Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Richard Clewer welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Salisbury Area Board and invited the members of the Board to introduce themselves.

Apologies for absence had been received from:

·         Inspector Pete Sparrow

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 5 January 2017, as attached to the agenda.

Decision

The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 5 January 2017 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

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

There were none.

The Chairman will give an update on outcomes and actions arising from previous meetings of the Area Board, including:

·         Highways England meeting held on 8 February 2017.

The Chairman made the following announcements:

·         On 8 February, Highways England had met with Salisbury City Council, Wiltshire Council and other user groups to look at issues along the A36. The meeting had been productive. Information would be used in the study at the next stage. Some interesting suggestions had been put forward for temporary fixes.

·         The Salisbury bike show was back on and was going from strength to strength.

As this was the last meeting of the current Area Board in the elected 4-year term. The Chairman noted that for Cllr Bill Moss it was his last meeting, as he was retiring and would not stand for election in May.  Cllr Moss had served as Chairman of Wiltshire County Council and Salisbury District Council over the years. The Board gave thanks to Bill for all the work and effort he had put in over the many years.

The Vice-Chairman noted that the current Chairman, Cllr Richard Clewer would be standing for election in May within a different community area. The Board thanked Cllr Clewer for his chairmanship and wished him well in his new ward.

a.     Healthwatch Wiltshire – February & March

The Board noted the written update attached to the agenda from:

·         Healthwatch Wiltshire

To receive an update from the Local Youth Network (LYN) and to consider any funding applications for Youth Funding, as detailed in the attached papers.

The Board received an update from Karen Linaker on behalf of the LYN, the main points were:

·       The LYN had considered the anti-bullying charter – which aim was to raise awareness of the affects that bullying had on young people.

·       An Easter Youth Festival would be taking place during the second week of the Easter holidays.

·       The LYN had considered 2 x grant applications for funding.

Applicants present were invited to speak in support of their projects. Following discussion, the Board considered the recommendations for funding as detailed in the report.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board awarded £1,000 to the Creative workshops for adopted teenagers project.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board awarded £4,060 to the Anyone can cook, cookery sessions.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board awarded up to £500 to commission Go Active to provide activity sessions.

A report on the progress of this Area Board initiative.

The Board received an update from the Community Engagement Manager.

At the beginning of the financial year the Board had contributed £2,500 to a project for 11 – 19year olds to use Five Rivers new fitness suite for £1 a session. The project had 2 levels – (i) to facilitate access to all 11-19 year olds, and (ii) to encourage teenagers who had become disengaged or were otherwise disadvantaged.

The general offer to young people had been received well and will continue with a new membership offer supplied by the centre.

The specific offer to disengaged/disadvantaged young people would require further investment, and a proposal for funding would be put to the 24^th May Area Board.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board noted the success of the project and supported a bid for funding being put to the new Board in 2017/18.

a)    Salisbury City Council (SCC)

b)    Laverstock and Ford Parish Council

c)     Police

d)    Fire

e)    Salisbury BID

f)      Child Wellbeing Group Update

g)    Health & Wellbeing Group Update

h)    Community Engagement Manager

i)       Air Quality Group – End of Year Report

Note: Speakers are reminded that they each have a 3 minutes slot, unless they have previously discussed alternative arrangements with the Chairman.

Salisbury City Council (SCC)

The City Clerk; Reg Williams gave an update: 

·         A Big Business event would take place on 25 – 27 April. Some fantastic speakers would be taking part. Some sessions were already full. For further information visit the SCC website.

·         The final Full Council meeting would take place on Monday before the elections.

·         The asset transfer was near completion, further information was expected from WC the next day, following that a date would be reached for the transfer to take place.

·         The Harnham bunker project had come to fruition the previous Friday, there had been an utter transformation at the facility. There were a series of before and after photos which showed how amazing the transformation had been. The Life Rocks company who operated at the bunker had an open-door policy. People could make an appointment to tour the building.

·         Money was approved to go to a parkour facility in Churchill gardens  - now have the 10% so an application will go in to fund the work. To unlock 45K of funding to enable the facility to go ahead – if goes to plan should happen this summer.

Cllr Rogers noted that the Harnham bunker project started here at the Board. He commended the generosity and hard work of all the local tradesmen, professionals and volunteers who had given their time and expertise to make the project a success.

Laverstock and Ford Parish Council

The play area at Old Sarum country park was due to open the following week.

A new Coop food shop was also due to open soon.

The Longhedge housing development was rapidly progressing

A meeting on 24 March at Hampton Park country park was to take place. An agreement was awaited between WC and Barratts.

A new café had opened at the River Bourne Community Farm, this had been supported by a £5,000 grant from the Board. A further £20,000 was still to be raised.

Question:

Was there any update on the pedestrian and cycle path for Longhedge? Answer: There was no progress to report.

The Chairman added that it was a hope for the future that something could be made.

Police – written update

Fire

District Comander for Salisbury and Wilton; Jason Moncrief introduced himself and explained that he had taken over from Louis for the area. He had a written update which would be attached to the minutes for information.

The main points from his update were:

·         The Safe and Well visits continued to be carried out.

·         A Safe and Well advisor would attend the next Area Board to talk on the initiative.

·         Over the last 2 months there had been 134 incidents between the two appliances.

·         The availability for the whole time crew was 100%, with the on call crew recorded at 90.9% availability, giving an overall average of 95%.

·         One newly recruited retained Fire Fighter was going through training.

·         The Fire Service was currently recruiting – anyone interested should get in touch for more information.

Salisbury BID  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To debate the idea of Salisbury becoming a 24 hour city.

The Chairman noted that it was not in the Boards remit to discuss planning apps in any way shape or form but to instead discuss the principle of whether Salisbury was ready for a 24hr economy.

Currently, everything inside the city centre had a closing time and opening time. Other areas such as Southampton had an economy and activity around the clock.

The Chairman invited discussion, the following points were raised:

·         The BID wanted to have any activity that extends the life and vibrancy of the City. If 24 hour businesses were well managed and attracted people in to the city this was good.

·         If the nature of the business meant that people would be coming and going to use it, this would not create large crowds. A 24hr city would give additional options to those who work 24/7 such as hospital staff. We should be providing for them and be open to such things.

·         As a shift worker, my start and finish times vary throughout the year, and on my commute to and from work at various hours through the night, I can say that we see more people through these hours than we ever used to. Salisbury was already more vibrant at night than most people realise. We should embrace 24 hr businesses; the licensing regulations were changes years ago.

·         I think we should support this absolutely, to be more like neighbouring cities. In the town centre, there were lots of people working through the night, we should see it as a positive move and welcome it.

·         To have this discussion in theory had little value, as it would depend on what types of businesses we were considering and why. For example, a gym would be ok but a nightclub may be different. The 24 hr wouldn’t help the night time footfall.

·         It’s was personal choice for people to stay up late at night. There would be impact on residents, hospital, Police and other organisations which support and serve the city. Some services needed some down time to catch up. The human body was not geared up for all night activity, there were side effects due to people staying up later. Cleaning the city would also become more complex.

·         This debate is odd as you have not defined anything, such as are we talking about retail or entertainment? It was not a matter of are we ready for it but can we afford it. Tesco had to employ people to fill the shelves through the night, so the fact they open 24 hours was not for our benefit. Define what you mean and then have a debate.

·         Churchfields was open 24hrs, but there were knock on effects for the roads coming in to the city. We would need to get a balance, do the benefits outweigh the detriments?

·         Things will find their natural level.

·         The solution to the decline in the night-time economy was not to increase the hours for nightclubs, but to increase the number of nightclubs.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The Board is asked to review these proposals, and to suggest any amendments or potential future sites for treatment are forwarded to the Highways Asset Management Team for further investigation.

The Chairman noted that the Board had been asked to endorse the list of proposed schemes for 2017/18, as detailed in the agenda pack.

Comments and questions included:

Salisbury Pothole Watch

Noted that the proposals were for a mile of resurfacing works in total, however he pointed out that there were over 100 miles of roads in the city centre. Salisbury had a quarter amount of resurfacing works planned than in Devizes which was smaller.

In terms of pothole patching the response was very good, but that was temporary patching and did not last long. The areas that keep coming up should be raised by the Area Board. The A36 central car park, this had been identified as WC responsibility, it was not on the list so needed to be added, along with:

The roundabout by Parkwood Gym on London Road

Pembrook Road – Bemerton

Ravens Croft had lost the top surface of the road, so there must have been an issue with that when it was laid.

Coombe Road – gyratory big areas

St Pauls Road

Churchfields Industrial Estate – some work done in May but not all of the roads.

The Chairman gave the following response:

In terms of the distance I am told that roughly the same amount of money was spent in each community area.  The A338 sliding away from hill, was going to be extremely expensive. We were waiting for confirmation of contractors.

The slip road on the A36, thanks for all your work in nailing down who was responsible for that. I am assured that extensive pot hole work on that road would be done. 

St Pauls Road – extensive pot hole filling would be carried out rather than resurfacing.

The Area Board was able to feedback requests for the order of priority to be changed but not to change the schemes on the list.

Question:

Delamination – at Hedly Davis Court, the sheltered housing scheme had many residents with mobility issues. It was not acceptable for the Council not to consider the factors such as this, causing real problems.

Question:

The SCC Transport Committee Members repeatedly voiced concerns over the roads. Most concerned for the A30, but the repairs were substandard temporary repairs, it was a pointless exercise. Wasting time energy and money by not doing the better repairs. They were frustrated for Pembroke Road and felt it was quite dangerous for cyclists.

There were 700+ roads in Salisbury, and there was approximately 100 years of work here. Could we have money from other budgets to give to repair roads for older people?

Older people who fall over end up in hospital costing public health money. This needed joined up thinking across departments. This list was a product already of discussion. There was a longer list the Board hoped to see the light of day in the future.

The roads on Bemerton would never be done as they were concrete overlaid with dressing. Need to make sure somehow that each electoral  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

To note the actions arising from the last CATG meeting held on Tuesday 14 February 2017 and to consider the recommendations arising from that meeting, as detailed in the attached report.

The Chairman of the CATG; Cllr Walsh noted that the Group had worked well to get the best out of the funding for 2-16/17. He noted that as there was £5,000 available, the Group had been able to select a set of yellow lines to be laid down.

The Board noted the minutes from the last meeting held on 14 February 2017, and considered the recommendation for funding.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board approved the recommendation of the CATG to allocate £5,000 to Yellow line painting.

The Board is asked to ratify a funding decision taken under delegated authority by the Community Engagement Manager on 31 January 2017. To allocate £2,500 to the Home Run project, as detailed in the attached report.

The Community Engagement Manager asked the Board to ratify a grant which had been allocated under the Community Engagement Manager’s delegated authority in January 2017.

The project was for two Salisbury Schools, Harnham Primary and Manor Fields Primary which had agreed to take part in a pilot project called ‘Home Run’, as detailed in the agenda pack.

Salisbury, Southern Wiltshire, Westbury, Devizes and Marlborough had been nominated to take part, as each had air quality management areas.  At the last forum of Air Quality Management Groups, tackling issues associated with the school run were prioritised, including poor air quality, congestion and childhood obesity.

Questions were taken, these included:

·         Who and when would check the success of the pilot? Answer: Ruth Durrant and Rachel Kent. The results would also be fed back to the Area Board.

·         Who was the money paid to? Answer: The organisers of the home run project.

·         When the Board previously gave an award to a Harnham school to provide literature, was there any assessment to see how effective that had been? Answer: The Community Engagement Manager agreed to look in to that and feedback.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board ratified the delegated decision of the Community Engagement Manager taken in January 2017, to allocate:

1.    £500 from the Youth Budget for 2016/17

2.    £2,000 from the Air Quality Budget for 2016/17

The date of the next meeting is Thursday , 7pm at xxxxx.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and noted that the next meeting of the Salisbury Area Board would be held on Wednesday 24 May 2017, 7.00pm at Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre, Hulse Road, Salisbury.