Agenda and draft minutes

The chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting, especially those who had not attended before.

Apologies were received from Cllr Chuck Berry, Unitary Councillor for Minety, Roger Budgen (St Paul Malmesbury Without), John Gundry and Catherine Doody (Malmesbury Town Council), and John Matthews and Graham Morris (Sherston Parish Council).

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 12 July 2017.

The minutes from the previous meeting of the Area Board meeting were presented and it was

Resolved:

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 12 July 2017.

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

Cllr Gavin Grant wanted his position as Chair of HEALS noted with regards to the presentation made under agenda item 6 (minute 41).

To receive any announcements through the Chairman and to note the following item for information:

·         Interactive Public Meetings – considering challenges ahead

The Chairman had three announcements to make, as follows

Challenges Ahead - Interactive Public Meetings

An invite was extended to all members of the public to attend one of the meetings hosted by Wiltshire Council with members of the Council’s cabinet to discuss the challenges being faced by the council.

Draft Housing Site Allocations consultation

A public consultation was being undertaking into the draft housing site allocations plan and this would close on 22 September 2017. Attendees at the meeting were encouraged to submit their comments through the advertised channels.

Tristan Stevens and Mike Smith spoke on behalf of the neighbourhood plan steering group and made the following points: that they wished the Area Board to take note of the strength of feeling about the proposals for Crudwell and that the attendance of around 120 Crudwell residents demonstrated this; that the steering group was newly established and would be making a formal submission to the consultation process; that they were keen to hear from residents and members of the Crudwell community; that the steering group had not been set up as a protest group and that they were not anti-development but would instead be working to establish and represent the views of the village within Wiltshire Council and the planning process; and that a planning consultant had been appointed with funds raised locally to help them do this. It was reported that the steering group were due to meet with the Head of Spatial Planning later in the month.

The Chairman thanked the steering group representatives for their comments and agreed that their contact details would be promoted on the Malmesbury Community Matters website and newsletter. Cllr Grant, Cllr Sturgis, and Cllr Thomson explained the stages that their respective areas had reached with regards to their neighbourhood plans and an offer of help was made to share experiences of methodologies and plan creation should it be useful. The Chairman then invited Cllr Toby Sturgis to offer further comment on the planning process and consultation.

Cllr Sturgis explained that neighbourhood plans were very important in the planning process and that they had to include plans for development but could be shaped to meet public needs. He stressed the importance of the consultation process on the draft housing site allocation plan as Malmesbury Community Area had been tasked with finding a number of new houses and that this amounted to around 30 per village, with some better suited than others to accommodate them. He reported that while the Crudwell neighbourhood plan would not be in an advanced enough stage to carry much official weight in the site allocation plans, the information collected would be useful in feeding into the consultation.

The Chairman reiterated his support for the neighbourhood planning process and that while it could be a long process at times, having an adopted plan did work in defending areas from unwanted development and increased the amount of Community Infrastructure Levy that the parish council could draw down from new development to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

Richard Williams, Locality Youth Facilitator, will provide an update on the work of the Local Youth Network (LYN).

This item will also include feedback from previous recipients of youth grants.

Richard Williams, Locality Youth Facilitator, explained that his role was to help people in the Community Area to develop work for young people. There was a small amount of funding left in the Youth Fund, a proportion of which had been earmarked for work in Malmesbury with vulnerable or disengaged young people. It was hoped that the remainder would be used to put on a variety of taster sessions for young people, with particular emphasis put on the priority areas identified by the JSA event which had highlighted mental illness and young people with special educational needs (SEN) as particularly important. The Local Youth Network (LYN) would like to encourage new membership in order to increase its capacity for providing youth activities throughout the community area. He then invited two groups to present on their summer projects, which had been partially funded by the Area Board.

Recycled Art Workshops

This was a joint project between the Area Board and Malmesbury Town Council. Two workshops had been put on for young people whose families were operating on small budgets and were not going away during the school holidays. The workshops had been popular and were themed around the history of Malmesbury with young people creating saxon jewellery, shields and other historic artefacts. Several lessons had been learned including a need for more provision for LGBT young people in the town.

Heals Summer Programme

The presentation was prefaced by an announcement that Ceri Pulvireni, one of the project’s co-ordinators, had since passed away and tribute was paid to her dedication to young people and Malmesbury more generally.

The programme included 13 activities and day trips and involved 10 participants identified as vulnerable for a range of reasons. Activities included physical, art and nature based activities, along with a trip to the cinema. Feedback from the participants and their parents was presented and positive outcomes had included increased confidence and wellbeing, learning new skills including social skills, and giving young people opportunities that they would not otherwise have been able to access.

The Chairman thanked the Locality Youth Facilitator and the groups who had presented for their contributions and for their continued work with young people.

To receive updates from the following partners:

a.    Wiltshire Police

b.    Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

c.     Healthwatch Wiltshire

d.    Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

e.    Riverside Community Centre

f.      Health & Wellbeing Champion

g.    Town and Parish Councils

The Chairman drew the attention of members to the written updates in the agenda pack and invited members to speak to their reports.

Wiltshire Police

Sgt Don Pocock introduced Mike Davidson, the chair of the Neighbourhood Watch Association (NWA), who provided an overview of the work of the NWA including support for groups setting up Neighbourhood Watch schemes and providing signage for existing groups. He extended an invitation to anyone interested in community policing and the role of Neighbour Watch schemes, to attend an open forum in Chippenham Town Hall on 30 September. It was agreed that promotional material for the event would be circulated electronically through the Area Board distribution network.

