Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Amesbury Area Board and thanked Figheldean Village Hall for hosting the meeting.

At the Chairman’s invitation, the Councillors introduced themselves.

No apologies were received.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2016.

Decision

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 Jan 2016 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 no declarations of interest.

The Chairman will introduce the announcements and invite any questions.

Army Re-basing

Health and Well Being Groups

The Chairman referred to the announcements included in the agenda pack and drew attention to copies of other reports circulated at the meeting.

The Chairman announced the resignation of Councillor John Noeken effective 15 March 2016.  He informed the meeting that arrangements were underway to hold a by-election. He thanked Cllr Noeken for the work and contribution he had made to the Amesbury Area Board.

The departure of Sector Commander Inspector Christian Lange from office was also announced and the Chairman informed the meeting that he had responded to Inspector Lange’s email about his departure to the Area Board and thanked him for all the service and contribution he made towards activities in Amesbury.

Army Re-basing March 2016 Update 

The Chairman noted that the government’s Army Basing announcement in March 2013 advised of around 4,300 extra Service personnel moving to Wiltshire by the end of the decade. The total number of additional people estimated to be moving to the area was 7,600 and plans for additional levels of infrastructure and services would be provided by Wiltshire Council.

Health and Wellbeing Group

The Chairman announced that the Council had proposed for each Area Board to establish a Health and Well Being Group. These Health and Wellbeing Groups are intended to provide a community led local forum to facilitate the coordination of joined up services for older people living within a community area.

Schools Speed limit

An advisory speed limit of 20 mph for all schools was to be introduced by 1st April 2016.

The Chairman referred to the updates set out in the agenda and invited further updates from Town/Parish Councils and other Partners, including outside bodies.  It was noted that the preferred option was for written updates, to minimise time spent during the meeting. The Chairman invited updates from Town/Parish Councils and other Partners, including outside bodies.

He drew attention to written updates submitted by Healthwatch Wiltshire, Amesbury Town Council, Shrewton Parish Council and NHS – Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

The proposed road resurfacing and maintenance programme and the list of proposed local schemes for 2016/17.

Presented by Peter Binley, Head of Highways Asset Management and Commissioning Highways and Transport.

Peter Binley, Head of Highways Asset Management and Commissioning Highways and Transport was in attendance to present on this item. He recounted progress being made and informed the meeting that Wiltshire Council has a major programme of investment in highway maintenance over six years, which started in 2014/15 and will see a significant improvement in the condition of the county’s highway network. The investment has been targeted at those roads in worst condition, and includes minor roads as well as main roads. He noted that the programme had just reached the end of its second year, and had already seen a substantial amount of workcompleted.

Mr. Binley shared the following information:

For Class A Roads – Approximately 55% were in good condition, 4% had been identified to receive maintenance work imminently followed by the remaining 41%.

For Class B Roads – Approximately 56% were in good condition, 4% had again been identified to receive maintenance work imminently followed by the remaining 40%.

For Class C Roads – Approximately 82% were in good condition and plans were underway for the remaining 18% to receive maintenance work.

The Chairman asked if any road that was damaged by flooding had priority of being repaired.  Mr. Binley explained that all efforts were being made at repairing damaged roads however a lot of resources had been diverted to deal with damaged waterways roads and ground water damaged roads.

Mr. Binely’s attention was drawn to some damaged roads in Alington and Durrington and the fact that some roads had been listed for repair for over 12 months and still not received any attention.

Mr. Binley noted that the Service was going through a change of contractor for the maintenance works and this had been a major occupation and impacted on the timing of work being done as well as the release of reports. He acknowledged that the essence of attending Area Board meetings was to identify local issues and take appropriate action.

Responses to questions posed included the following:

-Although there is a criteria for selecting which roads get repaired, any concerns about the accessibility or usability of any roads should in the first instance be reported to the local area office for Highways.

-The Highways office uses police reports among others to identify areas that are accident prone or have an emerging accident record to assess risk and take appropriate measures.

i.              Updates

ii.            Grants

Jenny Bowley gave an update on LYN activities noting that although only 18 months into the role, the LYN was positively inundated with requests for diverse forms of support and people were making connections through the Network. Ms. Bowley also informed the meeting about the youth conference held in February 2016 and the focus on conflicts in families and the link to poverty.

Jenny Bowley presented the funding applications that had been submitted for the Area Board to approve.

Resolved:

To grant Shrewton Youth Club £3294 towards a youth club in Shrewton for young people aged between 11 and 16.

To grant Amesbury Juniors Football club £2750 towards paying for the costs of Training Facility and Coaching

To grant Durrington Bridging Project £3120 towards The Bridging Project - a youth group for young people with disabilities aged between 13 and 25.

Councillor Mike Hewitt observed that there were villages and other places apart from Durrington and Amesbury that needed to be reached and the LYN should continue working with parish councils and the Community Engagement Manager in order to collaborate better on projects and be more effective.

Councillor Fred Westmoreland noted that the LYN had run out of grant funding for 15/16 and was currently using reserve funds. He cautioned that with the current lack of funds there was the need to avoid funding jobs.

Presentation on the delivery of new housing to meet local needs by Clare Deards, Head of Service, Adult Care Operations.

The presentation on meeting local housing need was made by Rhonda Ward, Head of Service Operations - Adult Social Care.

