Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Richard Britton welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Southern Wiltshire Area Board.

There were none.

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 12^th February 2019.

Decision

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 12 February 2019 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.

The following declarations were made:

·         Cllr Britton noted for openness that with regards to item 9, Housing in Southern Wiltshire, that he was a director of Selwood Housing.

·         Cllr Clewer noted for openness that with regards to item 9, Housing in Southern Wiltshire, that he was a director of Aster Housing.

·         Cllr Clewer also noted that in relation to the Youth Funding item 11, his daughter took part in the youth activities and so would refrain from voting on that item.

To receive Chairman’s Announcements including:

·       Area Board Funding for 2019/20

The Chairman made the following announcements:

Area Board Funding 2019/20

Area Board funding for the new 2019/20 financial year would be the same as this current 2018/19 year, plus the Board was able to carry forward any underspends from the current year.

The Chairman noted that the Board still had difficulty in attracting CATG funding bids for projects and welcomed any new schemes to be put forward through the parish councils to the Area Board.

Litter Picks

The previous advice given out by Public Health England was that if you didn’t drop it don’t pick it up. The Chairman had set about getting Public Health to alter that statement.

Today a press release was launched which stated that Wiltshire Council (WC) would now support litter pick schemes set up by communities. Those interested should make themselves known to the CEM.

Public Health England had not yet revised their wording.

·       Fire & Rescue Service

·       Wiltshire Council Updates

·       Healthwatch Wiltshire

·       CCG

·       Current consultations

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

The Board noted the written reports attached to the agenda, and the consultation information available online by following the link.

·       Fire & Rescue Service

·       Wiltshire Council Updates – Children’s Centre Services & Electoral Review

·       Healthwatch Wiltshire

·       CCG

a)    Parish Councils and Community groups

b)    National Armed Forces Day – Update

c)    Community Policing – local issues and priorities

Attendance from the Community Policing Team

The Board received the following updates:

Parish Councils and Community Groups

There were no updates this time.

National Armed Forces Day

The Community Engagement Manager updated on this three-day event which would take place on the last weekend in June 2019, in Salisbury.

There were a number of ways people were invited to get involved. The big flag initiative was one. The CEM would be travelling around the community area to take a series of photos with the flag, at feature locations and with a selection of community groups. Karen asked anyone with ideas for photo locations to let her know.

Community Policing – Local Issues and Priorities

In addition to the written report in the pack, Sector Inspector Pete Sparrow gave a verbal update on some of the issues across southern Wiltshire.

A decision had been taken to split the area into two sections. Pete would take command of the Salisbury end and a new inspector would be coming in for the Amesbury section.

Knife crime and the County lines drug running was touching on all communities, from cities and then filtering out into the wider rural community. Parents and grandparents needed to look out for family members who had come in to sudden wealth, if the children were not getting it from you and they are not earning, they are getting from somewhere. There were other parts of the county where they have not dealt with this quickly enough and it led to issues of violence.

The Special constabulary had already provided over 1500 hours of service this year. This was an amazing contribution.

There had been a series of shed/out building theft incidents of tools and machinery. We recommend that you mark up your machinery in a distinctive way, record serial numbers and check security on outbuildings.

The Police had attended a positive meeting held in Landford this week with over 100 people in attendance who came out to speak about theft issues there.

Questions and comments:

·       Chairman - How many of the Special’s hours were working as independent Officers? Answer: The specials are always paired up whether they are qualified or not. Whether that is with a constable or another special.

·       Local Member Cllr Randall, thanked the Police for attending the emergency village meeting in Landford. The parish had been very concerned about theft, there had been an influx in recent weeks. The clerk for Landford has been talking to other clerks to try and sort something out. Landford will be made secure, the concern is that the problem would be dispersed to other areas. Problem is right across the south, wondered if the AB could get involved to do something? Answer: Target hardening does encourage the problem to go elsewhere, and make your area safer. It is then for the other places to do the same. There are plenty of products out there to help protect yourselves.

·       The Chairman noted that he would give some thought on a special themed session.

·       Keith  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

To receive a presentation on the Whiteparish Skatepark Project from Trevor King, Chairman of Whiteparish Parish Council.

If your parish has a project or success story you wish to share, contact the Community Engagement Manager to secure a slot on a future agenda.

Trevor King, Chairman of Whiteparish Parish Council gave a presentation on the Whiteparish Skate Park Project.

About 18 months ago, a village resident came to the parish council meeting and suggested that we updated our facilities for the young people. This was rather fortuitous as our current facilities were showing signs of wear and tear. She wanted to get involved with the design along with a few young members of the village and was willing to raise some funding. We decided to embark on the new skate park project for the village.

We decided we could spend £100k, so we went out to ask providers what could be offered for that. We chose one company which had very favourable payment terms.

Work commenced last August. We liked the design and the terms but we were not impressed by the directors, however when the contractors arrived on site we were impressed with their efforts, as they could not do enough to help us meet our aspirations.

