Agenda item

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. Councillor Lay also suggested that WIN became involved with the Memory Loss group.

Extended Services – Andrea Smith reported that there was a full programme of summer activities that was running every day over the school summer holidays, and many of the activities were fully booked. The Community Cinema was also continuing, with the next screening of Alvin and the Chipmunks being shown on Thursday 13 September.