Agenda item

To receive the following Chairman’s announcements:

(a)  Consultation on Waste Sites

(b)  Street Trading Consultation

(c)  Queen Elizabeth II Playing Fields

(d)  Westwells Road Update

(a)  Consultation – Wiltshire and Swindon Proposed Submission Draft Waste Site Allocations Development Plan Document

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 from 13 June to 5 August 2011.  The consultation will be available on the Council website http://consult.wiltshire.gov.uk/portal.  Hard copies will also be available for inspection at Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council main offices as well as all libraries throughout the County and Borough.  For further information please contact the Minerals and Waste Policy Team at Wiltshire Council by telephone (01225 713429) or email: mineralsandwastepolicy@wiltshire.gov.uk.

(b)  New County Wide Street Trading Scheme

At a meeting on the 5 April 2011 Wiltshire Council’s Licensing Committee considered the issues raised by public consultation on the proposed council-wide street trading scheme.

The main issues raised by public consultation were:

·         The scope of the street trading scheme

·         The level of bureaucracy and length of time it would take to process applications

The level of the proposed street trading fees

The street trading scheme will now be revised in the light of these decisions. Council officers will undertake a second, two week, public consultation commencing mid June 2011 with all interested parties including area boards.

The consultation document will be available on the Council’s website: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/consultations.htm

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.

(c)  Queen Elizabeth II Playing Fields

The Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire on behalf of HRH Prince William has asked Wiltshire Council to assist in supporting the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge. The aim of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge is to protect 2,012 playing fields in communities all across Britain by 2012.  Further details will be sent to the Town and Parish Councils in the Corsham Community Area for action.  Suggestions for playing fields will then be put forward will be brought to the next meeting of the Area Board on 18 August when the two nominations for the Corsham area will be decided.

Action

Dave Roberts, Community Area Manager

(d)  Waiting Restrictions Westwells Road

The consultation period for the proposed waiting restrictions on Westwells Road were finalised on Friday 27 May 2011.  During the consultation the Council received a significant number of objections (approximately 23 in total) with an additional number of letters in support (approximately 10 in total).

It is now the Council’s intention to proceed with the statutory report to the Lead Cabinet Member for his deliberation.  The report will address the concerns and objections raised as well as noting the notices of support made.  It will take approximately 2-3 weeks for the report to be considered which includes a statutory period of advert on the Council’s website and it was hoped that a final decision would be made by the end of June.  Following the decision, work will take place to instruct contractors to undertake the work with the intention to have all works implemented and the orders valid and in place to start by the end of July.

(e)  Core Strategy Consultation

Wiltshire Council will soon be consulting on the Core Strategy for Wiltshire.  The consultation will take place between 13 June and 8 August.

This will set out how Wiltshire will change over the next 15 years or so and will importantly give a certain framework within which investors can make decisions and communities can consider their neighbourhood plans (subject to what emerges through the Localism Bill).

The Cabinet of Wiltshire Council has given officers the authority to make the next steps that will ensure that the plan is subject to ongoing and meaningful dialogue with local communities. It is already some 5 years in production, due to government changes, and has been subject to consultation in various forms on many occasions. What the Council wishes to avoid is a top down plan, but is rather one that has been produced in cooperation with local areas and has been demonstrably shaped by those discussions.

As an ongoing part of that dialogue there would be further consultation within each Community Area.   An event has been organised in Corsham Town Hall on 4 July. It will run from 2.30 – 8.00pm and will take the form of an exhibition with officers on hand to answer any questions and take note of comments made.

Owing to the nature of the proposed strategy for Chippenham Community Area there are elements that may have an impact on Lacock.

It is therefore proposed that an extra and separate meeting will be convened in Lacock to accommodate meaningful dialogue with local residents.

Once details of this are in place, Dave Roberts the Community Area Manager will send out details to everyone on his circulation list. 

Action

Dave Roberts, Community Area Manager