Agenda and minutes

The Area Board held a Participatory Budgeting session to consider applications for funding submitted by young people from the Trowbridge Community Area.

The Area Board had been allocated a specific youth budget of £9,297 to award to successful applicants for various youth projects and initiatives.

Participatory Budgeting provided the opportunity for everyone present at the meeting to have a vote on which applications they felt should be awarded funding. Each application would have to receive a minimum of 50% of the votes in favour, in order to be awarded the funding requested.

In order to proceed with the Participatory Budgeting, the Area Board agreed the following:

Decision

      i.        The Area Board agreed that the decisions relating to the Participatory Budgeting should be taken by the community in accordance with the process and conditions outlined in the report.  Those projects that received a minimum of 50% of the vote from the pubic attending the meeting would  be funded.

    ii.        The Area Board agreed that an additional sum of £250 should be awarded to the most popular of the projects in accordance with the process and conditions outlined in the report.  This would be the most popular project as voted by the public attending the meeting and would be used to enhance the project that has been applied for.

The following applications for funding were considered under the Participatory Budgeting processes and conditions.  Each applicant made a short presentation and answered questions relating to their project.

a)    Longfield Youth Group - £1,000 requested to purchase a range of console games and board games.

Decision

The votes received for Longfield Youth Group were 81% in favour of the grant and 19% against.  The Group was therefore awarded £1,000.

b)    West Ashton School Council - £550 requested to pay for the Crafty Potter to work with groups of children to design and decorate an egg cup each.

Decision

The votes received for West Ashton School Council were 85% in favour of the grant and 15% against.  The School was therefore awarded £550.

c)    Studley Green Youth Volunteering Group - £820 requested to take part in a street urban dance project and tea sessions for community volunteering.

Decision

The votes received for Studley Green Youth Volunteering Group were 80% in favour of the grant and 20% against.  The Group was therefore awarded £820.

d)    Bridging Project - £500 requested to run an arts and crafts cookery project.

Decision

The votes received for the Bridging Project were 98% in favour of the grant and 2% against.  The Project was therefore awarded £500.

e)    Studley Green - £950 requested for babysitting course and sports activities and equipment.

Decision

The votes received for Studley Green were 65% in favour of the grant and 35% against.  The project was therefore awarded £950.

f)     Paxcroft Mead Youth Forum - £1,000 requested to purchase 2 benches for the Paxcroft Country Park.

Decision

The votes received for the Paxcroft Mead Youth Forum were 68% in favour of the grant and 32% against.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Area Board received updates from the following projects that were in receipt of Area Board Grant Funding in 2011/12:

a)    Hilperton Village Hall - £3,253 had been awarded to upgrade the village hall including fitting a disabled toilet.

Update: The works had now been successfully completed and the grant recipients thanked Wiltshire Council staff, particularly Margaret Tipper, for their help with the application process.

b)    Friends of Trowbridge in Bloom - £5,000 had been awarded for events to encourage local residents to participate in a programme of planting.

Update: Advertising boards had been purchased and events held to encourage participation.  The town had received a Gold Award in the competition which was a great achievement.

c)    Newtown School - £2,300 had been awarded for upgrading of changing facilities and providing temporary cover over the outdoor pool.

Update: Over 300 children now participated in swimming activities at the school and the pool was also used by pre-school children.  A decking area around the pool had also been provided.

d)    Newtown Area Residents Association - £930 had been awarded for the provision of security lighting at Bond Street Buildings to increase community safety.

Update: Three security lights had been provided and local residents now felt much safer.

e)    Trowbridge Amateur Swimming Club - £1,434 had been awarded for swimming gala and social events to celebrate the 20^th meeting of swimming clubs under the twinning arrangements with Leer.

Update: 42 swimmers had participated in the event, a number of activities had taken place and the twinning event had been a great success.

f)     Trowbridge Rangers Football Club - £475 had been awarded for coaching courses to enable the club to run sessions for young people.

Update: A number of coaches had been trained and the Club was now looking to involve all age groups.

g)    West Ashton Village Hall & Institute - £5,000 had been awarded for the creation of a small meeting room attached to the village hall.

Update: The extension had been completed and the new meeting room was being used by a number of local groups.  The car park had also been extended and a new kitchen provided.

h)   Trowbridge Town Football Club - £2,446 had been awarded for the purchase of training and match equipment.  £1,687 had also been awarded to fund coaching courses.

Update: New equipment, including footballs, poles, hurdles and bags, had been purchased which was greatly appreciated by all those involved with the Football Club.  Coaches had also been trained and CRB checks had been carried out.  The Club hoped to invest further in volunteers and young people over the forthcoming year.

i)     Larkrise Community Farm - £4,000 for the construction of a barn for storage of animal feed.

Update: The new barn had now been built and this provided dry storage for hay and straw.  The barn was also used for the very successful lambing season.

j)      North Bradley Peace Memorial Hall - £765 for a project development study for renewable energy.

Update: The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the Extraordinary meeting of the Trowbridge Area Board.

The next ordinary meeting of the Trowbridge Area Board would be held on Thursday 26 January 2012, 7pm at The Wiltshire Council Bradley Road Offices in Trowbridge.