Agenda item

To receive updates from our key partners, including:

 

Verbal Updates

To receive any verbal updates from representatives, including:

 

a.    Wiltshire Police - Inspector Scott Anger

b.    Wiltshire Road Safety Partnership – Perry Payne

c.    Road Safety Education Manager (Bikability) - Jane Deeley

d.    Parish and Town Councils

e.    Spurgeons Children’s Charity

 

Written or Online Updates

The Board is asked to note the following written and online updates attached to the agenda:

 

a.    Wiltshire Police

b.    Neighbourhood Watch – Youth Advisory Group

c.    Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service - videos

d.    Purton Parish Council

e.    Cricklade Town Council

f.     Household Support Fund – Purton Community Fridge

 

 

Written updates were available in the agenda pack from:

 

 

·       Wiltshire Police, pg. 33 – 41

·       Wiltshire and Swindon Road Safety Partnership, pg. 43 – 53

·       Neighbourhood Watch Youth Advisory Group, pg. 55-56

·       Purton Parish Council, pg. 57-59

·       Cricklade Town Council, pg. 61-62

·       Household Support Fund – Purton Community Fridge, pg. 63

 

The following partners also provided verbal updates:

 

Wiltshire Police

 

Inspector Scott Anger and Sergeant James Osment gave an update on behalf of the neighbourhood police team. Points included:

 

·       Both the Inspector and Sergeant were new to the area and looked forward to getting to know the local community.

·       Police Constable (PC) Lucy Wright had been replaced in the team by PC Mike Gassner, two days before the Area Board.

·       The neighbourhood team had held several engagements in the local area, listed on page 36 of the agenda pack.

·       Inspector Anger noted that community engagement events were always advertised online in advance; forthcoming engagements were listed on page 37 of the agenda pack.

·       The police preferred to attend events organised by other groups as they tended to get higher attendance than at standalone police events.

·       The number of crimes in the local area between 1 July and 20 September were 35.4 percent lower than the equivalent period in 2023. The number of recorded incidents in that time was down by 22 percent on the equivalent period in 2023.

·       An investigation was ongoing into a fatal road traffic incident in Bushton and support was being provided to the local community.

·       The neighbourhood team were looking to help establish more Community Speed Watch (CSW) teams in Royal Wootton Bassett and the surrounding villages.

 

 

During the discussion, the following points were made:

 

·       The Area Board thanked the Inspector and Seargent for their updates.

·       Mark Clarke, Chairman of Cricklade Town Council, thanked the police for supporting their local CSW and asked them to continue their good work. He also noted that the town council had invested in two new Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs). 

·       A police response team and housing association were tackling antisocial driving in Ridgeway Farm.

·       Purton Co-op was burgled on 27 August when cash and alcohol were stolen. The burglary was part of a national trend of Co-ops being targeted in rural areas. An investigation was ongoing, and the shop had been able to open the next day.

·       The neighbourhood team were working alongside schools in Purton to tackle antisocial parking. Inspector Anger said that he would welcome information about specific locations where the antisocial parking was taking place.

·       In response to a query about whether there had been an improvement in the prosecution rate for crimes classified as ‘violence against the person’, Inspector Anger stated that, although he did not have statistics available about specific types of crimes, the overall prosecution rate in Wiltshire was 16.9 percent and it was 26.3 percent in the Royal Wootton Bassett area. It would be possible to email the neighbourhood team to request a more detailed breakdown of the figures.

·       Local resident, Jason Cook, asked whether it would be possible to have statistics about prosecution rates included in future agenda packs. 

·       The Chairman noted that Chief Constable Catherine Roper was scheduled to attend the next Area Board and that it would be possible to submit questions in advance.

 

 

Spurgeons Children’s Charity – Family Hubs

 

Community Family Navigator, Lily Guppy, gave an update about Family Hubs, points included:

 

·       Wiltshire Council had commissioned Spurgeons to provide parental and family support services for children and young people aged 0-19, or up to 25 with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND).

·       Family Hubs had been introduced to replace Children’s Centres. The aim of introducing Family Hubs was to enable families, children and young people to access the right help at the right time through a coordinated approach to prevention and early intervention.

·       There were three main workstreams, outreach support, parenting and navigation.

·       Families could either self-refer or be referred by a professional to the outreach service. The family would then be allocated a support worker who would visit them in their home.

