Agenda and minutes

·        Review of Special Educational Needs provision.

·        Flooding: request for information from Parish and Town Councils.

·        Gypsy and Traveller Consultation.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Bowerhill Village Hall.

The Chairman introduced Stuart Wheeler, (Wiltshire Council cabinet member for Leisure) who was in attendance for this meeting.

The Chairman then introduced all the Wiltshire Council members in attendance as well as Niki Lewis (Service Director) and Sarah Howes (Youth Co-ordinator, Melksham).

Chairman’s Announcements

Review of Special Educational Needs provision.

• Consultation on the Review of Special Educational Needs Provision – over recent months Wiltshire Council officers had worked with schools, parent representatives and other people to review Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision in the county.

The review relates to the whole of Wiltshire.

Any questions about the proposals or the consultation process can be sent in the first instance to Tracy Gates, SEN Project Officer either by phone, 01225 756170 or email, tracygates@wiltshire.gov.uk.

Flooding: request for information from Parish and Town Councils.

• Flood Packs – proposed new flooding legislation had placed on Wiltshire Council the responsibility for putting in place local strategies for managing flood risk. Two flood working groups had been set up to cover the County, as part of this work Wiltshire Council was collating information on flooding and drainage issues and would like town and parish councils to gather information using the flood packs provided which could then be used to feed into the process.

Completed packs should be returned at the next Melksham Area Board meeting on the 26 May.

• Flood Fair – the first “Flood Fair” for town and parish councils would be held on the 14 April at the Olympiad Leisure Centre, Chippenham from 10am – 2pm. The purpose of the flood fair was to raise awareness of flooding and drainage issues.

• The next Operational Flood Working Group meeting will be on Wednesday 12 May at Derby Court, White Horse Business Park, Trowbridge.

Gypsy and Traveller Consultation.

• Wiltshire Council is preparing a plan that will identify land for gypsy and traveller sites and include a policy for assessing the suitability of other sites the Council is asked to consider through the planning application process.

The Council has a responsibility to plan for the housing needs of everyone in the Wiltshire community. 

An 8 week consultation on the issues and general approach to identifying land for new gypsy, traveller and show people sites is to start on Tuesday 6^th April and continue until 5pm on Friday 4^th June 2010. This is the first stage in the process of preparing a Gypsy & Traveller Site Allocations Development Plan Document.

The purpose of the consultation is to:

Discuss the ISSUES around providing new sites.

Develop a METHOD for assessing what is a good location for new sites.

Invite LAND to be put forward to be considered as possible new sites. 

All information relating to the consultation will be available from the end of March on the planning policy pages of the Council’s web site (www.wiltshire.gov.uk),   in the main Council offices in Chippenham, Devizes, Salisbury and Trowbridge and available at local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

There were no apologies.

Councillors and stakeholders are requested to declare any personal or prejudicial interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2009.

Decision

The minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2010 were agreed as a correct record of the meeting and signed by the Chairman with the following amendment.

That Cllr Steve Petty did not declare an interest in agenda item 7(2) – Shaw & Whitley Pre-School, Community Area Grant application.

To receive updates from any of the following partners:

a.      Community Area Partnership Representative (Colin Goodhind)

b.      Wiltshire Police (David Cullop)

c.      Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

d.      NHS Wiltshire

e.      Melksham Town Council

f.        Parish Council Nominated Representatives

Melksham Community Area Partnership: Chris Holden gave the MCAP update.

Points made included:

• MCAP are currently creating a Melksham Community Plan.

• Several theme groups have now been established, and the Partnership are actively networking with the parishes and other organisations.

Core Strategy Consultation feedback

Concerns.

• Traffic issues and flooding.

• Public transport – lack of trains using Melksham station and lack of buses serving rural areas.

• Development of better tourism links particularly the new canal and the riverside.

Best aspects.

• The country side around Melksham and its friendly residents.

Theme Groups

The following theme groups have now been established:

Waterways.

Health & Wellbeing.

Community Safety.

Sport & Leisure.

Transport.

Culture & Arts.

Villages & Parishes Working Group.

Future plans.

• “Age no barrier week” – an event is being planned.

• Community plan update.

• Consultation on the proposed canal link.

Wiltshire Police: Inspector David Cullop updated the meeting on current policing activities in the Melksham community area.

The written update distributed with the agenda was noted.

Points made included:

• Good work had been carried out during the last year throughout the new Wiltshire Council community areas.

• The beat work carried out by PCSOs had been appreciated by local residents.

• PCSOs will be carrying out at least fifteen hours a month on foot patrols from April 2010.

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service:  The written update distributed with the agenda pack was noted.

