments across the patch, this was the equivalent to 500 GP days lost or wasted.

Current consultations

There were no current consultations online. http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/consultations.htm

a)    Parish Councils and community groups

b)    Community policing – local issues and priorities

In attendance: Inspector Pete Sparrow and PC Matt Holland

a) Parish Councils and Community Groups

Downton Neighbourhood Plan (NHP)

In the recent referendum, there had been an 36% turnout of voters with 95% of those who voted, in support. The decision statement would be ready by 12 December; there would then be a period of time for any legal challenge, with a deadline of mid-January.

Question: West Dean & West Tytherley were producing a joint NHP. There had been news of other NHPs being overturned by developers in the High Court, did WC give any guidance on how we should proceed? Answer: Address your question to the Head of Spatial Planning, who would be able to provide an answer.

Community Policing

Inspector Pete Sparrow and PC Matt Holland were in attendance to give an update and answer any questions. The new Community Policing model started 8 weeks ago. The most important aspect was engagement, so theBoard had decided to trial a new delivery method for the update.

·         Once the Bourne Hill Travel Plan was adopted, the additional Response Officers would move from Amesbury and be based from there.

·         There was currently a shortage of Police Officers for this area. Recruitment was underway. Officers would be transferring and Special Constables would also be covering.

·         There had been a new run of Cadets undergoing the FAKE training. They were currently in their fifth week of this course which covered firearms and knife Education.

·         There had been several issues reported with the 101 service, any concerns should be emailed in to enable them to be logged.

·         The Christmas anti drink drive campaign was about to start. The Police had a zero tolerance on this.

·         A trial phase of the body worn cameras was taking place at present. It was hoped that in time all officers would have these.

·         Following a series of recent arson attacks, Community Policing had worked well with people alerting the police of incidents as they were taking place, the Police were able to respond quickly in closing the net to catch the person involved.

·         The Journal had reported on a misunderstanding over a man with a machete, which had received high Police attendance. This incident had been a case of misunderstanding, and the man had in fact been trimming a bush.

PC Matt Holland - Community Policing Coordinator gave an update on current work of the teams.

His role included focusing more on local priorities covered by our local area.

Alderbury rural beat – PCSO Tina Lawrence had been attending events within the community. The local priorities for the area included carrying out some patrols to monitor vehicles at beauty spots following theft from vehicles. He urged people not to leave any property in their vehicles when out in rural locations.

There had been a recent increase in non dwelling burglaries – sheds and out buildings, targeting the border areas. Some extra patrols would be put in place. This was a good time to review security of sheds and outbuildings.

A series of vulnerable person visits were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To hear about the newly created Rural Crime Partnership (RCP) for Wiltshire and Swindon.

Presenter: Joe Power, Secretary to Chair of RCP

Joe Power – Police and Community Volunteer

There were about 3500 volunteers across Wilts – Joe was a volunteer for the Rural Crime Team (RCT).

The RCT was there to provide a strategic oversight of all the rural crime agencies. Obtain resources for rural crime operations enabling us to take a view across the whole County. 

The Community Policing model would bring a real difference to policing across the community.

Cross border operations were carried out, with one taking place most recently only a few weeks ago. These had proved to be a real success across all areas of the County.

A Rural Crime office was being set up to provide a one stop shop.

The Community messaging service was very impressive, with well written updates, please do sign up to this. Keep calling issues in on 101. If people do not report offenses in rural areas, then the police have no idea that these crimes are taking place and so cannot respond.

Questions:

·       Successful local project – what does successful mean? Answer: Its saturation, we would be delighted to see Police officers on every corner, but when dealing with rural crime, the best way to deal with these people is to go after them and track them down. During the last Cross-border initiative a number of vehicles had been stopped.

a)    Child Poverty in Southern Wiltshire – Sarah Heathcote; Head of Child Health Improvement.

b)    To consider the recommendation to approve £18,663.10 of funding for positive activities.

c)     What’s on offer?

