Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board and introduced the councillors and officers present.

Apologies for absence were received from Mike Leighfield – RWB SCOB and Ray Thomas – Purton Parish Council.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on the 21^st May 2014.

Decision

·       The minutes of the meeting held on the 21^st May 2014 were agreed as correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

News and information on what’s going on in your local community and across the county:

·       Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

·       Mini Recycling Sites

·       Garden Waste Consultation

·       Wiltshire Online Broadband – update

·       Network Rail – update

·       World War 1 Commemorative Event

·       Changes to the Electoral Registration System

The following Chairman’s Announcements were noted:

·       Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

·       Mini Recycling Sites

·       Garden Waste Consultation

·       Wiltshire Online Broadband – update

·       Network Rail – update

·       World War 1 Commemorative Event

·       Changes to the Electoral Registration System

To receive updates from our key partners, including:

a.     Wiltshire Police

b.     Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

c.     Military Civilian Integration Partnership

d.     Defence Technical Training

e.     Clinical Commissioning Group

f.      Youth Advisory Group (YAG)

g.     Neighbourhood Planning Working Group

h.     Community-Led Planning Steering Groups

i.       Chambers of Commerce/Business Associations

j.       Community Groups

k.     Housing Associations.

Updates from partners were received as follows:

Wiltshire Police – Sgt Martin Alvis

The written update was noted.

Cllr Jacqui Lay requested that figures for road traffic incidents in the RWB & C community area be included in the Police update. Sgt Alvis advised these figures would be brought to the next Area Board meeting.

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service – Graham Weller

Points made included:

·       That a consultation period concerning the merging of Wiltshire and Dorset Fire & Rescue Services had begun on the 21^st July for a 13 week period, full details could be found on the Wiltshire & Rescue web site:

                       http://www.wiltsfire.gov.uk/strengtheningourfrs

Defence Technical Training

Points made included:

·       That work continues to be ongoing.

·       That Royal Wootton Bassett Chamber of Commerce recently met to discuss how best to maximise the commercial opportunities that the Defence College would offer to Lyneham and Royal Wootton Bassett.

Clinical Commissioning Group

The written update was noted.

Neighbourhood Planning Working Group – Cllr Mollie Groom

Points made included:

·       That the group had recently had an overview meeting with Wiltshire Council to plan the way forward.

·       That the issues report is now completed.

·       That the draft plan would go out for consultation during September 2014.

Community-Led Planning Steering Groups

Points made included:

·       That an update would be available for the next Area Board meeting.

Royal Wootton Bassett Sports Association

The written update was noted.

The Chairman thanked all the partners for their updates.

To receive written and verbal updates from our town and parish councils.

Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council.

Nothing to report.

Cricklade Town Council.

The written update was noted.

Cllr Jonathon Seed - Cabinet Member for Communities, Campuses, Area Boards, Leisure, Libraries and Flooding, Wiltshire Council, to give an overview of the Wiltshire Council Campuses projects and the work carried out so far.

The Chairmen of the Royal Wootton Bassett and Cricklade Shadow Campus Operation Boards will give short updates of their respective Campus project proposals.

Cllr Jonathon Seed - Cabinet Member for Communities, Campuses, Area Boards, Leisure, Libraries and Flooding, Wiltshire Council, gave an overview of the Wiltshire Council Campuses projects and the work carried out so far.

Points made by Cllr Jonathon Seed included:

·       That the campus projects were starting to gain real momentum, with Corsham soon to open to the public.

·       That is made good economic sense to rebuild aging buildings, replacing them with fit for purpose campuses.

·       That the Cricklade campus was part of the first phase of the campus project to be granted funding.

·       That Wiltshire Council was working with the Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council to determine where the RWB campus should be situated and how it should be developed.

Questions raised included:

·       Concerns over the future of the Cricklade Leisure Centre, its staff and perceived issues with the swimming pool.

a.Cllr Seed advised that he couldn’t guarantee the future of all staff, Wiltshire Council were trying to enhance its Leisure Centres during a time of major cuts from Central Government. New models of working were being investigated, with volunteers being looked at as a way of providing part of the on-going service.

All Wiltshire Council swimming pools were being checked as part of a regular maintenance program, as it was thought that there may be a leak, (Cllr Seed advised that he would check on the possible leak).

