Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Bridget Wayman welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Councillor Stuart Wheeler, Cabinet Member for Leisure Culture and Sport and Robin Townsend, Head of Leisure.

Apologies for absence were received from:

·         Jo Howles – NHS Wiltshire

·         Sturton Parish Council

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

Councillor George Jeans declared a prejudicial interest regarding item 6 -Parking Strategy Consultation as he was a business holder in Mere. He spoke against the implementation of parking charges and left the room when the vote was taken.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 23 June 2010 (copy attached).

The minutes from the previous meeting held on 23 June 2010 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Board will discuss any matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.

The Board received updates on the following matters arising:

Street Light Dimming/Switching off – Richard Munro, Community Area Manager was in the process of collating responses, with only two Parishes yet to reply, a final update on the outcome would be provided at a later date.

Tisbury Middle School – The Chairman informed the Board that the findings were not available at present and would be reported back to the Board in due course.

Gypsy and Traveller site allocations – Councillor Jose Green informed the Board that the consultation planned on possible new Gypsy and Traveller sites following on from the work carried out in April and June this year was on hold. The Regional Spatial Strategy had now been revoked and it would fall to local authorities to determine the right level of site provision. Officers were currently assessing existing information about the level of need for new Gypsy and Traveller sites in Wiltshire to make sure the development plan document progressed with the correct local targets for new site provision. This would affect the overall timetable for the preparation of the Gypsy and Traveller Site Allocations document. The Area Board would be informed once a revised project timetable on the provision of new sites for the travelling community was available.

Councillor Tony Deane noted that the Board had not yet seen the revised report depicting the sites on adjacent Council’s land, as had been requested at a previous Board meeting.  Councillor Wheeler was asked to enquire when the revised plans showing cross border sites would be available, as promised by Councillor Sturgis.

NHS Dentists – Councillor George Jeans informed the Board that he had not received further information regarding his question to Jo Howles on NHS Dentists at the previous meeting.  The Community Area Manager was requested to follow this up to receive a reply.

Cycle Ways – Wilton Town Councillor, Phil Matthews informed the Board that he had been contacted by Sustrans to arrange a meeting for further discussion on changes to the original plans.

Ludwell Community Orchard – There had been a delay in the papers from solicitors which had postponed planting at the orchard. The Chairman asked that the appropriate Cabinet member be approached to speed things along so that planting could take place in the autumn/winter.

To receive announcements from the Chairman including:

·         Parking Strategy Consultation

·         Community Payback – ‘call for grot spots’

(papers attached)

Parking Strategy Consultation

The Chairman informed the Board that it appeared that there was a general feeling that parking charges were not wanted in Wilton, Tisbury and Mere and proposed a resolution to be discussed.  Comments included:

·        Wilton Town Council was opposed to car parking charges, and would support any other little town who felt the same. However it was noted that the car park in Wilton was the property of Wilton Estates.

·        WilCAP had reviewed the Parking Strategy document and resisted any plans for parking charges in Wilton. 

·        Mere Chamber of Trade informed the Board that if parking charges were to be implemented in Mere, the businesses would suffer as people would chose to go elsewhere, forcing businesses to close.

·        Mere Parish Council felt that the charges would be detrimental to the economy and were in support of the Board’s decision to put the matter to a vote.

·        The Board were informed that hundreds of complaints had been made about the consultation, as it was felt that it was prejudice against people without computers.

·        Chilmark Parish Council thanked the Board members for their support in opposing parking charges in Mere, Tisbury and Wilton.

·        The Transport Plan document was not readily available for people to take home to study, one man had spent an hour and a half in the library viewing the document.

·        It was felt that the consultation had not been carried out properly.

·        A Swallowcliffe Parish Clerk urged people not to be put off by the difficulties in place, and asked people to make representation in any way they could.

·        Trying to charge for parking in small towns and villages would not be cost effective.

·        Mere and District Link Scheme informed the board that events put on in local areas would be a disaster if people had to pay for parking.

·        Over the past eighteen months, the Tisbury Parking project had been compiling a report which was now available.

·        The Tisbury Parish clerk thanked the Board for the resolution.

·        A local hairdresser in Mere informed the Board that a great deal of her business was from passing trade. It was felt that those people would not stop if they had to pay to park.

·        One of the two car parks in Mere served the local doctors’ surgery, charges would result in patients having to pay to come and see their doctor. The other car park was used by residents in the evening and overnight, so to keep the streets clear for others to go about their business.

·        Car park charges would impact on the attendance of church functions, such as weddings, funerals and church services.

·        There was no public transport in Mere to bring people into work. People would not pay five pounds a day to park.

·        The number of buses that service the villages were once a week and not once a day as was suggested in the document.

·        It was felt that the consultation seemed to have been made as difficult as possible  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To receive a presentation on the Leisure Facilities Review, followed by a discussion.

