Agenda and minutes

To welcome those present to the meeting.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Stonehenge Area Board.

At the Chairman’s invitation, the Councillors and Parishes present at the meeting introduced themselves.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence had been received from the following regular attendees:

·       Matthew Maggs of the DWFRS, Dave Adamson attended in his place.

·       Gillian Clarke of the 1^st Amesbury Girls Brigade.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 10 June 2021.

Resolved:

To approve the minutes of the meetings on 10 June 2021 as a true and correct record.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive the following announcements:

·       Ash Dieback

·       Healthwatch Wiltshire update

·       B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire CCG update

·       Procedural Note

Please note that all decision recommendations (such as grant awards) at this meeting will be ratified by the Leader of Wiltshire Council following the meeting. This is to comply with legal requirements as the meeting is being held online.

The Chairman made the following announcements:

·       Stonehenge Area Board and the new Area Board model.

The Chairman explained the new Area Board model where there were 4 formal business meetings a year and other face to face events. September events were:

o   2 September, Local Youth Network held in Bulford

o   10 September, Paths4All launch event held in Netheravon

o   21 September, Health and Wellbeing event held in Amesbury 

There would be monthly drop-in clinics, with the next one due to be held on 4 October and upcoming events included a climate event in October/November. Councillors and the Community Engagement Manager (CEM) would also be out and about visiting parishes, groups and organisations. 

·       Ash Dieback

The Chairman gave details regarding problems with Ash Dieback which was a disease affecting Ash trees, slides were shown with a healthy Ash tree and a tree affected by Ash dieback. Ash Dieback was expected to lead to the death of most ash trees in Britain over the next 5 – 15 years. Ash dieback was a serious public safety issue and landowners were responsible for dealing with it on their land. All landowners needed to identify ash trees growing alongside the highway, public rights of way and in public spaces showing signs of this disease and take action. Further useful sources of information were highlighted and can be seen in agenda supplement 2.

·       Procedural Note

The Chairman explained that all decision recommendations (such as grant awards) made at the meeting would be ratified by the Leader of Wiltshire Council following the meeting. This was to comply with legal requirements as the meeting is being held online.

The Chairman highlighted the following written announcements in the agenda pack:

·       Healthwatch Wiltshire update (page 41)

·       B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire CCG update (pages 43 – 46)

To receive updates from the Town and Parish Council Representatives, and from other partner organisations:

·       Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

·       Wiltshire Police

·       Police and Crime Commissioner

·       Town and Parish Councils

·       MOD/MCI

The Chairman referred the meeting to the written updates in the agenda pack and verbal updates were received from the following partners:

·       Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS)

Dave Adamson apologised that he was slightly late. He referred attendees to the written report and stated that he was happy to answer questions. There were no questions from attendees.

·       Wiltshire Police

Tina Osbourn, Amesbury Police Inspector, gave a brief update to supplement her report in the pack. Two warrants under the misuse of drugs act had been implemented against two properties in Archers Gate, both had been successful and investigations were ongoing. The Community Speed Watch (CSW) teams had been out and about and were being supported by the local police team. Two areas they were going to concentrate on in the coming weeks were Boscombe Road and Stonehenge Road. Community Engagement was underway at various locations including local youth clubs. Crime prevention advice had been given to local residents especially on rouge traders where problems with this had been reported. Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) had been reported, with a particular issue at Archers Gate regarding parking and advice was being given regarding that. Poaching and hare coursing issues were on going and the force were working proactively with other counties to try to tackle this. There had also been a few burglaries at local farms and the rural crime team were engaging with farmers to give prevention advice. Community consultations were underway, themes and dates would be advertised on social media platforms.

Cllr Rob Yuill thanked Tina for the work the force was doing on Archers Gate and it was agreed they would meet to discuss ASB problem areas. In response to a question as to whether an officer would be able to attend Amesbury Town Council meetings it was explained that it would down to capacity, if an officer was on duty and available, they could. Monthly email updates were also sent to Town and Parish Councils. 

·       Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC)

The recently elected PCC, Philip Wilkinson gave an update to the meeting. As some background the PCC explained that he had, had a long career in the Army and worked abroad on threat assessments and mitigating strategies for the Police amongst others. He lived in Enford in Wiltshire and was engaged with the rural community. County Lines, reducing rural crime, speeding and ASB were priorities for him. The PCC hoped to deploy more enforcement officers with cameras as a deterrent and wanted to organise CSW teams to have a central database and share data, which could be funded by monies raised by fines. He also wanted to develop targeted programmes to tackle really serious crimes. Community outreach and understanding people’s issues was high on the agenda. The PCC also detailed how he hoped to deliver a new Police Station in Salisbury, which hopefully would have a custody suite, as this would prevent officers from having to transport people who were arrested to Melksham. 

