Agenda and minutes

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

Apologies for absence were received from:

·       Cllr Leo Randall – Board Member

·       Tracy Carter – Associate Director

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 3 December 2015.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 3 December 2015, 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:

·         Area Board Themes for 2016/17

The Chairman made the following announcements:

At the last Area Board meeting in December, people were asked to help identify some themes for the board to work on for 2016/17.

The results of the interactive voting session had identified two main themes, these were Conservation and Community Transport. Item 14 on this agenda would focus on Conservation, with Community Transport taking a back seat until after the Transport Review had concluded.

To note the attached information on the following current consultations:

To view current consultations follow the link:

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

The Board noted current consultations listed on the agenda and further information which was available via the weblink:

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

To receive any verbal updates and note written updates attached to the agenda and circulated at the meeting:

·       Police – Neighbourhood Team Update

·       Fire & Rescue Service

·       Footpath’s Update

·       Wiltshire Council Updates – Public Transport Review

·       Any other comments or reports

To log new issues or to track issues online click on the link:http://services.wiltshire.gov.uk/Areaboard/areaboard_issues_search.php

The Board noted the written updates attached to the agenda and received the following verbal updates:

Police

Inspector Minty gave a brief update which included information about a recent initiative with cross border forces in Dorset and Hampshire, where the ITV camera crew had joined them for an evening in tackling rural crime.

The Salisbury Journal had recently reported a rise in crime figures, these were mainly around violent crimes and sex offences, Dave was confident that this was due to the way in which these crimes were being reported, and that most of these crimes were historic cases.

He then invited questions from those present, these included:

·         What was considered as rural crime? Answer: There had been an increase in poaching and lamping, in one incident an individual took 200 pheasants in one night, on a raid in Dorset. There had been the use of catapults near rural properties which had caused damage to vehicles and farm equipment. There were also thefts of farm equipment.

Fire

Cllr Chris Devine, in his capacity as Chairman of the Fire Authority; gave an update on the progress of the merger with Dorset. On 1 March 2016, the Wiltshire and Dorset Fire Service would take over their new headquarters which was in the new Campus in Salisbury.

The merger would go ahead on 1 April 2016, with no noticeable changes to the fire stations or response times.

Footpaths

The Community Engagement Manager; Tom Bray explained that Abbey Sullivan would be leaving her post on 9 February to start a new job with Hampshire County Council. The Board wished her luck in her new role and noted their appreciation for all of her efforts during her time with the Footpath Group. She had been a pillar of strength in keeping the work of the Group going.

The next step would be to have discussions on how to move forward with the project. Proposals would be brought to the next meeting.

Youth

The Community Youth Officer; Emma Drage announced that this would be her last meeting with the Southern Wiltshire Area Board as she was moving full time to cover the Corsham community area. Emma would be replaced by Nicola Sage, who was currently covering the South West Wiltshire Community area, Nicola would be taking on Southern Wiltshire in addition, and would come to a future meeting of the Board to introduce herself.

The Board thanked Emma for everything she had done in Southern Wiltshire for the Board and all of the Young People. The Chairman wished her success in her new post.

Cllr McLennan also gave thanks to Emma for her efforts at Old Sarum Youth Club, which had successfully grown over the past year.

The proposals for the 2016/17 precept; from a member of the Office of the Police and crime Commissioner.

Speaker: Clive Barker, Finance Director

Clive Baker from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC); presented the proposals for the 2016/17 precept.

The proposal was an increase of just under 2%, which equated to £3.12 per

household for the year.

This increase would enable the PCC to protect Community Policing, which was greatly valued. Local Policing was key, and would continue as before.

Crime and Public Confidence

• Crime increased by 12% from December 2014 to November 2015, 7th lowest crime rate nationally with 50.7 crimes per 1,000 population.

• Public confidence measured by the OPCC Survey in 2015 is 83.7%, and had been consistently high since 2012.

• Victim satisfaction to October 2015 is 84.3% which is around the national average.

A good HMIC Assessment of Wiltshire Police

• Performance was regularly assessed by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary.

• Overall Wiltshire Police was rated as “good”.

• Our constabulary remained one of the best in the country.

The Chairman explained that he and Cllr Johnson were both members of the Police and Crime Panel, which would be meeting the following week to consider the PCC's proposals.