Thanks to our Parish Clerk who worked exceedingly hard on this project. It took around 10 weeks from start to finish. We have had nothing but positive comments.

We held an open event and will have another formal skate event later in the year.

The funding comprised of £100k through grants. One funder let us down along the way, and we were awarded £50k through sports England, and £5k from the Area Board.

The Chairman congratulated Maria for all the work she had contributed to the project.

Questions and comments:

·       I was on the Alderbury PC when we had our park built. The night before the contractors came, the project manager was unwell and could not be on site when they arrived, I was asked to stand in. The installation was not overseen by a project manager and the park was put in the wrong way around. It took the parents to rectify the issue, as the company refused to come and correct it.

The Chairman noted that the next Parish Session would feature Grimstead PC, who would come to speak about the creation of their circular footpath.

To receive a presentation from the Cabinet Member and Director for Housing and to debate housing need in this community area, and the potential affordable housing options available to meet that need .

The Board received a presentation from the Cabinet Member Cllr Richard Clewer and Director for Housing Simon Hendey and debated the housing need in this community area, and the potential affordable housing options available to meet that need.

Nationally we have a housing crisis. In Wiltshire. we have 97 families in temporary housing, with a range of different housing problems across the county.

We are looking at other innovative ways to provide housing. There is a shortage of care workers, if we could house them in areas of need that would be one way.

Housing need in southern area

In the southern area housing need between 2016 – 2036 was calculated at 2238 households. The highest proportion of that was 54% requiring three bed properties.

Affordable housing need was calculated from using data from the Wiltshire Council Housing Register. Figures this week indicated that 56 households were registered in the Southern area with a housing need.

Affordable housing included rented properties at 80% of market rent or local housing allowance. These could be provided by the Council or registered providers.

Households offered affordable housing need to be on the Council’s housing register, and must have a housing need as defined in legislation and have a local connection.

Shared Ownership Housing

These are available to first time buyers with annual income below £80,000 (£ 18,000 minimum recommended). Buyers are able to purchase a share, usually at least 25% of equity with a mortgage. They are then charged rent on unsold equity at 2.75%. The buyer can then later buy more shares and own the property outright.

These properties are provided by registered providers and can be accessed by the Help to buy South. No local connection required unless a planning requirement has been applied on the development.

Community Land Trust (CLT)

These schemes are Community land trust set up to own and manage housing. Land or property cannot be sold off for private gain. There can be a variety of tenures.

Registered providers can undertake development on behalf of CLT. There is advice and financial support available from the Council. Access to these properties is via a CLT letting policy which prioritises local connection.

The Council has been successful in bidding for funding for these schemes.

Some villages want to see development and others do not. One way is through a Neighbourhood Plan.

Downton Neighbourhood Plan (NHP) - Jane Brentor

A NHP presumes development, some people think you have a NHP to stop development, that is not the case. The Core Strategy number of houses for Downton was 190. We based our plan on a housing needs survey that had taken place a few years before.

The housing that was available was high cost housing, which limited young people being able to stay in the community.

The aim is to work at gaining the houses in the community that people need. We had a 40% turnout for the referendum which was the highest for Wiltshire at the time.

There are  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

The Board is asked to consider the recommendations in the Highways Maintenance report attached to the agenda and to receive a presentation from Diane Ware, Principal Highways Officer.

Recommendations:

(i)             To welcome the road surfacing work and repairs carried out in 2018/19 and notes the improvement in the overall condition of Wiltshire’s roads in recent years, but acknowledges that further investment is still required.

(ii)            To approve the highway maintenance scheme list for 2019/20 prepared for the Area Board.

(iii)          To note the new provisional five year programme, which will reviewed annually to ensure best value for money and whole life costing for the highways asset.

Diane Ware, Principal Technical Officer for Highways gave a presentation on the proposed Highways Maintenance schedule for 2019/20.

The Board was asked to approve the recommendations as set out in the report attached to the agenda.

Highways funding has been divided out across the 18 Community Areas, by road mileage.

The presentation detailed road conditions on A, B and C roads within Southern Wiltshire. The roads were assessed for works by the survey vehicle. data then processed and maps produced.

To completely reconstruct a road would cost approximately £450 per m², that entails taking the whole road out including the sub base areas which could also be done in isolated areas rather than the whole road, in some situations. To patch and surface dress can cost around £65 per m². Surface dressing on its own was in the region of £5.30 per m² and a surface course can cost between £28 per m² and £50 per m^2. To create a good surface the underlying structure needs to be patch repaired, and to re do the whole of our network would cost something in the region of £7.5 Billion.

Some roads had suffered heat stress during last summer, there would be more reactive patching works carried out this year.

The Chairman clarified that the proposed programme as detailed in the agenda was fixed, so any case for a change would impact on the works currently listed. New additions would see something else move down the list, however the order of priorities was open to our influence.

Questions:

·       How long do the patching works carried out with the machine last? Answer: 2-3 years. A full-scale repair will last 15-20 years.