The Chairman invited  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

The Board will receive a presentation on major planned highways maintenance over the next 5 years in the Stonehenge Area Board community area, from Dave Thomas (Head of Highways Asset Management & Commissioning).

The presentation details the conditions of the roads in the community area, the funds available for maintenance and the planned programme of which roads are to be treated and how. The plan is in draft stage and comments are welcome.

Dave Thomas, Head of Highways Asset Management and Commissioning gave a presentation to the meeting. 

The officer explained the first draft of the 5 year highways plan was in the agenda and detailed major planned maintenance in the Stonehenge Community Area. It was noted that Highways were still updating the draft with changes as a result of the boundary changes, so there may be roads which needed moving to different areas and the name of the Area Board needed updating from Amesbury to Stonehenge.

The officer stated that the aim was to get all areas to within 20-25% of roads within the network needing maintenance year on year. The Amesbury area was currently around 35% so the team was working on improving this.

Projected spends for the next five years were given (again these would need updating as a result of the boundary changes). There was a high level of investment planned for 2022/23 in the Stonehenge area. It was explained that budgets were awarded annually from the Department for Transport (DfT), these were usually announced in December but this year it had been announced very late due to COVD. The forecasted spend was what the team hoped to spend, but would be affected by the budget awarded by the DfT.

The officer highlighted the aim for Wiltshire Council to be carbon neutral by 2030 but explained that unfortunately highways works were carbon intensive. The excavation and production of stone from the quarries; the production of bitumen; transporting the products; the machinery used on site and the high temperatures required when laying materials were all carbon intensive activities. In order to try to address this the team was working with construction partners looking at different machinery. The team were also looking towards doing a lot more preventative work, which would reduce the need for substantive works and therefore reduce carbon.  

The highways network was laser scanned and the data gathered from this was analysed and ranked. Officers then used their experience and knowledge to analyse the results and prioritise works. Attendees were encouraged to look at the proposed 5 year maintenance plan in the agenda pack, the roads included and to feedback on anything they felt was missed, or should be re-ordered. Feedback was to be sent to diane.ware@wiltshire.gov.uk. The finalised plan would come back to the Board next year.  

·       Stonehenge Area Board’s plans

·       The Wiltshire Council Climate Strategy has been developed after Wiltshire Council acknowledged a climate emergency and pledged to become carbon neutral as an organisation by 2030.  Details on the strategy can be found here: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/climate.

The Wiltshire Council Natural Environment Plan looks at the future for Wiltshire’s natural environmental assets focussing on the need to address climate change adaptation and mitigation, halt and reverse biodiversity loss and contribute to the health and wellbeing of Wiltshire’s residents. Further information can be found here: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-bio-green-blue-infrastructure.

Consultations on both these strategies are running to 17 October. Sign up for one of the consultation events and comment via the links above.

The Chairman gave details on an upcoming Stonehenge Area Board event to be held in October or November focusing on the climate and environment. Topics that were to be covered included what parishes could do, reducing food waste, insulating houses, renewable energy, biodiversity and the green economy. There would be a ‘your future, your choice’ presentation at the next local youth network meeting.

The Chairman highlighted 2 strategies the Wiltshire Draft Climate Strategy and a Green & Blue Infrastructure Strategy, which were being consulted on until 17 October 2021.

The Climate Strategy delivery themes were Transport; Homes and the Built Environment; Natural Environment; Food and Farming; Energy; Green Economy; Waste and a Carbon Neutral Council.

The Green & Blue Infrastructure Strategy themes were Flooding & Water Management; Sustainable Farming & Land Management; Nature Recovery & Landscape Management; Woodland & Trees; Healthy Living; Economic Recovery and Valuing Natural Capital.

The dates of some upcoming webinars and drop-in sessions on the strategies were given and the Chairman encouraged people to complete the online survey at www.wiltshire.gov.uk/climate.

To receive an update on the top five priorities identified in the Community Status Report and the projects and work underway to help address these issues.

