Agenda item

To note the written updates provided and answer any questions arising from the floor:

      i.        Parish and Town Councils

    ii.        Wiltshire Police

   iii.        Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

   iv.        Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

    v.        Chippenham and Villages Area Partnership (ChAP)

   vi.        Chippenham Vision

  vii.        Chippenham Campus Development Team

viii.        Youth Issues update

   ix.        Chippenham Partnership of Schools

    x.        Other Community Groups

The written updates from Partners, circulated prior to the meeting, were noted.

Following a question from Councillor Caswill, the Chair asked officers to find out who was currently providing the individual services that will make up the new Children’s Community Health Service.

The Chairman stated, in relation to the Campus Project, that the decision to undertake a feasability study had been agreed, a contractor approved and that funding was available.

The Chair read out the update, from Tim Martienssen on the Chippenham Vision, as follows:

The Vision is to be brought to an end.

3 Vision partnerships were stablished in 2009 by Wiltshire Council as advisory partnerships. Projects they were originally envisaged to oversee ranged from producing Masterplans to car parking studies, site development briefs and proposals to fund small community projects.

Since 2009 Community Area Boards have come into being  and are now well established. There is an amount of duplication between their role and the Visions and they undertake some activity that was originally envisaged for Visions e.g.  funding community projects.

In addition since 2009 Campus Boards have been established, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have been established and The Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has been established.

BIDs have the ability to raise fairly large sums  and the capacity to deliver activities that promote the town centre. The LEP is providing the lead on major strategic development projects  (including Chippenham Station project).

The Visions have been successful in producing clear Vision objectives and town Masterplans and these will be used to guide future development.  However Wiltshire Council has had to make significant year on year budget savings and is still facing further major budget cuts. It needs to consider where best to focus its limited resources to support local development.

The Council is therefore proposing that the Visions come to an end and that Area Boards pick up the partnership, local co-ordination and advisory role and that projects (BIDs, Campuses, Regeneration Projects etc) report progress directly to the Area Board. Members of the Vision will in future engage through the Area Board or where they have direct involvement in specific projects.

The final Chippenham Vision Board meeting is therefore due to take place on 1^st April.

The Chair further stated that there were a number of questions outstanding and she hoped that these could be discussed at a future meeting.