·       Cllr McLennan added that the last time he had asked the service Director he had advised that any white lines and mini roundabouts had to be faded to 30%, before they could be considered for painting, had that criteria gone?

·       These graphs paint a depressing picture. Answer: We had now changed to funding by condition rather than by length of roads.

Cllr Clewer noted that the council had been given additional funding and had been putting an extra £6m a year into Highways works.  This year, the works include extra white lining, if you have white lines that need doing, then please report now. Pavements are another area which had not received significant funding in the past, please report on the app. Get your PCs to report anything that needs doing so that it is logged on the list.

Decision:

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board agreed:

(i)             To welcome the road surfacing work and repairs carried out in 2018/19 and notes the improvement in the overall condition of Wiltshire’s roads in recent years, but acknowledges that further investment is still required.

(ii)           To approve the highway maintenance scheme list for 2019/20 prepared for the Area Board.

(iii)         To note the new provisional five year programme, which will reviewed annually to ensure  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

An update on the provision of youth activities across the community area in 2018/19, and to consider proposals for a youth themed discussion to inform the allocation of youth funding in 2019/20.

Officer: Karen Linaker, Community Engagement Manager

The Board noted the feedback from Youth Clubs, regarding commissioned youth activities during 2018/19, as detailed in the report attached to the agenda.

The Chairman asked for a straw poll on how people felt the Board should move forward with the allocation of its youth budget for 2019/20.

1.    AB to have a separate youth event.

2.    Hold some sort of separate event and bring back funding proposals to the AB.

Option1 = no support, option 2 = full support.

Proposals would be bought to the 1^st May 2019 Board meeting about how the 2019/20 Youth Budget should be shared to youth clubs, initiatives and projects for the optimum benefit of all 11 – 18s (and to 25yrs for those with a learning disability or difficulty).

Cllr McLennan noted that the Southern Area had 3 schools in Laverstock and one in Downton, he asked whether something could be done to allow the pupils from those school to participate.

• Speed Indicator Device (SID) – Parish Collaboration Update

·       Community Area Transport Group

Speed Indicator Device (SID) – Parish Collaboration update

No updates this time.

Community Area Transport Group

There was still funding in the CATG budget for small projects. Any new ideas for schemes should be brought to CATG through the parish council.

The next CATG meeting would be held on 19^th June 2019, at 6.30pm

Community Area Grants

The Board will consider applications for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme as detailed in the report attached to the agenda.

Health & Wellbeing Bids

The Board will consider bids to the Health & Wellbeing budget for 2019/20, as detailed in the report attached to the agenda.

Officer: Karen Linaker, Community Engagement Manager

The Board considered 3 applications for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme, as detailed in the agenda pack and circulated at the meeting.

Woodford Valley Primary Academy – requested £500

To hold a Salisbury Schools Mini Marathon, which would be a fun 2300 metre mini marathon for children from over 30 primary school and parents organised by a handful of local primary schools. Hosted on the Laverstock downs on Saturday 18th May.

Rebecca Head teacher – worked to provide mini marathon for last 30 years on Laverstock Down. 1300 children run from 30 schools across Salisbury. We have had sponsors from Waitrose and Salisbury Journal.

Questions:

As this was a repeat event were things like H&S in place? Answer: Yes, we complete a risk assessment and sent to the LA. Salisbury Journal had withdrawn some aspects of support, which was why we needed to look for some top up funding. Other Area Boards were also being asked to contribute.

Cllr McLennan noted that this was a brilliantly handled event. The use of P&R was well handled. He moved the motion of awarding the full amount requested of £500.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire awarded £500 to Woodford Valley Primary Academy towards the mini marathon event to be held in Laverstock.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2018/19

Downton Green Group – requested £150

To hold a wildlife friendly day at the Moot in Downton on the 19th May 2019. To support the great activities which would take place we need to hire a portaloo.

Cllr Clewer supported the project and moved the project be supported to the requested amount of £150, from the HWB fund.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire awarded £150 to Downton Green Group towards the Wildlife Friendly Day in May 2019, from the Health & Wellbeing Budget.

Collaboration of Landford, Downton, Alderbury and Redlynch Parish Councils

To carry out bus shelter improvements works.

This matter had been deferred until a future meeting to enable further investigation on this project.

Laverstock Memory Group – requested £3000

The Group provides on-going support for up to 15 people with dementia and for their family carers who meet in a separate room. Additional support is given when members or their carers need it, especially for people with dementia who live alone. Members and carers also continue to help create dementia friendly communities in our area.

Cllr Clewer noted that the provision sounded very useful, however the Board had a limited amount of HWB funding available. We need to consider the small number of people benefitting from this amount of funding, and that this is the third year you have approached us for funding.

Cllr Devine - If the NHS was able to cover this area of work it would be covered, it is not being covered. There are people here in need of this help.

Cllr McLennan - This is in my patch, but the relevance is that it is in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.

The next meeting of the Southern Wiltshire Area Board would be held on Wednesday 1^st May 2019, 7.00pm at Whiteparish Memorial Centre.