Agenda and minutes

Chairman’s Announcements:

a) Local Transport Plan (LTP) Scheme Selection Process.

b) Local Transport Plan Car Parking Strategy.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Westwood social club, and requested that the Wiltshire councillors who made up the board introduced themselves, including Stuart Wheeler, (Wiltshire Council cabinet member) who was in attendance for this meeting, as well as the Community Area Manager and Democratic Services Officer.

All town, parish and partner representatives in attendance were welcomed by the Chairman.

Terry Biles, Westwood Parish Council welcomed everyone to Westwood.

Chairman’s Announcements

Local Transport Plan (LTP) Scheme Selection Process

The establishment of Area Boards presents an opportunity for decisions on small-scale transport and highway improvement schemes to be taken locally. 

In response to this there are plans for the Area Boards to be allocated a discretionary budget to assess and select small-scale transport schemes to be progressed in their community areas. The amount of funding available to the Area Boards will be confirmed in due course.

The allocation will be for capital funding and can only be used to provide new and improved infrastructure.  It is to be used for schemes that improve safety, increase accessibility and sustainability by promoting walking, cycling and public transport, and improve traffic management.  It cannot be used to fund maintenance schemes or to pay for revenue functions such as passenger transport.

Due to the complexity of assessing and selecting a scheme from the many requests, and the potential time that such an agenda item would take, it is proposed that recommendations are made to the Area Board by a Community Area Transport Group (CATG).

Members of the CATG will be identified by the Community Area Manager in conjunction with the Chairman, and agreed at the Area Board.  It is requested that the number on each Group should not exceed ten and that the meetings take place during the day. Meetings will be attended by relevant officers from Wiltshire Council and will be chaired by the Area Board Chairman.

It is envisaged that the first meeting of the CATG would include a half day workshop covering the following matters:-

·        Background to the Council’s transport policies and transport funding.

·        Review of requests received in the community area.

·        Assessment of schemes.

·        Discussion on the need for a feasibility study

·        Discussion on future funding

·        Selection of scheme(s)

·        Recommendation to Area Board.

Individuals from each parish council who were interested in taking part in this workshop should contact the Community Area Manager, elly.townsend@wiltshire.gov.uk. It is hoped that there will be good representation from across the community area.

Local Transport Plan Car Parking Strategy

The council’s current car parking strategy dates back to 2000 and now needs to be reviewed to reflect the move to Wiltshire Council and to ensure that parking charges and standards are broadly consistent across the whole of the county.

A parking strategy can be one of the most useful tools available to local authorities in helping them achieve their objectives.  In particular, it can:

·        support the local economy;

·        encourage the use of sustainable travel modes;

·        enhance the look of streetscenes;

·        meet residents’ needs for car  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

Apologies were received from Sharon Davies, (Service Director), Matthew Midlane, (Monkton Farleigh PC), Simon Coombe from Limpley Stoke PC, Alan Mines from Wingfield PC and David Gregory from the Community Area Partnership.

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meetings held on the 18 and 19 May 2010.

Decision

The minutes of the meetings held on the 18 & 19 May 2010 were approved and signed as the correct record.

Cllr Hewson responded to the question raised by Diane Teare at the last meeting on how the area board intended on ensuring environmental sustainability is taken into consideration during all area board decisions. He commented that he did not wish to add extra bureaucracy to the area board process by introducing new policies but welcomed community projects that sought to improve environmental sustainability in the community area.

Councillors are requested to declare any personal or prejudicial interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

Malcolm Historic Core Zone?

Cllr Stuart Wheeler, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture (including Heritage, Museums and Arts) will introduce his portfolio and take questions.

Cllr Stuart Wheeler (Cabinet Member for Leisure, Wiltshire Council) gave a brief outline of his portfolio.

Points made included:

• That there is a major review of Wiltshire Council’s leisure services currently happening, looking at what the council has, what condition it is in and what residents of Wiltshire want from their leisure services.

• Cllr Wheeler would be coming back to the 22 September, Bradford on Avon area board to discuss the outcomes of the leisure review and what it means to Bradford on Avon.

• Cllr Wheeler is working closely with the “workplace transformation” team to ensure that leisure is fairly represented.

• Vision – Wiltshire Council wants to make the county the healthiest in the UK by 2014.

• Sport – Wiltshire Council is keen to encourage young people to join organised sports and for older people to get back into sport.

• Culture - Wiltshire Council actively supporting Art & Culture across the county.

Points made from the floor included:

• All new leisure facilities should be easily accessible for the elderly and mobility impaired.

• There was an excellent sailing facility in Weymouth that we should be encouraging young people to access.

