Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Melksham Oak community school for a special young people’s “Transport and Access” area board meeting.

The Chairman then introduced Owen Vince, (deputy head teacher at Melksham Oak community school) who welcomed everybody to the new school.

The Chairman introduced Councillor Lionel Grundy (Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Children and Young People) who was in attendance for this meeting.

Chairman’s Announcements

Consultation on Initial Site Options for the Aggregate Minerals Site Allocations

The Chairman advised that a consultation on potential sites for sand and gravel extraction commenced on 5 August 2010 and will run for a period of eight weeks, local parishes were encouraged to input any comments they had on this consultation to Wiltshire Council.

Apologies were received from Councillors Rod Eaton, Mark Griffiths and Steve Petty and from Angus Macpherson, (Police Authority Representative).

Councillors are requested to declare any personal or prejudicial interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 28 July 2010.

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 July 2010 were agreed as a correct record of the meeting and signed by the Chairman.

Updates from the following partners are in the pack where appropriate.

a. CAYPIG (Young People’s Issue Group)

b. MCAP (Melksham Community Area Partnership)

c. Wiltshire Police – Inspector David Cullop

d. NHS Wiltshire

e. Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

f.  Melksham Town Council

g. Parish Council Nominated Representatives

1. CAYPIG, (Young People’s Issue Group)

      Sarah Howes (Youth Co-ordinator, Melksham) advised that since the last area board meeting the following had taken place:

2. MCAP, (Melksham Community Area Partnership)

Chris Holden, (MCAP Chairman) advised that:

·        The partnership would be holding a neighbourhood watch event at the Melksham assembly hall on Saturday 11 September.

·        The partnership had now submitted it’s bid for further funding from the Melksham area board.

1. Wiltshire Police

Wiltshire Police: Inspector David Cullop updated the meeting on  current policing activities in the Melksham community area.

The written update distributed with the agenda was noted.

Points made included:

·        The important part that young people play in the community.

·        The ongoing good work being carried out at the “Blues N zs” disco events for young people.

2. NHS Wiltshire

The written update distributed with the agenda was noted.

3. Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service

The written update distributed with the agenda was noted.

4. Melksham Town Council

There were no updates from the town council.

5. Parish Council Nominated Representatives

There were no updates from the parishes present.

The Chairman thanked everybody for their updates.

Introduction to tonight’s event, background to ‘participatory budgeting’ and explanation of voting.

Presentations by groups of young people (3 minutes each) followed by voting:

·        Project Parkour

·        Bus information cards

·        High ropes course

·        Club Boom trip

·        Subsidised Bus fares

·        Mini bus hire

Final presentation of results

The Chairman gave a brief Introduction to the night’s event, which covered background to ‘participatory budgeting’ and an explanation of the interactive voting system which would be used to score the presentations and the criteria that would be used, which was:

• Value for money.

• Who will benefit.

• Quality of presentation.

He then handed over to Damian Haases, (Canberra Youth Centre) who introduced each of the three minute presentations and helped to co-ordinate questions that the audience put to the young people present about their presentations.

The presentations were as follows:

• Project Parkour

Is an athletic discipline, in which participants traverse any environment in the most efficient way possible using their physical abilities, and which commonly involves running, jumping, vaulting, rolling and other similar physical movements.

Cost - £816 for a training day for forty young people at Christie Miller sports centre, the training would conducted by  London based parkour coaches.

• Bus information cards

Which was a credit card size bus fare information card, with information that sets out the cost of a single and return for First and Fare Saver coaches to most popular local destinations. By having this card young people would know how much the fare would cost and if they had been over-charged.

      Cost - £500 for 2500 double sided plastic business cards.

• High ropes course

3 x High rope courses at the Braeside tree top assault course, which would give young people a fun day out and improve their confidence.

Cost - £875 for 3 x high rope courses, and the cost of a mini bus driver, it was hoped that a free mini bus would be used.

• Club Boom trip

The hire of Club Boom, a soft play area at Bowerhill, Melksham, which included bucking bronco, surf board, gladiators, lazer and disco zones.

      Cost - £875 for 5 x two hour Club Boom events.

• Subsidised Bus fares

To negotiate reduced bus fares during the October 2010 half term to enable young people within the Melksham community area to travel to Bath, Swindon and Trowbridge at a discounted price using First buses.

      Cost - £1000 to be paid to First to enable a discounted price for all young people from Melksham over October half term.

• Mini bus hire

To hire a mini bus to take young people on day trips.

           Cost - £818 for 2 x Swindon Link Centre, 1 x Birmingham NEC, 1 X Oxenwood weekend away and 1 x Bristol cinema trip.

A sort comfort break was then taken while the votes were being counted up.

The meeting reconvened and the Chairman introduced Cllr Jon Hubbard who thanked all the young people for coming to the area board and presenting some very worth while youth projects.

Results

1^ST – Club Boom.

2^nd – Subsidised bus fares.

3^rd – Project Parkour.

4^th – Bus information cards.

5^th – Mini bus hire.

6^th – High ropes course.

It was agreed by the area board that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.

Cllr Lionel Grundy, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People will introduce his portfolio and take any questions.

Cllr Lionel Grundy (Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Wiltshire Council) gave a brief outline of his portfolio and thanked the young people of melksham for a positive meeting.

Points made included:

• Wiltshire Council had already taken many cost saving measures and was in a better position than many local authorities going into the October Government spending review.

• That only one Wiltshire school, Hardenhuish at Chippenham had opted for academy status.

• The importance of good local government services for youth related projects and services.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Grundy for for attending and giving his update.

The Chairman to take any other urgent business of public concern.

Mike Mills, (Melksham Without Parish Council) advised that concerns had been raised about the traffic lights on the junction near Shaw School, cars were ignoring the pedestrian crossing to try and beat the traffic lights.

 Mike Mills requested that the area board contact Wiltshire Council Highways department to try and resolve this issue.

The Chairman advised that the community area manager would look at this issue, but in future, local issues should be headed up by local members.

Mrs Susan Mortimer advised the board that she was experiencing anti-social behaviour issues with young people using the newly installed play equipment in the play area that backs on to Webbs Road, Melksham.

The community area manager advised that the street working team would be visiting the play area on Friday evenings to work with young people to try and resolve any anti-social behaviour issues and that she was working with the community safety group to try and resolve this issue.

The Chairman thanked Mrs Mortimer and Mr Mills for flagging up their concerns to the area board.

Weds 13 October – Melksham Divisional Police HQ.

Weds 1 December – Semington Village Hall.

Wednesday 13 October – Melksham Divisional Police HQ.

Wednesday 1 December – Semington Village Hall.

The Chairman invited attendees to partake in an interactive evaluation of the night’s meeting.

The results were:

• Venue – Excellent.
• Room layout – Excellent.
• How welcoming was the meeting – Excellent.
• Public involvement – Good.
• Agenda – good.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and partaking in good, positive meeting.