·       Would the campuses be run by volunteers?

a.Every campus would probably have its own operational model.

·       Was there a campus priority list?

a.A list of seven first phase campuses had been drawn up and funding agreed by Wiltshire Council, Cricklade campus being one of these.

·       How many campuses could be built at the same time?

          a.Several campus projects are ongoing at different stages of development at present.

·       Are there any set governance procedures in place for campuses?

          a.Management models are emerging for each campus, SCOBs would evolve into Engagement and Management Boards. Without local direction the campuses cannot happen.

·       What is the key to the campuses happening?

a.Funding and local engagement.

Ruth Szybiak - Chairman of the Cricklade Shadow Campus Operation Board gave a short update of the Cricklade campus project proposals. It was felt that the Cricklade message to Cllr Seed was of wanting to build on what Cricklade had achieved so far.

Cricklade SCOB were frustrated at the speed that it was taking to get the Cricklade campus project rolled out, it was felt that Wiltshire Council was holding this process up, (Cllr Seed advised that he was happy to attend a Cricklade SCOB meeting to discuss further).

The Chairman thanked Cllr Seed for his presentation and attending the meeting.

SurriyaSubramaniam – Head of Public Protection, (Emergency Planning), Wiltshire Council, to outline emergency planning procedures available to parishes.

SurriyaSubramaniam – Head of Public Protection, (Emergency Planning), Wiltshire Council, gave a short presentation that outlined what emergency planning procedures were available to parishes and a pilot scheme that the Chippenham community area were running which entailed the towns and parishes putting together a comprehensive emergency plan that benefitted the whole community area. It was hoped that the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board would agree form a similar scheme.

Points made from the Chippenham pilot scheme:

·       Ten Parish and Town Councils have attended workshops.

·       Police, Fire, Emergency Planning, Flood, Snow, Public Health, Voluntary Groups were involved.

·       Parishes have benefitted by sharing information and best practice.

·       Follow up sessions, advice, template and direct contacts.

·       100% agreed that the session improved local resilience.

Decision

·       That the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade community area agreed to meet to plan a comprehensive emergency plan for the community area.

The Chairman thanked SurriyaSubramaniam for his presentation.

Cllr Allison Bucknell to present.

Cllr Allison Bucknell outlined proposed changes to Link scheme grants.

Wiltshire Council’s 2014/15 budget, agreed earlier this year, included a proposal to make a saving of £25,000 by withdrawing the payments of 5p/mile that are currently made to the Link schemes. It was also suggested in the Council meeting at which the proposal was discussed that the other grants currently paid to the Link schemes through Community First might be redirected through the Area Boards.

There is no proposal to reduce the £45,000 per annum budget for Link scheme grants. However, it has been suggested that the annual grant funding might be transferred to the Area Boards to administer, in line with the Council’s preferred approach of delegating local funding decisions to the Boards. It would be necessary to allocate a share of the current budget to each of the Area Boards; views are sought on how this might best be done, although it is suggested that the fairest approach might be to allocate shares of the funding on the basis of mileage operated in the previous financial year. The Area Boards would then have discretion to allocate funding to their local scheme(s) as they saw fit, from the allocation they had been given for this purpose and / or from other funding available to them.

Decision

·       That the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board rejects the proposals and requests that the Council’s funding is paid via Community First, who currently administer these grants.

To receive feedback from the event on 15th March and to identify priorities for the Area Board to take forward.

Julia Densham – Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Community Area Manager, outlined the feedback from the “What Matters to You” event held on the 15th March and a subsequent survey, and to identify priorities for the Area Board to take forward.

The Top Priorities

•        Protect green spaces, green-field sites and rights of way from developments.

•        Resist further development which will impact on the M4 junction & prevent coalescence.

•        Greater access to GPs.

•        Ensure new development promotes health & wellbeing, and includes public transport links and green-space.

•        Support for youth unemployment, apprenticeships and training and transport to access it.

•        More people working on self-help projects in the communities to create cohesion.

•        Making the most of opportunities with the redevelopment of RAF Lyneham.

•        Better links between community safety and health & wellbeing.

•        Educate people to take more personal responsibility for low level or minor issues before calling the police and other agencies.

•        Ensure a full campus programme is developed effectively in both Royal Wootton Bassett and Cricklade.

•        Develop a cultural directory of groups, venues and activities and engage the whole community.

