Agenda and minutes

In the absence of the Chairman, the Vice Chairman, Councillor Mark Packard, took the chair and welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Chippenham Area Board.

Apologies for absence were received from the Chairman, Councillor Desna Allen, Inspector Martin Schorah of Wiltshire Police, John Scragg and Andrew Noblet of Chippenham Town Council and Maurice Dixson of Kington Langley Parish Council.

      i.        To approve the minutes of the meeting held on Monday 9 July 2012.

    ii.        Actions from previous minutes.

Decision

The minutes of the meeting held on Monday 9 July 2012 were agreed a correct record and signed by the Vice Chairman.

Councillors are requested to declare any pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests, or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To include the following:

      i.        Paths for Communities – Grants for Parishes

    ii.        Draft State of the Environment Report

   iii.        Street Light Savings

   iv.        Wiltshire Online: Digital Literacy in Wiltshire

    v.        Wiltshire & Swindon Local Nature Partnership

   vi.        Barrier Busting Proposals.

The Vice Chairman drew attention to a number of briefing notes which were available within the agenda packs for information.

The following additional briefing notes were circulated at the meeting:

Mineral Sites in Wiltshire & Swindon

Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council had jointly submitted the Proposed Submission draft Aggregate Minerals Site Allocations Plan. Copies of all submission documents were available on the Council’s website at:

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planninganddevelopment/planningpolicy/mineralsandwastepolicy/aggregatemineralssiteallocations.htm and on the councils’ dedicated online consultation portal: .

Wiltshire Time Credits

Since May 2012, more than 100 local people had given their time to a variety of community activities and events and received Time Credits in return. Several of the community organisations involved in the scheme would be taking part in a Time Credits festival week during half term to promote their organisations and some of the opportunities available.

Further information was available at www.wiltshire.gov.uk/wiltshiretimecredits.

To receive information on the Council’s review of the current Housing Allocations System.

Karen Jones, Senior Project Manager for Wiltshire Council, gave a presentation regarding the Council’s review of the current Housing Allocations System.

Karen explained that the Chippenham Community Area had a population of 44,220, with a mix of owner occupied homes (67.4%), social housing (17.5%), private housing (13.4%), and other (1.6%).

There were several potential land opportunities withi the Chippenham Community Area, including:

·         Westinghouse Cricket Club site in Chippenham – delivering 22 affordable housing units

·         The North Chippenham expansion – seeking 40% affordable housing

·         The former chicken factory in Sutton Benger – delivering 19 affordable housing units

·         Further small sites in Kington Langley and Kington St Michael.

Wiltshire’s housing register had a total of 17,088 households currently. Of these, 1,637 had indicated Chippenham as their first preference.

The Council was considering many factors as part of its review, including under-occupation. There were currently 250 households in Wiltshire that occupied a house that was larger than required.

Jenny Spoor of Greensquare provided further information on the issue of under-occupation and the Welfare Reform.

A Project Board and Plan had been assembled and households that were currently under-occupying their properties were being targeted. Continued work was being done with partner agencies, and various polices and procedures were also being reviewed.

The Avon Communities Board had been in operation since April 2012 and the AGM would be held on 23 October 2012.

Angie Rawlins, Head of Allocations and Options at Wiltshire Council, presented information regarding the review of allocations.

The Localism Act 2011 had introduced amendments to The Housing Act which provided new freedoms for local authorities to set the rules determining which categories of applicants qualified for social housing.

Following the presentation, there was an opportunity for everyone present to contribute to the review through a series of questions which sought to obtain people’s views regarding the future of housing options and allocations.

A question and answer session was also held with the three presenters, and the following summarises the key points and issues that arose:

·         Greensquare had a Tenancy Sustainment Team and worked closely with other agencies to assist those households that were wishing to downsize.

·         Greensquare was not currently looking to introduce Fixed Term Tenancies due to the scale of the impact this could have. There were many issues that would need to be considered, but this might be something that would be looked into in the future.

·         Wiltshire Council had a duty to provide housing for homeless people, however there was a lot of criteria to consider in the process, including details of any previous evictions and whether or not the person was ‘intentionally homeless’.

·         Wiltshire Council’s housing policies did not currently allow for any households to be excluded from the register, but the housing associations were able to exclude as they had their own lettings policies.

·         The Welfare Reform and the new provisions regarding under-occupation of properties, did not apply to elderly people; it only applied to people of working age.

