Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Alan MacRae, welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Corsham Area Board and introduced the councillors and officers present.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Peter Davis, David Martin of Corsham Town Council and Allan Bosley, Chairman of the Shadow Community Operations Board.

      i.        To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 26 July 2012.

    ii.        Matters arising from the previous minutes, to include the NHS ‘111’ number’.

Decision

The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 26 July 2012 were agreed a correct record and signed by the Chairman, subject to the following amendments:

·         Peter Anstey to be removed from the list of apologies

·         Jon Hough to be removed from the list of CCAN attendees

·         Reference to ‘JackFest’ on page 9 to be amended to ‘JapFest’.

To declare any pecuniary or non pecuniary interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive the following chairman’s announcements:

      i.        State of the Environment Report

    ii.        Wiltshire & Swindon Local Nature Partnership

   iii.        Barrier Busting Proposals

   iv.        Minerals Sites in Wiltshire & Swindon

    v.        Corsham Town Council Wards

   vi.        Blog Sites.

The Chairman referred to a number of Chairman’s announcements listed on the agenda, full details of which were included in the agenda pack for information.

It was noted that the briefing sheet on Blog Sites should refer to Corsham, instead of Melksham.

To receive any updates from the following partners:

      i.         Wiltshire Police

    ii.        Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

   iii.        NHS Wiltshire

   iv.        Town and Parish Council Nominated Representatives

    v.        Corsham Community Area Network (CCAN)

   vi.        Chamber of Commerce

  vii.        Shadow Community Operations Board

viii.        Wiltshire Involvement Network.

Various updates from partners were contained within the agenda pack for information. Further verbal updates from partners were received as follows:

Wiltshire Police

Sergeant Alex Reid introduced the report from the Police and stated that there had been a good period recently around the town.

In response to a question regarding support for Neighbourhood Watch schemes, Sergeant Reid advised that they provided a valuable service, but that communications could be improved as well as making more use of social media. Volunteers were encouraged to come forward.

Sergeant Reid also reported, in response to a question regarding mobile phone use whilst driving, that this constituted an offence and so needed to be witnessed by a Police Officer for action to be taken. If it was a case of regular offenders, it was advised that a log of incidents with details should be made and passed to the Police.

Box Parish Council

There was a team of 6 volunteers currently awaiting Community Speedwatch training. Other news in the parish included the arrival of the Circus in October, and the new Circle of Stones.

Colerne Parish Council

Planning development issues was a concern in the parish at present, particularly because various planning applications were being refused by officers for what was felt to be subjective reasons, even when there was support for the developments from local people. The Parish Council was looking to meet with officers from the Planning Department to attempt to address these concerns.

Corsham Town Council

The Gastard Community Speedwatch and the Neston Lorrywatch schemes were running well at present. The Community Area Transport Group was also continuing to run successfully and parking passes for school users was currently being investigated. It was also announced that Corsham Court had won a second gold and a ‘best display in class’ award at the South Wilts in Blooms competition. The Chairman offered congratulations on behalf of the Area Board.

Corsham Community Area Network (CCAN)

The main focus at present was updating the Community Area Plan, which would be launched at the AGM on 30 October in the Town Hall. The new blogsite ‘Our Community Matters’ would also be launched at the AGM, and people were encouraged to attend.

Shadow Community Operations Board (COB)

The Chairman reported that there were a lot of ground works going on for the development of the new community campus. The Shadow COB had met recently with the contractor; Midas, and it was hoped that Midas would continue to communicate effectively with the community.

There was some concern expressed regarding the parking arrangements and charges for the campus car park once it was developed. There was acknowledgement that, if the parking was free, there would be no restrictions for preventing people from parking there all day.

The Shadow COB provided assurance of the intention to explore the parking options fully. The Town Council requested that it be consulted and kept up to date with developments on this matter.

Wiltshire Involvement Network (WIN)

The written update from WIN was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider the following application to the Community Area Grants Scheme:

Corsham Rugby Football Club – £5,000 requested to purchase temporary floodlights to enable young people to train on a separate pitch.

The Area Board considered one application to the Community Area Grants scheme, as follows:

Corsham Rugby Football Club

The sum of £5,000 was requested to purchase temporary floodlights to enable young people to train on a separate pitch.

Decision

The Area Board awarded the sum of £5,000 to Corsham Rugby Football Club to purchase temporary floodlights to enable young people to train on a separate pitch, conditional upon the balance of funding being in place.

Reason: The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria and demonstrated links to the Corsham Community Area Plan.

