Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board and introduced the councillors and officers present. The Chairman also welcomed Councillor Jane Scott, Leader of the Council, to the meeting.

The Chairman announced that some filming and photography would be taking place throughout the meeting to be used for social media purposes.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mollie Groom and Bill Roberts, and from Laurie Bell (Service Director – Policy, Research and Communications), Thomas Woodhouse (Chairman, Wootton Bassett Shadow Community Operations Board), Paul Harrison (Wootton Bassett Sports Association) and Carol Dougill (Lydiard Millicent C of E Primary School).

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 6 July 2011 and the Extraordinary meeting held on Monday 19 September 2011.

Decision

The minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 6 July 2011 and the Extraordinary meeting held on Monday 19 September 2011 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

There were no declarations of interest.

To include the following:

      i.        Armed Forces Covenant

    ii.        Defence Technical Training Centre

   iii.        Wootton Bassett Royal Event

   iv.        Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Event – County Event

    v.        Neighbourhood Planning Forum.

The Chairman made the following announcements:

Cricklade Champion of Champions

The Chairman extended congratulations on behalf of the Area Board to Cricklade for being awarded Champion of Champions for the national Britain in Bloom competition. Cricklade were congratulated on this achievement by a round of applause.

Royal Wootton Bassett Event

On Sunday 16 October, the title of Royal Wootton Bassett would be given to the town as a symbol of the nation’s gratitude to the local people of the town. It had just been announced that Wiltshire Council had endorsed an award from the MOD Community Covenant Grant Scheme of £10,000 towards the cost of funding this event.

Johnathan Bourne, Clerk to Wootton Bassett Town Council, provided an overview of how the events would run on the day, and outlined a variety of measures that were in place to ensure that the event was accessible to the wider community including a park and ride facility and full audio-visual systems. This had increased the cost of the event to approximately £65,000 and grants from external sources were being sought as much as possible.

On behalf of Wootton Bassett Town Council, Johnathan extended thanks to Wiltshire Council and its officers for being so helpful and cooperative in the organisation of the event.

Councillor Jane Scott, Leader of the Council, extended a formal vote of thanks to the people of Wootton Bassett and the wider community for all they had done, and wished the community well for the Royal event.

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Olympic Torch 2012 – A Year of Celebrations

The Chairman announced that a presentation would be made at the next meeting regarding the countywide forthcoming plans for celebrating these two important events. The Chairman asked the meeting to indicate whether or not there was agreement for the Area Board to support these events financially, in principle, to which there was majority support for this.

Neighbourhood Planning Forum

The inaugural meeting of this Forum was due to take place at the end of October, and the town and parish councils had been invited to nominate a representative. It was also requested that details were passed on to the parish and town’s respective community-led planning steering groups.

To include a presentation and discussion from the Department for Education and Children covering the following:

      i.        National Education Direction

    ii.        The Role of the Local Authority

   iii.        Wiltshire Education Profile

   iv.        Education Profile for the Wootton Bassett and Cricklade Community Area.

Speakers will include:

·         Carolyn Godfrey – Corporate Director, Department for Education and Children

·         Stephanie Donovan – Service Director, Schools and Learning.

Stephanie Denovan, Service Director for Schools and Learning, gave a presentation on the changing shape of education on a local and national level.

To begin the presentation, Stephanie introduced a short film that had been made following the progress of a local six year-old boy who had benefitted from the Every Child Counts programme. The film highlighted the progress that could be made when early intervention was made. In this case, the boy had made 13 months progress in 14 hours of skilled one-to-one teaching.

Stephanie’s presentation covered the following main points:

National Education Direction

The coalition government’s direction was for education to be self-improving, practitioner-led and locally determined. The government also welcomed applications for self-governing, independent, state-funded academies, both traditional and converter. In Wiltshire, there were 14 secondary schools, 4 primary schools and 1 special school that were now academies.

Local Authority Role

Wiltshire Council played a strong, strategic role in local education and was responsible for championing education excellence and supporting vulnerable children and their families.

