Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Bridget Wayman welcomed everyone to the meeting of the South West Wiltshire Area Board and introduced Councillor Lionel Grundy OBE, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services.

Apologies for absence were received from:

·         Graham Hogg, Service Director

·         Jo Howes – NHS Wiltshire

·         Wendy Brook – Sutton Maderville Parish Council

·         Clare Churchill – Dinton Parish Clerk  

To confirm as a correct record and sign the minutes of the previous meeting held on Wednesday 13 October 2010 (copy attached).

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

However it was noted that the representative for NHS Wiltshire was Jo Howes and not Jo Howles.

At the previous Board meeting, it had been noted that Cllr Jeans was awaiting a response to an earlier query regarding weight restrictions. The Board had received this and would be responding to it within the five days permitted. If any other Parishes wished to submit a response then they could also do so.

The eleven grit bins available to the Board had now been allocated and would be distributed in due course. Some of the areas who had been informed that the grit bins were on their way, had not yet received them.

Graeme Hay, Head of Service – Local Highways and Streetscene (South) gave an update on the grit bin situation, including:

·         Wiltshire Council had believed that there were 950 grit bins in Wiltshire to refill, and assumed that this would take two months to carry out. The job started in September and was due to be completed at the end of October, however it had been established that these figures were incorrect as the men filling the grit bins were currently up to 1,500, so there were far more than was previously thought.

·         Recent bad weather had delayed the delivery and installation of the new grit bins, as officers had to put this on hold to go out and grit the roads.

Parishes were informed to contact Sara Peterson if they wanted to arrange delivery of the additional 1 tonne bag of salt which they would need to store themselves. Richard Munro confirmed that any calls or correspondence which came through to him on this matter would be forwarded to Sarah to deal with.

Item 14 – Community Grants:

A decision had been made to defer a grant application from Wilton Community Centre, but since the last meeting the application had since been withdrawn by the applicant.

There were none.

Chairman’s Announcements including:

·         Census 2011 Local Perspectives

·         Public Protection Enforcement Policy

·         Face to Face Customer Access to Council Services

·         Update on Waste Services Consultation (colour copies of attached report will be available to view at the meeting)

·         Local Flood Protection

·         Dog Control Orders

(Papers attached)

The Chairman drew people’s attention to the information documents attached to the agenda and made the following announcements:

Update on Waste Services Consultation

The aim would be to have all households in the county on a fortnightly waste collection service by September 2011. For the areas not currently receiving a kerbside collection of plastic this was aimed to be in place by June 2012.

Licensing

Councillor Beattie was a member of the Licensing Committee, he informed the Board that some changes would be implemented shortly. One change already in place was that Wiltshire Councillors could now attend a licensing committee and speak on behalf of an application for a member of the public.

There had been some concern over the definitions used by licensing for certain words, such as the definition of ‘Street’ was ‘anywhere someone could go without payment’ this included private land. The definition of a charity was ‘something registered with the charities commission’.

Cllr Jeans felt that it was important for the Board to ensure that they were official consultees.

Parking Charges Consultation

The Chairman informed the Board that the report on the Parking Charges Consultation, going to Cabinet for consideration on the 14 December 2010 had not included the resolution which had been submitted by the South West Wiltshire Area Board. Cllr Tonge had assured the Chairman that he would amend the document to include the resolution of the Board, prior to the Cabinet meeting.

The Chairman would attend the Cabinet meeting to state the concerns of the Board.

Leisure Facility Review

This would also be considered at the Cabinet meeting on the 14 December 2010. It was thought that Tisbury would be considered as a pilot site.

Joy Hillyer from the Wiltshire Police Authority informed the Board that she would attend the next meeting in February to consult on the proposed spending cuts of the Wiltshire Police Authority. An online questionnaire was available for people to register their views on the plans for the proposed spending cuts at: http://www.wiltshire-pa.gov.uk/

A Parish Councillor had completed the questionnaire online as a member of the public, but asked if Parishes would be sent the form. Answer: Joy would bring copies of the form to the next Area Board for people to complete, but if people could access the website, they were urged to do so. The more people completing the form the better, as this would produce a wider picture of people’s opinion.

Since the meeting, four Budget Consultation Forums had beenscheduled. People were invited to attend and give feedback and their thoughts on the challenges, choices and options that the council and police faced.

David McMullin, Section Commander for South Wiltshire gave an update and circulated the crime figures for the three community areas. He also commented on the proposed cutbacks, stating that there was no intention to reduce the number of officers working in the Neighbourhood Policing Teams, or the number of Response Officers that he currently had however savings would need to be made in other areas.

Copies of the crime figures are attached to the end of these minutes.

It was noted that some Parishes had been struggling to obtain the Metro Count statistics for their areas. Councillor Lionel Grundy was asked to take the message back to Cabinet that some Parishes were experiencing difficulties with the Community Speed Watch Scheme.

Councillor Grundy agreed to take the message back to Cabinet.

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (WFRS) - Mike Franklin gave an update on the fire statistics which had been circulated at the meeting. Some of the points he touched upon were:

·         Out of the seventeen fires attended within the community areas, four of those had been started deliberately.

• There had recently been several thatch fires across the county, which had been time costly to deal with.
• Owners of thatched properties were urged to have them checked by the Fire Safety Service. Cards were available at the reception desk for people to complete if they wished to request this service.
• It had been found that some of the 10 year life smoke alarms issued by WFRS had been reported as faulty. People were urged to report any problems with these smoke alarms, so that they could be checked and replaced if necessary. 