NHS Wiltshire: The written update distributed with the agenda was noted.

The Town Council, Parish Councils and partners were given the opportunity to give any updates,

Melksham Town Council:  Cllr Richard Wiltshire advised that the Town Council were pleased community use of facilities at the new Melksham Oaks School had now been agreed with Wiltshire Council.

The Chairman thanked all partners for their respective updates.

a. Planning future Council service delivery into the Melksham Public Service Campus – presentation from Neil Ward (Strategic Property, Wiltshire Council) followed by a round table discussion.

b. Lorry Parking in Melksham – initial feedback from survey resulting from issues raised by residents near King St car park -  Kirsty Wilson (Mouchel)

Any Other Urgent Questions of Public Concern

Planning future Council service delivery into the Melksham Public Service Campus – presentation from Neil Ward (Strategic Property, Wiltshire Council) and John Rogers (Customer Services, Wiltshire Council).

John Rogers gave a brief outline as to why Wiltshire Council were  proposing Public Service Campuses for the delivery of many council services across the county.

Neil Ward then gave a presentation as to the proposed planning process for a Melksham Public Service Campus.

Points made included:

·        Wiltshire Council’s services in the Melksham Community Area were currently offered from a range of buildings in nine different locations.  Their locations were rarely a deliberate response to a clear service strategy, but more a reflection of historic inheritance and responsive acquisition.

·        The Council’s drive toward transforming service delivery, presented a great opportunities to take stock of this inherited approach to providing services, and to drastically reduce costs associated with running a dispersed estate.

·        Many services are housed in poor quality buildings that made accessibility difficult, were inefficient to run, and in the extreme were not fit for purpose.  The cost of maintaining this dispersed estate was not sustainable.

·        It is intended that Melksham would be the pilot for this type of service review.

·        The main aim of this review is to define an approach to co-locating services into a “Service Campus” where appropriate and seek opportunities for joining up with other public sector organisations.  The goal was to reduce building running costs to enable savings to be returned to transform the front-line services.

·        The presentation and Area Board consultation exercise gives an opportunity to capture thoughts on three main areas:

How best to engage with the community on the topic.

                   What people feel to be the current issues facing public services in the Melksham Community Area.

To describe what the key issues are around improving service quality and accessibility in Melksham.

·  The Council was undertaking this exercise to genuinely enable the wider community to have their views heard.  It was very much hoped that this consultation would lead to a better end result for Melksham.

Attendees were given the opportunity to part in a simple consultation exercise which would gauge what services they wanted from a proposed Melksham public service campus.

Points made from the floor included:

Next Steps

It was agreed that the data from the consultation exercise would be compiled and Neil Ward would attend the May 26 Melksham Area Board meeting to give a further update and feedback the consultation findings.

In the longer term Wiltshire Council officers would carry out wider consultation, including household surveys to provide a robust evidence base around the accessibility of public services during  Summer 2010, with conclusion of service specification, including key service accessibility criteria September 2010.

Recommendation to Wiltshire Council Cabinet expected December 2010.

Lorry Parking in Melksham – Kirsty Wilson  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

The Chairman to provide an update on the Area Board budget.

Community Area Grants

Councillors will be asked to consider the Community Grant Reports (attached) and vote on the following applications:

a) Melksham and District French Twinning Association have applied for a grant of £970 towards the cost of promotional material to advertise events to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the twinning of the association. 

b) Beanacre Cricket Club have applied for a grant of £2554 towards the purchase of Portable Nets, All Weather Playing Surface and Cricket Bowling Machine. 

c) Great Hinton Parish Council have applied for £370 towards the refurbishment of a historic telephone box.

d) St Mary’s Church, Steeple Ashton have applied for £829 for the purchase of two commercial 3m x 6m gazebos.

e) Seend Playgroup have applied for £4528 for play equipment.  

f) Queensway TARA have applied for £980 to run a community event in Apr/May to interest local people in our community garden project and prepare a community herb garden. 

g) Keevil Neighbourhood Watch have applied for £1000 towards the purchase of 160 packs of ‘smart water’ style property marking equipment. 

h) Melksham Community Radio have applied for £1000 for studio equipment hire. 

The Chairman advised that grant applications would be dealt with at alternative Melksham Area Board meetings in future, this would free up the time on the agenda for other matters.

Councillors were asked to consider eight applications seeking 2009/10 Community Area Grant Funding:

Carole Mitchell addressed the Area Board on behalf of the Melksham and District French Twinning Association.

A representative addressed the Area Board on behalf of St Mary’s Church.

Jerry Wickham addressed the Area Board on behalf of Keevil Neighbourhood Watch.

