Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Richard Britton welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the Southern Wiltshire Area Board and invited the Cllrs to introduce themselves.

Newly elected Member for Downton and Ebble Valley; Cllr Richard Clewer was unable to attend the meeting, due to a business matter.

An introduction to Area Boards by the Community Engagement Manager to explore the role and function of your local Area Board.

Officer:Tom Bray, Community Engagement Manager

Tom Bray, Community Engagement Manager delivered a presentation on Area Boards. Some of the points covered included:

The role of the Community Engagement Manager:

·         Helping deliver the vision to strengthen local communities and help them to do more for themselves

• Maximise the involvement and engagement in council services and decisions; particularly those that affect our area
• Assist the area board to deliver its local priorities
• Encourage and administer grant applications
• Support the various groups of the area board; Community Area Transport Group (CATG), Health and Wellbeing Group, Local Youth Network (LYN)
• Facilitate and coordinate community events and activities
• Connect communities and maximise opportunities
• Communicate what’s happening

Area Boards, and what they do:

·         Host events and meetings where the local community can participate

·         Invest in local community projects

·         Agree local priorities and take action to address them

·         Influence and take decisions on local service delivery

·         Support and deliver activities for young people

·         Communicate information every week

·         Encourage participation and volunteering in community activities

·         Acts as a consultee on council policy and changes

Southern Wiltshire Area Board budget for 2017/18:

Total funding allocated - £82,683 - 2017/18

Split into:

•      £38,013 for community grants (capital)

•      £21,881 for community transport (capital)

•      £15,089 for youth projects (revenue)

•      £7,700 for health and wellbeing and older people’s champion (revenue)

What the grants are for:

•      Community and transport grants

•      prioritise and approve minor highway works

•      Improve pavements and paths

•      Fund new works, not routine maintenance

•      Health and wellbeing

•      Support for older people and those who are vulnerable

•      Support healthier communities

•      Older people’s champion

•      Coordinate support for the elderly and vulnerable

•      An advocate and advisor to the board on behalf of older people

•      Local youth networks

•      Involving young people

•      Increasing positive activities available

Every two years public data is produced by partners and services, this provides a strategic assessment (JSA). Local people come together at an event held by the Area Board, to review and agree what matters in their area.  From this the Board is able to identify actions to be taken forward.

World War 1 – Community Tree Planting project

Tom explained that the Council was proposing to deliver a legacy to mark the centenary of the end of the first world war, which ended on 11 November 1918.

Local communities are invited to plant 10,000 trees across the county, with each tree representing a soldier who lost their life.

Some suggested options for planting included:

·         An area/areas in your local community

·         A memorial wood in Wiltshire

·         A combination of a wood and local planting

The Woodland Trust was supporting this project, working alongside Wiltshire Council. The aim is to plant the trees in November 2018. These projects would need planning and aim to bring the community together.

The Board would be working with community groups locally, including school groups. Parishes were asked to start thinking about how they would like this initiative to flourish in the community area, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Apologies for absence were received from:

• Cllr Richard Clewer – Board Member

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the previous two meetings held on Thursday 23 March 2017 and Tuesday 16 May 2017.

Decision

The minutes of the previous two meetings, held on Thursday 23 March and Tuesday 16 May 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.

Cllr Ian McLennan declared a Personal Interest in relation to item 16b, Funding application by Music CIC, as his daughter was the applicant.

To receive Chairman’s Announcements including:

·         Fly Tipping Surveillance Camera

The Chairman made the following announcements:

• Fly Tipping Surveillance Camera

At last meeting, the Chairman had been asked about the Area Board surveillance camera. He explained that Officers had missed the fact that a Court Order was required to use the camera to record in public. The Board had thought that this consent was covered by the court order awarded to the Council, however this was not the case.  The camera had now been deployed.

