Agenda item

Open floor session with updates from partners, parishes and free flow discussion.

Partners gave the following updates:

·       Wiltshire Police

Inspector Ricky Lee highlighted the written report in the agenda supplement. Crime was on a general downward trend although the reasons for that were not currently known. During spring and summer there tended to be incursions on to private land by the travelling community. This had occurred recently in Ludgershall, notices to move on were served in a short period of time. Landowners were advised to be aware of the issue and to ‘harden up’ boundaries and accesses by the using ditches, gates, tree stumps or similar. There was likely to be an increase in unlicensed music events, known as ‘raves’. The Stonehenge tunnel project was also causing some problems both in relation to protestors and the large influx of related workforces that would bring a different economy and community to the area. In addition, the solstice was coming up which was a large operation for the police.

Various attendees thanked the police for their work. Cllr Mark Verbinnen highlighted a traveller incursion onto private land in Bulford, he emailed the Inspector at 10pm, notice was served the next day and the travellers had left within 24 hours. Another attendee highlighted a location in Dorset where trees had been planted by landowners to deter incursions and suggested that could be an option. The Inspector highlighted that we had to embrace all different types of cultures, however, these situations did cause issues.

Issues regarding parking on pavements in estates in Amesbury were raised and the local council and the police were going to work together to try to deter that from happening.

·       Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

Jim Weston, Group Manager gave an update and highlighted the report in the agenda supplement. It was a busy time for the team, with the risk of wildfires. The service were recruiting and it was highlighted that Amesbury was an on call station, crewed by people who were on alert and came in as required. Further information on becoming an On Call Firefighter could be found at www.dwfire.org.uk/workingfor-us/on-call-firefighters/ or by calling 01722 691444. A national campaign on biker safety was being promoted and details could be found at www.dwfire.org.uk/biker-down.

In response to a question it was confirmed that the service still undertook fire safety checks and the Safe and Well scheme was highlighted and details could be found at https://www.dwfire.org.uk/safety/safe-and-well-visits/. 

In response to further questions, it was confirmed that the Amesbury Fire Station was an on demand station at present, which had been running at approximately 53% availability. Many of the crew also had day time jobs and it was hard to recruit to the role, so it was a difficult situation. There were plans in place for Amesbury and a duty system was to be introduced, where full time fire fighters would crew the station during the day and overnight on call crews would be available. It was hoped this would be in place from the new year onwards.

Open Floor

Cllr Graham Wright had been asked a question by a resident and asked if Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling, as Cabinet Member for Public Health, Leisure, Libraries, Facilities Management, and Operational Assets could provide an answer. The question was related to the new leisure centre recently announced for Trowbridge and how Wiltshire Council could afford to spend millions of pounds on a new leisure centre when they were struggling for money and the pothole situation was so extreme.

Cllr Blair-Pilling responded that in terms of pot holes, we have just had the worst winter for many years, we also live on chalk which means because of drainage and hot weather it generates many more than average countrywide potholes.  900 were reported in December and 4000 in January. The council were working systematically through them. In winter the weather only allowed a temporary cold fix, which had to be readdressed again later and which the council were now doing. We had recently retendered the highways maintenance contract and now had a new contractor who was in the early weeks of taking over responsibilities.  We had recently received a further £3.5+ million from Government to address the problem in addition to the £20+ million that we already spend on highways maintenance.  Unfortunately, inflation in the area of road building was somewhere between 16 and 17% so the money did not go as far as we would wish. The council was doing its very best and looking at how we may find extra money to put into highways.

In terms of allocating money – the council had a £400+ million budget that goes mostly on statutory services such as adult care and children’s services.  So, most of the money goes to a smaller percentage of people making sure Wiltshire residents who need looking after are being cared for.

On the leisure centre question, Wiltshire Council has over 30 libraries and 20 leisure centres.  The council had been looking at their purpose, and focussing on their importance to communities, public health and well-being and the local economy.  Now that they were all under the council’s direct management, we can control better how they focus their efforts and positively support those aspects. Trowbridge was 1 of the 3 main centres in Wiltshire and the current swimming pool was suffering major structural problems and needed to be replaced. The location was chosen as it’s almost in the middle of Trowbridge, where there was excellent public transport access (particularly from areas of deprivation and hence it would be well placed to maximise the benefit to people’s health), where it would best support the town centre economy and where the council’s ownership of the land reduced the risk of complications and delay.  Trowbridge was not the end of it, the council would improve other Leisure Centres and was making plans for what else needs to be done.  Unlike many other local authorities, Wiltshire Council were not planning to close any of our leisure centres.  The council was also working hard to maintain and improve our libraries and community hubs.  As an example of good practice, the relocated and reequipped library in Durrington Village Hall was doing well and was a success.

Cllr Blair-Pilling left the meeting at 7.00pm.