Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Ricky Rogers 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:

• Cllr A Roberts – Salisbury City Council

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 13 November 2014.

Decision

The minutes of the last meeting held on Thursday 13 November 2014 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Matters Arising

Cllr McKeown asked for an update on the possibility of taking air quality readings at the Pirate Play park, following her request at the last meeting. Answer: Cllr Clewer informed the Board that the Air Quality Group had not met again since the last Board meeting, and would discuss the request at their next meeting.

Cllr Douglas drew attention to the Boards previous request to receive further information on the proposed CIA for Salisbury before the Licensing Committee made its decision on the matter. No further information had since been provided and the Committee had now made a decision, as detailed below:

Resolved:

1)    On consideration of the further analysis of evidence on crime and anti social behaviour that a Cumulative Impact Area (CIA) for Salisbury is not appropriate at this time.

2)    An annual briefing would be prepared for the Committee to assess if any changes to licensing policy and any special polices are required, due to significant changes to the licensing legislation or circumstances.

Cllr Douglas asked if a discretionary fund for drop kerbs had been looked in to, as requested at the previous Board meeting. Answer: Cllr Clewer informed the Board that the CATG would look at this proposal to their next meeting on 6 February 2015. Cllr Douglas was invited to attend the meeting.

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

Cllr Clewer informed the Board that his son was on the Local Youth Network as he had also been on the Youth Advisory Group.

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

The Chairman informed the Board that Virginia McLennan, Laverstock & Ford Parish Councillor and wife of Cllr Ian McLennan, had recently passed away.

The Car Parking consultation closed soon, the Chairman urges anyone who had not yet taken park to do so.

The Grosvenor House Young Peoples project would be opening on Saturday 10 January. The Sound Emporium had put a great deal of effort in to transforming the premises. Winnie Manning had visited the building the day before and had been impressed at the level of detail and felt that we were on to a winner with this project.

To note the following:

·       Redevelopment of Maltings and Central Car Park – Update

·       Information on the following consultations can be found via the following link:

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/consultations.htm

·       Current Issues on the online Community Area Issues System:

http://portal.wiltshire.gov.uk/area_board/areaboard_issues_search.php

To log a new Issue, follow the link:

https://forms.wiltshire.gov.uk/area_board/index.php

The Board noted the information items as detailed in the agenda:

• Redevelopment of Maltings and Central Car Park – Update
• Consultations link: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/consultations.htm
• Issues on the online Community Area Issues System:

http://portal.wiltshire.gov.uk/area_board/areaboard_issues_search.php

To note the written updates attached to the agenda and to receive any verbal updates from representatives present.

a)    Salisbury City Council (SCC)

b)    Laverstock and Ford Parish Council

c)    Police

d)    Fire

e)    Community Campus

f)     Air Quality Group

The Board noted the written updates attached to the agenda and received the following verbal updates:

a)    Salisbury City Council (SCC)

·       Information on all of the upcoming markets had been posted on the SCC website, along with details of events taking place in the City.

http://www.salisburycitycouncil.gov.uk/

·       On Monday 19 January, the Budget for 2015/16 would be considered by Full Council, it was expected that there would be no increase to the precept.

·       On 1 February 2015, there would be a Wedding Fair from 11.00am – 3.30pm at the Guild Hall.

·       The annual Charter Service would take place on 8 February 2015.

b)    Laverstock and Ford (L&F) Parish Council

Chairman of L&F Parish Council, David Law announced the recent death of Cllr Virginia McLennan, who had been a parish councillor for many years and served as vice chairman last year, adding that she would be greatly missed.

c)     Police

Inspector David Minty gave an update to the Board. The recent work of several groups and organisations on New Year’s Eve in the triage centre had shown that there was excellent partnership working in the City. Dave gave thanks to all who had been involved. There had only been 7 arrests that evening and nothing serious had occurred.

The crime statistics showed that violence against the person was up 11%, this equated to 34 crimes across the year.

The new Beat Manager for the City Centre, PC Tracey Holloway would come to a future Board meeting to be introduced.

Following a recent issue on Bemerton Heath, the community had assisted the police in the location of a wanted person by using social media.

