A new standing item on the agenda to encourage all of the community to get involved in the meeting. The subject this time will be ‘Four Years of Wiltshire Council - how are we doing so far?’ Councillor Jane Scott will begin the conversation.
Minutes:
The Chairman spoke about how the area board was trying a new format for the meeting to encourage more people to become involved. Each meeting would include a conversation about a featured topic. Area board meetings would start earlier, at 6.30 pm, with the conversation starting at 7.00 pm.
In this introduction to the trial, the featured topic was ‘Four Years of Wiltshire Council – how are we doing so far?’ and the conversation was led by Councillor Jane Scott, Leader of Wiltshire Council.
Councillor Scott explained that Wiltshire Council was a large and efficient organisation working locally through the eighteen area boards. Efficiency savings of approximately £100/105 million had been made over the last four years in large part due to the move to one unitary council from a county and district councils.
During this period, although there had been a 28% reduction in funding from the Government because of the recession, no services had been cut and there had been no increase in council tax. Over four hundred employees had been lost and the organisation had looked at the management structure in the first instance. Wiltshire Council had now been running successfully for a year without a Chief Executive.
The next challenges faced by Wiltshire Council were the ageing population, provision for vulnerable children and employment.
Councillor Scott then took any questions from the floor and this covered the following main issues:
· Plans to improve Porte Marsh Industrial Estate to make it more attractive to businesses – Wiltshire Council was working with the Town Council on the neighbourhood plan. This included improving several tired areas in the town. Wiltshire Council funding was limited to providing services and it had a role to play in sourcing funds and pulling them together. Further investment from the private sector was needed.
Decision
Councillor Scott would look into plans for Porte Marsh Industrial Estate and provide further information through the area board.
· Monitoring outside contractors who look after vulnerable people – the Care Quality Commission regulate, inspect and review all adult care social services in England. In addition to this, Wiltshire Council officers conduct regular cold calling. Wiltshire Council had invested £54 million into adult social care. Please get in touch if you have any questions or concerns about individual cases.
· Wiltshire Council waste management strategy and a planning application from the Hills group – for legal reasons Councillor Scott was unable to comment on any large planning application. The facilities needed were changing since recycling in the county had progressed dramatically in the last six months as alternate week collection was rolled out across the county.
· The withdrawal of funding for youth facilities by the Hills group linked to planning issues
Decision
Councillor Scott would look into the withdrawal of funding for youth facilities by the Hills Group and report back through the area board.
· Overcrowding and housing conditions in certain housing association properties – the neighbourhood plan looked to replace poor housing stock in the town. Councillor Hill commented that as the Town Council had engaged with consultation on the Core Strategy at the earliest opportunity, the town had been in a strong position to shape the development plan.
· Use of affordable housing by people who were not from Calne – housing had to be allocated on a needs basis. The housing allocation system was under review at present.
· Demand for affordable housing - there was a high demand for affordable housing. With the demography of the population changing specific groups of people (such as young people, single people, disabled people living in the community, elderly people and those receiving benefits or on low incomes) were particularly in need of low cost homes.
· Under-utilisation of housing stock by older people with homes bigger than they need – it would be inappropriate to make older people move and they may have a web of support in their community which if they lost would need to be replaced with services at a cost and could lead to very lonely individuals.
· Building a contingency fund into grant applications – if each application for a grant included a contingency fund, the area board would not be able to fund as many community group projects. The expectation was for sufficient research to be completed before the application was submitted. Guidance was available on the Wiltshire Council website for grant applicants and the Community Area Manager could help with putting an application together before it was brought to the area board meeting. Particular guidance on the charge incurred for drilling holes to put up a notice regarding changes to a road was requested.
The Chairman thanked Councillor Scott for her time. From the conversation, housing and employment issues were identified as possible topics for future area board meetings. Please get in touch if you have any further questions.