Local authority responsibilities included supplying a sufficient number of school places, leading a fair and coordinated admissions process, supporting under-performing schools and ensuring benchmark targets for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 were met.

Wiltshire Education Profile

Wiltshire currently had 65,000 children in school and a total of 234 schools. The Wiltshire Learning Trust had been developed to improve life chances and to safeguard children and young people. Wiltshire Council was investing £3.2m over a four-year period to help improve children’s attainment.

Wiltshire was performing at target level at foundation stage and Key Stage 1, and was performing above national expectations for Key Stages 2, 4 and 5.

Education Profile for this area

A round-table exercise was conducted in order to explore how the community could support parents and schools in the area to improve a child’s life chances, keep children safe, raise aspirations and ensure a child’s achievement.

Feedback from the round-table exercise could be fed in to Stephanie via Alison Sullivan, Community Area Manager.

The Chairman thanked Stephanie for her presentation, and also thanked Carolyn Godfrey, Corporate Director for Children and Education, and the rest of the team members present, for their contributions.

To note the written reports and receive any verbal updates from the following:

      i.        Wiltshire Police

    ii.        Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

   iii.        NHS Wiltshire

   iv.        Parish and Town Councils

    v.        Community Area Young People’s Issues Group (CAYPIG)

   vi.        Community-Led Planning Steering Groups

  vii.        Chambers of Commerce

viii.        Community Groups.

Updates from partners were received as follows:

      i.        Wiltshire Police

The written update was noted. Inspector Chris Martin requested that no cars should be parked on the Wootton Bassett High Street from 4pm on Saturday to assist with preparations for the Royal event on Sunday. It was also noted that the hub model was now up and running and a positive affect was being realised.

    ii.        Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

The written update was noted and there were no further updates. A request was made that more information be provided in these reports, such as response times and availability.

Action: Request to be forwarded to Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service.

   iii.        NHS Wiltshire

The written updates were noted. There were no further updates.

   iv.        Parish and Town Councils

The written updates from Cricklade Town Council and Wootton Bassett Town Council were noted. There were no further updates from parishes.

    v.        Community-Led Planning Steering Groups

The written update was noted.

   vi.        Chambers of Commerce

The written update from the Wootton Bassett Chamber of Commerce was noted.

To consider written reports from the following task groups and make any necessary decisions:

      i.        Local Traffic and Highways Working Group

    ii.        Cricklade Shadow Community Operations Board.

Reports were received as follows:

      i.        Local Traffic and Highways Working Group

The Area Board was asked to consider funding two local highways-related schemes from the delegated transport budget.

Decision

The Area Board approved funding the following two schemes from the delegated transport budget:

a)    Part funding of white village gates at Broad Town (the total cost of the project being £2,927.98 with the Area Board contributing £1,436.99)

b)   Part funding of white village gates at Lydiard Millicent (the total cost of the project being £1,286 with the Area Board contributing £1,000).

    ii.        Cricklade Shadow Community Operations Board

Ruth Szybiak, Chairman of the Cricklade Shadow Community Operations Board (COB), presented the key findings of the first round of public consultation and the proposed next steps. The full presentation was available on the Council’s website at http://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=174&MId=5403&Ver=4

Following the presentation, comments were made as follows:

·         Some concern was expressed that Purton had not been selected to host any campus facilities, and it was suggested that a split site campus could present an opportunity for non-leisure campus facilities to be located in Purton. The Leader undertook to consider this suggestion.

·         Wiltshire Council and the Shadow Community Operations Boards were committed to working with the local communities to deliver services that had been identified as local priorities.

·         The campus programme was responsive to the pressure on public services and was designed to provide a sustainable, long-term solution to the protection of public services for the future.