• That leisure facilities were very important for the health of younger and older people and that moving leisure centres further away was not an environmentally friendly solution.

• There was concern that leisure centres wouldn’t be financially viable and therefore it wouldn’t be possible for members of the community to run them.

• Leisure centres need to be on bus routes. Cllr Wheeler confirmed that he would make sure this point was addressed.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Wheeler for attending the meeting and looked forward to Cllr Wheeler returning in September to give an update on the consultation outcomes.

Questions raised during the public participation session.

1. When is the next British Waterways mooring policy steering group meeting to be held and is public participation invited in the initial meeting on the inquiry panel?

2. Are the Kennet & Avon Canal Partnership Meetings open to the public and when and where is the next meeting.

The Chairman advised that Ken Oliver, (Wiltshire Council canal officer) would investigate and report back.

A brief overview of the Wiltshire Council waste consultation.

The Chairman introduced Andy Conn – (Waste Management Services, Wiltshire Council) who was attending the meeting to publicise the waste consultation that Wiltshire Council had started to carry out. Attendees had had the opportunity before the meeting to talk to Andy Conn and his team about the consultation process and view the waste consultation display literature that was made available.

Points made from the floor included:

• Were Wiltshire Council and its waste collection partners looking at ways to recycle more items, such as cardboard and tetrapaks?

Andy Conn responded that the position with which materials could be recycled was changing all the time and that gradually it was becoming possible to recycle a wider range of materials. He commented that following discussion with Hills, a facility had been introduced to provide battery recycling and tetra pack recycling at Household Recycling Centres. Tetra packs were made of a multi-layered material and therefore were more complicated to recycle.

• Were there any plans for a kerbside collection of food waste?

Andy Conn responded that there were no plans to introduce the collection of food waste at this stage. This was because food waste would have to be collected weekly and there would be a considerable associated cost with introducing this service and as food waste was a form of waste that people could do something about in a number of ways. It was noted that it was possible to buy a subsidised food waste digester from Wiltshire Council if people wanted to treat their food waste at home.

The Chairman thanked Andy Conn and his team for attending the meeting.

Geoff Langridge, (Head of Library and Information Services, Wiltshire Council) and Chris Moore, (Reading and Learning Services Manager, Wiltshire Council) will give a presentation to discuss how library services will be delivered in the future.

Geoff Langridge, (Head of Library and Information Services, Wiltshire Council) gave a presentation which looked at how to take forward the library services in Wiltshire and asked attendees to complete a very short survey which asked “What would be your five top priorities be for a library service of the future”

Points made by Geoff Langridge included:

•         There was currently high public satisfaction with library services across the county.

•         That literacy was an important life skill that has a direct impact on quality of life and wellbeing.

•         That the library service was currently undertaking a review with four stages: Define, Design, Develop and Deploy. The service was currently in the Define stage – looking at what the library service does, how they do it and what customers want. A number of focus groups had already taken place and individuals could contribute to this process by filling in the survey with their top priorities for the library service.

Points made from the floor included:

• Mobile library services are a vital part of rural communities and must remain.

• How would it be possible to improve the service and make the necessary savings? Geoff Langridge replied that affordability of any future service provision will have to be considered but they were looking to make a number of savings through back of house operations; the service had just renegotiated a new stock supply contract which had enabled them to save money for example.

• The importance of looking to see where levels of literacy were low and targeting resources in these areas in order to do more with less.

• A question was raised as to whether the Library Service had made a made a decision to rule out any footbridge landing behind the library in Bradford on Avon and whether the Library Service was willing to sit down with stakeholders to review the possibilities? Geoff Langridge replied that no decision had been taken and that he would be happy to sit down with the stakeholders.

The Chairman thanked Geoff Langridge for his presentation.

The Wiltshire Councillors will consider two applications to the Community Area Grants Scheme 2010/11, as follows:

Staverton Youth Football Club - £694 requested to gain funding to complete purchase of FA approved moveable youth goals.

      Winsley Cricket Club – £2,500 requested to construct outdoor nets with an all  weather hard surface to assist with the coaching of young people aged 9-13.

Grants application packs for the Community Area Grants Scheme are available from the Community Area Manager or electronically at

www.wiltshire.gov.uk/areaboardscommunity grantsscheme.htm

The Wiltshire Councillors considered two applications to the Community Area Grants Scheme, as follows:

Decision

Staverton Sports Football Club was awarded £694 to complete purchase of FA approved moveable youth goals.

Reason 

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 20010/11.

Decision

Wiltshire Cricket Club was awarded £2,500 agreed to construct outdoor nets with an all weather hard surface to assist with the coaching of young people aged 9-13 with the condition that the money is not released until all match funding is in place.

