Agenda and minutes

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

There were none.

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 1 August 2013.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 1 August 2013 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:

·         What Matters to You Survey and the JSA

What Matters to You Survey and the JSA

The information collected during the “What Matters To You” survey would feed into the production of the Joint Strategic Assessment which is a set of statistics about each community area. We encourage as many people as possible to complete the survey to improve our understanding of the Southern Wiltshire Community Area.

Next Meeting

Cllr Jane Scott, Leader of the Council would be in attendance at the next meeting, scheduled for Thursday 5 December 2013. There would be a question and answer session.

Business Plan

The recently published Business Plan contained 12 key actions. One of these was to further enhance the roll of Area Boards and Youth Advisory Groups (YAGs). This was very encouraging as it showed that the Council was dedicated to continuing to support Area Boards.

Link: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/howthecouncilworks/budgetsandspending.htm

To note the attached information on the following current consultations:

The Board noted the list of current consultations as detailed in the agenda.

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

To receive any Partner updates, questions and statements. Some written updates are also attached to the agenda.

·         Police

·         PCC

·         Fire & Rescue Service

·         New Housing Developments

·         Wiltshire Council

·         Southern Wiltshire Issues System

·         Any other comments or reports

Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) – Angus Macpherson

The results from the recent public opinion survey were attached to the agenda pack, Angus explained that the figures were informative and in time would build up a picture of the community area.

The Community Speed Watch (CSW) scheme had recently been re-launched and two new members of staff had been recruited. The CSW scheme was now ready to hear from new groups interested in training to become volunteers in their own villages.

Comments and Questions

·       What was happening with Lorry Watch? Answer: The Lorry Watch scheme was not administered by the PCC.

The Chairman added that it was a good idea for watch schemes to work together but the Commissioner did not know whether it was possible for the volunteers to be trained to carry out both schemes at the same time. He agreed to take the suggestion back for consideration.

Tom Bray also undertook to find out about the current status of the Lorry Watch Scheme.

Action: Angus Macpherson & Tom Bray

Police – Sergeant Jen Bailey Hobbs

PC Henry Clissold had been working with local volunteers from the agricultural community to carry out rural patrols.

PCSO’s Rachel Gunn and Luke Taylor had both recently been successful in becoming Police Constables.

The Local Resolution programme had recently applied in Downton following the arrest of a person who had caused damage to the skate park.

Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service – Mike Franklin

The Board noted the written update attached to the agenda. In addition Councillor Devine noted that during the recent 4 hour fire fighters strike, Salisbury had 3 appliances fully crewed by retained fire fighters. Longer strikes were expected to follow in due course.

New Housing Developments in Downton – Councillor Julian Johnson

The Core Strategy listed 215 new houses to be built in Downton. There was local concern regarding the lack of primary school spaces, insufficient drainage and NHS provisions for the area once the new houses had been built.

Current residents in the village were concerned that the new arrivals would take school places which they required for the existing children. The parish council had written to Cabinet members; Cllr Sturgis and Cllr Mayes highlighting their concerns, but had not yet received a response.

There would be 45 applicants for 30 places at the local primary school for September 2014; this figure did not include applications from any new families.

The planned drainage system did not take account of the high levels of water drainage present during the winter.

Councillor Johnson asked the Area Board for their support in submitting a letter to the relevant parties to facilitate a meeting with all of the stakeholders as a matter of urgency.

The Chairman advised the parish council to make sure their local member called in the planning application, should it reach that stage.

Decision

Councillor Richard Britton to write to the Cabinet members and ask them to respond to the PC and Cllr Johnson.

Questions and Comments included:

·       Laverstock & Ford  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To receive a presentation from Rose Seagrief, CLT Manager.

The Board received a presentation from Rose Seagrief, Manager of the Community Land Trust (CLT), which was an independent voluntary run organisation.

The CLT scheme had supported communities across the country to build more than 234 homes, and to retain village pubs, shops, bakeries and post offices.

CLTs are not-for-profit, they are community-based organisations run by volunteers that develop housing, workspaces, community facilities or other assets that meet the needs of the community. These are then owned and controlled by the community and are made available at permanently affordable levels.

Further information is available on the website by following the link: www.wiltshirecommunitylandtrust.org.uk

To receive a presentation from Tracy Carter, Service Director for Waste Management Services.

The Board received a presentation from Tracey Carter, Service Director for Waste Management Services.

Waste and Recycling Performance

In 2012/13, Wiltshire Council moved from weekly to fortnightly household waste collections. Since then collections in north and south Wiltshire have reduced waste sent to landfill by 8,000 tonnes in 2012/13, compared to 2011/12.