·       The parenting workstream would be delivered through the main hubs in the Family Hub Scheme, County Hall in Trowbridge, Monkton Park in Chippenham and Five Rivers in Salisbury. Parenting services could also be accessed online or via schools.

·       As part of the navigation service, family navigators, such as Lily, would provide one off support, meet families in the community and help to signpost them to services. The team had just recruited a new part time family navigator and planned to appoint another part time officer soon.

·       Spurgeons were keen to carry out more work in the Area Board’s area.  

·       In addition to their three main hubs, they provided drop-in services at other ‘spoke hubs’, including at Cricklade Leisure Centre.

·       The Community Family Navigator had visited St Mary’s CE Primary School in Purton on 8 October to carry out an engagement event.

 

 

During the discussion, the following points were made.

 

 

·       The Area Board thanked the Community Family Navigator for her update.

·       It was noted that the intention of the new model was to focus on prevention and continuity of support. The Community Family Navigator confirmed that the Children’s Centres that the Family Hubs had replaced only focussed on children up to the age of five, whereas, under the new model, support could be provided up to 19 (or 25 with SEND).

·       Spurgeons had been commissioned by Wiltshire Council to provide the new service for an initial period of two years. If the new hubs were successful, then the contract would then be extended for a further five years.

·       The buildings used to operate Children’s Centres were now available to Wiltshire Council for other uses. 

·       In response to a query about how often services would run from Cricklade, the Community Family Navigator explained that it would depend on demand and viability. The aim was to run bi-weekly sessions which the same member of staff would attend. It was anticipated that sessions would be up and running in Cricklade by December.

·       In the longer term, Spurgeons also wanted to run sessions in Purton and Lyneham.

·       The Vice-Chairman reported that Wiltshire Council’s Children’s Select Committee, the overview and scrutiny committee that oversaw children’s services in the county, had received an update about referral levels to Family Hubs in November and would continue to monitor the situation. 

·       There was a temporary closure of outreach introductions to Family Hubs after 23 August, due to the high level of demand for the service, but they were now accepting referrals again.

·       Part of the Community Family Navigator’s role was to promote the new service.

 

Road Safety Education Programmes for Schools

 

Wiltshire Council’s Road Safety Education Manager, Jane Deeley, gave a presentation about road safety education in Wiltshire’s schools. Points included:

 

·       The Bikeability scheme replaced the former cycling proficiency scheme in 2007 and was governed by a charity called the Bikeability Trust. 

·       There were three different levels of Bikeability training, each targeted at a different age group. The focus was on getting children up to level two, where they were able to train on public roads.

·       The majority of Bikeability training took place in primary schools, although they did also work with secondary schools.

·       Bikeability training was provided free of charge to children, over 3,000 of which had benefitted from the training in Wiltshire during the 2023/24 academic year. The government’s target was for 80 percent of year six pupils to take part in the training.

·       Some funding was available to help secondary school age children that had not previously learnt to ride.

·       Scootability, training on scooters, was another service run by Wiltshire Council that could be purchased by primary schools. Around 800 children had accessed this service over the last year. Schools could use PE funding to pay for Scootability training as it was a form of physical activity.

·       Every school in the Area Board’s area had taken part in Bikeability training, with the exception of Wootton Bassett Infants’ School, as their pupils were too young. Bradon Forest School had not participated in 2023/24, so the Bikeability team were keen to work with them in future.

·       The Road Safety Education Manager had started helping with cycling proficiency instruction when she was just nine years old. She appealed for people that might be interested in becoming Bikeability instructors to contact her. She noted that it was an enjoyable part time role, and they had recruited people from a range of backgrounds including in the police, the military and healthcare.

·       Bikeability instructors were all self-employed contractors, qualified to a nationally set standard and had all undergone DBS checks. Anyone interested in becoming an instructor could contact bikeability@wiltshire.gov.uk.

 

 

During the discussion, points included:

 

·       The Area Board thanked the Road Safety Education Manager for her presentation.

·       It was confirmed that the job of Bikeability instructor was a paid role. Typically, the instructors worked around three days per week, but there was some flexibility. Wiltshire Council also employed four office-based support staff to help the team.