Reason 

The application met the Community Area Grant Criteria for 2010/11.

To consider one expression of interest to the Performance Reward Grant Scheme, as follows:

Climate Friendly Bradford Fuel Poverty Project - £25,000 requested.

The project will work with a wide range of individuals and partner organisations throughout the community area to raise awareness and support practical action for improved home energy efficiency (insulation, boilers etc) in 2,000+ homes.

Performance Reward Grants

The Wiltshire Councillors considered one expression of interest to the Performance Reward Grant Scheme, as follows:

Climate Friendly Bradford Fuel Poverty Project - £25,000

The project will work with a wide range of individuals and partner organisations throughout the community area to raise awareness and support practical action for improved home energy efficiency (insulation, boilers etc) in 2,000+ homes. The group were looking to apply for a further £75,000 from the Lottery Fund.

Decision

That the Bradford on Avon Area Board endorses the Performance Reward Grant application for £25,000 and would put it forward to the Performance Reward Grant Funding Panel for consideration.

Laura Gosling, (Senior Transport Planner, Wiltshire Council) will give a presentation to discuss the initial designs for a Historic Core Zone in the centre of Bradford on Avon.

Laura Gosling, (Senior Transport Planner, Wiltshire Council), Chris Carter and Richard Crappsley, (Colin Buchanan) gave a presentation to discuss the initial designs for a Historic Core Zone in the centre of Bradford on Avon and to seek the Area Board’s approval for the preliminary design plans for a Historic Core Zone in Bradford on Avon.

Both the Town Council and Historic Core Zone Group (Priority for People) expressed their support for the scheme. The Historic Core Zone Group were preparing a leaflet to distribute across the Community Area with details of the scheme.

Questions raised from the floor included:

• Do the plans take into account access for the visually or mobility impaired?

Colin Buchanan responded that at present the visually impaired have to contend with narrow pavements and a lack of crossing points. These plans would greatly improve the pedestrian environment for them. The crossing by St Margaret’s Hall is retained in the plans.

• How much would the scheme cost to implement, and who would fund it.

Laura Gosling responded that the estimated cost of the scheme was £2.25 million. This could not be funded by the Wiltshire Council Transport Budget as this had just been reduced from £4 million to £3 million for the whole county. It was commented that the best course of action was to look to implement the project is small parts and to seek funding through a variety of sources of funding.

• Concern was raised about the removal of the crossing on Market Street and the difficulty in crossing at courtesy crossings.

• Any crossing near the Bradford on Avon lock needs careful consideration and some input from the boating community.

• Air quality should be considered to ensure that the new proposals do not make things worse. Laura Gosling confirmed that the highways department were working with the air quality team and that modelling would be carried out to ensure the scheme did not cause a further decline in air quality. 

The chairman requested that all the comments were taken on board by the design team.

Decision

That the Area Board notes the excellent work arising from the Taming the Traffic workshops, the Priority for People Groups and the Historic Core Zone processes and pays tribute to all participants.

The Area Board welcomes the 226 page Bradford on Avon Historic Core Zone Draft Final Report from Colin Buchanan and Partners, with preliminary designs for:

·        Improved pedestrian access and safety measures in central Bradford on Avon.

·        A less highway and more people orientated look-and-feel for the streets of central Bradford on Avon.

·        The maintenance of sufficient highway capacity to avoid the build up of additional general queuing in Bradford on Avon.

The Area Board:

·        Welcomes and endorses the preliminary design plans.

·        Recognises that each part of the plan will require detailed design and consultation.

·        Requests that Wiltshire Council Highways works the Area Board, Bradford Town Council, Priority for People and local residents and organisations to bring forward detailed plans for the progressive implementation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

To elect representatives for the following groups and committees:

• Bradford on Avon Community Area Partnership.

• Community Area Young Peoples Issues Group.

To Wiltshire Councillors elected representatives for the following groups and committees:

• Bradford on Avon Community Area Partnership – Cllr Rosemary Brown.

• Community Area Young Peoples Issues Group – Cllrs Rosemary Brown and Trevor Carbin.

It was agreed that Cllrs Rosemary Brown and Trevor Carbin would give a Community Area Young Peoples Issues Group update at the September meeting.

Wednesday 22 September 2010 – St Laurence School, Bradford on Avon.

Wednesday 24 November 2010 – St Margaret’s Hall, Bradford on Avon.

Wednesday 22 September 2010 – St Laurence School, Bradford on Avon.

Wednesday 24 November 2010 – St Margaret’s Hall, Bradford on Avon.

The Chairman thanked everybody for attending the meeting.