·       Grant funding around £4k left in 2016/17

·       Youth club activities funded by the Area Board provided by GoActive, Boomsatsuma and Any Body Can Cook provided at 5 youth clubs across the community area.

·       Funding and project support encouraging intergenerational activities, linking with the Health & Wellbeing strand of work.

Child Poverty in Southern Wiltshire

Sarah Heathcote; Head of Child Health Improvement.

Sarah and her Team had been to a number of Area Boards to give information from the statistics for child poverty for each area. In addition to the statistics it was recognised that local data was also available which had already identified some areas.

The National median income in UK was just over £17.500. In Wiltshire 11.8% of children were deemed to be living in poverty, however in some rural areas there was a real variation. The median income for the area was slightly less than the national average.

Wiltshire has a Child Poverty Strategy. Work had been carried out with Housing and other areas on some of the objectives.

A piece of work by the Children’s Society had showed that poverty affects their sleeping, studying and homework. The issue was very dynamic as families can find themselves falling in and out of child poverty, depending on their income.

For this community area, the number of children in poverty was recorded at 38, which was 8.4% for the area. The statistics here were slightly better than Wiltshire as a whole.

The biggest time to make a difference in a child’s life is in their first 1000 days.

Questions and Comments included:

·       The household income of £27k, was that for an individual? Answer: No that was for the household.

·       Were the statistics reliable over the long term? Answer: Yes, although there were peaks and troughs.

·       What should we be doing? Answer: Today was an opportunity for me to come and give a snapshot of data, some other community areas had followed up with workshops. Tom added that there were other avenues that this could be tackled, such as through the H&WB.

·       The provision of good play equipment and facilities and youth clubs has been good for some areas. Some families did not go away on holiday, so these facilities were valued by young people from those families.

Cllr Devine volunteered to be on working group and hoped others will join him.

The Chairman thanked Sarah for the presentation and added that following the JSA event the Board would try to shape some projects to take forward, so would be in touch.

What’s on offer?

The Area Board commissioned activities from three providers.

Boomsatsuma

Chloe spoke on the activity programme already rolled out across the area.

The young people who took part in the activities were able to develop skills to improve confidence and benefit their lives. They were also able to produce some artwork to reflect what they had achieved.

GoActive

Cat explained that they had been going into the five youth groups since January 2016. Sports and activities were provided, anything they wanted we have tried to provide. It has been really good for the volunteers and youth workers at the clubs to have some structured activities. Archery attack was planned for next year.

Additions to the programme planned for 2017 were to work with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

a) Setting up a footpath group

b) Alderbury Circular Path - case study, to hear from local Alderbury Footpath

    Group volunteers Phil Spooner.

c) What’s on offer?     

·       River Bourne Community Farm have 2 days per month (for around 20 months) available to support local footpath work which involved local volunteers. Arrange work days directly with Ben Parker (benparker@riverbournecommunityfarm.org.uk )

·       Strimmer project (5 of 15 parishes participating) – Area Board funded strimmer, parish councils funded volunteer training. Local footpath group then looks after prioritizing clearance of footpaths in their patch. Interested? Get in touch with Tom Bray.

Setting up a footpath group

Phil Spooner, volunteer from the Alderbury Circular Path project, spoke about the work undertaken.

·       It had taken 3 years to get the circular footpath together, this had involved a great deal of partnership work.

·       A final push this year saw some resurfacing work carried out, with kissing gates implemented over last few years. A board walk had also been set down.

·       Alison (Parish Clerk) and the Parish Council had assisted in publicising the work.

·       Display boards had been put up to show how the work had progressed over the last 3 years.

·       Young people were involved, including the scouts and schools.

·       The volunteers themselves had helped in other areas, there was an interactive keenness to help other areas in progressing.

The Chairman thanked Phil for everything the group had done in bringing this project to fruition, he was grateful to all involved for their work. These projects were always so rewarding, but ultimately it was down to the community to take this work forward.

Cllr Randall added that the community area could do with a few more circular paths.

