Agenda item

To include, but not limited to, the following:

a.    A350 - closure for road works

b.    Community Payback – a call for ‘grot spots’ (there will be an opportunity before the meeting to indicate areas that need cleaning up)

c.    Wiltshire Local Transport Plan Strategy.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Trowbridge Area Board meeting, and introduced himself, his Vice Chairman, the Community Area Manager and the Senior Democratic Services Officer.

He referred the meeting to the Chairman’s announcements in the agenda pack and added the following:

a.    West Ashton A350 Phase 1 Works – the A350 was to be closed from the West Ashton crossroads to Littleton Roundabout on Friday 10 September from 1930 hours until Monday 13 September at 0500 hours.  Other carriageway works were to be undertaken at night in order to limit disruption to traffic from Monday 13 September to Monday 1 October.  Diversions were to be signposted.

b.    Consultation planned on possible new Gypsy and Traveller sites following on from the work carried out in April and June this year had been put on hold. The consultation used figures proposed in the draft South West Regional Spatial Strategy as the basis of future need for Gypsy and Traveller sites. The Regional Spatial Strategy had been revoked and it fell to local authorities to determine the right level of site provision. Officers were currently assessing existing information about the level of need for new sites in Wiltshire to make sure the development plan document progressed with the correct local targets for new site provision. This had affected the overall timetable for the preparation of the Gypsy and Traveller Site Allocations document. The Area Board would be informed once a revised project timetable on the provision of new sites for the travelling community was available.

c.    Community Payback – a map was available at the meeting to mark up known ‘grot spots’.

d.    The Council had a statutory duty to review and publish a new Local Transport Plan (LTP) by the end of March 2011. In essence, Local Transport Plans steered the implementation of national transport policies at the local level.  In addition, the Local Transport Plan provided the framework for all other organisations with a direct or indirect involvement in transport in Wiltshire.  Consultation on the draft Local Transport Plan were to run from 4 October to 26 November 2010.  The preferred method of communication was for comments to be submitted online at: http://consult.wiltshire.gov.uk/portal,where electronic copies of all the documents were available. Paper copies of the summary document, questionnaire and a reference copy of the Local Transport Plan were also available from all libraries and main Council offices.

e.    Voluntary & Community Sector Awards 2010 - Trowbridge Area Board was asked to nominate a project that had received funding from the area board’s community grants scheme for a category within the Wiltshire Voluntary & Community sector awards 2010.  The area board nominated West Ashton Village Hall’s project for the fitting of photovoltaic panels to the village hall roof. We were notified that this nomination has been shortlisted for an award.  We would find out if they had won on 19 October.

f.     Thanks were given by the Chairman to Julia Densham, Senior Democratic Services Officer, who had worked with the area board since April.  She would shortly be taking up a new post as community area manager for the Marlborough community area.  The Chairman welcomed the board’s new democratic services officer, Penny Bell.