·         Healthwatch Wiltshire

·         CCG

The Board noted the following written reports attached to the agenda:

• Healthwatch Wiltshire
• Clinical Commissioning Group

The Board is asked to consider the report attached to the agenda, and to:

a.         Appoint Councillor representatives to Outside Bodies as set out at Appendix A;

b.         Agree to reconstitute and appoint to the Working Group(s) as set out in Appendix B; and

c.         Note the Terms of Reference for the Working Group(s), as set out in Appendix C.

d.         Appoint an Older Peoples Champion for the Area Board, in accordance with Appendix D.

In a slight change to previous years the Southern Wiltshire Area Board has appointed lead members to take forward our specific areas of interest.

Decision

The Board agreed to:

a)    Appoint Councillor representatives to Outside Bodies as set out at Appendix A;

b)   Agree to reconstitute and appoint Members to lead areas/groups as set out below; and

c)    Note the Terms of Reference for the Working Group(s), as set out in Appendix C.

d)   Appoint an Older Peoples Champion for the Area Board, in accordance with Appendix D.

Lead Cllrs:

·         Brian Whitehead Sports Association –  Cllr Clewer

·         CATG – Cllr Britton

·         Health &Wellbeing forum – Cllr Clewer

·         Older peoples champion – Cllr Clewer

·         Youth – Ian McLennan

·         Footpaths, ecology & green spaces – Cllr Randall

a) Parish Councils and Community groups

b) Community Policing – local issues and priorities

In attendance: PC Matt Holland

The following updates were received:

a)    Parish Councils and Community Groups

There were none.

b)    Community Policing – Inspector Pete Sparrow

Sector Inspector Sparrow drew attention to the following points, as detailed in his written report circulated at the meeting:

·         It has been a very busy few weeks for south west Policing teams. Following the terrorism incidents, in Manchester and Westminster, there had been a significant change to the way Policing was carried out.

·         The national threat level had been raised to severe, this meant that a terrorist attack was highly likely.

·         Such threats would be targeted around crowded spaces and iconic structures. Armed Officers had been deployed to patrol the streets in Salisbury. There was no intelligence to say there was a specific threat for our area, however we remain alert. Community information was vital.

·         There had been a manhunt for an escaped convict from Salisbury District Hospital. Two security guards were overpowered by a man yielding a razor blade to escape. He was found by a member of the community, who had spotted him, identified and reported him.

A new tactic had been used in the search, the drone with heat seeking cameras, as this was of a better quality that the helicopter. The amount of area they covered had saved a lot of time.

Despite being found near to the hospital, there had been 30 sightings from as far away as Yorkshire. Pete stressed that it was important that if people thought they saw something, then they should report it, so the Police make a judgement whether or not to act on it.

·         There had been reports in the national media of a big drug issue with the Xannex, an anti-anxiety drug highly used in America. This drug was not available on the NHS in the UK. There had been 20 cases of children being taken to hospital after taking the drug in a two-week period. Pete urged schools and parents to talk to their children and explain the dangers of this drug.

·         There was an issue with the time of calls to the 101 number being handled after having been answered. Due to the quantity of calls the operators need to filter, to ensure Police Officers were free for the emergencies that come in.

·         Wiltshire Police was having a huge recruitment drive in all areas. The largest area of recruitment was for call handling operators, with progress in other fields.  Five new Police Officers would be joining Salisbury.

Questions and comments included:

·         The Police Commissioner has spent £1m on recruiting 500 new Specials, how do you propose to use them in your patch? Answer: We would be allocated 50 for the whole of Salisbury, ten per shift, they would become deployable as any other Officer. Recruitment was ongoing.

·         When you talk of Officers for Salisbury, that is a different community area to ours, what would we get in Southern Wiltshire? Answer: When I talk about Salisbury it was the entire South Wiltshire. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

To note the CATG update report attached to the agenda.

The Board noted the CATG update attached to the agenda, detailing the schemes delivered in 2016/17, and already funded projects carried over to 2017/18. These schemes would not encroach on this year’s budget.