The Vice Chairman thanked the presenters for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The ‘SPLASH UP!’ group will present an overview of their project which received grant funding from the Area Board last year.

A group of young people from the SPLASH UP project presented a DVD which showcased the success of their project. The group thanked the Area Board for awarding them funding last year, which had enabled the project of river-based activities for young people to go ahead.

The Vice Chairman congratulated the group on such a successful project.

Biddestone & Slaughterford Parish Council will give a presentation focussing on news, events and/or issues within the parish.

Alison Butler of Biddestone & Slaughterford Parish Council gave a presentation and showed a DVD that highlighted some of the main issues that were experienced in the parish.

The main problems experienced in Biddestone & Slaughterford were transport and road related, as the roads and lanes in and between the villages were very steep and narrow in places. This presented many issues with large vehicles and sometimes HGVs becoming stuck in the lanes and having to carefully manoeuvre out. This also presented safety issues for pedestrians and cyclists.

Flooding and drainage on the steep lanes could also be an issue in the wetter months.

The Vice Chairman thanked Alison for the interesting presentation and invited a parish or town council to make a similar presentation at the next Area Board.

Action: Parishes to contact Victoria Welsh if they would like to present Parish Spotlight at the next Area Board meeting on 5 November 2012.

To note the written reports and receive updates from any partners who wish to contribute:

      i.        Parish and Town Councils (attached)

    ii.        Wiltshire Police

   iii.        Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (attached)

   iv.        NHS Wiltshire (attached)

    v.        Chippenham and Villages Area Partnership (ChAP)

   vi.        Chippenham Vision

  vii.        Chippenham Shadow Community Operations Board (attached)

viii.        Community Area Young People’s Issues Group (CAYPIG)

   ix.        Youth Strategy Update

    x.        Lyneham Steering Group

   xi.        Chippenham Partnership of Schools

  xii.        Skate Park Task Group

xiii.        Cherish Chippenham

xiv.        Wiltshire Involvement Network (attached).

The Vice Chairman drew attention to a number of partner update reports that were contained within the agenda pack. Further verbal updates were received as follows:

Chippenham & Villages Area Partnership (ChAP)

The fourth Chippenham River Festival had been held on the August bank holiday weekend and had been very successful, despite the mixed weather. A range of new attractions had been available, such as kayak taster sessions. Thanks were extended to Chippenham Town Council, Chippenham Borough Lands, Specsavers, Digiprint, Chippenham Hospital Radio and the many volunteers for their support.

The River Clean-Up project was ongoing and the next event would be taking place on 15 September. All volunteers were welcome. The next Parish Forum would be taking place on 19 September in Seagry.

Shadow Community Operations Board (COB)

A full update from the Shadow COB was included within the agenda, but the Vice Chairman highlighted that all Chippenham Community Area parish, town and unitary councillors were invited to a Campus Update presentation, which would be taking place in Chippenham Town Hall on Wednesday 26 September 2012, from 6pm.

There was a plea for the Shadow COB to keep the Area Board fully updated via progress reports, and also to ensure that an options paper was brought to the Area Board following the consultation phases.

Skate Park Task Group

The Vice Chairman provided a verbal update on the progress of the Skate Park Task Group.

It was reported that MACH Acoustics had completed the Noise Assessment and produced a report. The report would shortly appear on the Wiltshire Council website and would also be available in hard copy upon request and from reception at Monkton Park Offices.

A member of the public had requested some points of clarification and once these had been provided, a senior officer from Wiltshire Council’s Public Protection Team, together with the Chairman of the Area Board, would meet with the resident to address these points.

The next step would be to start the first phase of public consultation on the proposed site of River Island. An item would be included in the next edition of ‘Talk of the Town’ and an online survey would be set up to ask people to let us know whether they supported River Island as the proposed site.

Following the update, the following points and concerns arose:

·         There was some surprise that the proposed River Island site had come forward, seemingly without any prior notification.

·         One resident expressed concern that there was no written report on the matter

·         Concern was raised that some of the points in the Noise Assessment Report were unsupported, and could be challenged. One resident stated that they did not accept the findings of the report and that the residents would consider commissioning another report.

·         One resident also commented that they would get the skate park shut down if it went ahead.

·         A suggestion was made that perhaps Monkton Park was not, in fact, the most appropriate site for a skate park in the town if it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Chris Caswill will present information on the role of the new Police and Crime Commissioners.