Tom had put together a toolkit for anyone else interested in starting a similar project within their community.

That tool kit forms part of a larger toolkit which will be available online at: https://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/documents/s125795/b%20Circular%20path%20toolkit.pdf

Tom advised that Nick Cowan from the Rights of Way Team was always available to help advise people interested in this sort of project,

Question

There was an issue on Monarchs way, along the A30, where walkers were unable to get across the A30 easily, as there was no option to avoid traffic here, would the Board advise on how to approach the situation to improve matters here? Answer: Tom had spoken with Nick about this site, it was more significant than just arranging a gate, and may be something that could be taken to CATG for discussion.

What’s on offer?

·       River Bourne Community Farm had 2 days per month (for around 20 months) available to support local footpath work which involved local volunteers. To arrange work days directly, contact Ben Parker.

(benparker@riverbournecommunityfarm.org.uk )

·       Strimmer project (5 of 15 parishes participating) – The Area Board funded strimmer and parish council funded volunteer training. The local footpath group would look at prioritizing clearance of footpaths in their patch. Anyone Interested to contact Tom Bray.

a)    Toolkit for setting up local Health & Wellbeing Groups

b)    What’s on offer?

·       Grant funding available for Health & Well-being projects of £6,700, as well as £1000 available to go towards volunteer expenses.
Projects such as community lunches, transport, intergenerational etc. can be funded. Interested speak to Tom Bray.

·       Support available to set up mini Health & Well-being group (toolkit, support from Tom Bray)

Tom had attended a meeting which had been held with a good group of people including doctors and the pharmacy in Downton, to take the Health and Wellbeing (HWB) Initiative forward.

Jane Bretnor, Downton’s HWB Group lead added that future work would not be focused on holding meetings, but instead on getting community projects.

There were lots of practical projects which could be undertaken. A central approach did not seem appropriate for our community area, so for Southern Wiltshire the approach would be to have several groups in their own individual areas doing their things.

Tom explained that £6,700 of funding was available to spend on HWB projects, and £1000 available to go towards volunteer expenses. Tom urged people to get in contact with ideas.

A Toolkit for setting up local Health & Wellbeing Groups could be viewed at: http://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/documents/s125796/Health%20wellbeing%20toolkit.pdf

To note the report and consider any recommendations for funding arising from the last CATG meeting held on Wednesday 23 November 2016, which will be circulated at the meeting.

To note the report and consider any recommendations for funding arising from the last CATG meeting held on Wednesday 23 November 2016, which will be circulated at the meeting.

CATG meetings were open to all, whether or not they have a project.

Questions

·         Cllr McLennan asked for an update in relation to funds put forward by a parish council for a speed review at Old Sarum. The Highways Engineer was involved with this, however the next step after the speed review was not known.

Answer: It had been a parish council decision to proceed with this. The scope of the review by the Council’s consultants was to be circulated to the PC.

The parish added that they had started off with trying to move the change of speed sign further out, however they had been advised that they must carry out a speed survey, which is what they did.

Cllr Devine noted that if the speed review showed that cars were speeding then no action could be taken to move the signs.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board approved the recommendations from the CATG as follows:

3790 – Traffic management scheme Ford – To award £8500 towards the scheme subject to a contribution of £4000 from the PC. And that any outstanding CATG funds left at the end of the next meeting would also be allocated to the project.

4453 – Homington Road, Coombe Bissett – To DEFER until the new

year.           

4191 & 4645 – Amendments to speed limit on Portway, Old Sarum – To DEFER until the new year.

4576 – Crockford Green, West Grimstead - £2,250 subject to a

contribution from the PC of £750.

The Board will consider one application for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme.

Officer: Tom Bray, Community Engagement Manager

The Area Board considered one application for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2016/17 as detailed in the agenda.

Decision

West Grimstead Village Hall was awarded £3,250 towards their project to install a new oil fired heating system.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2016/17.

The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.

The next meeting would be held on Thursday 26 January 2017, 7.00pm at Trafalgar School Downton.