Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Warminster Area Board.

The Chairman made the following announcements:

The consultation period had unfortunately finished before the meeting.

The Licensing Committee will consider the revised street trading scheme and the results of the second public consultation at a meeting in September 2011, with a view to the council adopting the council-wide street trading scheme by the end of 2011.

The council had published the ‘Wiltshire Core Strategy – Consultation Document’ (along with accompanying evidence reports) for an informal consultation which would end at 5.00pm on Monday 8 August 2011.

A series of public exhibitions had been arranged across Wiltshire Community Areas; one on Thursday 14 July 2011 at the Warminster Library (closes at 7pm); which would provide opportunity for people to come along and discuss the proposals set out within the Wiltshire Core Strategy Consultation Document and the Proposed Submission Draft Wiltshire and Swindon Waste Site Allocations document.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Fleur de Rhé-Phillipe.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 19 May 2011(copy attached).

Decision

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Consultation on Waste site – agenda item 11 refers.

Councillor Pip Ridout did not have a personal or prejudicial interest with regards to the Consultation on Waste Site presentation. However as Councillor Ridout lived very close to one of the identified sites (Warminster Business Park) to be discussed at the meeting, and as there was a planning history with the site, she felt that it would be more appropriate for her not to take part in the debate.

Area Board Funding – Community Area Grants – Warminster Christmas Lights – agenda item 12b refers.

Councillor Pip Ridout declared a personal interest as she was the Warminster Town Council representative on the Warminster Christmas Lights Committee.

The Community Area Manager introduced her report.

She informed the board that the police had agreed to keep an eye on the issue of cyclists using the pavement and would advise cyclists on safety issues.

Officers in Street Scene were looking into the issue of the overgrown footpath east of Warminster Pleasure Gardens, however the land in question bordered land owned by Wiltshire Council as well as land owned by the Wildlife Trust.

The footpath between Upper Marsh Rd and Thames Close had been cleared by Wiltshire Council Highways. Officers were in the process of identifying the owner of the fallen fence.

The overgrown footpath in Plants Green was a non-adopted footpath and there were no plans for Wiltshire Council to adopt it. Volunteers were being sought to clear it.

The Wiltshire Council Highways department was looking for solutions to address the issue of the obscured junction between Grovelands and Victoria Road.

A meeting had been organised in late July between the Town Council and the Highways Agency to discuss the issue of the appearance of some of the roundabouts entering Warminster.

The Community Area Manager agreed to find out more about the footpath at Broadways and to report at a later meeting.

ACTION: Jacqui Abbott.

To receive updates from any of the following partners:

Ø  Wiltshire Police

Ø  Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

Ø  NHS Wiltshire

Ø  Warminster and Villages Community Partnership

Ø  Town and Parish Councils Nominated Representatives

Ø  Warminster Community Area Young People’s Issues Group

Ø  The Warminster and District Chamber of Commerce

Some written updates have been received and are included in this agenda.

Some written updates had been received before the meeting and were included in the agenda.

Lindsey Winter, Area Inspector for Warminster, Westbury, Tisbury and Mere explained that some rural parts of the Warminster Area Board were having problems; cross-border work was being carried out with Frome to address these issues.

Michael Franklin, Partnership & Community Engagement Manager, informed the board that Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service was working with the community and with chambers of commerce to draw up a new policy on how to respond to premises which have numerous (or even continual) false alarms. False alarms are often due to faulty equipment and can be dangerous as they take up responses team’s time, possibly away from a real alarm.

Across Wiltshire County (including Swindon) there were around 2,000 alarms last year, 68 of these were in the Warminster Area.

Councillor Keith Humphries informed the board that Public Health would come back to the Local Authority in 2013.

Councillor Pip Ridout explained that the main issue for CAYPIG at the moment was the commissioning strategy, which was included in the agenda for the meeting.