Comments and Questions included:

·       When visiting the police station where could members of the public park free of charge? Answer: If you are visiting on police business, you are able to park in one of our marked bays in College Street car park. This information was included in the Journal following the last time it was discussed here at the Board.

·       A week ago Mr Brown was walking on the pavement near to the Poultry Cross when he was in a collision with a young person cycling on the pavement. Having earlier seen two Officers on the Beat near Barclays bank he looked around for them but they had moved on. It would be good to be able to locate the Police when incidents like that occurred. Answer: Inspector Minty was pleased to hear that the Officers were visible in the City, incidents like that can be stopped by Police when they see them, however young people know that they will be stopped, so they tend not to do it when they see the Police. The intention was to have police on a stall on market days.  

·       Was Neighbourhood Watch growing or depleting? Answer: We have launched a Community Messaging service. You can join this free and receive messages by email, text or voicemail - about policing and crime matters relating to your area  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Board will consider the recommendations for Youth funding for 2014/15, arising from the last meeting of the Local Youth Network meeting, as detailed in the attached report.

LYN Management Group document uploaded 8 Jan 2015

The Chairman gave thanks to Winnie Manning, Community Youth Officer for her efforts in getting the Local Youth Network (LYN) up and running.

There were ten young people from six schools taking part in the LYN in addition to one Board Member, one UTC rep, a deputy Head from a community focused school and Inspector Minty from the Police.

Tom Bostock, Chairman of the LYN Management Group (MG) added that they were trying to target young people from private schools to join the Group. All young people submitting bids for funding would be asked to come and present their project to the LYN MG during the public section of the meeting. Once all bids had been presented the Group would then consider the funding bids during the closed section of the meeting.

Questions:

·       Focusing on middle class young people is not inclusive of all backgrounds. Answer: We are quite grammar school heavy, but the people on the LYN MG are not asking for funding, they are only judging the bids. We are making sure that we look at bids from across the entire spectrum.

A copy of the LYN membership had been circulated at the meeting for consideration by the Board.

The LYN had met and considered the bids for youth funding submitted so far. Their recommendations were detailed in the report attached to the agenda and below.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board approved the LYN Membership for 2014/15 as detailed in the document circulated at the meeting and listed below. Cllr Clewer would act as the Area Board Representative on the LYN until May, when all Outside Bodies and Working Groups would be reappointed.

The proposed membership of the Local Youth Network:

Bailey Grundy

Caitlin Capirelli

Edward Clewer

Eloisa Paver

Hamish Mundell

Izzie Compton

Julia Greenwood

Kirstie Stage

Toby Hoskins

Tom Bostock [chair]

Adults:

Annie Scadden (Salisbury City Council)

Carolyn Stammers (South Wilts Grammar School)

Gordon Aitken (South Wilts UTC)

Inspector David Minty (Wiltshire Police)

Peter Williams (Trustee of Salisbury Youth Venture, The Rose Gail Trust and The Arts Centre)

Richard Clewer -elected member from the Area Board

Tom Bray (Community Area Manager)

Winnie Manning (Community Youth Officer)

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board approved the recommendations of the LYN to refuse and defer the funding bids as per the report.

A member of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner will present information on the Precept Consultation.

The Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson gave a presentation to the Board on his proposals for an increase to the Police element of the precept for 2015/16.

The challenges for next year

·       The big challenge for the 2015-16 financial year, and for the years beyond, will be to maintain and improve performance against reducing budgets.

·       There were key factors which need to be taken into account when considering the precept and these were:

o   There had been a 5.1% cash reduction in grant

o   Net costs had increased by 1.3%

o   The Commissioner could not increase council tax beyond 1.99% without a local referendum

·       Over the next three years the funding gap would continue to increase.

·       The size of the gap was dependent on the level of council tax that was proposed by the Commissioner.

·       A 1.9% increase in council tax compared to no increase merely reduces the funding gap in year 3 by £2.275 million – an increase does not close the funding gap.

