Agenda item

Councillor Sturgis opened this item by providing a short update about the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in Salisbury and the Malmesbury jousting tent. The Queen visited the county on 1 May and the visit had been a great success. Councillor Sturgis thanked Catherine Doody and the Malmesbury town councillors for all their hard work in organising the tent, which had been visited by both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, who had shown particular interest in some arrowheads, Tracklements preserves and local lace making. 15,000 people in total had welcomed the Queen to Salisbury Cathedral Close.

The Chairman then introduced Martin Fortune from the Wiltshire Involvement Network (WIN). Martin explained that WIN aimed to make sure the voices of health and social care users were heard. An event was being held on Saturday 26 May from 10.30 am - 3.30 pm at Devizes Corn Exchange when carers and help to live at home would be discussed. More information was available on the website: http://www.wiltshireinvolvementnetwork.org.uk/.

The Chairman then noted the written updates from partners included in the agenda pack.

a.     The written update from Wiltshire Police was noted. Sergeant Martin Alvis added the team were to have a new member of staff in PC Graham Mclaughlin. A question was asked about whether mobility aid users were required to undertake training. Sergeant Alvis confirmed training was not required by law at present. The Independent Living Centre in Semington had a range of mobility aids that could be trialled by potential users and they were working towards having a training programme. A second question was asked about the Guildhall Bar in Malmesbury. An appeal regarding this premises had been lodged and a hearing was pending.

b.     A more recent update from Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service was circulated at the meeting, please find attached to the minutes. The importance of having and checking a carbon monoxide alarm and being aware of carbon monoxide on holiday too was underlined in light of the recent death of a young person on a camping holiday in Shropshire after taking a disposable barbeque into a tent to keep warm overnight.  

c.     The written update from NHS Wiltshire was noted. The Chairman explained that you would receive information through the post about an opt-out Summary Care Record. This was a record of basic medical information which could be accessed by health staff, for example if you were in an accident in an area in which you did not live. The Chairman also drew attention to the deadlines in the agenda pack regarding new cases which required assessment of eligibility for NHS continuing healthcare funding.

d.     The written update from Malmesbury and the Villages Community Area Partnership was noted. The walks group had received over £3,000 from the charity fund of the outgoing Mayor, Steve Cox, for which they were very grateful. With regards to a community hub in Malmesbury, MVCAP were working with the YMCA to create a hub and a youth café. A successful sale had been held in April to fundraise for the project. MVCAP had joined the ‘Action for Market Towns’ national organisation and felt the  information provided would perhaps be useful for Malmesbury Town Council or the Chamber of Commerce, please get in touch if you would be interested. 

e.     An update about the Sherston Old School Project was circulated at the meeting, please find attached to the minutes. The project was now complete and the fundraising team were addressing the small shortfall of £10,000. They now had tenants for the whole building and the project would be self financing, with no cost to Sherston precept payers. Martin Rea confirmed the meetings of the group were open meetings.

The Chamber of Commerce had a Business to Business event coming up on Tuesday 12 June. They were supporting Malmesbury Carnival and the scarecrow trail in the town. The Chamber was working with Malmesbury Town Council on conducting a retail survey of the town. The Chairman expressed his support for this initiative. He had spoken to Alistair Cunningham, Service Director for Economy and Enterprise, and Wiltshire Council were investigating having a retail survey done for all market towns in the county and whether this could be funded by central Government. As lead member for area boards, the Chairman had also asked for economic wellbeing to be considered as part of the Joint Strategic Assessments in future.