Agenda and minutes

To welcome those present to the meeting.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and invited the Councillors present to introduce themselves. The Chairman also thanked Devizes School for hosting the meeting.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from:

·         Cllr Anna Cuthbert – Wiltshire Council

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 10 September 2018.

Resolved:

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 10 September 2018.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive the following announcements through the Chairman (written briefing notes are available in the full agenda pack, or online):

·         Banning of Sky Lanterns and Balloon releases on Wilshire Council land

·         Wiltshire Council: Focusing on the Future

·         Localised Labour Market Intelligence

·         Animal Licensing

·         Homerun App

·         Update on London Road/Windsor Drive works

The Chairman made the following announcements:

·         Suspension of Sunday Parking Charges

The Chairman announced that Sunday parking charges would be suspended from the following Sunday.

·         Banning of Sky Lanterns and Balloon releases on Wiltshire Council Land

The Chairman drew the meetings attention to the written update in the agenda pack and summarised the main points. Wiltshire Council had passed a ban on the release of balloons and sky lanterns on its land, following a report on the environmental and wildlife impact.

·         Wiltshire Council: Focusing on the Future

The Chairman advised the meeting there was a written update in the agenda pack and invited Cllr Whitehead to speak. Cllr Whitehead stated that he was leading this forum. There would be a series of public meetings to detail the Council’s aims for the coming year. The Devizes meeting would be held on 26 November at 5.30pm at the Devizes Hub and Library.

·         Localised Labour Market Intelligence

The Chairman advised there was a written update in the agenda pack summarising work undertaken by the Employment and Skills service regarding labour market intelligence, which was broken down by parliamentary constituencies. More details could be found on the Work Wiltshire website. At the Chairman’s invitation Cllr Gamble stated that the documents were well worth looking at. Regarding the data for Devizes he felt that the figures looked less positive than was probably the case, possibly due to the way the figures were analysed. Cllr Gamble had initiated a dialogue with officers to discuss this issue.

·         Animal Licensing

Cllr Peter Evans, who sits on the Licensing Committee, advised the meeting that there was a written update in the agenda pack regarding new animal licensing laws in Wiltshire. These were mainly aimed at dog and cat breeders.

·         HomeRun App

Cllr Whitehead stated that the HomeRun App had been trialled in schools across Wiltshire. One of the main aims of the smartphone app was to help parents to car share. The trial had been successful with some areas showing a 14% drop in traffic for the school run. The app was now being opened to schools across Wiltshire. Cllr Whitehead had also asked his digitisation and ICT team to look into car sharing generally with the aim of seeing if this type of app could be expanded to all Wiltshire residents in the hope that congestion and pollution could be reduced.

·         Update on London Road/Windsor Drive works

Cllr Whitehead updated the meeting, stating that the works were now complete and the junction was operational. Generally the junction seemed to be working well. Highways teams would be monitoring the traffic flow and timings of lights, as minor adjustments to the timings may be required over time as people got used to the junction. Cllr Laura Mayes thanked Cllr Whitehead for all his hard work on this project and for dealing with a lot of the complaints regarding the disruption caused. Cllr Whitehead apologised that the works overran and for any effects this had on residents and businesses. He  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

To receive updates from the following partners:

·         Wiltshire Police

·         Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

·         Health Services

·         Schools Update

·         Town / Parish Councils

Written updates were available in the agenda pack from Wiltshire Police, Healthwatch Wiltshire and the Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group. A written update from the Dorset and Wiltshire Fire Service was available as an agenda supplement online and in hard copy at the meeting.

In addition to the written updates, the following verbal updates were given by partners present.

·         Wiltshire Police

Deputy Inspector Pete Foster stated that there had been some beauty spot thefts and thefts of lead from church roofs. Two closure orders had been issued on addresses in Devizes as well as two injunctions against individuals. Cllr Richard Gamble asked for an update regarding a rave that had taken place near Devizes. The Deputy Inspector stated that raves were difficult and contentious events to deal with. The police had not had prior knowledge of the event. The Superintendent for the area, following a risk assessment, decided that the best course of action was not to break up the rave, but to try to prevent further people from attending and to monitor the situation. Several arrests were made as people were leaving the event. The police appreciated that there was always a mess left after these types of events and that they concerned local people. They were willing to learn and to take feedback from the community. The Chairman asked for an update on another accident that had taken place at Prison Bridge. The Deputy Inspector stated that there was an ongoing investigation and therefore couldn’t comment on the matter. The previous accident there involved a fatality and was being thoroughly investigated. In response to questions from the Chair as to who pays for the damage caused, Cllr Whitehead confirmed that Wiltshire Council would always try to claim for damages from the drivers insurance. The police confirmed that they would always try to prosecute where appropriate in Road Traffic Accidents.     