An update was received from the Warminster and Villages Community Partnership (WVCP) after the meeting and is included below:

WVCP has recently put plans in place to develop its work in terms of the forthcoming recruitment of a new Co-ordinator.  This new role will:

·         oversee a review of the Community Plan to consider the recent Core and Waste Strategy information, Town Council plans (as it includes the villages in its services) and Wiltshire Council’s forthcoming JSNA – ‘Joint Strategic Needs Assessment’ document;

·         structured strengthening of consultation/development/service links with, and on behalf of, villages and local organisations;

·         development of a newsletter, an updated website and Area Board reports;

·         enrolment of Committee members.

Wiltshire Council officers will give a brief overview of the current consultation being held on the Commissioning Strategy for Young People Aged 13 -19 in Wiltshire.  This strategy aims to improve outcomes for 13 - 19 year old young people in the county. The consultation also includes four suggestions for savings and changes to future youth work services in Wiltshire.

Further details are included in the agenda and the full consultation paper is available from www.wiltshire.gov.uk or by calling 0300 4560 1000. 

The board will receive some information from the Community Area Manager on the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge.

The Community Area Manager explained that the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, on behalf of HRH Prince William, had asked Wiltshire Council to assist in supporting the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge.

The aim of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge was to protect 2,012 playing fields in communities all across Britain by 2012, thereby securing recreational spaces for community events, sport, exercise, and play; all vital elements impacting on issues such as health, crime and social wellbeing.

Each Community Area Board was asked to nominate two suitable playing fields that meet the criteria of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge by the 9 September 2011 at the latest.

Although members of the board were sure that the project had the best intentions they could not be reassured that issues such as revenue and insurance could easily be addressed, they could not be convinced that enough money would be made available to ensure that the chosen fields could be improved and / or maintained adequately.

As members of the boards could not be reassured that their concerns could be addressed they made the following

Decision:

1. The Warminster Area Board does not wish to nominate suitable playing fields that meet the criteria of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge.

2. To invite Town and Parish Councils to put forward nominations of suitable playing fields through the Community Area Manager.

ACTION: Jacqui Abbott.

Councillor Linda Conley, Portfolio Holder for Waste, will introduce her portfolio and answer questions at this time or throughout the meeting when relevant.

Councillor Linda Conley attended the meeting to introduce her Portfolio. She explained that her role was to support the Cabinet member for Waste, Property, Environment and Development Control Services by focusing on Waste.

She explained that it was an exciting time for the services with lots of changes taking place, the roll-out of new services and the launch of new facilities across the whole of the County. The efforts made over the past couple of years were now coming to fruition and the focus was now on effective communication to ensure that all residents of Wiltshire were aware of the changes.

Councillor Conley welcomed the next item on the agenda introducing the New Waste and Recycling Collection Service.

All residents in Wiltshire will soon be able to recycle all their plastic bottles and cardboard from the kerbside, including: drinks bottles, cleaning bottles, cereal boxes and cardboard sleeves. 

A senior officer from Waste Management will attend the board meeting to give more details and answer residents’ questions about this new service. 

Martin Litherland, Head of Waste Collection, explained that when Wiltshire had become a Unitary Council it had inherited four very different collection services from the District Councils. West Wiltshire had been one of the best performing regarding recycling, which could be seen as an indication that fortnightly collections were successful.

The statutory target for recycling had been met for 2010, but there was little room for improvement if the existing services were maintained. The statutory target for 2020 was for 50% of waste to be recycled. The landfill tax for the previous year was £12M and was predicted to increase to over £17M by 2015 if nothing changed. At present a ton cost £56, which would increase to £80 by 2014.

Wiltshire Council was now focusing on increasing recycling, diminishing the amount of waste being sent to landfill and standardising the level of services across the County. The enhanced recycling service would be rolled out in November 2011, and in the lead up to that time information would be circulated in different ways such as:

·         Briefing notes for Wiltshire Councillors;

·         Explanatory notes sent to Town and Parish Councils;

·         Leaflets sent to all residents of Wiltshire from 4 July informing them of the new services, then a leaflet in August explaining how to use the new services;

·         Collection calendars would then be distributed three weeks before the new bins would be delivered. As quite a number of household were likely to have a collection day change there would be television and radio announcements.