Ms. Ward observed that the national policy for meeting local housing needs was to increase owner-occupation including low cost options, make best use of existing social housing stock, reduce the burden on public sector (housing benefit bill), increase supply of new homes and to promote independent living in the community. Factors considered in assessing local need included, looking at under-occupation and overcrowding data, demographic trends & census updates, existing stock information, re-let supply and the housing register among others.

She revealed that there was a total of 1,879 on the housing register in the Amesbury area with the current highest being the demand for one-bedroom affordable homes.

The basic housing stock profile for the Amesbury community area was noted as below:

The link below provides information on the  Rural Housing Need Surveys results for the Amesbury area.

http://www.intelligencenetwork.org.uk/planning-housing/

Councillor Mike Hewitt observed that most houses in villages were 3 to 4 bed houses with the trend being a demand for smaller houses within the villages as people got older. Councillor Fred Westmoreland added that 28% of households were single person households and this wasn’t reflected in the houses being built by most developers who often don’t view 1 bedroom houses as commercially viable.

Ms. Ward advised that anyone requiring housing in any area should get on the housing register.

To determine the applications for Community Area Grant funding.

The Area Board considered applications for community grant funding to support positive activities in the community and agreed the resolutions detailed below.

Councillor Fred presented the grants.

Resolved:

To grant Figheldean Parish Council £500 towards a Supply of Junior Goal Posts

To grant Amesbury Bowls Club £1,000 towards Amesbury Bowls Club Continuous Improvement of Facilities

To grant Wessex Community Circus CIC  £3,500 towards Transport for Community Activity Equipment

To grant  Till Valley Day Centre £995 towards Till Valley Day Centre

To grant Woodford Village Hall  £918.79 towards acquiring a sound system

To grant Durrington Town Council £1,220.00 towards Street Sign Uplift

To grant Durrington Day Centre  £958.50 towards Durrington Day Centre Mosaic

To grant Durrington Football Club £1,476.00 towards Durrington FC storage project

To receive an update on the Good Neighbourhood Scheme.

Dave Roberts, Community Engagement Manager, presented the item on GNS. 

The GNS would focus on gathering the views of local older people and ensuring that these views are represented at the local Area Board. He informed the meeting that out of the budget of £8,700 awarded to the Area Board, this included £1,000 from 2015 /2016 and £1,000 from 2016 / 2017 budget for the Older People’s Champion.

Mr. Roberts noted that the Amesbury Area Board wished to continue with Community Lunches that were previously being run in 3 rural areas which helped break down rural isolation with vulnerable adults. These lunches would be run for at least 6 months and reviewed.

Mrs Jan Tidd had historically been nominated for the Older People’s Champion role and the Area Board recommended that she was appointed for this role. A delegated fund of £1,000 per annum was available to cover out of pocket expenses in carrying out this role.

Members voted Cllr John Smale as the lead Councillor and Cllr Mike Hewitt as Vice-Chairman for the GNS.

Resolved:

Tonote theupdate report as presented.

To confirm support to set up the Health and Wellbeing Board as outlined in the proposal.

To continue to support the Community Lunches in 3 rural areas from the delegated funding made available and to review this in September 2016.

 To appoint Mrs J Tidd as the nominated Older People’s Champion for the Amesbury Community Area.

To nominate Cllr John Smale as the lead Councillor from the Area Board for the group.

Cllr Mike Hewitt presented the Member’s initiative on making the use of internet accessible to older and vulnerable adults within the Amesbury Area.

He observed that older and vulnerable adults in the community without access to the internet were at a distinct disadvantage and by providing internet access all information going forward would be provided online in order to save paper and time; this would involve the purchase of an IPAD Pro with internet capability and a small scanner/printer. 

Giving Farleys Malone Community the grant to purchase this equipment would greatly improve the lives of older people in the community and give them the opportunity to have their say on matters which will affect them in the community.  Due to data protection issues, the equipment would be used solely by the Older People’s Champion to establish a database and help with getting more people to meetings/dinners. All IT and data protection policies would be covered by the necessary support.

Resolved:

To award Farleys Malone Community £1,214.00 to purchase an IPAD Pro with internet capability and a printer.

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 will be circulated for information.

There were no recommendations to ratify besides noting the minutes of the last CATG meeting as presented.

Cllr Mike Hewitt informed the meeting of the need for local people and parishes to attend their local CATG meetings to enable them table any concerns in their area, ask questions and receive immediate responses.

It was noted that with the change of contracts and the re-establishment of the Parish Steward Schemes it would be extremely useful for people to attend the CATG meeting scheduled on 20 April 2016.

Update from the CEM on any local issues.

Dave Roberts informed the meeting about grants, events and activities awarded and organised within the last year. He noted that within the last year, 28 projects had been awarded £64,552 between them with the least amount being £500 and the highest award £5000.

 Mr. Roberts reported that 6 volunteers had been recruited for the MiDAS minibus training; 2 for the Bluez N Zues disco and 6 for the Online Digital Literacy programme; almost 100 people took part in the Clean for the Queen project and regular meetings had been held with parishes and other partners as well as numerous local community groups.

Members thanked Mr. Roberts for the enthusiasm, experience and pro-activeness with which he worked and embraced his role.

The Chairman asked for a round of applause to be given for his hard work.

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

The next meeting of the Amesbury Area Board will be held on 26 May 2016 at Antrobus House, 39 Salisbury Road, Amesbury SP4 7HH.

The next meeting of the Amesbury Area Board would be held at 7pm on 26

May 2016 at Antrobus House, 39 Salisbury Rd, Amesbury SP4 7HH.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending.