Agenda and draft minutes

The Chairman Councillor Richard Britton welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Southern Wiltshire Area Board, and thanked the Anybody Can Cook team of young people and the facilitator Catherine Maxwell for providing freshly prepared vegetable samosas during the networking session as part of a demonstration of their work.

Cllr Jose Green, Chairman of South West Wiltshire Area Board was also welcomed.

Apologies for absence were received from:

• Harry Urquhart – West Dean PC

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 14^th March 2019.

Decision

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 14 March 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.

There were none.

To receive Chairman’s Announcements including:

·       Bring your own re-usable cup - Initiative

Change to running order

As there was an important item on Youth Activities for 2019/20 at item 10, the Chairman decided to bring that item forward to item 8, to enable the young people who had attended as part of the cooking demonstration, to take part in the discussion.

Bring your own re-usable cup – Initiative

If all Area Boards stopped using disposable cups, the Council could save almost 5,000 cups going to landfill each year. A straw poll showed a high level of support for a ‘bring your own cup’ initiative.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board agreed to adopt the ‘Bring Your Own Cup’ Initiative.

·       Housing Feedback – written report on outcomes of last meeting

·       Fire & Rescue Service

·       Healthwatch Wiltshire

·       CCG

·       Current consultations

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

·       Wiltshire Council Updates:

1.    Community Led Housing

2.    Homelessness Strategy

3.    Extended Consultation – Vision for Special School Provision

4.    Salisbury Maltings Masterplan

The Board noted the written reports and updates in the agenda pack or distributed on the night, which included:

·       Housing Feedback – written report on outcomes of last

·       meeting

·       Fire & Rescue Service

·       Healthwatch Wiltshire

·       CCG

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

·       Wiltshire Council Updates:

1.    Community Led Housing

2.    Homelessness Strategy

3.    Extended Consultation – Vision for Special School Provision

4.    Salisbury Maltings Masterplan

The Chairman drew particular attention to the Maltings consultation and said that Wiltshire Council was anxious to hear from as many people as possible.

a)    Parish Councils and Community groups

b)    Big Pledge – Karen Linaker

c)    Community Policing – local issues and priorities

In attendance: Inspector Pete Sparrow / PC Matt Holland

Parish Councils and Community groups

None

Community Engagement Manager - Karen Linaker

The Council was running the Big Pledge Sports Campaign for 2019, starting on 3^rd June and running for six weeks. A DVD was shown.

There would be more information available from today, anyone interested in getting involved should contact Karen. Schools that sign up get a free cricket kit.

Equality and Diversity – all Parish Councils, representatives and community groups had been sent a message asking to feedback on which hard to reach groups were in the Southern Area. Karen had received some responses but would like a lot more. People were urged to respond by the end of May.

Community Policing – local issues and priorities

In addition to the written report which had been circulated at the meeting, Acting Inspector John Hutchings gave a verbal update. The main points included:

The report showed the scope of the team and the large areas they now covered.

There had been some recent animosity around Police visibility, and the rise in precept, which had led to several questions at meetings lately. The Force was committed to Policing our communities and worked hard with the limited resources available. Work involved looking to extend its footprint in other ways, such as with the various Watch schemes operating by volunteers within our communities. You can all do your part. In good close-knit communities, if you know your neighbours, and you notice something out of the ordinary, then report it. There are Facebook accounts and Whatsapp groups which were also supported by the Police. Neighbourhood Watch was also getting a resurgence after a period of being dormant.

Questions:

• After the last meeting, you were quoted in the Journal, and some people were concerned that you were not carrying out any patrols in the south of the county. Answer: We are patrolling the south of the county. Downton and Redlynch had seen an increase of activity recently and we have increased our patrols in those areas, and we are having a positive effect there. Community Speedwatch was in operation around the community area, with Landford and Alderbury having had a good response with that. Over the last BH weekend in the south of the county there were 100 crimes in total with only 3 of those happening in the southern Wiltshire community area. Our patrols were being drawn to where the crime was.

Unfortunately, the planned presentation on the Grimstead Circular Footpath projects has had to be postponed. Instead Laverstock & Ford Parish Council has kindly agreed to present an update on its trails projects and initiatives.  

David Burton, of Laverstock & Ford Parish Council gave a presentation on its trails projects and initiatives.

In my previous role as manager of Langley Wood, I worked with Dave Bennet who came up with some circuit walk signage.