·         Wiltshire Fire and Rescue

Station Manager Darren Masini gave a brief update to the meeting. Incident response was usual. The service was driving towards education and safe and well visits. Unfortunately the service could no longer afford to visit all properties and therefore were targeting high risk properties, the vulnerable and elderly. High risk at the moment were chimneys and wood burners. The service had also had to respond to a couple of incidents on canal boats where incorrectly installed log burners had led to carbon monoxide poisoning.

·         Health Services

The Chairman read a short written statement from the CCG on the progress of the Devizes Health Centre. Wiltshire CCG and NHS Property Services had appointed the client’s team that would support the delivery of the Devizes Integrated Care Centre. The design and construction team procurement was underway with an appointment expected before the end of the year. They were developing the design brief in consultation with local service providers, including GP practices and Wiltshire Health and Care in readiness for the design team starting work in January 2019.

·         Schools updates

Headmaster of Devizes School, Phil Bevan, gave an update  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

A presentation from Katherine Reeves of Solutions4Health on their free ShapeUp4Life programme.

Verónica Willoughby of Solutions for Health, gave a presentation on their ShapeUp4Life programme.

ShapeUp4Life was a newly commissioned, free, 12 week long weight management programme for Wiltshire residents. The programme aimed to support people to lose weight and keep it off long term by making realistic changes to lifestyle and nutrition; addressing sedentary behaviour and increasing physical activity; and making behaviour changes.  

Sessions were composed of 2 parts, a 45 minute long lifestyle workshop, providing participants with the tools they need to make educated changes and live a healthy and active lifestyle long term. The second part of the session was comprised of 45 minutes of physical activity. A different activity was undertaken each week and were taken by qualified instructors who could tailor the activity to people’s needs.

To join the programme a participant must be a Wiltshire resident, over 14 years old and have a BMI of ? 30 kg.m² or ? 28 kg.m² with a health condition. Courses were to take place in local venues including gyms, leisure & Community centre’s & village halls. The course had good results with 96% of participants losing weight. There was also an online option for those who could not make it to sessions.

The Chairman thanked Verónica for her presentation.

A presentation from the Clinical Commissioning Group regarding maternity services. The CCG has undertaken a maternity transformation project for the last two years to determine how and where maternity services are delivered across BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire by Royal United Hospitals Bath. On 12 November 2018 a public consultation will be launched about their plans.

The Wiltshire CCG gave a presentation on Transforming Maternity Services. Feedback from service users, together with national guidance such as ‘Better Births’, had led to the development of proposals for future maternity services across the region.

The needs of the population were changing, with the average age of a woman giving birth now being 35, with more high risk pregnancies. Many women preferred to give birth at obstetric led units such as the Royal United Hospital and Salisbury District Hospital rather than at Free-standing Midwifery Units.

There were 11,200 births in B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire in 2017/2018. 85% of these took place at Obstetric Units (65% of these were high risk women), 6% took place at Free-standing Midwifery Units, 7% took place at Alongside Midwifery Units and 2% were home births.

It was stated that they have enough staff, however it was felt that they could be better deployed to provide a better service. Often there were staff looking after empty beds which was frustrating for staff and service users. There were several proposals to overcome the issues being faced. These included:

·         Continuing to support births in 2, rather than 4 Community hospital units.

·         Women would be able to deliver their baby at Chippenham or Frome (detailed analysis was undertaken to support this decision).

·         Antenatal and postnatal clinics would continue at Chippenham, Trowbridge, Frome and Paulton.

·         Trowbridge and Paulton proposed as pilot sites for our new community hub model of care.

·         To create two new Alongside Midwifery Units, one at Salisbury District Hospital and one at Royal United Hospital Bath. 

·         These would provide more women with the opportunity for midwife-led birth.  The two new units would be in addition to the White Horse Alongside Midwifery Unit at Great Western Hospital.

·         These alongside units would allow women easy access to an obstetric unit if required, without the need to be ambulanced whilst in labour.

·         Improving the range of antenatal and postnatal services, eg more breastfeeding support, to women in their own homes, and to develop community hubs to enhance our antenatal and postnatal care.

·         Supporting more women to give birth at home if that was their preferred choice.

·         Replacing community postnatal beds at Chippenham and Paulton with support closer to, or in women’s homes. 

·         Women who need to be admitted for medical treatment after giving birth would continue to be treated at their local obstetric unit at one of the acute hospitals at Bath, Salisbury or Swindon

The benefits of these proposals were said to include:

·         Providing more choice for more women across the area about where and how they are supported before, during and after the birth of their child.

·         Making better use of their resources and workforce so they can further improve their antenatal and postnatal and birth services.

·         Improving continuity of care for women.

·         Enhancing and improving their home birth service.

