Cllr Jonathon Seed spoke about
his role as Cabinet Member for Communities, Campuses, Area Boards,
Leisure, Libraries and Flooding.
Cllr Seed had the help of four
other Councillors to carry out his role, Cllrs Jerry Kunkler
portfolio holder for Leisure and Sport, Cllr Chris Williams,
portfolio holder for Area Boards, and two other councillors for
flooding, one in the north and one in the south.
The Council was working towards
creating more resilient communities, with the main goal of
facilitating communities to do more for themselves.
As part of the Council’s
Business Plan, Leisure had been incorporated into Public Health.
Wiltshire currently had 23 leisure centres and 11 swimming pools,
the Council aimed to retain as many of its leisure facilities as
possible.
Each community area developed
in its own way; development being led by the requirements of the
community. If the community made it clear that they wanted
something for their area, then the Council would support that
community in achieving their goals where possible.
Flooding
It had been a busy year for
flooding. Although Wiltshire was not on the news as much as other
counties, 500 dwellings were flooded across Wiltshire. The Council
had a flood plan in place, and worked to that plan to help people
where it could.
The Secretary of State for
Environment, Owen Patterson had shown his support by offering to
provide Wiltshire with the resources required for future flood
prevention as he knew that they would be used
efficiently.
Campuses
Each Community Area had been
invited to have a campus. The building works on the Salisbury
Campus would begin in the next two weeks.
It had been established that
the cost to maintain several old buildings and services in separate
areas was greater than creating a single place in the community
where people could access all of the services they
needed.
Having a community campus also
meant that there could be a reduction of manpower and a coming
together of partner organisations.
Questions and comments were
then taken, these included:
- Do you have any plans
in place for tackling the effects of extreme heat? Answer: This is
not in my remit; it would come under Public Health.
- Is the Council
receiving top hydrological advice? Answer: We work closely with
people that give this advice. In addition to this we have drainage
engineers which go round and look at issues and assess them. It is
often the case that local people know their area the best, they
know which drains get flooded.
- If sports facilities
are to be centralised in Salisbury, would there be plans for
smaller sports facilities in outlying areas to the city like
Harnham? Answer: No, as Southern
Wiltshire view their village communities in their own right, they
do not look to Harnham for their
services.
- If we had a lido in
Harnham, we would use it. Answer:
Tisbury have an open air swimming pool, and they wish to keep this,
we are listening to them, we are not here to say that you cannot
have it.
- The response to the
flooding in January was excellent, however in Salisbury we have a
different issue, and we feel bamboozled by Sainsbury’s plan
to build a supermarket on the Southampton Road site. There was
almost 100% negative feedback to the proposals when they came to
present them at a previous Area Board, yet still they go ahead.
Please could you make them listen? Answer: I cannot make sure that
it does not happen, however I can take the strength of your message
back to Cabinet. Clearly there is an issue here that people feel
strongly about.
- We had some flooding
issues here in the city; we were unable to get drains dug out. The
old flood warden scheme seems to have broken down. How do we work
on a micro level to get our issues resolved? Answer: Before
unitary, the District Council looked after the ditches and the
County Council looked after the highways. The drainage bylaws which
will be sealed next month will enable us to make people dig out
their own ditches. There are limits to what can be achieved, but
take things to a local level, get parish councils to speak to land
owners and ask them to clear their ditches.
- Praise should be
given for how the Council handled the floods, however initially
they did not act quickly enough. In some areas there was panic from
local people about areas they felt would flood, but the council did
not. Answer: We try to get it right, as best we can. Perception of
flooding does worry people, I will take this back and look at this
issue, it may be a case of issuing more sandbags to those areas for
reassurance.
- The Chairman asked
for a future update on the progression of the pilot campus as it
evolved, as it would be useful to hear what worked and did not work
well. Answer: Yes we are learning from the pilot campus and will
feedback the findings.