·         There was strong lobbying aiming to stop non-recyclable plastics being used and produced.

In answer to questions raised at the meeting points including the following were clarified:

·         At this stage all households would be provided with a blue lid bin; individual assessments would take place if residents should have problems accommodating the bin or would require assisted collection. However it should be noted that the alternative receptacles were very small and could present a Health and Safety issue at the time of collection. It could be an option for neighbours to share a bin.

·         It was often difficult to identify a suitable location for a central point for collection in small villages, but the idea was not being ruled out. As part of the improvements being put in place the Waste Team was reviewing the existing “bring sites” as they unfortunately were often used as “dump sites” and could be hard to maintain clean and safe to use.

·         There were no plans to charge for Garden Waste collection and West Wiltshire residents would not need to re-register as it would be an “opt-in” service. An option would be built in to allow residents to contact Wiltshire Council and have their Garden Waste collected should they no longer require it.

Vicky White, Waste Project Officer, invited Town and Parish Council to contact her and she would be happy to attend meeting and give more details of the new services.

She also drew the meeting’s attention to the existing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Wiltshire Council is updating its policy framework to ensure that future proposals for waste development in Wiltshire are for the right types of facilities in the right locations. Consultation will commence in June 2011 for 8 weeks on a draft Waste Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD) (starting 13 June 2011 and closing at 5pm 5 August 2011).

The consultation document allocates a range of sites for a variety of potential waste uses to provide a flexible and responsive framework that will enable waste to be driven up the waste hierarchy - i.e. reducing our dependence on landfill, with a greater focus on recycling and composting of waste. The majority of sites identified are on land currently in use by existing waste management facilities or current/proposed industrial areas (list of sites and map attached) and two are located in the Warminster Community Area:

·         Warminster Business Park, Warminster

·         Chitterne Waste Management Facility, Chitterne

Wiltshire Council officers will attend the meeting to deliver a short presentation. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.

To consider any applications for funding from the Community Area Grants Scheme.

A decision has been made in 2010/2011 that paper copies of funding applications no longer appear as part of the agenda in an attempt to reduce volume of paper used.  However, the application forms are available on the Wiltshire Council web site and hard copies are available on request.

The Area Board considered two applications seeking 2011/12 Community Area Grant funding as follows:

A request for £2,000 towards the Warminster Festival.

Decision:

To award £2,000 towards the Warminster Festival.

Reason:

The application meets the grant criteria 2011/12. The project will promote and foster appreciation of and participation in the arts, sports and leisure activities in Warminster and the community for all ages.

£4,000 towards replacement of decorations, bulbs and carabena clips for Warminster and surrounding villages Christmas lights.

Decision:

To award £4,000 towards the maintenance and improvement of Christmas lights.

Reason:

The application meets the grant criteria 2011/12 and links to the Community Plan through Economy and Tourism as the lights encourage people to shop in Warminster and there is enjoyment for the whole community and in particular older people, disabled people and young people and children.

The Community had approached their local councillor about the lack of fencing in the new Queensway play area and their wish to see a dog-proof fencing installed so that children could play safely and securely.

Because the amount required to complete the project was a substantial proportion of the overall funding available to the area board and because the local member had not been aware of existing groups who could be approached to seek match funding, members of the board felt that the best decision they could reach was as follows:

Decision:

To defer consideration of the Councillor’s project to install dog-proof fencing at the Queensway play area until the option of match funding has been suitably looked into.

Action:

Councillor Davis to look into match funding for his Councillor’s project.

To note that the next meeting of the Warminster Area Board will take place on:

01 September 2011 – Chapmanslade Village Hall

To note that future meetings of the Warminster Area Board will take place on:

10 November 2011 – Christchurch Hall

12 January 2012 – Codford Village Hall

08 March 2012 – Corsley Reading Room

To note the Forward Plan for the Warminster Area Board as attached.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and brought the meeting to a close.