Agenda item

To receive updates from any of the following partners:

a.  Community Area Partnership Representative - Colin Goodhind

b.      Wiltshire Police - David Cullop

c.      Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service – Glyn Moody

d.      NHS Wiltshire

e.      Melksham Town Council

f.        Parish Council Nominated Representatives

Melksham Community Area Partnership: Mr Colin Goodhind gave the MCAP update.

Points made included:

• Over 100 people attended a MCAP consultation event held on Sat 23^rd January at Melksham Town Hall. The partnership will be providing the board with feedback from this consultation at the March area board.

• As part of the event MCAP had compiled over sixty pages of feedback from a survey carried out on the Core Strategy consultation, this had been submitted to Wiltshire Council.

• MCAP thanked Jim Sherry, (Wiltshire Council) for his help with the consultation process.

• A waterways theme group would be established during February 2010 to feed into the development work taking place on the proposed Wilts & Berks canal project.

• There were plans to establish a Health theme group.

• MCAP were keen to foster working links with the local villages.

Wiltshire Police:  Inspector David Cullop updated the meeting on current policing activities in the Melksham community area. The Inspector reminded the meeting of the Christmas “Lock it or lose it” campaign which had offered good practical advice on home security, Insp Cullop advised that this had been a successful campaign for Wiltshire Police.

The written update distributed with the agenda was noted.

Inspector Cullop then introduced Angus Macpherson - (Independent Member of the Wiltshire Police Authority) who gave a brief power point presentation that outlined what the Wiltshire Police Authority did, who they were and what could they do for the residents of Wiltshire.

Points made included:

• The Wiltshire Police Authority wanted the opinions of local people as to their priorities for the service of Policing they received in the future.

• How much would local people be prepared to pay next year for their police force.

• What changes would they like to see in local policing.

• Where your council tax money is spent on policing Wiltshire.

• Neighbourhoods expected good response times from it’s police service.

Mr Macpherson advised that the Wiltshire Police Authority would be sending out e-mails and letters to find out just what Wiltshire residents think their Policing priorities should be.

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service:  Glyn Moody updated the meeting on current Wiltshire Fire and Rescue activities in the Melksham community, it was noted that a “Black Dog” event was planned to be held on the 8 February at the Spitfire retail park in Trowbridge, these events target young people who use the retail park in their cars.

The written update distributed with the agenda pack was noted.

NHS Wiltshire: The written update distributed with the agenda was noted.

The Town Council, Parish Councils and partners were given the opportunity to give any updates,

Melksham Without: Cllr Paul Clark (representing Cllr Mike Mills who was unable to attend the meeting) 

Cllr Clark advised that minute 6 Partner Updates of the previous meeting in the NHS Wiltshire section said  ‘…… Melksham residents were unhappy…….’ and that Cllr Mills reported that it was Melksham general practitioners who were unhappy.  Cllr Clark had sight of a number of review papers available from the NHS Wiltshire website and had been provided with other data that he had requested all indicating a high standard of nursing care available from 7am to 10pm in Melksham.  Aware that NHS Wiltshire were not sending a representative to the meeting to answer the queries raised at the last meeting Cllr Clark had been given the following statement from NHS Wiltshire –

We dispute the view that was expressed by the two local doctors that the service is only working 9 hours a day since, in Melksham, it has been working 7am – 10pm since late 2007.  None of the local practices have raised this as a concern with the PCT and there is no evidence to support the claim.

Cllr Clark recommended that Melksham Without PC Parish Clerk should write to the Melksham general practitioners suggesting that they contact NHS Wiltshire direct detailing all their concerns about the nursing service with a view to resolving the differences and request that they should keep the Clerk informed of their progress.

The Chairman advised that this matter would be referred to the Melksham Community Partnership’s health theme group to look into in greater detail.

Melksham Without also raised the issue of the proposed Bowerhill village green application, they were advised that this issue would form part of the 24 March, Melksham Area Board meeting agenda.

Poulshot: Mr Steve Housby raised the issue of possible funding from the Area Board for Rowde Primary School.

Mr Housby was advised that the Community Area Manager would look at possible funding streams.

The Chairman thanked all partners for their respective updates.