Questions and comments were then taken, these included:

• What did you mean by reserves? Answer: Some funds were ring-fenced for certain purposes, whilst other reserves were for other things. There would be £9 million at the end of 2016, under the new plan that would drop by £5 million the following year.
• There were talks of forces amalgamating, as we currently had one of the lowest crime rates across the country, how would an amalgamation affect that? Answer: This Police force was not considering a merger. There were discussions around the possibility of an alliance with Avon & Somerset, but we were not at a decision stage yet.
• Can you confirm that there would not be any resurrection of any major projects in the New Year, such as the helicopter? Answer: Capital spending had changed drastically, we used to see investment in property, where as now we work more towards moving people and utilising space as best we can. Investment now goes to technology. Big visible things won't happen.
• Were you given any guidance from external auditors regarding your reserves? Answer: Auditors want to come in and give their own views, they do not give us a figure. Nationally there was a figure of around 3%. As the Section 151 Officer, it was my duty to look at reserves when the PCC considers reducing them.
• In past years the Commissioner had made a strong point of protecting local policing. There had been no way of knowing if the 1.9% went into local policing. Answer: The PCC was proposing to give the Chief Constable enough money to maintain Community Policing. He would set the direction for this on 1 April 2016. Financial information was available in the Medium Term Financial Strategy on the PCC website.

The Chairman asked for a show of hands in the room of those in support of the increase. The majority supported the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

How Wiltshire Council is supporting communities to deliver events around:

• Clean for the Queen – 4, 5, 6 March 2016

·         The Queen’s 90^th birthday celebrations

• Cycling and walking events
• Big Pledge

·         The Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio

Tom Bray; Community Engagement Manager explained how the Council was helping communities to deliver events around:

Clean for the Queen – 4,5,6 March 2106

This was a national campaign where communities were encouraged to hold arrange and hold litter picking events locally. Six locations around the community area had already been identified where events could take place.

The Queen’s 90^th Birthday celebrations

A street party for the Queen would take place Sunday 12 June. It was expected that other local towns and parishes would also plan street parties on or around the same date. Anyone planning an event could contact Tom for support and promotion at a local level. Further information would be circulated in due course.

Cycling and walking events

The Cycle Wiltshire event would take place again this year on 7 & 8 May 2016.  Wiltshire Walking groups were also in operation, led by trained walk leaders – for more info visit: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/getwiltshirewalking

On 30 March 2016, there would be a guided cycling event in Downton. Tom would circulate further information on this.

It was hoped that other local cycling events could be set up and held across the Southern Wiltshire Community Area.

Big Pledge

The ‘Get Active Challenge’ was an initiative which aimed to encourage people to sign up to take on new physical achievements.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio

The Community Youth Officer was working with schools to arrange a mini Olympics.

A range of guides were available at the meeting and from Tom, which contained helpful information which would be useful for communities planning an event.

To discuss a proposal around Village Maintenance.

The Chairman explained that this item had come about following the Board meeting in Alderbury where parishes had asked how they could set their precept in light of additional services they may have to undertake, and the problems that some parishes have had in finding contractors to undertake routine work.

Tom outlined the proposals as set out in the attached report, to work with River Bourne Community Farm (RBCF) to offer a comprehensive range of village maintenance services, from Speed Indicator Device (SID) deployment to footpath maintenance.

RBCF were equipped to provide maintenance tasks for parish councils in Southern Wiltshire, including taking on the footpath project. 

There would be many benefits of working with a community organisation to provide such service, these included:

-        The provision of a responsive and well-equipped local maintenance contractor

-        skill in involving volunteers in maintenance tasks and ability to facilitate communities doing things for themselves

-        An increased income and opportunities for RBCF, thus supporting the aims and objectives of the community farm

It was suggested that as a first step, parish councils might like to invite RBCF to tender for any maintenance work that arises in their parish. This would be done without commitment on either side. This would allow RBCF to build up experience of parish council work, with a view to publishing a tariff of charges in around 12 months, in the hope of becoming a preferred supplier to our parish councils. This could also include volunteer involvement where agreed between parish and RBCF.  Parishes would pay per job directly to RBCF.

The Strimmer Project

At the last meeting, the Area Board agreed to fund 2 strimmers plus the associated training costs. Winterslow footpath group and Coombe Bissett and Homington Active Volunteers would take on the strimmers and commit 2 volunteers each to get trained up to use the tool.

Since then, RBCF had suggested that they could store, maintain and sign in/out the equipment to ensure access by a larger number of volunteer groups to the same tools. Also, they currently had machinery to maintain and provide mixed fuel for, therefore making it much easier for volunteers to use. By pooling the strimmers it would allow resources to be shared across more parishes and ensure the kit was well maintained. RBCF could also host the strimmer training for volunteers.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board agreed to:

1.     Set up a meeting at the RBCF for all parishes to attend a discussion and form ideas on how this initiative could be taken forward.