An update on Youth activities

Youth Grant applications received from:

The Chairman noted that both of the Youth Funding bids would need to be  deferred, as no one was available to attend and speak on behalf of the Scouts,  and Whiteparish Youth Club wished to take their bid to the Parish Council first.

The Board noted the written update attached to the agenda.

Question:

·         Cllr McLennan asked that all future grants go to the LYN for consideration in future. Answer: The Chairman agreed for this to take place if Cllr McLennan could form a LYN.

·         What was the situation with Youth Workers for the area? Answer: Wiltshire Council no longer employed Youth Workers to work at youth clubs with young people. That was why if somewhere wants to fund a youth worker, it was up to the Board to look at that request.

Another project the Board could pursue was whether other areas may wish to club together and fund a youth worker which could be shared between them. Not only was the Board considering youth workers, but activities in areas where there were no youth clubs. There had been brilliant attendances at the events funded by the Board with Go Active and Boom Satsumas positive activities schedules.

An update and funding applications as detailed in the attached report.

The Board considered two bids for funding from the Health & Wellbeing budget, as detailed in the report attached to the agenda.

The Community Engagement Manager, Tom Bray explained that the intergeneration event in Downton the previous week had gone well.

Jane explained that with the support of Age UK they had an intergeneration group, where aged 12 & 13 had been supporting older people from Downton with It skills. Tea and cake, had been provided at the event, and those attending were shown what could be done with the use of tablets, laptops and PCs.

Everyone had been impressed with the young people who all had such patience with even those who had no knowledge at all.

Cllr Devine noted that the H&WB budget for 2017/18 was not huge, after the grants for consideration at this meeting, that would leave a small amount. He felt that there were more groups in this area that may benefit from funding. He asked the Board to be careful in distributing funds and not necessarily in large amounts.

The Chairman explained that the Board has a certain freedom, in the way it used the bigger pot of Community Grant funding.

Cllr Clewer had been asked as the lead member to meet with Tom to look at all of the projects planned and those which had been carried out, with the view that as we are to become a Dementia Friendly area the Board would support projects and events t promote this. There had only been two Dementia Friend events so far, that still remains an objective.

Music for Wellbeing CIC

Cllr McLennan declared a personal interest as his daughter was the applicant. He did not speak or vote on the application.

Olivia McLennan was in attendance to speak about the project.

This was a 5-week project over the summer in Laverstock, going on to deliver dance sessions after the project.

In Downton the aim would be a monthly session over 4 months with a catchment of 20-30 people. These were pilot projects, with the aim of rolling out further groups if successful.

Questions:

·         How would your client group find you? Answer: I would use local media to promote the project and liaise with existing groups.

·         What sort of music do you use? Answer: Folk and music from around the world. However this would be adapted to include specific music tastes.

·         Would the Laverstock and Downton Parish Councils be contributing towards the projects? Answer: I have not approached them yet.

The Chairman added that the Board would expect the parish council to be aware and approached but was happy to treat this as a pilot initially.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board awarded £1407.01 to the Music for wellbeing CIC project.

Laverstock Memory Group

Mr & Mrs Bartlett, the applicants explained that this was the only group in the country that met in someone’s home. The group had been running for 7 years, and had had to re-focus after Wiltshire Council revised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16b

The Board will consider 3 applications for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme:

Officer: Tom Bray, Community Engagement Manager

The Board considered three Community Area Grant applications for funding as detailed in the report attached to the agenda.

Applicants present were invited to speak in support of their projects. Following discussion, the Board voted on each application in turn.

Decision

Downton Tennis Club was awarded £2,388 specifically for the wheelchair access aspect of the refurbishment project.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2017/18.

Decision

West Dean Village Fete Committee was awarded £500 towards the West Dean Village History Trail project.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2017/18.

Decision

BWSCA was awarded £2,500 towards the replacement of the toilets at the sports social club.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2017/18.

The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.

The next meeting would be held on Thursday 27 July, 7pm at Coombe Bissett & Homington Village Hall.