Laverstock & Ford was on the edge of the city with very rural areas. We worked to get people interested and become volunteers in our work to create walking trails. We then applied for a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to finance the creation of the trails.

Our volunteers like to keep it simple, with hand drawn maps, so that they can be updated when needed.

Our work has shown that where we have permissive paths, it is important to have good relations with the land owner.

In our area, there is an area of arable land on the edge of town which had a question mark on it over its use for housing development.

We have also just been able to create the 135 acres Country Park. As part of the new housing development we also had some developer money to create a piece of art. The local children came up with the idea of way markers. Medieval tiles from Clarendon were used as a design for the tiles.

There are so many other options to consider such as, trim trails, bike trails, and park runs.

We found that having a Project Officer was essential to keeping the project  going.

·       Walkers rights and responsibilities

·       Landowners responsibility and rights around maintenance

·       Legal aspects of permissive paths

Officer: Richard Broadhead, Head of Rights of Way and Countryside

Richard Broadhead, Head of Rights of Way and Countryside was in attendance to give a presentation on walkers rights and responsibilities, landowners responsibility and rights around maintenance and the legal aspects of permissive paths.

There are 3851 miles of Public Rights of Way, and approximately 26,000 hectares of Access Land in Wiltshire. The public right of access is on foot only unless landowners have chosen to dedicate additional rights. About 50% is exempted land on Salisbury Plain.

Wiltshire Council’s role is to help Natural England (NE) through provision of information and on-the-ground management of the access rights, working with NE and landowners.

What does this mean in practice?

•       When the council becomes aware of an obstruction, we will prioritise investigation and any action that is found to be required, depending on the nature of the problem and the extent to which we believe the path is used by the public.

•       If the obstruction is due to something that the council itself has done, or that it should have done but has not, we will programme it for attention according to the priority set for it.

•       We will always try to resolve matters amicably by discussing the issues with the person responsible for any obstruction (if it isn’t the council itself), but if that doesn’t resolve it we have the power to serve notice for removal, or to prosecute, or both. There are variations in the legal remedies for different types of problem. Where a notice to remove or abate is served, we can take default action and recover our costs if the notice is not acted upon by the person(s) responsible for the problem.

Highways Authority Main Maintenance Duties and Responsibilities

•       Signposting of paths where they leave metalled roads and installing signage where people may otherwise have difficulty in finding their way.

•       Maintaining path surfaces (where they are maintainable at public expense – most are) in a safe and suitable condition according to their status and commensurate with expected usage. Includes cutting back of surface vegetation where it causes obstruction.

•       Provision and maintenance of the majority of bridges over natural watercourses.

•       Ensuring removal (as far as possible) of obstructions to free passage along the highway.

Main duties of landowners and occupiers

•       To provide and maintain gaps, gates and stiles in a useable and safe condition. To seek approval from the council (highway authority) for any new gates and stiles where there have previously been none (the council can authorise these on footpaths, bridleways, but not on byways) on land used or being used for agriculture or forestry and where there is a need to control the movement of animals). 25% of the cost of maintaining gates and stiles can be claimed from the Highway Authority – we will usually help by supplying materials instead, if requested. We’ll also help with costs or volunteer labour if land managers are willing to facilitate improvements such as installing gaps or gates instead of stiles.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

Members of the public are invited to contribute towards the Board’s consideration of proposals for the Area Board Youth Fund 2019/20.

Proposals will be presented to fund a programme of core activities from our usual providers, and options for a reserved budget for one off or new events and activities.

Officer: Karen Linaker, Community Engagement Manager

The Chairman thanked Karen Linaker and Cllr McLennan who had carried out a huge amount of work consulting with the youth clubs on the proposals for Youth Provision.

Karen gave an update on her findings, following their visits to the 3 main youth clubs and the feedback from Downton Methodist youth club.

The report included the recorded results of the votes of the young people attending the youth clubs. Karen noted that when thinking about how the Board might allocate 2019/20 funds it considered whether there was a bit of flexibility in the way they were allocated.

A suggestion was that a proportion of the funding could be set aside for other one off options, alongside how it had previously been used.

During the consultation with the young people it had been highlighted that the Boom Satsuma sessions had been less well received, in comparison to the other providers. Boom Satsuma ran a programme of arts based activities, whereas the other providers included cookery and sports activities.

Members of the public were invited to contribute towards the Board’s consideration of proposals for the Area Board Youth Fund 2019/20, by taking part in an interactive voting session.