·       The chairman pointed out that the top rated priorities were issues that we as a board could not do anything about directly and that there were other task groups focussing on those issues.  She suggested that we focus on the issues around lack of access to doctors and the promotion of health and wellbeing as a preventative strategy.

Decision

·       That the Royal Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board would focus on Health & Wellbeing generally and would work out at its next agenda setting meeting how to pull in the meeting’s suggestions under this umbrella.

It would then bring the agreed suggestions back to the 24^th September 2014 Area Board meeting.

·       To consider applications to the Community Area Grants Scheme, as follows:

·       Area Board Funding to date.

The Area Board considered the following applications to the Community Area Grant Scheme 2014/15:

Decision

Cricklade Cinema! awarded £1,254 towards a projection screen.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria 2014/15.

Decision

Swindon in the Great War awarded £520 towards a Royal Wootton Bassett Remembrance Wreath and Information Cards.

Reason

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria 2014/15.

Area Board Funding to date.

Community Area Grants, Digital Literacy – Capital – £49,892.98

Revenue - £8,804.64

Community Area Transport Group (CAT-G) - £16,626.00

Cllr Jacqui Lay to present.

Points made by Cllr Jacqui Lay included:

·       As reported at the last Area Board meeting, we had the launch for our Community area “Caring about Dementia” on the 19^th May. The launch promoted the new Wiltshire Council toolkit and also how to engage with our businesses and partners in the community with pledges and calls for action as to how we can become a Dementia Friendly Community.

·       Working with the community, a steering group had been set up to orchestrate how our community can promote and inform residents of the actions that we want to undertake as a community group.

·       The steering group last met on the 28^th May and is due to nave the next meeting on the 30^th July 2014. The next meeting intends to be an AGM when key positions would be hopefully filled by people on the steering group, or anyone from the community area who might be interested in being part of this group.

Cllr Mary Champion to present.

Cllr Mary Champion advised that the group had yet to meet.

Cllr Jacqui Lay to present.

Points made by Cllr Jacqui Lay included:

·       Next meeting on Tuesday 5^th August 2014.

·       That the group were looking at ways to encourage dog owners to pick up and bin their dog mess.

·       That bags and badges had been produced to promote a dog fouling campaign for a week during October 2014. Looking to get local school children involved in this.

·       Local businesses to sponsors the bags.

Cllr Bob Jones to present.

Cllr Bob Jones

The following recommendations from the Community Area Transport Group (CAT-G) held on 10 July 2014 were approved by the Area Board:

·       Broad Town – Issue 3038

Traffic calming: additional signs, removal of carriageway central line, new edge lines

Approved a maximum of £5,000 from CATG with Broad Town Parish Council contributing £750.

·       C70 – Issue 1734

Road has been assessed, no objections were received so can be considered for implementation

          Approved a maximum of £5,000 from CATG.

·       C415 – Issue 2935 / Issue 3038

Road was assessed and received objections in part – recommend to go ahead with the changes that have received no objections and reconsider the remaining section if speeding continues to be an issue.

          Approved a maximum of £3,000 from CATG.

·       Purton

Peak/Reids Piece/High Street junction to Reids Piece estate crossroads – assessed as suitable for a 20mph limit

          Approved a maximum of £3,000 from CATG.

Representatives to give any updates:

·         C&DCA (Cricklade Leisure Centre) – Cllr Bob Jones.

·         Community & RAF Fairford Liaison Group – Cllr Bob Jones.

·         Neighbourhood Planning Forum – Cllr Mollie Groom.

·         Lyneham Steering Group – Cllr Allison Bucknell.

Representatives to give any updates:

C&DCA (Cricklade Leisure Centre) – Cllr Bob Jones.

·       That Cllr Jones attends these meetings 2/3 times per year.

Community & RAF Fairford Liaison Group – Cllr Bob Jones.

·       Nothing to report.

Neighbourhood Planning Forum – Cllr Mollie Groom.

·       Nothing to report.

Lyneham Steering Group – Cllr Allison Bucknell

·       Nothing to report.

The Chairman will invite any remaining questions from the floor.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting.

The next meeting would incorporate a Health Fair for which there would be a possible change of venue – more information to follow.

The next meeting of the Wootton Bassett & Cricklade Area Board would be held on Wednesday 24^th September 2014.