Councillors will provide an update on community issues and progress on Area Board working groups. This will include:
a) The Community Hub
b) The Abberd Brook Project
c) Participatory Budgeting – ‘Make a Stand for Cycling’
d) Community Speed Watch, followed by round table discussion.
Minutes:
Councillors provided an update on community issues and progress on Area Board working groups.
a) Councillor Crisp spoke about the Community Hub. Through the Area Board this project had received support including the provision of 12 months rent free use of a town centre shop unit, officer support to produce a business plan, to identify future funding streams and to help plan ways to record the progress of the project. The Hub formally opened early this month.
Decision
The Area Board would dissolve its Community Hub working group and the Community Area Partnership would feed back future progress updates to the Area Board via its update report.
Decision
Councillor Crisp would attend meetings of any management group that might be set up to run the Hub, in order to champion the project from the Area Boards perspective.
b) Councillor Trotman spoke about the Abberd Brook Project. In March Friends of the Abberd Brook held a successful community clean up day which involved the volunteers in their first organised action. Following the last Area Board meeting, the group had begun to receive support and advice from Wiltshire Council. The group was also working with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to plan out further projects that would take place over the next year or so.
Decision
The Area Board would dissolve its Abberd Brook working group and the Community Area Partnership would feed back future progress updates to the Area Board via its update report.
Decision
Councillor Trotman would continue to sit on the Friends of Abberd Brook group.
c) Councillor Berry gave an update on the Make a Stand for Cycling project.
Anne Henshaw spoke briefly about a project to appraise the existing map of the cycle network in Calne and move forward a co-ordinated cycle network focused upon the town.
There is a map of the Calne cycle network available at the library and in the Community Hub, however it is out of date and sections of the cycle path do not join up. Calne Area Transport is currently applying to outside bodies for funding to advance this issue and asked for the support of the Area Board. Anne Henshaw reassured the meeting that the villages would not be forgotten and would be considered after the town centre, with its greater number of users, had been addressed.
Decision
The Area Board would fully support the work of Calne Area Transport to appraise and improve the cycle network in Calne.
Decision
The Area Board would set up a working party, led by Councillor Berry, in order to advance ideas about a town centre cycle network.
d) A summary was given of the Community Speed Watch issues that had been received by the Area Board. The Chairman asked the meeting to divide into two to consider the problems and possible solutions to the speeding issues in Hilmarton and Goatacre and Derry Hill.
In Hilmarton and Goatacre the main problems identified were the need for a road crossing, speeding, heavy vehicles and traffic flow. Possible solutions included:
· Time variable speed limits
· Imposing a vehicle weight limit
· New kerbs
· Creating a community feel, for instance with careful planting
In Derry Hill the main problems identified were problems crossing the A4, lack of appropriate signage, the position of the bus stops, and the speed of traffic. Possible solutions here included:
· Traffic controls or a roundabout
· Warning signs for speeding that lit up
· A footbridge
· Moving the bus stops away from the road, improving lighting and adding side panels to the bus stops
The Chairman thanked everyone present for their contributions and noted that all feedback would be passed to the relevant Wiltshire Council Officers.
Decision
David Bullock, Highway Improvements Manager, and Adrian Hampton, Head of Local Highways and Streetscene, would assess all feedback from the Area Board meeting and report back to the Area Board meeting in Derry Hill on 24 August the speeding measures that could and could not be made.