Alan Byrne addressed the Area Board on behalf of Melksham Community Radio.

a)     Melksham and District French Twinning Association - applied for a grant of £970 towards the cost of promotional material to advertise events to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the twinning of the association. This grant was refused as it was considered not a priority for community area grant funding.

b) Beanacre Cricket Club - awarded £1554, purchase of Portable Nets, all Weather Playing Surface and Cricket Bowling Machine. The grant was awarded with the condition that further contribution is funded by the club.

b)     Great Hinton Parish Council – awarded £200 towards the refurbishment of a historic telephone box.

d) St Mary’s Church, Steeple Ashton – awarded £829 for the purchase of two commercial 3m x 6m gazebos. The grant was awarded with the condition that St Mary’s Church makes a £10 hire charge per gazebo when hiring them out.

e) Seend Playgroup - awarded £3,000 for play equipment. 

f) Queensway TARA - awarded £7500 to run a community event in Apr/May to interest local people in our community garden project and prepare a community herb garden.  

g) Keevil Neighbourhood Watch had applied for £1000 towards the purchase of 160 packs of ‘smart water’ style property marking equipment.  This grant was deferred so that the Melksham Community Area Partnership Safety Group could investigate the merits of this application.

h) Melksham Community Radio – awarded  £850 for studio equipment hire. 

The Chairman to provide an update of applications submitted so far.

a.      Semington Football Club

b.      Steeple Ashton Sports Pavilion

c.      Community Payback

The Chairman advised that there were three applications seeking Performance Reward Grant Scheme funding.

Kevin Lockwood addressed the Area Board on behalf of Semington Football Club.

Virginia Fortescue addressed the Area Board on behalf of the Steeple Ashton Pavilion.

Niki Lewis addressed the Area Board to give an outline of the Community Payback scheme.

The three applications were:

Semington Football Club – The grant application is for capital works and will be used for:

• Changing facilities.
• Installation of cesspit.
• Installation of vehicle access and overflow car parking.
• Goalposts will be purchased from clubs recent fundraising and 50% FA goalpost safety grant.

Decision

That the Melksham Area Board endorses the Performance Reward Grant application for Semington Football Club of £38,000.

Steeple Ashton Sports Pavilion – The grant application is for a sports pavilion, a building which is architecturally of a high standard to meet future needs and in keeping with the Steeple Ashton Village Design Statement. 

Decision

That the Melksham Area Board endorses the Performance Reward Grant application from the Steeple Ashton Pavilion of £50,000.

Note

Cllr Seed did not vote on this application after declaring a personal interest in the Steeple Ashton Sports Pavilion application, Cllr Eaton chaired the meeting during this application.

·        Community Payback – The application will enable offenders to repay their debt to society through the contribution of time and labour to help local communities tackle a wide range of issues from graffiti and chewing gum removal to litter picking, ground clearance and other environmental improvement projects.

Decision

That the Melksham Area Board endorses the Performance Reward Grant application from Community Payback of £73,000.

Cllr Stuart Wheeler, Cabinet Member for Leisure to introduce his portfolio and take any questions.

Cllr Stuart Wheeler (Cabinet Member for Leisure, Wiltshire Council) gave a brief outline of his portfolio.

Points made included:

·        That there is a major review of Wiltshire Council’s leisure services currently happening, looking at what the council has, what condition it is in and what residents of Wiltshire want from their leisure services.

·        Cllr Wheeler is working closely with the “workplace transformation” team to ensure that leisure is fairly represented.

·        Vision – Wiltshire Council wants to make the county the healthiest in the UK by 2014.

·        Sport – Wiltshire Council is keen to encourage young people to join organised sports and for older people to get back into sport.

·        Culture - Wiltshire Council actively supporting Art & Culture across the county.

Points made from the floor included:

·        Bowerhill sports fields – the village green application had rumbled on for some thirteen years, can Wiltshire Council sort this issue out with Melksham Without Parish Council. It was agreed that Cllr Wheeler and Melksham Without Parish Council would meet to discuss this issue.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Wheeler for attending the meeting.

The issue of Union Street parking, the costs of residents permits and restrictions relating to on street parking was raised by Duncan Hames MP on behalf of a local resident, Rebecca Mitchener.

Wednesday 26 May – Seend Community Centre.

Wednesday 28 July – Shaw School.

The dates of the future Melksham Area Board would be:

Wednesday 26 May 2010 – Seend Community Centre.

Wednesday 28 July 2010 – Shaw School.

The Forward Work Plan was noted.

Please complete the pink evaluation sheet in your packs.

Attendees were asked to complete the pink evaluation sheets that were included in their agenda packs.