Our current funding

·       The largest element of the Commissioner’s budget (62%) was funded from grants provided by the government – it is these grants the government are reducing

·       Just over a third (38%) of the Commissioner’s budget was funded through the policing and crime element of the council tax.

·       Any increase in the precept would therefore only cover part of the 5.1% lost grant. 

·       The two local authorities were funded differently:

o   40% of Wiltshire Council’s funding comes from grants provided by the government

o   48% of Swindon Borough Council’s funding comes from grants provided by the government

o   This is in comparison to the 62% of the Commissioner’s budget which was funded by grants provided by the government

The impact on council tax

·       The policing and crime element of council tax for a Band D property for this financial year equates to £160.92.

·       This is in the lowest in the south west region which consists of Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, Dorset Police, and Gloucestershire Constabulary.

·       The Commissioner was proposing a precept increase of £3.06 per year for the average Band D property.  This equates to a 1.9% increase.

·       An increase of this amount would provide funding of £345,000 in 2015-16, and £728,000 in 2016-17.  This would help reduce the effects of the lost grant albeit only by a small amount.  It would, however, help the long term funding position when further grant reductions were expected.  

Questions and comments included:

·       You are carrying out a review on a new custody suite. The Salisbury suite was closed and as a temporary solution you are using the Melksham suite, but will there still be a new suite in Salisbury, or will it be near Amesbury? Answer: During the first quarter of this year, a review would be carried out on the proposals for a custody suite for the south. I am sure that there is a need in the south of the county, however it does not necessarily need to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

An interactive presentation on ‘Is your community ready for the Wiltshire Energy Challenge?’  Which will cover the achievements in reducing our energy demands and related carbon emissions, that we have made as a Council across the whole of Wiltshire as well as to highlight the local initiatives relevant to the community area.

Information on the next steps for the team, as it develops Wiltshire Council’s Energy Resilience Plan.

Officer: a member of the Green Economy Team

Ariane Crampton, Head of Service - Account Management and her team had been asked by Cabinet to give a presentation to every Area Board about how the Council is tackling the energy challenge, and highlight the activity in each community area.

In September 2014, Wiltshire Council signed up to the Local Government Association’s Climate Local initiative, which replaced the Nottingham Declaration on climate change. Wiltshire Council had been taking action on climate change since 2009 and continued to drive down carbon emissions across the county.

The Climate Local initiative was a way for us to communicate and recognise these achievements.

By signing up to Climate Local, councils across the country are capturing the opportunities and benefits of action on a changing climate, through:

·       leading by example,

·       saving on their energy bills,

·       generating income from renewable energy,

·       attracting new jobs and investment,

·       reducing flood risks and

·       managing the impacts of extreme weather. 

There were 48 electrical charging points in Wiltshire, with 11 points local to Salisbury. There were:

2x Urban Energy, Philips Lane N of Salisbury

3x Renault Dealership, Churchfields Industrial estate (restricted access)

2x Nissan Dealership, Churchfields Industrial estate

1x Best Western Red Lion Hotel, Milford Street

3x Brown Street

Ariane ran a short interactive quiz where people were able to vote on climate based trivia questions using handsets.

Local Schemes

Five Rivers Leisure Centre Facility Improvements:

·       Pool hall lighting – done in 2013:

·       saves £4400 and 24 tonnes carbon a year

·       Variable speed drives – done in 2011, saves £7600 and 51 tonnes carbon a year

·       Saved to date £34,000 and 228 tonnes carbon

Five Rivers Leisure Centre Combined Heat & Power – done in 2010:

• Saves £42,000 and 174 tonnes carbon a year

Car parks lighting upgrades – done in 2011/12:

Estimated savings to date total £60,000 and 90 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

City Hall lighting Upgrade

Auditorium lighting – done in 2010, saves £4,700 and 32 tonnes a year

General lighting upgrade – done in 2014, saves £10,200 and 29 tonnes a year

Local Groups/Work

There were a number of active groups within Salisbury which were brought together under the umbrella of South Wiltshire Agenda 21. This was a group of individuals and organisations which worked together to promote change within the Salisbury local community. The aim of the group is to ‘Turn Agenda 21 into Action 21’.