·         Freeing up staff, so they are able to maintain their skills, improve their motivation and provide the services they want to women who need them.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

An update from Wiltshire YFC following their pop up café on the green.

Steve Dewar from Wiltshire Youth for Christ (YFC) gave an update following their pop up café on the green, for which they had received funds from the Area Board.

YFC had been running in Wiltshire for 7 years. Their main aim was to help young people by undertaking mentoring and running youth clubs and community projects. The pop up youth café has been run for the last 3 years, it provided a safe and engaging space for young people in the school holidays in their local area. The last pop up café had been very successful, engaging with over 100 young people.

To receive an update following ‘The Big Conversation’ on 12^th November.

Graeme Morrison (Community Engagement Manager) gave an update on ‘The Big Conversation’ held by the Devizes Health and Wellbeing Group on 12 November 2018. The HWBG held the public event in order to help set the priorities for the Health and Wellbeing Group.

Everyone present spent time discussing various questions and then fed back to the meeting. Votes were taken on the most important points. Four priorities were decided, these were:

·         Directory of local services

·         Good neighbours campaign

·         Voluntary sector networking event

·         Start-a-club toolkit and Devizes HWBG club accreditation

There was also a feeling that they should run another health and wellbeing day next summer, as the previous event had been so successful. The identified priorities would be considered at the next HWBG meeting in January 2019 and hopefully would be adopted over time.

Mr Morrison thanked the Board for their thanks to him and thanked all those he had worked with over the last three years. He was sad to be leaving his role, but felt that Devizes was in a really good place with community engagement.

Residents are invited to ask questions of their local councillors.

No questions were received from the floor.

An update from Graeme Morrison, Community Engagement Manager.

·         Great British Spring Clean

·         Local Youth Network

Graeme Morrison (CEM) gave a brief update to the meeting:

·         The Great British Spring Clean

This was an annual event, run by Keep Britain Tidy. In 2019 the event would be held over a month, from 22 March 2019 – 23 April 2019. There would be an update on this at future meetings.

·         Local Youth Network

There had been a LYN meeting where they had received an update from the youth club, there was also 1 youth grant which the LYN were recommending for approval.

To consider any updates and recommendations arising from the Community Area Transport Group (CATG).

The minutes of the CATG held on 7 November are attached for information.

Cllr Philip Whitehead advised the meeting that the minutes of the latest CATG meeting on 7 November, were in the agenda pack and invited the audience to ask questions.

In response to a question from the floor, Cllr Whitehead stated that the A360 Devizes to Potterne Footpath Extension had stalled as the Council needed to purchase land from a private landowner to complete the works. The amount of  land required to complete the path safely was more than the landowner was offering. They were currently in negotiations regarding the matter.

To receive any updates from the Devizes Air Quality and Transport Strategy Group.

Cllr Peter Evans gave an update from the Air Quality and Transport Strategy Group.

Initial data had been received regarding air quality during the London Road/Windsor Drive works and this indicated that the roadworks had not had a detrimental effect on air quality. However more assessment of the data was needed.

There was a possibility of some section 106 funds being used to improve bus services in Devizes. For example, by increasing the 49 service to half-hourly between Devizes & Swindon and extending Salisbury service 2 to Lay Wood and introducing some faster journeys to Salisbury via Stonehenge.

There had been no change to air quality at Shanes Castle.

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

·         The Old School Day Centre, £4404.26, towards the Lavington and district WW1 Toposcope project

·         Devizes Leg Club, £1,500.00, towards the Devizes Leg club Nurses station trolley and secure shed

·         West Wiltshire Group of the Ramblers Association, £1,533.00 towards Bromham public footpath improvements

·         Wiltshire Youth for Christ, £7,000, towards a Youth Work vehicle, (£3,500 from the Community Area Grants fund and £3,500 from the Local Youth Network Funds)

The Board considered the applications to the Community Area Grants Scheme as detailed in the agenda.

Resolved:

·         To grant the WW1 Commemoration Group, £4404.26, towards the Lavington and district WW1 Toposcope project.

·         To grant Devizes Leg Club, £1,500.00, towards the Devizes Leg club Nurses station trolley and secure shed.

·         To grant West Wiltshire Group of the Ramblers Association, £1,533.00 towards Bromham public footpath improvements.

·         To grant Wiltshire Youth for Christ (WFC), £7,000, towards a Youth Work vehicle, (£3,500 from the Community Area Grants fund and £3,500 from the Local Youth Network Funds).

Any other items of business which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.

The next ordinary meeting of the Area Board will be held on Monday 14 January 2019 at Devizes Hub and Library, Sheep Street, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 1DJ.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and wished them a Happy Christmas.

The next ordinary meeting of the Area Board was to be held on Monday 14 January 2019 at Devizes Hub and Library, Sheep Street, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 1DJ.