Agenda item

A report in the recent consultation, including comments by local people, will be presented.  This will be followed by a Q and A session and explanation of the proposed next steps and a presentation by COB Chair, Brenda Payne and Matthew Woolford of the Campus team.

Consideration was given to a report and presentation by town councillor Sue Ezra and parish councillor Alison Irving of the Westbury Shadow Community Operations Board (COB)  and Matthew Woolford from the Campus Team on the recent consultation which had taken place concerning the provision of a campus in Westbury.

A survey had been carried out by the COB between August and November 2013 to help determine where and how local people would like to see the proposed campus developed and aimed to build on the results of an earlier consultation undertaken in January 2013.  The survey had provided three options which were as follows:-

A – A three site campus split between the library, swimming pool and Leighton Recreation Centre.

B –  A two site campus split between the Library and Leighton Recreation Centre.

C –   A single build campus site.

The key results were as follows:

·         There had been 1,045 responses

·         Four out of five people wanted Option 1 (library, swimming pool and Leighton Recreation Centre) (824 responses – 78.9%)

·         Majority of people taking part were from BA13 3 and BA13 4

·         The biggest issues were keeping the library and pool, protecting the health of the town centre, and accessibility.

It was explained that the next steps would be to develop a working proposal on how services could be delivered from the three sites, meeting with service representatives, partners and community groups.  Once a working proposal had been developed, this would be presented to the Area Board hopefully in Summer/Autumn 2014.

During the following discussion, questioned the cost of this provision and enquired how it would be funded.  Cllr Sue Ezra explained that it would be necessary for the COB to develop a business plan once it had obtained a steer from this Area Board meeting.  Once the business plan had been developed, then it would be possible to cost the provision of the campus.

Cllr Jane Scott explained that in 2009 the Council reviewed its leisure services and discovered that there would be a cost of £177 million just to retain the existing facilities for a period of 20 years. Some of the existing facilities were good but others were in a dreadful condition and Cabinet decided to ask the various Wiltshire communities to examine the facilities in each area and come back to Cabinet with proposals for which £177 million would be made available.    Cabinet did not anticipate that each community area would suggest the same model but considered it most important that each community area was able to determine what facilities were best suited to its area. 

Cllr Ezra stressed that the Westbury COB were very keen for members of the community to put forwards their views and stated that meetings of the COB could be flexible so that at least some members could meet with local people at times most suitable to them if necessary.  She noted with pleasure the request from members of the Youth Advisory Group to be actively involved particularly in safeguarding facilities for the young in Westbury.

After further discussion, during which the Chairman suggested that the COB consider the inclusion of the Youth Centre in Option1,

AGREED:

To adopt Option 1 - A three site campus split between the library, swimming pool and Leighton Recreation Centre and to request the Westbury Shadow Community Operations Board (COB) to work up this option into a business plan and then bring back to this Board for approval prior to it being submitted to Cabinet as the Area Board’s favoured proposal for campus facilities in Westbury.