Agenda and minutes

To welcome those present to the meeting.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting, explained the procedure for remote meetings and invited the Councillors present to introduce themselves.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence.

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on 3 November 2020.

The minutes of the meeting on 3 November 2020 were presented for consideration and it was;

Resolved:

To approve the minutes as a correct record.

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

To receive the following announcements through the Chairman:

·       Healthy Us Weight Management Programme

Healthy Us is a free 12 week course open to anyone living in Wiltshire, aged 18 or over, with a BMI of 28 or above. Referrals for the virtual courses starting in January 2021 are now being taken. Please see https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/public-health-weight-adults for more information or email health.coaches@wiltshire.gov.uk.

·       COVID-19 Update

Please stay at home and follow guidelines, further details available in the agenda pack.

·       Census 2021

Census day will be on March 21, but households across the country will receive letters with online codes allowing them to take part from early March. The census is a once-in-a-decade survey that gives us the most accurate estimate of all the people and households in England and Wales. We encourage everyone to take part. See  https://census.gov.uk/ for more information.

·       Local Plan Review Consultation

The Local Plan Review and GT consultation is taking place from Wednesday 13 January to Tuesday 9 March 2021. For more information please go to https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-policy-local-plan-review.

The Chairman made the following announcements:

·       Healthy Us Weight Management Programme

Healthy Us was a free 12 week course open to anyone living in Wiltshire, aged 18 or over, with a BMI of 28 or above. Referrals for the virtual courses were now being taken. Please see https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/public-health-weight-adults for more information or email health.coaches@wiltshire.gov.uk.

·       COVID-19 Update

The Chairman gave the latest COVID-19 figures for Wiltshire and advised people to stay at home and continue to follow guidelines. The Wiltshire Wellbeing Hub was available to give support, please call 0300 4560100 for advice.

·       Census 2021

Census day would take place on March 21, but households across the country would also receive letters with online codes allowing them to take part from early March. The census was a once-in-a-decade survey that gives us the most accurate estimate of all the people and households in England and Wales. The Chairman encouraged everyone to take part. See  https://census.gov.uk/  for more information.

·       Local Plan Review Consultation

The Local Plan Review and GT consultation was taking place from Wednesday 13 January to Tuesday 9 March 2021. For more information please see page 17 of the agenda pack or go tohttps://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-policy-local-plan-review.

To receive updates from the following partners:

·       Wiltshire Police

·       Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner

·       Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue

·       Healthwatch Wiltshire

·       Town / Parish Councils

o   Marlborough Town Council

·       Marlborough Area Neighbourhood Plan

Updates were received from the following partners:

·       Wiltshire Police

Sgt Gareth Edwards gave an update to the meeting. Sgt Edwards gave some figures stating that there had been 72 crimes and 88 incidents in the last 2 months. In Ogbourne St George and some other small villages there had been a number of burglaries and some incidents with cars. There were a number of people who had come into the area to carry out these offences. Two of the offenders had been identified and both were now in prison. Footage from Ring doorbells (or other similar doorbells with cameras) had proved crucial in solving these crimes. Work was ongoing to apprehend those still at large. Dog thefts were mentioned as there had been a lot of social media posts regarding this. Dog thefts had increased nationally, however in Wiltshire eight dog thefts had been reported, which whilst very distressing for those involved was lower than one would think given the concerns raised. So, the figures did not support the social media commentary. People were advised to ensure working dogs were kept securely and to be extremely careful if selling a dog, for example not selling from your house or giving people your location. A new format of area board reports was discussed. In response to questions it was confirmed that COVID-19 had reduced crime across the board generally (16% down on last year) and that the rural crime team were working to tackle crimes such as hare coursing. COVID breaches were also discussed. The deputy PCC Jerry Herbert explained that a scrutiny panel which he chaired looked at all fines issued to ensure they were proportionate and reasonable. Camping at the Ridgeway was discussed, and it was explained that due to legislation surrounding byways it could be difficult to move people on so the Police and Wiltshire Council would need to work together to address the issue.

·       Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner

Jerry Herbert, deputy PCC gave details regarding the role of the PCC and what had been delivered by the PCC in the last year, including increased numbers of officers, a new rural crime team and investing in resources to counter cyber-crime.  The PCC was proposing a raise in police precept. It was explained that the maximum increase that was allowed to the police precept was £15 a year for a band D property, which was what the PCC was asking for. This equated to a band D property seeing an increase of £1.25 a month. It was highlighted that Wiltshire Police were the third lowest nationally funded force in the country. The extra £15 a year would help to fund an increase in officers and bolster community policing teams. The PCC was consulting on the proposals. More information could be found at www.wiltshire-pcc.gov.uk and the survey was located at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PNHBKSG and was open until 2 February 2021.

·       Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue

Dave Adamson, Station Manager for East Wiltshire gave an update to the meeting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.

To receive the following items related to Health and Wellbeing:

·       Update from Wiltshire CCG

·       Update from Suzy Deering of the Kennet and Avon Medical Partnership

·       Update from Jill Turner, Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Group.

The following updated were received:

·       Update from B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire CCG

Gill May, (Director of Nursing and Quality and the CCG lead for the vaccination programme), and Jo Cullen, (Director of Primary Care) gave details on the vaccination rollout programme. In September plans started to be drawn up regarding the rollout, however it was not until December that the Pfizer vaccine became available. As this was delicate and unstable the focus was to give that vaccine at hospital hubs, the programme concentrated on front line staff and those over 80 years of age. As of the previous Sunday all care homes had been visited and the majority of residents vaccinated. Primary Care Networks were working to deliver the vaccine and work was now progressing on the 70 plus age group and all the priority 4 groups should be vaccinated by 14 February. Doctors in Marlborough were amongst the first in Wiltshire to start rolling out the vaccination programme in week commencing 21 December. Thanks were given by the councillors to all involved.

·       Update from Suzy Deering of the Kennet and Avon Medical Partnership (KAMP)

Suzy Deering (Communications Officer for KAMP) gave an update on the vaccine rollout. It was stated that the East Kennet Primary Care Network was working collaboratively with others to overcome logistical challenges. It was explained that the Pfizer vaccine had to be kept at -170 degrees, once it had left the freezer it had to be kept refrigerated and could only be used on days 3, 4 and 5 after leaving the freezer. Therefore, late deliveries could cause knock on issues with scheduling appointments. An enormous number of man hours were involved in the programme which had been compounded by staff isolating and shielding. Thanks were given to staff and volunteers who had helped with the rollout. Residents were advised that they would be contacted when it was their turn to be offered the vaccine. All of those 80 plus years of age had been offered the vaccine, along with front line staff and care home residents. Details were also given of normal day to day work which had continued during the vaccine programme.

·       Update from Jill Turner, Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Group

Jill Turner thanked the board for the grant application which had been approved at the last area board meeting for career support. Jill had been in discussions with the Jubilee day centre regarding a possible future grant application to help people who had been shielding or isolating with exercise programmes.

The Chairman passed on thanks to all for their updates.

To receive an update from Andrew Jack, Community Engagement Manager on the Community Status Report. The report aims to identify issues and priorities for the community for 2021.

Andrew Jack, Community Engagement Manager, gave a presentation on the Community Status Report which could be found at page 35 of the agenda. The officer explained that usually every 3 or 4 years a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) event was held to identify priorities for the area. However, the last JSNA had been cancelled due to COVID-19. The Community Status Report aimed to cover that process. It could also assess how the Marlborough area was dealing with COVID-19 and the possible future needs that it might create.

Factual data gathered for the JSNA and the results of a community survey were combined with data from partners such as the Police, the health sector, schools, parish councils and the voluntary and community sector in order to create the report.

It was hoped that the report could use the intelligence gathered to highlight a few key priorities for the area board to focus on.

After launching the report at this meeting, the CEM stated he would be contacting groups with questions relating to the current situation and how things were going. The report would be updated and brought back to the March meeting to be fed back to the community. The board could then work with partners on taking the priorities identified forwards. It was noted that the process would be a continual work in progress, being updated when needed.

The Chairman thanked Andrew Jack for his presentation.

To receive any updates from the CATG and approve any recommendations.

Cllr James Sheppard, Chairman of the CATG gave an update to the meeting. The last meeting had been very well attended and brief details were given of the five high priority schemes chosen by the Marlborough CATG. Cllr Sheppard stated that whilst the CATG was good for getting small schemes achieved, it was not so good for large schemes. Cllr Sheppard had contacted Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cabinet Member for Highways regarding this and would discuss the issue further with the Area Board Members.

At the end of the update it was,

Resolved:

• To note the discussions from the CATG meeting of 10 December.
• To confirm the five high priority schemes agreed by CATG.
• To note some schemes may need funding from area board’s Capital budget in order to proceed.

To receive any updates from the Local Youth Network (LYN) and for the Area Board to consider the following application for youth grant funding:

·       Marlborough Tennis, £2,698.00, towards supporting youth development.

Please see the grant report at item 12 of the agenda for further details.

The following application for youth grant funding was considered after the applicants spoke in support of their project and it was,

Resolved:

·       To award Marlborough Tennis, £2,698.00, towards supporting youth development.

To receive any updates from Andrew Jack, Community Engagement Manager.

Andrew Jack, Community Engagement Manager gave an update detailing Wiltshire’s Area Board funding. It was stated that £1,312,718 of funding had been awarded in 2019/20 which had resulted in projects with a value of £6,112,577 being supported. This was split over 689 projects and over 40,000 people had taken part in projects funded by area boards.

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

·       Froxfield Parish Council, £5,000.00, towards Froxfield Nature Reserve

·       Transition Marlborough, £500.00, towards Marlborough Community Fridge

·       Area Board Initiative – Cllr Davies, £1,500.00, for a Topographic survey, Forest Hill

·       Area Board Initiative – Cllr Dobson, £5,000.00 for Social distancing barriers, Kingsbury St.

The board considered the following applications for grant funding. Representatives of the organisations applying for funding had the opportunity to speak in support of their applications and give brief details regarding the projects.

It was;

Resolved:

·       To award Froxfield Parish Council, £5,000.00, towards Froxfield Nature Reserve

·       To award Transition Marlborough, £500.00, towards Marlborough Community Fridge

·       To award the Area Board Initiative – Cllr Davies, £1,500.00, for a Topographic survey, Forest Hill

·       To award the Area Board Initiative – Cllr Dobson, £5,000.00 for Social distancing barriers, Kingsbury St.

The Chairman will invite any questions from the floor.

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

There were no urgent items.

The next meeting of the Marlborough Area Board will be held on 16 March 2021 at 7.00pm.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and announced that the next meeting of the Marlborough Area Board would be on Tuesday 16 March 2021 at 7.00pm.