Officer: Robin Townsend (Head of Leisure)

Councillor Stuart Wheeler, Cabinet member for Leisure, Culture and Sport explained that a consultation was currently going out across Wiltshire on the Review of Leisure Facilities, following the formation of Wiltshire Council. The council had inherited twenty three leisure centres across the county, in varied levels of care and repair needs.

To keep the leisure centres in the same condition that they were currently in would take £93 million over the next twenty five years. The Council would provide £117 million over the next twenty five years to carry out the proposals as detailed in the officer’s report. The idea would be to create a high quality service with reduced risk to the council.

Councillor Wheeler said that he would like to see the facilities in Tisbury be devolved to be community managed. The current facility did not overlap with any other in the county and catered for the immediate community but it was felt that it could be improved to better meet the local needs.

At this current stage, the council was looking for support in the idea in principle, which would lead to further work with the local people over the following four years to make the ideas work.

A roadshow would be held on Wednesday 29^th September 2010 at Tisbury library where officers would be available to discuss the proposals further. Meetings would also be scheduled with town and parish councils to take discussions forward.

People were then invited to ask questions, some of the comments were:

·        Tisbury Sports Centre Managing Body had submitted a list of questions, which they would like answered before they decided if they would take over the Tisbury Leisure Centre.

·        As the roadshow had been planned for a Wednesday, the library would only be open for two hours during the morning, which didn’t provide much of an opportunity for the local community to attend, especially those who worked during the day.

·        Robin Townsend informed the Board that they would be happy to schedule an additional date and time which would be more inclusive.

·        The Youth Development Officer asked if the roadshow could be carried out in the evening as young people were usually not around in the daytime.

·        A Wilton Town Councillor welcomed news that £117 million would be spent on leisure facilities, as he felt that the more people using fitness centres, the less people would need the NHS. He also suggested that it would only be possible if no further cuts to finances from central government were forthcoming.

·        Councillor Wheeler added that the figures provided were good solid figures, however they would be fine tuned after the October Cabinet had considered the paper.

To consider bids for funds to progress local highways projects which will go forward to detailed consideration by the Community Area Transport Group.

(report attached)

Officer: Richard Munro, Community Area Manager.

Richard Munro, Community Area Manager informed the Board that he had collated the expressions of interests which had been received for the development of small highway schemes. The next stage would be to form a Community Area Task Group, who would look at each project to produce a list in order of priority.

Chosen projects would then be developed and reported back to a future Area Board meeting. He commented that the £17,000 that had been allocated for the projects would not stretch very far.

People interested in forming the Task Group should contact Richard Munro on 01985 844825 or email Richard.munro@wiltshire.gov.uk

The Board members will consider an application for funding from eight applicants as follows:

·         Mere Dazzlers Majorettes – Audio Equipment

·         Mere Croquet and Boules Club – Boules Court

·         Wessex Community Action – Volunteer Bank

·         Stourton With Gasper Parish Council – Defibrillator

·         Zeals Village Hall – Disabled Access

·         Mere Croquet and Boules Club – Disabled Access

·         Tisbury Footpath Club – Strimmer

·         Tisbury Tiz the Season – Support Costs

(report attached)

Officer: Richard Munro, Community Area Manager

The Board considered eight applications for funding under the Community Grants Scheme. After discussion the Board members voted on each application in turn.

Decision

Mere Dazzlers Majorettes were awarded £702 towards their project to purchase audio equipment; the board requested that they make the equipment available for hire to other local groups.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2010/11 and would continue to provide an exercise activity for young people in the community.

Decision

Mere Croquette and Boules Club was awarded £1,115 towards their project to lay a boules pitch.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2010/11 and would provide a professional pitch which could be used for league games.

Decision

The application from Wessex Community Action for recruitment and start up costs, to provide a bank of CRB checked volunteers was deferred pending further information becoming available.

Reason

Further information was required on whether a similar service was available from GROW, who had recently received funding from the council.

NB: Subsequently this application was withdrawn, following discussion between WCA and GROW regarding options for future joint working.

Decision

StourtonWith Gasper Parish Council was awarded £965 towards their project for a Public Access Defibrilator to be purchased and installed in the Stourton telephone kiosk, recently adopted by the Parish Council from BT.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2010/11 and would provide a valuable piece of life saving equipment for the community.

Decision

Zeals Village Hall was awarded £2,308 towards the installation of disabled toilet facilities within the hall.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2010/11 and would provide a much needed facility.

Decision

Mere Croquette and Boules Club was awarded £885 towards the installation of a wheelchair ramp.

 Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2010/11 and would provide a much needed facility.

Decision

The application from Tisbury Footpath Club was refused.

Reason

The Board felt that the work could be carried out by people in either the Leisure Credit scheme of the Community Payback scheme, both groups already had trained workers and equipment to do the job.

Decision

Tisbury Tiz the Season was awarded £1,562 towards support and advertising costs for their Christmas event. The Board informed the applicant that they should find alternative funding for next year.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2010/11 and would provide a community event that assisted in increasing revenue for local businesses over the Christmas period.