Two questions were asked:

1.    What was the advice of WFRS on netting over the top of thatched roofs, whether it caused a hindrance when thatches caught fire. Answer: Mike Franklin would seek guidance from a technical officer and feedback any advice to Richard Munro for inclusion in the minutes or circulation in the Just a Minute.

2.    What was the fault with the smoke alarms. Answer: The battery which was supposed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Janet O’Brien, Head of New Housing gave a presentation on the demand for rural affordable housing in the South West of Wiltshire. Some of the points covered were:

·         Housing Needs

·         Past Delivery

·         Delivery Methods and the Process

·         Government Policy Changes

·         Challenges

·         Opportunities

In June 2010 there were 580 households in the South West on the Housing Register, only 282 of those were in need. The majority of those households in need would only require small accommodation such as a one or two bedroom property. In 2009 there were 13 new affordable housed delivered in the South West.

In the future it would be more difficult to provide affordable housing due to the changes imposed by the Coalition Government.

Some questions and comments were then taken from the floor, some of these were:

·         With only 13 affordable houses available last year for the 280 families in need in the South West, had the Council considered building prefab houses which would be much cheaper to build. Answer: The Council intended to look at providing homes for people which would last 90 – 100 years, so had not considered prefab.

·         Were the houses in the rural locations allocated to local people, or people in Salisbury who may be in greater need. Answer: On the exceptional sites, the houses were offered to people within the parish of that property first. If there was no one in need in that parish, the property would then be offered to people in the surrounding parishes, then to the wider community. Usually properties go to people with a local connection to an area.

·         Would the Council consider a scheme which would engage local people who were in need; in training to assist in the labouring on housing sites in return for a share in a property. Answer: Some work on a scheme similar to this had been done in the past, but it had been found that it was very difficult to get schemes like this off the ground. However some sites do use local labourers and apprentices.

·         What was the first step for Parishes who wished to establish a Local Needs Survey. Answer: Community First, Wiltshire Council and the Housing Association had decided to recruit a Rural Needs Officer. This officer would visit parishes who had registered an interested in Local Needs Surveys to discuss the way forward.

·         The Wilton Land Command site has 33 acres of land up for sale for development; it was thought that their intention was to sell the site to the highest bidder. What hope would Wilton have for affordable housing on sites like that. Answer: The Council was working with developers, MOD and the Defence Estate in explaining the benefits of affordable housing.

·         How flexible is the agreement for rural villages that may only require 3 or 4 houses. Answer: The current policy does not allow any flexibility on the percentage of affordable houses on a new site.

·         In East Knoyle there are ten bungalows  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Julian Head, Principal Regeneration Officer gave a presentation on meeting the demand for the provision of broadband in rural areas. Julian summarised pointes were:

• Strong leadership and commitment from Wiltshire Council
• Strategic Business Case to be made over next 4-12 months
• Economic sustainability and employment focus
• Digital literacy and public service delivery would drive up demand by expanding the market whilst maintaining equality
• Community Areas were absolutely essential to build a clear picture to lever investment in from various sources
• Businesses ran from homes were a major blindspot
• Social and cultural inclusion were very relevant, but would not bring the investments on their own, but more users = better return
• We could wait for the market to come to us, but for some areas this will take years, and others maybe never.

Further reading

Wiltshire Broadband provision http://www.intelligencenetwork.org.uk/transport-communications/broadband-provision/

Caio report http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file47788.pdf

Digital Britain report http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm76/7650/7650.pdf

Broadband Delivery UK http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/comment/bduk/

Councillor Wayman reported on the meeting of the Community Areas Transport Group (CATG) held on 1 December to consider the projects that would go forward for technical appraisal and costing. The following were agreed (indicative costs shown):

·         Bishopstone: Traffic calming £10,000

·         Mere:  Salisbury Street calming; Disabled parking space £3,500

·         Tisbury: Ansty Road markings £1,000

·         Tisbury: Tuckingmill Road  junction £1,500

Transport engineers would address the list, together with other projects in other Community Areas, in the New Year. They would then produce final costings for approval by the Group and deliver the works in accordance with the Highways Programme.

Councillor Wayman informed the Board that there had been two responses from Parishes wishing to take up the scheme to reduce or dim street lighting in specific areas, one from Tisbury and the other from Hindon. Both proposals would be going ahead.

The Board members will consider one application for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme:

·         Wilton United Charity (attached)

The Board considered one application for funding under the Community Grant Scheme. After discussion the Board members voted.

Decision

The application from the Wilton United Charity, for double glazing to the almshouses was refused.

Reason

The Board members felt that as it was a private project to install secondary glazing to six almshouses, it would not be of benefit to the wider community.

The Board will receive updates regarding the three Community Area Partnerships (CAPs) as follows:

·         WilCAP (Wilton)

·         SW7CAP (Mere)

·         TAPCAP (Tisbury)

The Board received the following updates and comments:

SW7CAP

This Community Area Partnership had folded.

TAPCAP

Further guidance from the Board was requested from TAPCAP on what was expected of them, if they were to continue. If nothing was forthcoming by the next inaugural meeting in 2011, then the Partnership would also fold.

WilCAP

This Partnership continued to work well, they were in progress of looking at the Community Plans.

Richard Munro, Community Area Manager gave an update on the status of issues, he informed the Board that there were 24 issues in progress with the majority of those being highways and speeding related.

Sutton Mandeville Parish Council had submitted a letter of praise. A copy of this is attached at the back of these minutes.

A Dinton Parish Councillor also praised the scheme, adding that without it the work in Dinton would not be going ahead.

The next meeting of the South west Wiltshire Area Board will be held on Wednesday 9 February 2011, 7.00pm at Mere Lecture Hall.