Agenda item

a)    Salisbury City Council (SCC)

b)    Laverstock and Ford Parish Council

c)     Police

d)    Fire

e)    Salisbury BID

f)      Child Wellbeing Group Update

g)    Health & Wellbeing Group Update

h)    Community Engagement Manager

i)       Air Quality Group – End of Year Report

 

Note: Speakers are reminded that they each have a 3 minutes slot, unless they have previously discussed alternative arrangements with the Chairman.

Salisbury City Council (SCC)

The City Clerk; Reg Williams gave an update: 

·         A Big Business event would take place on 25 – 27 April. Some fantastic speakers would be taking part. Some sessions were already full. For further information visit the SCC website.

·         The final Full Council meeting would take place on Monday before the elections.

·         The asset transfer was near completion, further information was expected from WC the next day, following that a date would be reached for the transfer to take place.

·         The Harnham bunker project had come to fruition the previous Friday, there had been an utter transformation at the facility. There were a series of before and after photos which showed how amazing the transformation had been. The Life Rocks company who operated at the bunker had an open-door policy. People could make an appointment to tour the building.

·         Money was approved to go to a parkour facility in Churchill gardens  - now have the 10% so an application will go in to fund the work. To unlock 45K of funding to enable the facility to go ahead – if goes to plan should happen this summer.

 

Cllr Rogers noted that the Harnham bunker project started here at the Board. He commended the generosity and hard work of all the local tradesmen, professionals and volunteers who had given their time and expertise to make the project a success.

 

Laverstock and Ford Parish Council

The play area at Old Sarum country park was due to open the following week.

A new Coop food shop was also due to open soon.

The Longhedge housing development was rapidly progressing

A meeting on 24 March at Hampton Park country park was to take place. An agreement was awaited between WC and Barratts.

A new café had opened at the River Bourne Community Farm, this had been supported by a £5,000 grant from the Board. A further £20,000 was still to be raised.

Question:

Was there any update on the pedestrian and cycle path for Longhedge? Answer: There was no progress to report.

 

The Chairman added that it was a hope for the future that something could be made.

 

Police – written update

 

Fire

District Comander for Salisbury and Wilton; Jason Moncrief introduced himself and explained that he had taken over from Louis for the area. He had a written update which would be attached to the minutes for information.

 

The main points from his update were:

·         The Safe and Well visits continued to be carried out.

·         A Safe and Well advisor would attend the next Area Board to talk on the initiative.

·         Over the last 2 months there had been 134 incidents between the two appliances.

·         The availability for the whole time crew was 100%, with the on call crew recorded at 90.9% availability, giving an overall average of 95%.

·         One newly recruited retained Fire Fighter was going through training.

·         The Fire Service was currently recruiting – anyone interested should get in touch for more information.

 

Salisbury BID

Steve Godwin gave an update, the main points were:

 

·         The BID had delivered the Christmas market which had a record footfall. It was felt to have been the best so far. The Christmas market was crucial to businesses as it helped to move people around the city. There were plans for a better Christmas market next year.

·         Footfall in the city was static, up by about 1.8%, however this indicated that Salisbury was not losing it either.

·         BID wanted to see some real action from the Government money that has come in to the City., and hoped to be a part of discussions around how the money was used. It was important for Wiltshire Council to know that Salisbury wanted good retail opportunities, which would help to compete with neighbouring cities.

·         A programme of summer events around the city was planned.

·         The City had been awarded the purple flag submission again for the next 2 years. It had been harder to achieve this time. There were some recommendations which needed to be taken on board over next few months.

·         A large marketing campaign was underway, to deliver a campaign depicting a ‘city of stories’, giving an insight to some of the many historic treasures around the city, such as the Hunch of Venison and the story of the hand, or the Poultry Cross and the stories behind that. This was a social media campaign and was growing in popularity.

 

Questions:

·         Last year you donated a chalet each day to charities, could you advertise that facility well in advance next time, perhaps through the Wessex newsletter. Answer: Yes we will feed that back, we would be extending that facility next time.

·         Do you have an update on the litter situation? Answer: BID had been liaising with Wiltshire Council on ways in which they could help, because the city had such a varied litter collection. They currently tried to take the litter away and deposit it in an area away for the city. Work on this was ongoing with SCC, WC and BID.

·         The issue of litter had become so high on the list of priorities of the public. It was partly due to Salisbury being a medieval city, where the houses and businesses did not have rear access to many of our properties, leading to the waste having to be put on the street. There were 3 or 4 bad hotspots around the city.

·          60k had been put in to the pot for improvements in the city centre. The next phase was to address all of the rounds that the contractor do to see if some changes could be made. Changes in the city centre had worked the key now was to spread this work out into the surrounding areas.

 

Child Wellbeing Group Update

The Child Wellbeing Champion, Cllr Douglas noted that the Group had formed in 2016, to pursue 3 work streams identified by the Area Board early 2016.  These were:

 

1.    Communicate what was already being done.

2.    To focus on parenting

3.    Children’s mental and social health

 

The Group had also made two key decisions, that they would focus on 0 – 5 year olds and to focus on the Friary.

 

It was important that any work would come along side what was already going on and to work with existing providers and groups to engage with parents and families.

 

The next stage was to put together a core group of people who would shape something.

 

Questions:

·         Have you included looked after children? Answer: We did not single them out, we are looking at children as a whole.

·         I have looked at your list of partners and I don’t see a children’s advocacy service. Answer:  We will also ensure that children’s advocacy is part of the work.

 

Health & Wellbeing (HWB) Group Update

The HWB Champion; Cllr Walsh gave an update, he noted that the Group had been finding its way, and had taken its lead from the December meeting when the community had come together to discuss priorities. Several headings were agreed upon, these were:

 

·         Mens health for the over 65s

·         Mental health of unpaid carers over 65

·         Unrepresented groups in Salisbury

 

The Board had a HWB budget each year, so the Group was able to help support the community with funding for small projects.

 

Some key players were involved who were keen to take forward some projects.

 

Community Engagement Manager

Karen Linaker gave an update, the main points included:

 

·         Over 300 volunteers had been engaged in Salisbury around last few months, working with refugees or litter picking. There had been an amazing effort. That weekend alone there had been approximately 200 people who had taken part in the Great Spring Clean, collecting 150 bags of litter.

·         Work was ongoing with other organisations around the Boards priorities to provide learning training, and support.

·         Salisbury was a Dementia friendly city, working with Andrew from Alzheimer’s Society.

·         A Youth festival was planned for the second week of Easter.

·         Future events included the Children’s Chance “Question Time” on 11 May, which had a brilliant line up of MPs and local community leaders. In the second week of May it was Dementia awareness week.

 

 

Air Quality Group

The Chairman gave an end of year update, he noted that Salisbury was required to have an Air Quality Group as it had an air quality issue in the city. Most of the problems were along Wilton Road at the moment.  The Group had seen an increase in a number of the other monitored roads. The Group had been engaging with Highways England regarding the A36.

 

The Group was trying to develop an app, with data specifically around Salisbury. They were working with the UTC. 

 

The Group had planted a lot of trees, with Skew Bridge the next area to receive trees.