A number of initiatives, groups and activities were captured through their work including:

Monthly Green Cafe meetings: An informal group for anyone interested in exchanging ideas on environmental issues and contributing towards developing a greener future in Salisbury.

Further events, such as Green Energy Day, talks on Passive Haus build and other activities can be found on the events page.

Green Doors Weekend: In 2014, Wilton Community Land Trust organised their second event, which provided opportunities for people to visit low energy homes in Salisbury and learn about reducing energy consumption. Visit www.wiltshiregreendoors.org.uk for further details.

 “Carbon Conversations” provided reliable and useful information in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

To receive a presentation from a member of the Highways Team and to consider the proposed list of schemes for 2015/16, as attached to the agenda.

Appendix 3 uploaded 8 Jan 2015

The Board received an update from Jim Bailey, Principal Highways Engineer on schemes for 2014/15.

The Board was asked to consider the list of proposed schemes for 2015/16 and future years as detailed in the report attached to the agenda.

Questions and Comments included:

·       It would be useful to have a cost per meter for footways.

·       The list of schemes we were given last year was very long, this year the list looks very different, why is that? Answer: Last year we produced a list of sites for one year in addition we produced another list with a priority rating from 2 to 5. This list would need to be revisited each year as the priorities change.

·       In the villages it may be easier to deal with the parishes, we in the City need to involve Salisbury City Council, as they have a greater interest in the city centre.

·       There had been another issue on the A30 last week where a car had ended up on its roof. There seemed to be a safety defect there. Could work be done there? Answer: Jim had visited the site that day to assess the situation; he would discuss the matter further with Officer the following day.

·       The big issues are car parking and pot holes.

·       Cherry Close was in a disgraceful state, Cllr Walsh had contacted Officer responsible to make them aware of the problems, but he had not felt involved in the process.

·       Cllr Moss wanted to know what could be done about the problems at the railway bridge on the A30, could we have a slow sign before and after? Answer: Improvements at the bridge were agreed as part of the Bishopdown Farm Housing Development. Answer: Jim would feed the query back to colleagues in Traffic & Integrated Transport.

·       With the Footways Improvement Scheme, would criteria include usage as well as safety, as the entrance to the Cathedral should be considered? Answer: The Area Highways Engineer had produced a list of footpaths for consideration, based on safety issues. There was no current budget for footways works, so work would need to be done to cost the schemes proposed and then funding found to cover it.

·       Cllr Douglas asked for a copy of the proposed footways list prior to the  meeting.

The Area Board is asked to review this list, and suggest any other sites, particularly for consideration for future years.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board:

·       Noted the update on progress made on schemes for 2014/15.

·       Agreed to schedule a separate meeting between the Councillors and the Highways Engineer to discuss the list of schemes for 2015/16 and future works, including a Footway Programme Scheme for 2015/16. Details of the outcome would then be reported back to the next Area Board meeting. 

Action: CAM to liaise with Cllrs and Highways Officers to arrange a meeting.

To consider the Councillor Led Initiative put forward by Councillor Richard Clewer, as detailed in the attached report.

Cllr Clewer

The Board considered the Councillor Led initiative – Street Bench Funding, put forward by Cllr Clewer, as detailed in the attached report.

The proposal was to award £500 of Area Board funding to this Cllr Project to enable benches to be repaired along the footpath by the river near Waitrose, in the open areas around the ring road roundabouts and any other areas in the city where there are damaged benches.

Decision

The Salisbury Area Board allocated £500 to the Councillor Led Initiative – Street Bench funding, as detailed in the attached report.

The Board will consider any applications for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2014/15, as detailed in the attached report.

The Board considered an application for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme for 2014/15 as detailed in the report attached to the agenda.

Decision

Fisherton Street Businesses was awarded £4,000 towards the project - Fisherton Festival.

Reason – The application met the Community Area Grants Criteria 2014/15.

The date of the next meeting is Thursday 12 March 2015, 7pm at South Wilts Grammar School, Salisbury.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and noted that the next meeting of the Salisbury Area Board would be held on Thursday 12 March 2015, 7.00pm at South Wilts Grammar School, Salisbury.