 

 

Wiltshire Road Safety Partnership

 

 

Perry Payne from Wiltshire Road Safety Partnership gave an overview of their work to improve road safety. Points included:

 

 

·       They were a multi-agency partnership working across three main workstreams, engineering, education and enforcement.

·       The areas of focus of the different organisations within the partnership were outlined.

·       Wiltshire Police were upgrading the data system used to report road traffic collisions. This data was utilised to undertake “cluster analysis” to identify sites where collision reduction measures might be effective.

·       For every road traffic accident causing a serious injury there were 12 that did not.

·       Town and parish councils could contact the Area Board’s Local Highways and Footpaths Improvement Group (LHFIG) to apply for traffic surveys to be undertaken.

·       Education about road safety was key as, in 2017, 27 percent of people that died in cars on the road were not wearing a seatbelt.

·       Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service had helped to deliver the Safe Drive Stay Alive presentation to 5,000 students and the Survive to Drive presentation to 4,500 military personnel.

·       Thanks were given to Community Speed Watch (CSW) volunteers who played a role in educating drivers and informing enforcement activity. Drivers repeatedly speeding could receive up to three advisory letters.

·       Between July 2020 and 22 August 2024 there had been 355 watches carried out leading to 5,438 letters being sent in the Area Board’s area.

·       The Police and Crime Commissioner’s office funded three Community Speed Enforcement Officers. Between 1 January 2023 and 22 August 2024, they had been active in 85 locations in the Royal Wootton Bassett and Cricklade area and were responsible for sending people on 676 speed awareness courses and sending five people to court.

·       Wiltshire Police’s Road Policing Unit focussed on a number of different aspects of road safety including weight limits, driving without an MOT and tachograph issues (breaches of driver rest time regulations). Between May and July 2024 1,551 tickets had been sent to motorists for numerous road related offences.

·       Crossing roads whilst looking at ‘phone screens was an increasing risk to pedestrian safety.

 

 

During the discussion, points included:

 

·       The Area Board thanked Mr Payne for his update.

·       Jason Cook from Royal Wootton Environment Trust said that he would welcome further information in the pack about improving safety for cyclists. He noted that a recent survey in Royal Wootton Bassett had identified that concerns about safety were the main factor deterring people from cycling in the town.

·       Wiltshire Council’s Road Safety Education Manager explained that they did publicise safety through Operation Close Pass, to educate drivers about the need to allow a sufficient gap when overtaking cyclists.

·       Mr Payne explained that cyclists wearing cameras could submit images or videos online through a programme called Operation Snap. 147 prosecutions had taken place in Wiltshire using camera footage submitted by road users through Operation Snap so far.

·       Cllr David Bowler asked a question about whether traffic surveys took account of fluctuation in the levels of traffic at different times. Mr Payne explained that measures were taken to ensure that the surveys took place during normal traffic conditions, for example by not completing them during school holidays. Traffic surveys were also broken down into different time windows to reflect the varying levels of traffic. He noted that if a traffic survey did not identify that further enforcement action was required by specialist officers, then it would still be possible for the neighbourhood team to support speed watches if the speed limit on the road was not above 40 miles per hour.

·       Wiltshire Council’s Road Safety Education Manager noted that traffic surveys used the eighty fifth percentile of speed to assess whether enforcement was required, rather than the average.

 

 

Broad Hinton and Winterbourne Bassett Parish Council

 

Adam Gilmore, Vice-Chairman of Broad Hinton and Winterbourne Bassett Parish Council, gave an update about plans to reestablish a community store and the progress towards the village’s emerging neighbourhood plan. Points included:

 

·       Their emerging neighbourhood plan, in development since 2022, was at regulation 14 stage, so they would be asking for feedback, including from neighbouring parishes.

·       The community shop had closed around eight years ago, so the parish council were working with a charity, that helped local enterprises, to develop a business plan for a community owned replacement store.

·       They had received help from Business Fit for Future and planned to open the community shop in 2025. The shop would be not-for-profit and would be run by volunteers. The intention was to sell a range of locally sourced products.

 

 

Strategic Engagement and Partnerships Manager, Andrew Jack, suggested that the parish council contact him to discuss support that Wiltshire Council could potentially offer.

 

Tockenham Parish Council

 

Diana Kirby, Chairman of Tockenham Parish Council explained that they had recently been hit by flooding and were receiving valuable support, including from a former member of the armed forces.