The majority of those present voted in support of allocating a proportion of the budget to one-off applications, with 70% being used to commission activities.

Questions and comments:

In Whiteparish our less active young people have really enjoyed those sessions and some benefit more from these than the sports sessions. Answer: Thank you for that contribution.

People were also asked to vote on whether they supported the Boards preference that the Parish Council was expected to part fund projects when bids were submitted the Board. There was a 93% vote of support for this suggestion.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board agreed to adopt option one, as set out in the report.

The Board also considered one bid for funding, as detailed in the report.

Old Sarum Youth Club – requested £3095.96

The youth club had 50 young people attending with 25 regulars. A range of activities was available. The youth club had match funding in place. Young people were in attendance to speak about the benefits of the youth club to them personally.

The Board debated the bid, where it was noted that the youth club was already well established and the amount requested, if awarded would

take a large chunk from the funds available.

However, due to some challenges the club had faced up at Old Sarum, the Board considered the proposal to award a lower amount to support the club in terms of leadership, as it was recognised that it was often the case that clubs were not able to find parent volunteers and needed to hire youth workers.

Decision

The Old Sarum Youth Club was awarded £2195.96 for the staffing element of the bid.

The Bridge Youth Project Mentoring Scheme – requested £3352.00

As there was no one in attendance to speak on behalf of the project, the application  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

To consider a number of schemes for funding from the 2019/20 budget, and to receive an overview of completed schemes funded previously by the CATG.

Due to the cancellation of the previous CATG meeting, the Board was asked to consider three schemes for funding from the 2019/20

CATG budget, as detailed in the report attached to the agenda, and noted the overview of completed schemes funded previously by the CATG.

Highways Engineer Julie Watts was in attendance to highlight the three schemes which were for consideration.

The schemes were:

• 6529 – The Borough, Downton. Kerbing of The Green - £3125 required.

The Longford Estate owns the land. They were prepared to contribute 50%. This was discussed at CATG in August, where it was agreed in principle subject to the contributions of the others.

• 6951 – Long Drove, East Grimstead new village nameplate - £75 required.

This has not been discussed by CATG previously.

• Laverstock & Ford / Alderbury Parish SID collaboration project - £800 required.

Following from the last meeting where this was discussed and decided to support these collaboration schemes.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire Area Board allocated CATG funding to the following schemes:

• 6529 – The Borough, Downton. Kerbing of The Green was allocated 25% of the project cost - £3125. With the condition that Downton PC contribute 25% (£3125) and the landowner Longford Estate contribute 50% (£6250) to the project as agreed.

• 6951 – Long Drove, East Grimstead new village nameplate was allocated £75 with the condition that Grimstead PC contribute 25% (£25) as agreed.

• Laverstock & Ford / Alderbury Parish SID collaboration project was allocated £800 towards the total cost of the project with the participating parish councils responsible for any balance.

The Board will consider applications for funding from the Community Area Grant Scheme, and from the Health & Wellbeing Budget.

Officer: Karen Linaker, Community Engagement Manager

The Board considered two applications for funding as set out in the agenda.

Community Area Grants

Lover Community Trust – requested £5,000 towards the Old School Community Room Project.

Cllr Randall noted how impressed he had been by the effort put in on this project. There has been a lot of work to carry out, most of it had been done by volunteers.

The Board has £40k in the capital budget for the year and this is the first bid for capital.

Questions and comments:

·       Has Lover got a village hall? Answer: Yes, they are fundamentally targeting different things and markets. The village hall has the standard groups, the old school, has the village green opposite it and is targeted more for sporting use, the two facilities cater for different needs.

·       Redlynch PC already has two village halls. The PC has not been asked for any funding towards this project. The PC was maintaining the village halls, the old school was run totally separately.

·       This project had vast community support.

·       The PC had been actively involved in the project from the outset. There was just a technical issue, as the PC does not give grants to any buildings they do not own.

Decision

The Southern Wiltshire Community Area Board awarded £5,000 to Lover Community Trust towards the Old School Community Room Project, subject to all other funding as detailed in the application being provided.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2019/20.

The application from Old Sarum Youth Club had been considered under Youth Funding item 10.

Health & Wellbeing Funding

The Board considered two bids for funding, as detailed in the pack.

Carers Support Wiltshire – requested £5835 for the Southern Community Carers Champion.

The Officer from Carers Support Wiltshire was not in attendance to answer questions.

The applications from Carers Support were deferred until a future meeting.

The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.