To consider whether the Board wishes to support the following applications for Performance Reward Grant funding:

·         Energy Monitors

·         Wiltshire Voices

Officer: Richard Munro, Community Area Manager

The Board considered two applications for funding under the Performance Reward Grant Scheme, these were:

Energy Monitors

This bid was a county-wide project, to provide energy monitors which could be hired for free from libraries, to allow users to see clearly how much energy their appliances used and how their behaviour impacted on their energy use.

A successful pilot had been run, with people borrowing the monitors for up to three weeks.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board supported the bid for WiSE to go forward for consideration by the Performance Reward Grant Panel.

Wiltshire Voices

This was a County-wide project to support Area Boards in engaging with hard-to-reach elements of society.  Each Area Board would identify a different target group; in South West Wiltshire this was proposed to be young people in rural areas.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board did not endorse the bid from Wiltshire Voices.

Reason

It was decided not to support the bid as it was felt that the supporting documentation was long on aspirational-speak and short on process and did not provide board members with details on how hard-to reach groups would be reached in reality.  Wiltshire Council has been targeting hard-to-reach groups for some time and it was felt that this was yet another research exercise that would not achieve any actual results.

The Board will consider the Community Area Partnership (CAP) 200/11 work plans and funding submissions from:

·         SW7CAP (Mere Community Area Partnership)

·         TAPCAP (Tisbury Community Area Partnership)

·         WilCAP (Wilton Community Area Partnership)

Community Area Partnership Chairs

The Board received updates from Community Area Partnerships as follows:

SW7CAP – Polly Gilbert

·        The group formed in February 2010

·        In the process of recruiting a coordinator

·        Attention to footpaths (voluntary)

·        Adopt telephone box for defibrillator

TAPCAP – Nigel Knowles

·        Website under construction, due to be up and running within a fortnight

·        A response to car parking charges would be submitted to the consultation

·        Looked forward to working with the Parish Council on the Leisure Facilities recommendations

·        Next meeting would be held on 8 September 2010.

Nigel went on to say that there had been a recent incident where a group of people called the ‘Nottingham Nockers’ had arrived in the area to sell goods by knocking at residents doors along the A30. The sellers had been reported as having an aggressive manner if people did not purchase anything. The police stopped the men involved in the door knocking and asked them to leave the area. Nigel asked if Trading Standards could be contacted to deal with the matter further.

Decision

The Community Area Manager would contact Trading Standards and ask them to contact Mr Knowles for further details on the matter.

WilCAP– Peter Edge

·        Annual work plan and budget forecast had been submitted to the board

·        Currently developing a website

·        Meetings would be held on the last Monday of each month

The board members considered the funding request submitted by WilCAP.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board agreed to authorise the release of £5,850 in staged payments to WilCAP.

To receive updates from partners.

Fire - Mike Franklin, Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service informed the Board that as there was no official update, he would be happy to take questions from the public.

Wilton Town Councillor, Peter Edge asked if all retained fire stations would be maintained in light of financial cuts being imposed on all service providers.

Following a recent review of services, there were no current plans to close any of the retained stations within the South West Wiltshire Community Areas.

Police – Sector Sgt Debs Ashley gave an update on crime statistics, and concluded that overall crime had fallen by 35%.

Councillor Tony Deane asked if Inspector Minty had provided her with an update for the Board in his absence on the Metro Count figures.

As the information was not available, Sgt Ashley agreed to feedback the request to Inspector Minty so that he could provide them at the next meeting.

To receive an update on the progress of local issues to date.

Officer: Richard Munro, Community Area Manager

Richard Munro, Community Area Manager gave an update on the status of issues. There were thirty two currently in progress and thirty eight had been resolved. The majority still in progress were highways issues.

Issues could be tracked online at: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityandliving/areaboards/areaboardsissuestracking.htm

Richard Munro was asked if libraries could be asked to access the information on issues for people who did not have access to or could not use a computer.

Decision

The Community Area Manager would look into the possibility of libraries providing the issues information for people who could not access a computer.

A point was raised under Chairman’s Announcements by the Chairman of Donhead St Mary Parish Council, Mrs Barnes regarding a parking related issue which had been logged back in October 2009. Since then Mrs Barnes had not received an update on the progress of her issue and felt that the current procedure, where people had to report an issue through the Area Board needed to be reviewed as she did not want to have to rely on the Board for feedback, adding that the Parish Council had been kept in the dark.

The Chairman will invite any remaining questions from Partners, Town/Parish Council Representatives or the floor.

Chilmark Parish Councillor, Patrick Boyles, remarked that the Parish had expressed concern over the Waste Services Consultation document, the manner in which it was put out to the public and the lack of opportunity provided to comment. The Parish confirmed that they had made representation on additional papers, handed in to the consultation.

The Board noted the comments of the Parish Council.

A copy of the Forward Plan is attached for information.

The next meeting of the South west Wiltshire Area Board will be held at 7.00pm on Wednesday 13October 2010, at the New Remembrance Hall, Charlton.