Jacqui Abbott, Community engagement Manager (CEM) highlighted the Stonehenge Area Board priorities as follows:

·       Mental Health – across many groups young and old alike

·       Digital inclusion – including equipment, broadband and knowledge – can affect young people too 

·       Opportunities & Activities for young people, includes positive activities & future training and employment

·       Climate Change / environment – as discussed earlier in this meeting

·       Loneliness and isolation – again, a wide range of people may be affected

Stonehenge Area Board councillors had been assigned to each of these priority areas and the officer was working alongside them to do as much as possible within these areas. Partnership working was also underway to help address the priorities.

Some highlights of the work so far were given:

·       Opportunities & Activities for young people – the Local Youth Network had been re-established, young people had attended, the group were working with Stonehenge and Avon Valley College to link into the Area Board. There was also a new youth survey and a range of funded activities underway.

·       Loneliness and isolation/Mental Health – Silver Salisbury & Amesbury was running a programme of events so there were many opportunities to start getting out and about safely and meet or make friends.

·       Community garden, Paths4All, Celebrating Age, coffee mornings & drop ins were all re-establishing.

The officer explained that there was grant funding available for these priorities, details could be found at https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/areaboardgrants, or people could contact her for details at jacqui.abbot@wiltshire.gov.uk.

To consider an update and recommendations from the Community Area Transport Group (CATG) in relation to the funding available towards Local Transport Projects.

The Minutes of the latest CATG meeting are attached for information.

Cllr Graham Wright as Chairman of the CATG gave details of the top priority projects which were covered in the report and highlighted on the slides (see agenda supplement 2). Shrewton Parish Council spoke in support of their substantive funding bid.

The Chairman proposed that the board approve the top priorities and funding recommendations detailed in the agenda pack, this was seconded by Cllr Mark Verbinnen and it was,

Resolved:

·       To confirm scheme 1-19-11 Footpath that connects the upper back-way to the Methodists Church on the high street, Shrewton, as a top priority. It was noted that funding had already been approved and the project was ongoing.

·       To confirm scheme 1-20-15 Durrington 20mph speed limit assessment, as a top priority. It was noted that funding had already been approved and the scheme was ongoing. It had been delayed due to COVID.

·       To confirm scheme 1-21-3 London Road, Amesbury (bus shelter), as a new top priority. To approve the funding recommendation of £4,950.00 for this scheme.

·       To confirm scheme 1-21-5 B3083 between A303 and Berwick St James, as a new top priority. It was noted that Highways were awaiting costings for the scheme.

·       To confirm scheme 1-21-8 Redworth Drive, Amesbury, as a new top priority. It was noted that funding had already been approved and the project was ongoing.

·       To confirm scheme 1-21-10, 11 and 12 C42 Woodford Valley – speeding and lack of footways, as a new top priority. To approve funding of £1,875.00 for a speed limit assessment.

·       To confirm scheme 1-21-15 Shrewton, London Road –Traffic Calming, as a new top priority and approve the substantive funding bid for up to £12,500.

The Chairman announced the details of the next CATG meeting as 20 October 2021 at 10.00am on MS Teams. He also reminded parishes to highlight their top priorities when submitting items.

To receive an update on the Paths 4 All initiative, including the launch on 10 September 2021.  

Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling gave an update to the meeting on the Stonehenge Paths 4 All initiative which had recently held their launch meeting in Netheravon Parish Hall, thanks were given to Netheravon for hosting the meeting.

Cllr Blair-Pilling explained that there was £5,000.00 of grant funding which had already been allocated and ring fenced for this initiative. People could apply for funding from this pot for related projects, via a streamlined easy process, although invoices and receipts would be required. Money and support would be provided to enthusiastic groups whose applications fell into the wide range of things within scope such as equipment, gates, flyers, maps and clearing.

The Stonehenge Paths 4 All would be working alongside Tidworth and Pewesy Paths 4 All, although in those areas funding would come from their Community Area.

Cllr Blair-Pilling reported that at the meeting Mary Towel had explained what the was being done in the Avon Valley, such as installing kissing gates, developing routes and involving local schools in the initiative. Also present was Nigel Linge who had explained that they were focused on signage and clearing footpaths. Cllr Blair-Pilling stated it would be good if there was a pool of equipment, managed by a Men’s Shed, or equivalent, that all the groups could share. Alex Howson, a Countryside Access Officer from Wiltshire Council was also present and could provide professional support if required. An informal steering group would meet quarterly to discuss issues and grants, and all were welcome to attend, the next meeting would be in December. The importance of the project in the context of health and wellbeing and helping to reduce isolation and loneliness was highlighted.

People were encouraged to talk to Cllr Blair-Pilling or Jacqui Abbott (CEM) regarding ideas related to the initiative.

To receive an update on youth work in the Stonehenge Community Area.

