Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board.

Apologies for absence were received from:

·         Squadron Leader Rob Connolly, RAF

·         Peter Smith, Wiltshire Council Youth Service

·         Thomas Woodhouse, Royal Wootton Bassett Shadow Community Operations Board

·         Sue Doyle, Mary Champion and Jenny Stratton, Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 30 May 2012.

Decision

The minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 30 May 2012 were agreed a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Councillor Lay reported that the results of the Ridgeway Farm appeal, originally due to be released on 22 October, would now be released on 1 November.

Councillor Colmer reported that Cabinet had that week approved new Dog Control Orders, which would be of interest to the Dog Fouling Task Group that had been formed at the last Area Board meeting in response to local concern.

Councillors are requested to declare any pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests, or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To include the following:

·         Localism Act briefing

·         Paths for Communities – Grant Opportunity for Parishes

·         Funding for New Scout and Guide HQ

·         2012 Year of Celebrations

·         Reopening of Lime Kiln Pool at Royal Wootton Bassett.

The Chairman referred to a number of Chairman’s announcements which were contained within the agenda pack for information, and included briefings on The Localism Act, Paths for Communities (a grant scheme for parishes) and funding for a new Scout and Guide HQ.

Further announcements were made as follows:

2012 – Year of celebration

A summary was circulated outlining the successes of the Jubilee, Olympic Torch and Hudson’s Field events that had been held across Wiltshire.

Re-opening of Lime Kiln Pool

Lime Kiln Leisure Centre’s pool had re-opened with a new timetable. Swimming attendance over the first three days of opening had been excellent and was a 300 percent increase on the same period in 2010.

Fire at Broad Town

Councillor Bucknell extended a thank you to all of the services that had been involved in dealing with the recent fire that had broken out at Swindon Metal Solutions in Thornhill, near Broad Town.

Congratulations

Councillor Lay reported that she had recently attended an awards ceremony at Bradon Forest School, and it was announced that an ex-student of the school, Grant Turner, had qualified for the 4 x 100 relay for the Olympics. The Area Board congratulated Grant on this fantastic achievement.

To note the written reports and receive any verbal updates from the following:

      i.        Wiltshire Police

    ii.        Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

   iii.        Defence Technical Training

   iv.        NHS Wiltshire

    v.        Parish and Town Councils

   vi.        Community Area Young People’s Issues Group (CAYPIG)

  vii.        Neighbourhood Planning Working Group

viii.        Community-Led Planning Steering Groups

   ix.        Chambers of Commerce/Business Associations

    x.        Community Groups

   xi.        Housing Associations.

Updates from partners were received as follows:

      i.        Wiltshire Police

The written report from Wiltshire Police was received and noted.

    ii.        Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service

The written report from Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service was received and noted. Mike Franklin added to the report by announcing that the Service had a legal obligation to carry out a public consultation on the new Business Plan to 2016. Parish and Town Councils would be contacted shortly with further information.

Graham Weller provided an overview of the recent fire near Broad Town, which had been a very large fire for the crews to deal with, and many more local crews had been called upon to assist in tackling the fire. One fire officer had suffered heat exhaustion during the operation, but had now fully recovered.

   iii.        Defence Technical Training

Captain Bob Rusbridger and Stephen Harness from the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (Defence Technical Training) provided an update on progress establishing Defence Technical Training at Lyneham.

Plans for Defence Technical Training were still running to plan and many surveys had been carried out on the site. It was envisaged that a planning application would be submitted next spring/summer.

Angus Martin from Amec, the appointed contractor for the site, reported that Amec was pleased to have been appointed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation programme to work with the MOD on the site, and that communication with the community was very important. A full report and presentation on progress would be reported to the community via the Area Board at the next meeting on 26 September.

The Chairman thanked Bob, Stephen and Angus, and also brought people’s attention to a written update that had been circulated on the Council’s Military Civilian Integration programme.

   iv.        NHS Wiltshire

The written report from NHS Wiltshire was received and noted.

    v.        Parish and Town Councils

The written updates from Cricklade Town Council and Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council were received and noted. There were no other updates from parish councils.

   vi.        Community Area Young Peoples’ Issues Group (CAYPIG)

The written report on Youth Service activities was received and noted.

 vii.        Chambers of Commerce

The written report from the Royal Wootton Bassett Chamber of Commerce was received and noted.

Cricklade Business Association reported that work was still underway, in close partnership with Visit Wiltshire, on the tourism project, for which an Area Board grant of £5,000 had been previously awarded.

viii.        Community Groups

Royal Wootton Bassett Sports Association - The written report from the Royal Wootton Bassett Sports Association was received and noted.

Wiltshire Involvement Network - Mary Wilson from Wiltshire Involvement Network (WIN) reported that WIN was looking to engage more and reach out to communities in order to identify and seek to rectify local issues of concern.

WIN was a network of people, organisations and community groups working together to improve health and social care services for the people of Wiltshire.

The Area Board members indicated that they would be happy to attend meetings of WIN should they be invited.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider reports from the following task groups and make any necessary decisions:

      i.        Community Area Transport Group

    ii.        Cricklade Shadow Community Operations Board

   iii.        Royal Wootton Bassett Shadow Community Operations Board.

Updates were received as follows:

      i.        Community Area Transport Group (CATG)

The notes of the last CATG meeting were circulated for information, and noted. The next meeting of the CATG had a provisional date of Thursday 13 September, with the venue to be confirmed. Councillor Colmer would confirm this with the CATG members in due course.

    ii.        Cricklade Shadow Community Operations Board (Shadow COB)

Ruth Sybiak, Chairman of the Cricklade Shadow COB, reported that the Shadow COB was entering an exciting phase of work. The draft feasibility study was complete, and the group was due to meet with architects to begin working on proposals for the designs of the two buildings.

   iii.        Royal Wootton Bassett Shadow Community Operations Board (Shadow COB)

Mike Leighfield, member of the Royal Wootton Bassett Shadow COB, reported that the Shadow COB had previously decided to suspend its activities whilst discussions were taking place with the MOD as a potential partner for the Campus. Information from the MOD was still awaited. The Shadow COB had decided to reconvene as and when necessary.

To consider the transfer of Latton Recreation Field from Wiltshire Council to Latton Parish Council.

The Area Board considered a report and recommendation regarding the proposed transfer of Latton Recreation Field from Wiltshire Council to Latton Parish Council.

Decision

The Area Board approved the transfer of Latton Recreation Field from Wiltshire Council to Latton Parish Council.

To consider the following application for funding:

Latton Diamond Jubilee Community Garden:
£350 requested to assist with the purchase of gardening equipment and to launch the event.

The Area Board considered the following application for funding from the Area Board’s allocated budget for ‘2012 – Year of Celebration’ events.

Latton Diamond Jubilee Community Garden

The sum of £350 was requested to assist with the purchase of gardening equipment and to launch the garden.

Decision

The Area Board awarded the sum of £350 to the Latton Diamond Jubilee Community Garden to assist with the purchase of gardening equipment and to launch the garden.

Reason: The application met the grant criteria.

The Chairman announced that a thank you card had been received from the Royal Wootton Bassett Friends of Guiding, thanking the Area Board for the grant which had helped to facilitate the much-needed renovations of the guide hut.

A 30-minute interval for light refreshments and networking opportunities.

A short break was held for refreshments and networking opportunities.

Following presentation at the previous Area Board meeting of the outcomes of the ‘Forward Together’ event held on Wednesday 28 March, the Area Board will ask people to vote on their top 3 priorities to be taken forward.

Councillor Bucknell presented the prioritisation of the outcomes that had arisen from the Area Board’s Joint Strategic Assessment event held in March 2012. This was now the public’s chance to influence the future work of the Area Board.

On 28 March 2012, the Area Board had staged an event; ‘Forward Together’, where there were eight different theme groups and attendees were asked to identify priorities within each theme.

The event had been very successful, and 24 priorities had been identified overall.

The Area Board was now seeking to identify five top priorities to take forward, and the electronic voting system was used to enable everybody in attendance at the meeting to have their say on the three priorities that they felt were the most important.

Decision

The results of the voting exercise, and the top five priorities identified, were as follows:

Priority 1 –    HGV volume and routes

Priority 2 –    Affordable housing and making changes to social housing to be attractive / suitable for modern living

Priority 3 –    Urban sprawl

Priority 4 –    Lack of bus services in rural areas

Priority 5 –    Increasing traffic on A419/M4 creating rat-runs.

These five priorities that had been chosen by the public would now form the basis of a work plan for the Area Board for the coming year, and partners would be sought to take the priorities forward.

Progress would be reported back through the Area Board on a regular basis.

Community First and Common Places will provide an update on Community-Led Planning in the Community Area, the development of a Neighbourhood Plan and the relationship between these two processes.

Community First, the Rural Community Council for Wiltshire, and Common Places, a Social Enterprise supporting the development of resilient communities, delivered presentations regarding Community-Led Planning and the Neighbourhood Plan, which they were leading on respectively.

Community First: Community-Led Planning

Marion Rayner, Community Development Manager, and Belinda Fowler, Community Development Officer, provided an update on Community-Led Planning across the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Community Area.

Community First was a charity that supported communities to create Community-Led Plans that would inform the Community Area Plan.

 A Community-Led Plan was a strategy for the community for a five-year period. The plan covered all issues of concern within a community, including social, economic and environmental issues. The plan was designed to reflect the views of all sections of the community through a good process of consultation.

Community First offered direct support for steering groups, access to Community-Led Planning resources, assistance with coordination, new ideas and workshops.

In the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Community Area, there were currently 10 out of the 12 parishes and towns involved in the Community-Led Planning process, and two plans were already complete.

Common Places: Neighbourhood Plan

Mark Goodman provided an overview of the Neighbourhood Plan process and how this applied to the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Community Area.

A Neighbourhood Plan, as defined by the Localism Act 2011, was “a plan which set out policies (however expressed) in relation to the development and use of land”.

Once a Neighbourhood Plan had demonstrated its general conformity with the strategic policies of the Local Plan and was brought into force, the policies it contained took precedence over existing non-strategic policies in the Local Plan in that neighbourhood.

Common Places had been commissioned to lead on the development of a Neighbourhood Plan for the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Community Area. The process was well underway and would soon be leading into a public consultation phase, to be followed by formal consultation.

Both Community First and Common Places were working together to maintain communication, share local knowledge, overcome challenges and facilitate understanding of the two separate but linked processes.

Following the presentations from Community First and Common Places, the following questions and comments arose:

·         One of the real benefits of Neighbourhood Plans was identifying and dealing with common issues.

·         All data was stored in digital format which made it easier to collate efficiently and create common databases.

·         Common Places was funded to carry out its work directly through the client, which in this case was Wiltshire Council, and funding for the project had been received through DCLG.

·         Community First was a registered charity and was part of a national network of Rural Community Councils. Community First’s funding for this work was received from DEFRA.

·         The Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board had also supported the process by agreeing to make funding available for parishes and towns seeking to embark upon the Community-Led Planning process.

·         Parish councils were the qualifying bodies insofar as a Neighbourhood Plan was concerned. If a parish council chose not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

Karen Scott, Voluntary Development Manager, Wiltshire Council and Simone Lord from the Volunteer Centre at GROW will deliver a presentation on the work being undertaken by Wiltshire Council and its partners to support and develop volunteering in Wiltshire.

Karen Scott, Voluntary Development Manager for Wiltshire Council and Simone Lord of Volunteer Centre Wiltshire delivered a presentation on the work being undertaken by the Council and its partners to develop and support volunteering in Wiltshire.

Work was ongoing to make volunteering available to all, and to ensure that volunteering was well managed, supported and recognised through schemes such as the new ‘Time Credits’ scheme, a scheme whereby volunteers were rewarded by the time they gave by receiving a time credit which could be redeemed against certain time-related activities.

There were plenty of opportunities available for volunteers; 1,500 volunteering opportunities had now been promoted through the Volunteer Centre and the number of volunteers had doubled in the last year to 2,265.

Further information on volunteering opportunities was available by telephoning 0845 521 6224 or by visiting www.volunteercentrewiltshire.org.uk.

Following the presentation, the following comments arose:

·         A Time Credits website was currently under development, and would contain information regarding how and where Time Credits could be redeemed.

·         In the meantime, there was information on the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/chippenhamtimecredits

·         Further information on the Time Credits pilot was also available on the Wiltshire Council website: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/wiltshiretimecredits

·         The Time Credits scheme was mainly aimed at new volunteers to encourage more people to get involved with volunteering who wouldn’t normally otherwise.

·         The pilot was currently running in the Chippenham area, but it was hoped it could be extended throughout other areas if communities were interested in developing the scheme in their own areas.

The Chairman thanked Karen and Simone for their presentation.

Emma Cooper, Community Partnership Manager, Wiltshire Council, will give a presentation and show a short film regarding the Wiltshire Community Bank, which provides a credit union service across the county.

Emma Cooper, Community Partnership Manager, gave a presentation regarding Tackling Financial Exclusion in Wiltshire.

Financial exclusion was often hidden within our communities and could be hard to identify. It was not just something that occurred in urban areas; but existed in rural areas too and was also more likely to exist where there were high levels of affordable housing. Research showed a correlation between low income and deprivation, and employed people and pensioners were also affected.

In the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Community Area there were three areas that were within the most deprived 20% in Wiltshire and 7.5% of families were classed as ‘vulnerable’. There was also a decline in rural facilities, such as post offices.

Wiltshire Council was the lead body for improving financial inclusion and was working with organisations such as Wiltshire Money to improve financial capability and offer better access to free money advice, financial products and services.

The Wiltshire Community Bank was a credit union service in Wiltshire which allowed people to save and borrow at an affordable rate. People were encouraged to join Wiltshire Community Bank as members pooled their savings to lend to one another, so the service was more effective the more people who participated.

The Chairman thanked Emma for her presentation.

The Chairman will invite any remaining questions from the floor.

The meeting is asked to note the future meeting dates and venues shown below.

An evaluation exercise was held using the electronic voting devices. Comments and suggestions were welcomed and could be fed through the local members.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting. The next meeting of the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board would be held on Wednesday 26 September, from 6pm at Cricklade Town Hall.