With the award of this grant, the Chairman was proud to announce that the Area Board had now allocated a total of £100,000 in grant funding to local projects; 46% of which had been allocated specifically to youth projects. In addition, this had levered in an additional £400,000 of funding into the community.

To receive the notes of the Community Area Transport Group meeting held on 6 September 2012, and to consider any recommendations for local highways improvements.

Councillor Dick Tonge provided an update on the Community Area Transport Group (CATG) as the Chairman of the group. The notes of the previous CATG meeting and a corresponding report had been circulated with the agenda pack.

The report outlined the main schemes that had been considered by the CATG, and recommendations for which to take forward.

Pedestrian safety had been an issue in South Place, Corsham for some time. At the meeting of the CATG held on 6 September 2012, two options for improvements at South Place were considered, as follows:

Option one:

To widen the footpath a further 300mm to allow safer passage. This would

involve substantial road works and also be a costly exercise.

Option two:

To further explore the possibility of providing an alternative route across the Corsham Estate that would involve further negotiations with the land owners. There had been discussions with Corsham Estate which had indicated that they might allow a new access to be formed from the car park to the rear of the Methuen Arms to the gates at the side of the war memorial, thus by-passing South Place. Discussion took place around the various issues with ownership of paths, rights of way, buggies and wheelchairs gaining access through the gates and lighting through the wooded area. However the group felt that this was an avenue worth pursuing and could be seen to be helping the parking and general traffic situation in Lacock Road.

Decision

The Area Board approved the recommendations from the CATG, as follows:

      i.        To abandon option one outlined above to widen the footpath.

    ii.        To support option two above to enter into further discussions with Corsham Estate to provide an alternative footpath.

Following consideration of the CATG report, a couple of queries arose, as follows:

·         An enquiry was made into the priority of road resurfacing at the Devizes Road traffic lights in Box.

Action: Councillor Tonge to consult the priority list and report back.

·         Concern was expressed at the inconsistency of disabled parking provision across the county. Councillor Tonge confirmed that the Council had recently conducted a review of this matter and a report with the findings was expected shortly. Appropriate action would then be taken following this.

·         Councillor Tonge also advised that the hard work of the Bradford on Avon Lorry Watch had successfully resulted in the prosecution of one HGV company that consistently exceeded weight limits.

To receive a presentation from Gill Stafford, Wiltshire Police Authority Member, regarding the new Police and Crime Commissioners.

Gill Stafford, member of the Wiltshire Police Authority, presented information on the new Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), which would be elected for every police force area in England and Wales outside London.

The PCCs would replace the Wiltshire Police Authority and the elections would take place on 15 November 2012, with the PCCs taking office on 22 November. PCCs were being introduced by the Government to increase accountability of the Police.

The transition timetable for the changes was as follows:

·         Oct 2012: pre-election period begins (Purdah)

·         19 Oct 2012 – Last point candidates could declare

·         15 Nov 2012: Elections of PCCs

·         22 Nov 2012: PCCs take office

·         21 Dec 2012: PCC sends draft budget for 2013/14 to Police & Crime panel

·         March 2013 – PCC’s Police & Crime Plan is published.

Further information was available online:

www.wiltshire-pa.gov.uk/pcc

www.homeoffice.gov.uk

www.apccs.police.uk

To recap on the year’s events, discuss with the community the effect the year has had and to talk about how to carry on the legacy through 2013 and beyond.

Laurie Bell, Director Communications, gave a presentation regarding the Jubilee and Olympics celebrations that had taken place throughout 2012, and spoke about the importance of keeping the legacy of these events alive within our local communities.

Some of the key highlights and positive impacts of the events included:

•      Additional spend on events days was estimated to be over £1 million – not including any tourism impact

•      Hotels and B&B’s in Salisbury were fully booked w/c 9 July for the Hudson’s Field event

•      Visit Wiltshire website had the highest monthly number of visits since records began in 2008

•      There was a substantial return on investment (£290,000)

The Chairman thanked Laurie for the presentation and allowed some time for round-table discussions so that people could discuss their ideas for keeping the Legacy of 2012 alive within their communities.

The Chairman encouraged people to keep thinking of ideas and to let the Area Board or Laurie Bell know of any specific ideas.

A copy of the full presentation was available upon request by contacting the Community Area Manager.

To note that future meetings will take place on:

Thursday 22 November 2012 – Corsham Community Centre – 7pm

Thursday 24 January 2013 – Corsham Town Hall – 7pm

Thursday 21 March 2013 – Box Pavilion – 7pm

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting.

The next meeting of the Corsham Area Board would take place on Thursday 22 November 2012, from 7pm at Corsham Community Centre.