Fortnightly waste collection and new recycling collections have increased the amount of recycling collected in South Wiltshire to 46.9% in 2012/13, compared to 37.9% in 2011/12.

This represents a saving in Landfill Tax of £ 206,720 in 2012-13, if maintained in 2014-15 the equivalent saving in Landfill Tax would be £ 258,400.

In order to meet targets and keep the cost of waste management down, all household waste must be contained in the bin with the bin lid closed. The waste team is working with local councillors to introduce a process in south Wiltshire whereby excess waste is not collected. This will be introduced on an area by area basis from mid October. 

The council is working on optimising household waste and recycling collection rounds to achieve efficiency savings. Options being considered include:

·       Changing resident’s collection days to make the collection rounds more efficient. 

·       Changing the working patterns of staff collecting waste and recycling.

Any changes agreed by the council’s Cabinet in December 2013 would be implemented in April 2014.

Everyone at the meeting was then invited to take part in answering a series of multiple choice questions using the voting handsets. This was to establish their preferences on the collection round redesign proposals.

Questions and Comments were then taken, these included:

·       At present resident are asked to put their bins out no earlier than 7am on the day of collection. Should the collection time be moved to 6am, would residents be expected to get up and dressed before that time to put the bin out or would they be permitted to leave it out the night before? Answer: This may be an option which we would need to consider.

·       In Firsdown, it had been noted that several black bin lids had recently been broken during collections. Would the bin lids be replaced if operatives broke them? Answer: Tracy agreed to look into the issue to see if it was a case of bin lids being close to the end of their life.

·       Has there been an increase in fly tipping in the areas where the extra waste not contained in the bin is currently not collected? Answer: No, fly tipping of household waste had not increased.

·       Why must we restrict the plastic recycling to only plastic bottles, whilst in other counties they are able to recycle far more plastics? Answer: At present in Wiltshire we do not have the facilities to recycle other plastics. Bottles provide a higher value. In 2016 the council would be changing contracts; the new requirements will then include the recycling of all plastics.

To receive a report on the progress of the Youth Development Project, one of our themes for 2013/14.

Tom Bray, Community Area Manager had circulated an email to all parishes inviting interest in improving leisure and developmental opportunities available to the young people across the Community Area.

Six meetings had been scheduled, one in each of the clusters to discuss how to take the project forward. The aim would be to involve as many people with an interest in young people from the clusters as possible, to establish what was on offer and what new projects could be initiated in order to improve the offer for young people.

The cluster meetings are as follows:

Tony Nye, Youth Services Coordinator urged people to spread the word and to get as many interested people as possible to the cluster meetings.

To note the attached progress report for our footpath theme.

• Kissing Gates
• Walks Guide
• Linking Paths

The Area Board Footpath project now had 4 committed volunteers working to coordinate activities in the area; new volunteers were needed to take the project to a new level.

Volunteers could be involved in many ways, including being part of the coordinating group to helping install a kissing gate or by contributing to the walks guide.

People were invited to join the group by either completing a signing up form which had been circulated at the meeting, or by coming along to one of the next activity days. Tom urged anyone with knowledge of key local sites to get in touch.

Coombe Bissett parish council thanked the South Wiltshire Walking Group for their recent help to install a timber gate and sleepers to create a bridge.

As an example of how communities can improve links between them, the Chairman noted that Alderbury parish council had recently provided half of a footpath to Grimstead and over the next couple of weeks Grimstead would be providing the other half to complete the link.

The next two activity days were scheduled for:

·       Whiteparish - 7 October at 9.45am

·       Winterslow - 4 November at 9.45am

For further information contact Tom.bray@wiltshire.gov.uk or 01722 434252.

To note the report attached to the agenda.

The Board noted the list of projects detailed in the report attached to the agenda, which would be considered at the next CATG meeting scheduled for Monday 7 October 2013.

The Chairman explained that unlike other Area Board’s the Southern Wiltshire Area Board had welcomed anyone to attend CATG meetings. However, in view of the growing attendance it might become necessary to limit attendance to one representative per parish.

To note the Area Board Grant Review, and to consider applications for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2013/14, as detailed in the attached report.

Officer: Tom Bray, Community Area Manager

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board considered 3 applications for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2013/14. Applicants present were invited to speak in support of their projects, following discussion the Board members voted on each application in turn.

Decision

Friends of Clarendon Palace was awarded £450 towards their ‘Clarendon Palace Lives’ project.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grants Criteria for 2013/14.

Decision

Winterslow Village Hall was awarded £2,187 towards the project to purchase new chairs for the hall.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grants Criteria for 2013/14.

Decision

West Dean Village Hall Committee was awarded £5,000 towards their project to replace the kitchen facilities.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grants Criteria for 2013/14.

The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.