Agenda item

Written updates are attached. Anyone can give a report on items of interest to the Community Area as a whole.

·       Wiltshire Police

·       Fire & Rescue Service

·       Wiltshire Council – Car Parking Review

·       Community Opportunities Board update

·       Southern Wiltshire Issues System

·       Any other comments or reports

Police – PC Matt Holland and PC Rachel Gunn

In addition to the written update attached to the agenda, a verbal update was provided.

Violent crime figures had gone up slightly, most of those crimes were domestic violence or disputes between people who knew each other.

Three local priorities for work were:

·         Further integration of officers in to the Laverstock Hub.

·         Continuing with speed checks in specific areas.

·         Continuing to monitor HGV traffic in areas affected by this. Colleagues in the New Forest and Hampshire were working together to look as signage.

A cross border operation with colleagues in the New Forest was underway, aimed at stopping vehicles involved in incidents. Six arrests had been made on this operation.

The Chairman announced that at the next Area Board meeting on Thursday 29 January, there would be a fuller Police item on the agenda.

Fire – Cllr Devine (Chairman of Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Authority)

The Fire Authority had met and taken the decision to combine services with Dorset Fire and Rescue. No fire stations would close in Wiltshire and no frontline staff would lose their jobs. As the merger takes place, the numbers of back office staff may be reduced.

Comments and questions were received, these included:

• Would there be any collaboration with Wiltshire and Dorset Councils? Answer: As part of option 3, we would combine some back office services with the Council. However, the Fire Service needs specialist services to operate. To open a new station costs £2.5 million, so not possible to combine offices.
• What was the location of the new Head Office? Answer: We have £5.4 million form Government, £3.2 Million of that is for a new Headquarters, and Safety Facility. The location was not yet known.

Wiltshire Council Car Parking Review

The Board noted the paper attached to the agenda.

Community Opportunities Board (COB)

The next meeting of the COB was scheduled for the following week. A full update with proposals for consideration would be brought to the next Area Board meeting.

Southern Wiltshire Issues System

The Board noted the update on Issues attached to the agenda. In addition the following Issue was raised:

Changes to Bus routes 34 and X7.

John Martin (Chairman of Landford PC) asked the Board to take up the following matters with the relevant officers and the bus company. 

(1)  The change in frequency of this bus service (from every hour to every 2 hours) would have a detrimental impact especially on people who use this bus for work

(2)  The 7.10am bus would be too early for many workers, especially those in retail, where shops/premises were not open until closer to 9am

(3)  The 9.10am bus would get many workers to work too late

(4)  The last bus of the working day would mean workers having to leave work early

(5)  All of these factors appear to be out of sync with the generally accepted policy to encourage people to use public transport

(6)  The announcement of the changes had given very short notice and no time for consultation feedback

Action: CAM to forward the above issues to the relevant Officers.

Healthwatch Wiltshire – Tony Bridges

The Care Commissioning Group (CCG) and Wiltshire Council launched a consultation on 1 December on where acute dementia services would be retained in Wiltshire.

The Chairman announced that there would be a detailed session on Dementia at a future Board meeting in the new year.