Decision

The Area Board approved the Cricklade Shadow Community Operations Board to undertake the next steps, as follows:

a)    To allow the Cricklade Shadow COB and Wiltshire Council officers to explore the potential options in more detail.

b)   To approve a second round of consultation, this would include Cricklade and surrounding areas, both individuals and stakeholder organisations.

c)    To allow the exploration of further funding streams.

d)   To allow the Cricklade Shadow COB to retain the option of exploring other proposals that may emerge from the ongoing process.

To consider approving the following Community Asset Transfer Applications:

      i.        Redhills Playing Field, Broad Town

    ii.        Six Plots of Land at Wootton Bassett

   iii.        Bushton.

The Area Board was asked to consider approving three applications for Community Asset Transfers.

Decision

The Area Board approved the following Community Asset Transfer applications:

      i.        Redhills Playing Field, Broad Town, to Broad Town Parish Council.

    ii.        Six individual plots of land at Wootton Bassett, to Wootton Bassett Town Council.

   iii.        Land adjacent to Bushton Village Hall, to Clyffe Pypard Parish Council.

Councillor Jane Scott, Leader of the Council, will talk about her responsibilities as Leader, and the Council’s current priorities.

Questions may be submitted in advance. Please email penny.bell@wiltshire.gov.uk by 5 October 2011.

Councillor Jane Scott, Leader of the Council, provided an overview of the Council’s current priorities and challenges. The three main priorities for the Council at present were vulnerable adults, vulnerable young people and the economy.

One of the main challenges to the Council at present was the cut in grant funding and increasing pressures on services such as adult health and social care. However, the Council was in a very strong position, with a robust business plan in place, and the Council was currently investing money into its priority services and was looking at innovative and sustainable ways to preserve frontline community services for the future.

A question and answer session with the Leader resulted in the following comments being made:

·         Wiltshire Council’s Core Strategy was currently being devised but was currently on hold awaiting government guidance. The Council was committed to having a Core Strategy to deliver what was right for local people, and it was hoped that the Localism Bill would allow for this.

·         Wiltshire Council was commended on its emerging policies, which were believed to have a strong, strategic overview with a local perspective.

·         The Council was making the local economy and the supply of jobs one of its main priorities, and was concentrating particular efforts on land holdings in order to achieve this.

·         Traffic and highways delegations, including Community Speedwatch and Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs), were working well across the community, but there were some areas and roads that did not qualify. The SIDs were intended to be used on a rotation basis as this prevented drivers from becoming complacent.

The Chairman thanked the Leader for her contribution to the meeting.

To consider approving the following Area Board Project application:

Wootton Bassett Royal Event - £6,000 contribution requested towards the cost of this event, to be held on 16 October 2011.

Councillor Allison Bucknell presented the Area Board with a proposal to award the sum of £5,000 towards the costs associated with the Wootton Bassett Royal Event.

The Royal Event was intended to reach out to the people of Wootton Bassett, the local community area and beyond. As such it was proposed that the Area Board’s contribution would be put towards the costs for audio-visual equipment, which would increase participation for the high numbers of people who were expected to attend the event.

The Chairman asked for those present at the meeting to show an indicative level of support for the grant to be awarded. There was very strong support, and no objections.

Decision

The Area Board agreed to contribute the sum of £5,000 to the costs of the Wootton Bassett Royal Event.

Cricklade’s winning presentation to the Royal Horticultural Society’s ‘Britain in Bloom’ Competition and South West in Bloom’s ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ Awards.

Bob Jones, Vice Chairman of the Cricklade Bloomers, presented a short film that had been made to showcase the work of the Cricklade Bloomers over a period of a year.

Cricklade had been awarded Champion of Champions in the Royal Horticultural Society’s national Britain in Bloom competition. The Cricklade Bloomers were congratulated on their success and commended for the hard work, dedication and enthusiasm.

The Chairman will invite any remaining questions from the floor.

The meeting is asked to note the future meeting dates below and is reminded to complete the evaluation forms.

The Forward Plan is attached for information.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting and encouraged the completion of feedback forms.

The next meeting of the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board would be held on Wednesday 30 November 2011, 7.00pm at the Wootton Bassett Memorial Hall.