2.     Invite Parish Councils to give RBCF an opportunity to quote for work in the parish.

3.     Nominate RBCF as the custodian of the strimmers, maintaining them and loaning them out to trained volunteers across all 15 of Southern Wiltshire’s parishes. A procedure would be agreed between RBCF and parishes for loaning the equipment.

An update following the Dementia Friends event held in Alderbury on 26 January 2016.

Tom gave us an update on the Dementia Friends event held in Alderbury on 26 January 2016. Two sessions had been held, with a total of 27 new Dementia Friends trained at the end of the day.

Elaine Hartford from Alderbury parish council had attended the pilot session and felt that it was well attended and structured well, giving those who took part a great deal of ‘food for thought’.

Everyone taking part in the training committed to an action, these ranged from starting a Group to talking to a neighbour a little bit more.

Follow on work would look to see how to progress this with those parishes which had shown an interest. Laverstock had already approached the Alzheimer’s Society.

Southern Wiltshire had one of the highest recorded areas of people with dementia in Wiltshire.

Tom asked the Board to adopt the target of training 100 new Dementia Friends by the end of the year.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board adopted the target of training 100 new Dementia Friends by the end of 2016.

To get an update on how this project is being advanced.

Tom Bray, Community Engagement Manager gave an update on how the Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs) project was advancing.

Discussions with Riverbourne Community Farm (RBCF) had taken place to establish whether they would be able to provide the SID deployment service for the community area. This would involve taking down a SID, recharging and maintaining it, moving it to a new agreed position and erecting it. RBCF had agreed to trial the service and had quoted £80 per visit.

Depending on the number of parishes wishing to be a part of this programme, this would equate to approximately 3 visits per year per parish. With a cost of £240 per parish for the year.

Parish clerks had already been asked to take the proposal to their parish meeting for discussion and feedback their interest to Tom.

Comments and questions included:

·         Would the £80 per visit include replacing the batteries, as they were prone to run out whilst installed? Answer: Yes the cost would include all maintenance, with the service being reviewed after a 6 month period.

·         Who would cover the insurance for damage? Answer: Tom would check and feedback.

·         Where would they be sited? Answer: RBCF would have someone trained to make sure they were Highways accredited.

·         Could a review form be part of the scheme, to enable parishes to submit comments as part of the review? Answer: Yes.

The Chairman urged parishes to discuss the proposal and feedback their interest.

To note the report and consider any recommendations for funding from the last meeting of the CATG held on 9 December 2015, as attached.

The Board noted the report from the last CATG meeting held on 9 December 2015 and considered the recommendation for funding as detailed in the attached papers.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board approved the following CATG funding for 2015/16:

1.    £750 – Additional bollards to prevent parking in Eyres Drive.

2.    £50 – Erection of a No through road sign in Pennings Drove, Coombe Bissett.

CATG funds were still available; parishes were invited to submit proposals for new schemes. The next CATG meeting would be held on 10 March 2016.

Our Christmas Quiz identified "Conservation" as a topic you felt the Area Board ought to be working on.

This round-table discussion is intended to help us identify some projects to take forward.

At the last meeting the Board Christmas Quiz had identified "Conservation" as a topic which people felt the Area Board ought to be working on.

The Chairman asked people in attendance to have round table discussions to identify some projects which the board could then take forward.

Tom had circulated paper with three general headings to aid with discussion. These were: Tom had circulated paper with three general headings to aid with discussion. These were:

1. What conservation projects exist in your parish?
   
   
2. What could be done to enhance existing places of interest?
   Eg. New infrastructure, better interpretation and info boards, walks guides, more volunteers involved in conservation projects, eg Hazel Hill, Bentley Wood, New Forest, village ponds and local sites.

3. What could be done to create entirely new projects?
   Eg school initiatives, bug hotels etc.

The suggestions were then written down on each table and collected for further consideration. The outcome of this would be fed back at the next Area Board.

The Board will consider 3 applications for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme.

Officer: Tom Bray, Community Engagement Manager

Decision

The application from Redlynch Players was deferred.

Reason

The applicant was not in attendance to answer questions.

Decision

The application from Woodfalls Band was deferred.

Reason

The applicant was not in attendance to answer questions.

Decision

Barry’s Fields Sports Ground was awarded £700 towards the purchase of new stacking chairs.

Reason

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

The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.

The next meeting would be held on Thursday 24 March 2016, 7.00pm at Old Sarum Community Centre.