Sgt Pocock then referred the meeting to his written update and highlighted that demands on police time continued to increase but that focus would continue to be put on frontline services, and that the community policing model continued to be evaluated and modified accordingly. In response to a question, it was explained that drivers who used their mobile phones could only be penalised if they were caught by the police, but that if reports were received of areas where it was prevalent, patrols could be arranged to monitor this.

Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

Ade Hurren tabled his report (appended). Recent work had included the continuation of the Safe Drive Stay Alive roadshows about responsible driving, aimed at older teenagers through schools, and an Emergency Services day which had attracted around 6000 visitors despite poor weather. He reported that Malmesbury Fire Crew had been very active in this. Response times to incidents were averaged at 12 minutes with the aim of reducing this further, and there was an ongoing drive to recruit new firefighters. In response to a question it was explained that the greatest cause of false alarms was faulty equipment and the service were working with repeat offenders to tackle this.

The Chairman thanked the officer for his report and extended his thanks to the team for providing a tour of tower blocks in Swindon and providing reassurance to the council following national events.

Riverside Community Centre

Kim Power, chair of the management committee, provided a verbal update. The centre now had 32 regular users holding public classes or regular meetings, and work was underway to encourage use of the smaller rooms. A monthly session was run for older people and plans were in place to provide transport to this for those who needed it. A repair café was due to be held in September in which volunteers with particular skills would be on hand to perform simple repairs on items people brought in (for example mending a jumper, fixing a computer etc.) in return for donations. Future events included a band night on 28 October 2017 and a Health and Wellbeing day in January.

Health & Wellbeing Champion

Ellen Blacker gave a verbal update. There had been a number of bereavements over the summer but clients had passed away in their own homes as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

Amy Williams, Lead Waste Technical Officer, will deliver a presentation on the Wiltshire Waste Strategy.

Martin Litherland and Karina Ellaway gave a presentation on the purpose and ambitions of the Wiltshire Waste Strategy for 2017-2027 and introduced the online consultation currently taking place.

It was reported that the strategy covered the collection and management of waste and that planning was important to address current and future challenges including population changes, financial constraints and the availability of new technology. A much greater percentage of general waste was not being treated for energy production rather than landfill but a large amount of recyclable goods were still not being recycled and this had a financial and environmental impact. The range of materials that could be recycled through household collections would be increased from July 2018. Four questions were asked of the Area Board via the handheld voting sets, and members of the public were invited to take part in the online consultation, available through the waste and recycling pages of the council website.

In response to questions it was clarified that only plastic bottles could be recycled through kerbside plastic recycling but this would change after July 2018. It was also explained that recycling charges inflicted on charities had been implemented as a response to organisations coming from other counties that had charging policies, but that the council could discuss this with local charities on an individual basis where it was needed.

Deborah Neale will deliver a presentation about the Health Trainers programme

Sally Maynard-Smith and Deborah Neale gave a presentation about Wiltshire Council’s Health Trainers programme. The programme was part of the council’s public health agenda and was designed to support behaviour change through one-to-one sessions with individual adults. It was explained that Health Trainers were not counsellors, doctors or dieticians but where necessary could signpost clients on to other services.

Six sessions were provided during which a general health check was provided and a goal was agreed based on existing and desired habits and behaviours. Common goals were related to weight loss, smoking and alcohol intake, and level of physical activity. The programme recognised that changing behaviour was a long process but that the sessions and support offered by Health Trainers aimed to start the process by setting shorter-term goals, offering activities to support the achievement of those goals, and arranging a maintenance check 6 months after the final session to check on progress.

In Malmesbury, the health trainer offered a drop-in session in the library on the first and third Wednesday of each month for people to find out more about the programme on offer, have their blood pressure checked, or complete a referral. Referral could also be made via email on health.trainers@wiltshire.gov.uk or by phone on 0300 003 4566.

Councillors will be asked to consider the following applications to the Community Area Grant Fund, and make recommendations.

Community Area Grant

£487.00          Leigh Parish Council           Church Footpath Repairs

Councillor-Led Initiative:

£500.00          Luckington Church Signpost

·         Cllr John Thomson

The Area Board was asked to consider two applications to the Community Grant Fund.

The first was from Leigh Parish Council for £487.00 for repairs to the footpath leading to the church which was described as a prominent facility for the village. Cllr Gavin Grant, seconded by Cllr John Thomson, moved that the grant be awarded.

The second application was a Councillor-Led Initiative from Cllr John Thomson, for £500.00 for a new fingerpost sign for Luckington Church. This was part of a larger programme of works to restore the church graveyard in which graves included that of 2000 children and the leader of MI5 during world war two. Cllr Gavin Grant, seconded by Cllr Toby Sturgis, moved that the grant be awarded.

Resolved:

To award £487.00 to Leigh Parish Council for repairs to the Church Footpath

To award £500.00 for a finger signpost for Luckington Church

This item was deferred to a future meeting.

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 Malmesbury Area Board will be held on Wednesday, 8 November 2017, 7.00 pm.

The Chairman thanked everyone for their attendance and reminded members that the next meeting of the Area Board would be on 8 November 2017 at Oaksey Village Hall.