To give advance notice of local consultations and any feedback. This will include information on the Northern Operational Flood Working Group, the Special Educational Needs Consultation and the Conservation Area Management Plan.
Minutes:
The Chairman provided information about forthcoming consultations.
Northern Operational Flood Working Group
The new flooding legislation meant that Wiltshire Council had the responsibility for putting in place local strategies for managing flood risk.To this end Wiltshire Council had set up two operational flood working groups, one in the north and the other in the south of the county. As part of the work of these groups they had been collating information on flooding and drainage issues from highways and drainage teams around the county, which were currently being loaded onto a GIS system.
The operational flood working groups were concerned that parish and town councils may have additional information and were hoping they would assist with gathering this information. They would welcome information on ALL types of flooding within their areas.
The Area Board would like to invite each town and parish council to identify areas which flood or have previously flooded and any documentary evidence (preferably photographic) to support this.
You are invited to collect the packs of information this evening and return them to the Community Area Manager at the 12 May 2010 meeting.
Gypsy and Traveller Sites
Wiltshire Council was preparing a plan that would identify land for gypsy and traveller sites and include a policy for assessing the suitability of other sites the Council was asked to consider through the planning application process.
Wiltshire Council had a responsibility to plan for the housing needs of everyone in the Wiltshire community, including a responsibility to plan for the accommodation needs of gypsies, travellers and travelling show people.
An 8 week consultation on the issues and general approach to identifying land for new gypsy, traveller and showpeople sites was to start on 6 April until 5pm on Friday 4 June 2010. This was the first stage in the process of preparing a Gypsy & Traveller Site Allocations Development Plan Document.
All information relating to the consultation would be available from the end of March online at: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/gypsyandtravellersitesallocationsdpd, in the main Wiltshire Council offices in Chippenham, Devizes, Salisbury and Trowbridge and at local libraries.
If you would like to discuss the issues involved in this consultation in more detail, drop in events were being held at the following locations between 4pm and 8pm:
Neald Hall, Chippenham Wednesday 5 May 2010
Wessex Room, Corn Exchange, Devizes Tuesday 11 May 2010
Meeting Room, City Hall, Salisbury Thursday 13 May 2010
Review of Special Educational Needs Provision
Over recent months Wiltshire Council Officers had worked with schools, parent representatives and other people to review Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision in the county.
The review related to the whole of Wiltshire and its purpose was to more effectively use available resources. The review considered:
• Special school provision
• Specialist provision that was part of mainstream primary and secondary schools
• SEN support services for schools
A document had been written that set out what the review had shown and what Wiltshire Council would like to do in the future. This would now be shared with a wide range of people who were invited to respond. The publication date was late February 2010. As soon as the document became available it was also being circulated to parish councils, through the Area Boards network, and it would also be available on the Wiltshire Council website.
Any questions about the proposals or the consultation process should be sent in the first instance to: Tracy Gates, SEN Project Officer, Tel: 01225 756170 or E-mail: tracygates@wiltshire.gov.uk.
There were opportunities available to meet with Officers to discuss the proposals:
• Devizes School, Devizes - Monday 29 March 7pm
• Sheldon School, Chippenham - Wednesday 21 April 7pm
• Kingdown School, Warminster - Thursday 22 April 7pm
• Salisbury City Hall, Salisbury - Tuesday 4 May 7pm
• St.John’s Parish Church Centre, Trowbridge - Friday 7 May 10am
The closing date for the consultation was 12 noon Monday 24 May 2010. The content of the consultation responses would be made available to the Elected Members of Wiltshire Council who would make decisions in relation to the proposals. Most of the proposals that may be subsequently agreed by Elected Members were designed to come into effect from September 2011. An individual plan would be put in place for any individual child or young person affected by any changes.
The Chairman also fed back from ongoing consultations.
Conservation Area Management Plan
At the Malmesbury Area Board meeting on 16 September 2009 Judy Enticknap, Lead Principal Conservation Officer, made a brief presentation on the Malmesbury Conservation Area Appraisal and Malmesbury Conservation Area Management Plan (CAMP). This document was intended to manage change within the conservation area, by providing guidance on appropriate forms of development which take account of the special architectural or historic interest of the place and also to identify opportunities for enhancement.
A report on the Malmesbury CAMP was submitted to the Northern Area Planning committee on 12th August 2009 and members agreed that it should be referred for public consultation. The responses to the consultation exercise were to be shown to the Chairman of the committee (Councillor Trotman), and provided that he did not consider that there were any substantive changes (in which case it should be referred back to the committee) it was agreed that the document should be adopted as supplementary planning guidance.
The draft CAMP was the subject of a 6 week public consultation exercise, which finished on 4th December. The Council received 13 letters/emails which included some very useful comments and suggestions. These have been analysed, and appropriate amendments have been made to the CAMP.
The correspondence and revised document have been shown to Councillor Trotman. He has agreed that the changes are only points of detail and confirmed the adoption of the document as supplementary planning guidance.
The Conservation Area Management Plan is a working document, which should be used to manage change which will benefit and enhance the character of the conservation area. The Malmesbury Conservation Area Appraisal and CAMP were prepared with considerable input from the local community. This included members of Malmesbury Civic Trust, Residents Association, River Valleys Trust and Town Council , under the “umbrella” of the Malmesbury Conservation Area Liaison Group (MALG). At the 2nd July 2009 Area Board meeting, MALG was dissolved, although members who formed MALG and other interested parties were invited to form a Task and Finish Group under the Malmesbury Area Board to have an oversight of the management of the the Conservation Area. This group would play an important role in monitoring the effectiveness of the CAMP in preserving and enhancing the character of the conservation area. Regrettably, it was not possible for Officers from the Council to provide any administrative support to the group. However, Officers would be more than happy to attend meetings twice a year to discuss progress and issues.
MALG formally thanked Judy Enticknap for her work on the Malmesbury Conservation Area Management Plan.