Agenda item

To receive a written report prepared by Julia Stacey, Community Partnerships Support Officer, detailing four options (Options 1-4) for Community Planning together with a fifth option proposed by Cricklade Town Council during the consultation period.

The fifth option proposed reads as follows:

'That a further option (Option 5) should be considered that would take away the centralised community area planning approach thereby cutting costs, negating the need for a Community Area Partnership and draw on town and parish community led plans which could also feed into the strategic planning of Wiltshire Council and other agencies. This was more in line with the localism agenda and new Big Society approach and would make more funding available to the Area Board for use as grants or other investment into the wider community.'

The Area Board, having regard to the feedback and recommendations contained in the Community Partnerships Support Officer's report, will be asked to adopt one of the five possible options suggested for future Community Planning purposes.

The Chairman introduced the report in the agenda, which contained the background to the item listing four options for moving the matter forward. A fifth option, which had emerged during consultation and which was also described in the report, had been listed separately on the agenda for clarity.

The Chairman reiterated his earlier comment that there would be no debate under this item, as the purpose of this was to make a decision to set the future direction of community planning. The Chairman did, however, call for a show of hands from the floor to indicate indicative levels of support for each option so as to inform the unitary councillors. The show of hands indicated no support for Options 1, 2 or 3, limited support for Option 4 (approximately five hands) and majority support for Option 5 (approximately 14 hands).

Prior to the Area Board taking a vote on the options, the Chairman explained that the implications of adopting Option 5 would be that:

1. The Area Board would redirect funding away from the Northern Community Area Partnership (NCAP).
2. The Area Board would no longer look to NCAP to provide or update the Community Plan.

Following a proposal from Councillor Colmer to adopt Option 5, a vote was taken by unitary councillors and Option 5 (as set out on the agenda paper) was unanimously adopted to set the general direction for future community planning as follows:

Decision

That Option 5 be adopted, that would take away the centralised community planning approach thereby cutting costs, negating the need for a Community Area Partnership and draw upon town and parish community led plans which could also feed into the strategic planning of Wiltshire Council and other agencies.

This Option was more in line with the localism agenda and new Big Society approach and would make more funding available to the Area Board for use as grants or other investment into the wider community.

Following this decision, the Area Board went on to consider each of the six individual recommendations contained on page 42 of the report and voted as follows (in each case unanimously):

Decision

1.    Recommendation 1: Not voted upon (The Chairman explained that NCAP would need to decide upon its own actions based on decisions made by the Area Board).

2.    Recommendation 2: Not supported.

3.    Recommendation 3: Not supported.

4.    Recommendation 4: That the Area Board actively supports and encourages the development of individual parish and town community plans, and that these plans are integrated into the overall community plan for the area – Supported.

5.    Recommendation 5: That the Area Board continues its focus on working groups and task groups, e.g. Rural Buffer Zones Task Group, Future of RAF Lyneham, Local Traffic and Highways Working Group, and the proposed parish and town group – Supported.

6.    Recommendation 6: That the formation of a new Community Area Partnership for the area should not be undertaken at this time – Supported.

Following interventions from the floor, which queried the results of the previous voting on the recommendations, a second round of votes was taken among unitary councillors on the last 5 recommendations in the report. The results clearly indicated that an identical result was obtained in each case, thereby clearly confirming the decisions reached.

The Chairman summarised that Option 5 had been adopted by the Area Board to set the future direction of community planning in Wotton Bassett and Cricklade Community Area.