Cllr Mark Verbinnen, Chairman of the Local Youth Network (LYN) gave an update to the meeting, stating that a LYN meeting had been held on 2 September 2021 in Bulford. A good number of youth organisations had been in attendance, as well as a few young people. The best methods of communicating with young people were discussed, with social networks such as Instagram being preferred. There was appetite for a stake park at Larkhill and this was a priority for the young people in attendance. 

There was a youth survey underway which young people were encouraged to complete and a rural youth project consultation to identify gaps and opportunities. It was hoped that there would be a link to the Area Board for Stonehenge School and Avon Valley College via a Youth Council.

The group also wanted to work with young people and get them involved in addressing climate issues.

The next LYN meeting would be held in November, date to be confirmed.

There had been no applications for youth grant funding, Cllr Verbinnen encouraged groups to apply for funding.

To receive an update from the HWBG, including the 21 September 2021 Tea, cake and piano event.

To consider the folloiwng applications for HWBG funding:

·       Silver Salisbury Group, £500.00 towards the Silver Sunday in Amesbury.

·       Wiltshire Music Centre, £1,500.00 towards their Celebrating Age Wiltshire project.

Grant report with further details at agenda item 14.

Cllr Dr Monica Devendran, Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Group (HWBG) gave an update to the meeting.

A HWBG meeting had been held on 21 September 2021 at Evergreen Court. Several organisations had taken part and had spoken to the older people regarding dealing with isolation, loneliness and mental health. An open day would be held the upcoming Saturday 25 September for Amesbury Green Fingers, a community garden project run by local people. Silver Salisbury & Amesbury were also running a programme of events aimed at older people.

The next HWBG meeting would be held online on 26 November at 11.00am and all were welcome to attend.

Cllr Devendran introduced the 2 HWB grant applications as detailed in the agenda. The Chairman proposed that these were awarded in full, which was seconded by Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling. Irene Kohler spoke in support of the Silver Salisbury application and gave details regarding the 13 upcoming events planned in Salisbury and Amesbury. Details were also given regarding successful events which had already been held, and the positive feedback received regarding them. It was,

Resolved:

·       To grant Silver Salisbury Group, £500.00 towards the Silver Sunday in Amesbury.

·       To grant the Wiltshire Music Centre, £1,500.00 towards their Celebrating Age Wiltshire project.

To determine the following applications for Community Area Grant funding:

·       Wessex Futsal Club, £600.00 towards Wessex Futsal Club Goals.

·       Berwick St James Reading Room, £4,250.00 towards Berwick St James Reading Room Thatched Roof.

·       Amesbury Town Council, £1,790.00 towards the purchase of Speed Indicator Devices (SIDS) for the Town.

To note the following grant already awarded under the delegated authority of the CEM:

·       Area Board, Cllr Led Initiative, £5,000.00 towards Stonehenge Area Board Paths 4 All.

Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling as lead Member for grants introduced the Community Area Grant applications as detailed in the agenda. Representatives of the organisations applying for grants spoke in support of their applications. Cllr Blair-Pilling confirmed that the grants met the grants criteria and stated that he felt they were worthy applications. Cllr Blair-Pilling proposed that they were all awarded in full, which was seconded by Cllr Graham Wright. It was,

Resolved:

·       To grant Wessex Futsal Club, £600.00 towards Wessex Futsal Club Goals.

·       To grant Berwick St James Reading Room, £4,250.00 towards Berwick St James Reading Room Thatched Roof.

·       To grant Amesbury Town Council, £1,790.00 towards the purchase of Speed Indicator Devices (SIDS) for the Town.

·       To note the Area Board, Cllr Led Initiative, £5,000.00 towards Stonehenge Area Board Paths 4 All grant, which had already been awarded under the delegated authority of the CEM.

An opportunity to ask questions of your Area Board and suggest items or ideas to the board.

The Chairman highlighted the Area Board monthly clinic where all were welcome to attend to discuss relevant matters. The next clinic would be held on 4 October and people should contact jacqui.abbott@wiltshire.gov.uk if they wanted to attend.

Area Board Members encouraged attendees to give feedback to the Board on the meeting and ideas for future meetings. Members also requested that attendees spread the word about the Area Board meetings in order to increase attendance.

Any other items of business which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.

The next meeting of the Stonehenge Area Board will be held on 16 December 2021 at 6.30pm, venue tbc.

The next meeting of the Stonehenge Area Board would be held on 16 December 2021 at 6.30pm, location to be confirmed.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending.