Agenda item

A free flow session which gives an opportunity for parishes and partners to update the Board and for attendees to ask questions or suggest ideas. All partners and parishes are welcome to update us, but time is limited so please keep updates brief.

To include:

·       Wiltshire Police

·       Community Speed Watch

·       Area Board priorities 

·       Partners, parishes or attendees present to update the board, give feedback, or ask questions

The Chairman invited partners, parishes and attendees to give updates or ask questions.

·       Wiltshire Police

Inspector Tina Osborn gave an update to the meeting. In addition to the report in the agenda, the Inspector highlighted that rural crime, such as tackling hare coursing, poaching and dog attacks was still a focus for the team who had increased patrols and visibility and were giving crime prevention advice to farmers. The team had also been visiting schools giving presentation on the dangers involved in county lines and how to look out for signs that people were being exploited. As the weather had improved there could be an increase in door knockers for garden work in areas with vulnerable people and these could be reported to trading standards. Speeding was still an issue and a successful session had taken place in Enford to catch speeders. There had been 1 closure order in Amesbury. The police would work in partnership with Wiltshire Council in relation to anti-social behaviour and secure closure orders were required. They were a powerful tool to combat anti-social behaviour and protect the vulnerable. Since the closure of a public house in Amesbury anti-social behaviour complaints had reduced and the police had issued an objection to a new licence being issued in particular related to the opening hours, as the police only wanted the venue open until 11.00pm, this was going to the Wiltshire Council Licensing Committee. Thanks was given to the licenced venues in town who regularly attended pub watch and worked together to reduce anti-social behaviour. Joint patrols with the Royal Military Police (RMP) were also ongoing.

·       Community Speed Watch (CSW)

John Derryman gave an update to the meeting in his voluntary role as CSW county co-ordinator. There were 115 teams across Wiltshire and Swindon with about 1,000 volunteers. Timothy Keely and Charles Smith were the team co-ordinators for the Stonehenge area. An aim was to have more efficient communication and to make better use of data, however there were limited resources. The Police and Crime Commissioner had authorised 2 more traffic police to be appointed in order to help enforcement. It was hoped that a database could be created to collate information from Speed Indicator Devices (SID’s) which would help to highlight where enforcement should be targeted. Another aim was to increase the numbers of volunteers as CSW was an important part of the overall road safety strategy.

The Chairman thanked Mr Derryman for his hard work and highlighted an issue the Durrington CSW team was having with communications. John stated they could discuss outside of the meeting in order to resolve the issues. 

·       Army updates

Lt Col Glyn Williams, deputy garrison commander at Larkhill gave an update to the meeting. The officer highlighted that the garrison had grown with extra regiments which had moved from Tidworth and should be based there for 20-30 years. He envisaged that these would integrate as a close community. The officer wanted to bring the regiments together so that they were seen as collective and then do the same with the local communities. The garrison had been helping with the Covid effort and some were now being deployed to Eastern Europe. The officer requested that any troubles with soldiers’ behaviour in Amesbury should be reported to him. 

Cllr Verbinnen stated that he attended the pub watch meetings and that the Army representative there was doing a great job and that the police were working with the RMP which was working well.

·       Netheravon Parish Council

A representative from Netheravon Parish Council gave an update to the meeting. They thanked the Area Board for a £5,000 grant which they had received in December towards outdoor fitness equipment which was now being installed. They were also planning their Jubilee celebrations and would be having a street party and live music. A priority for them was speed reduction on the A345 which the CATG team were working on. The representative also updated on their Cheerful Cuppa mornings which were held every Tuesday morning. They proactively help those with dementia and hold as an integrated event, dogs are also welcome to attend with their owners. Lockdown had caused these meetings to stop but they started up again in October 2021 and were delighted at attendance with about 30-40 people regularly attend, from young mothers to a 92 year old resident.

·       Figheldean Parish Council

The Vice Chairman of Figheldean Parish Council gave an update stating that they hold a coffee morning every Wednesday at 10.00am. They were looking to insulate the village hall roof and asked anyone who had any information or contacts to help with that to let t hem know. They were holding a raft race for the Jubilee and all were invited.

·       Durrington Town Council

Durrington Town Council also hold a Cheerful Cuppa session on Wednesday mornings. They were holding several events for the Jubilee including a fate, a concert and a tea party.

·       Amesbury Town Council

Amesbury Town Council highlighted that the work on the history centre was going well and the museum would hopefully be open in late summer.

·       Area Board Priorities

The Chairman highlighted the Board’s priorities:

o   Loneliness and Isolation (Health & Wellbeing group, Cllr Monica Devendran)?

o   Mental health (Health & Wellbeing group)?

o   Positive activities for young people (Youth Activities, Cllr Mark Verbinnen)?

o   Digital Inclusion (Health & Wellbeing group)?

o   Mitigating Climate Change / Environment & re-cycling (Cllr Graham Wright / Cllr Yuill)

More details on activities within these priorities would be given later in the meeting.