Councillor Caswill presented information on the new Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), which would be elected for every police force area in England and Wales outside London.

The PCCs would replace the Wiltshire Police Authority and the elections would take place on 15 November 2012, with the PCCs taking office on 22 November. PCCs were being introduced by the Government to increase accountability of the Police.

The transition timetable for the changes was as follows:

·         Oct 2012: pre-election period begins (Purdah)

·         19 Oct 2012 – Last point candidates could declare

·         15 Nov 2012: Elections of PCCs

·         22 Nov 2012: PCCs take office

·         21 Dec 2012: PCC sends draft budget for 2013/14 to Police & Crime panel

·         March 2013 – PCC’s Police & Crime Plan is published.

Further information was available online:

www.wiltshire-pa.gov.uk/pcc

www.homeoffice.gov.uk

www.apccs.police.uk

To receive a presentation from Jenny Wilcockson, Digital Literacy Coordinator, and to view a DVD featuring observations and comments from local people, with an opportunity for discussion.

Jenny Wilcockson, Digital Literacy Coordinator, gave a presentation regarding the Wiltshire Online – Digital Literacy project.

By March 2016, the project aimed to:

1.    Improve access to broadband for residents, businesses and third sector organisations in Wiltshire.

2.    Ensure that local people could access free computer support to learn about the basics of computers and the internet.

3.    Increase uptake and usage of online government services.

As part of the project, Wiltshire Council was currently in the process of recruiting local volunteer coordinators and digital champion volunteers. Anyone interested in volunteering in either of the two positions was encouraged to sign up.

Further information on the Wiltshire Online – Digital Literacy project was available by calling 01225 793349, by visiting www.wiltshireonline.org, by emailing digitalinclusion@wiltshire.gov.uk and also on Twitter at @wiltshireonline .

The Vice Chairman thanked Jenny for her informative presentation and encouraged volunteers to come forward for this project.

Unfortunately there was not time to show the Wiltshire Online DVD as planned; however the DVD could be viewed at:

www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/areaboards/chippenhamareaboard

To receive updates on the Area Board’s Focus Areas for 2012/13, as follows:

      i.        Road Safety – Lead Councillor: Bill Douglas

    ii.        Crime & Community Safety – Lead Councillor: Peter Hutton

   iii.        Deprivation – Lead Councillor: Chris Caswill.

Updates were received as follows:

      i.        Road Safety

Councillor Douglas reported that the Community Area Transport Group (CATG) was continuing to work well at dealing with local highways priorities.

At the previous Area Board meeting it was agreed to pursue a poster campaign for the ’20 is Plenty’ initiative. This was currently being costed by the Highways department and would be required to come before the Area Board at a future meeting for potential funding.

    ii.        Crime & Community Safety

Councillor Hutton reported that the group was continuing to meet regularly with its partners to progress the work of the group.

Councillor Douglas advised that it was hoped to hold a drugs awareness event next March to coincide with the national Drugs Awareness Week.

   iii.        Deprivation

Councillor Caswill reported that he was on a steep learning curve and was working with key partners to digest the data and information that was available, and assessing the potential ways forward.

To consider an Area Board Project funding application for a Victorian Fayre in Chippenham.

The Area Board considered an Area Board Project funding application for the sum of £1,000 to hold a Victorian Fayre in Chippenham.

Decision

The Area Board agreed to award the sum of £1,000 to hold a Victorian Fayre in Chippenham.

It was suggested that the project should work closely with local retailers and traders groups regarding the possibility of including the local retail outlets in the event.

The Chairman will invite any remaining questions from the floor and will welcome the submission of new Community Issues.

The next agenda planning meeting will take place on Wednesday 19 September 2012, 10am at Monkton Park. Any parish or town council representative interested in attending should contact the Community Area manager or the Chairman.

The meeting is asked to note the future meeting dates below and is reminded to complete the evaluation forms in the packs.

The Forward Plan is attached for information.

The Vice Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting. The next meeting of the Chippenham Area Board would take place on Monday 5 November, 7pm at the Monkton Park offices in Chippenham..

The next agenda planning meeting would take place on Wednesday 19 September at 10am. Any parish or town council representative interested in attending should contact the Community Area Manager or the Chairman.

An electronic evaluation exercise was conducted; the results of which could be viewed at Appendix 1.