Agenda item

To receive updates from the following partners:

·       Wiltshire Police

·       Fire and Rescue Service

·       Health Services

·       Schools updates

·       Town and Parish Councils

·       Lucy Heasman – Making Devizes Makaton Friendly

Written updates were available in the agenda pack from Wiltshire Police, Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Service, Healthwatch Wiltshire and Dauntsey’s School.

In addition to the written updates, the following verbal updates were given by the partners present:

·         Wiltshire Police

Acting Inspector Pete Foster referred the meeting to the written report in the agenda pack and gave a verbal update.

Crime over the last couple of months had been steady with no spikes. Acting Inspector Foster was aware that there were concerns regarding drug dealing in the area. Tactics the police used to help deal with this were; stop and search; drug warrants; closure orders; arrests and signposting users to Turning Point in order to help them address their issues. It was stated that there were different types of dealing. County Lines, which had recently had a lot of coverage in the media, involved gangs coming into an area and using youngsters, or vulnerable people from that area to deal. Devizes had not experienced this. One known gang member had come into the area and had since been arrested. Localised dealers did not have gang affiliations. Work was being undertaken regarding Sheep Street car park in order to stop people sleeping there and to prevent drug use there. The local police would be getting involved in Operation Sceptre which was intended to help prevent knife crime.

Cllr Richard Gamble complemented the police on the new format of the written report.

In response to a question from the audience regarding a new machine in Station Road (a black box with 2 cables across the road), Acting Inspector Foster stated that this was not something the police had put down. The police did not do speed checks in Station Road but did check for anti-social behaviour. Cllr Philip Whitehead stated that the machine had been put in place by Wiltshire Council to collect data on road usage and speed. They usually remained in place for a week or two and collected data 24 hours a day. This was in response to an issue raised at the CATG. Data on parking figures came from parking machines.

Cllr Simon Jacobs said thank you for the update and on behalf of the residents of Stanford Court in Sheep Street, Devizes.

·         Health Services

The Chairman announced that the CCG should be attending the November Area Board meeting to give an update on the Devizes Health Centre. Progress was being made, if a little slowly.

·         Schools Updates

Phil Bevan, Head teacher, Devizes School gave an update to the meeting.

All the schools were celebrating their results. This year had been a record breaking year for Devizes School GCSE results. They were up 15% with percentages into the high 60’s now. All performance measures were also up, with 75% of all students having made good progress. The majority could go on to the sixth form.

Sixth form results had also been strong, although not quite as good as the GCSE results. The school and pupils were excited about the upcoming careers fair. There were around 200 pupils in the joint sixth form and this brought new opportunities for them.

Sarah Lowkis, Head teacher, Lavington School gave an update to the meeting.

The new joint sixth form was going really well, every child from year 12 had progressed to year 13, so the school was very pleased with that. At Lavington there were 29 pupils in year 13 and the intake into year 12 was 25 students. The joint sites arrangement was working and transport issues had been resolved. It was hoped that the majority of pupils could attend across both sites. This would mean they could retain more students in the area for sixth form education. An external review had taken place which was very positive and the students were proud of their achievements. There were 10 students from Devizes School attending the Lavington school site to study Further Maths which was a very specialist subject.

Regarding the year 7 intake there had been a large number of appeals, so they would be adding 2 new classrooms to accommodate the extra numbers that were attracted to the school.

Three teams from Lavington School had undertaken the Chanel Swim. All the teams trained incredibly hard. On the swim each member swam for an hour at a time and they did not wear wetsuits. The swim was made even more challenging due to the amount of jelly fish in the water. Sadly one team had to turn back just before reaching France due to the amount of stings they were getting from jelly fish. They were on standby to try again. The teams had raised over £8,000 for Care Leukaemia, as one of the Lavington pupils had needed their support last year.

Mark Lacells, Head teacher, Dauntseys School gave an update to the meeting.

Dauntsey’s had also had a very good year and were pleased with their exam results. The school was the largest it had ever been with 830 plus pupils. Dauntsey’s was hoping to develop more partnerships in the future and had appointed a new head of outreach. They wanted to work on university and careers advice, including high end apprenticeships which were becoming much more popular. They also had a head of leadership and adventure, to ensure that pupils gained life skills, this was something they would be keen to share with partners.

Cllr Philip Whitehead stated it was great to see all 3 head teachers at the Area Board. Thanks were passed on as all the schools were doing well and this was appreciated by everyone.

Cllr Simon Jacobs stated that one of the legacies we can pass on to the next generation was the network we have, that was why Area Boards were so important.

The Chairman queried how population forecasts and therefore numbers of pupils looked going forward and how schools could future proof themselves for this. Sarah Lowkiss stated that the local demographic was actually forecast to go down. However, people coming from Pewsey Vale and Hilperton were looking towards Devizes for schooling. Cllr Laura Mayes advised that Wiltshire Council had a school place planning team of two people that worked on this, although they had to look at provision across the whole county.

It was noted that Georgina Keily-Theobald, Head teacher of Downlands School, had sent apologies, but would like to attend future area boards.

·         Town and Parish Councils

Simon Fisher, Devizes Town Council Clerk gave a brief update to the meeting. At the last Area Board he had stated that after holding focus groups, the plans for the Market Place would be going to consultation. One of the Devizes Town Council Councillors had  been concerned that people might not have had time to comment, as the consultation was over the summer when people may be away, so the consultation was extended. The community had also felt that other options other than the two offered by the consultation should have been considered. Therefore, they  widened consultation and it had become a bit broad. Devizes Town Council had to consult on what they could actually deliver. If they consulted on leaving the Market Place as it was, then there may be difficulties regarding the asset transfer from Wiltshire Council to Devizes Town Council. At the moment, the Market Place had been taken out of the main asset transfer. The Town Council needed to step back and take another look at the situation. There was a meeting the following day regarding the Market Place and the outcome would go to Devizes Town Council the week after.

Cllr Philip Whitehead stated that he was concerned as there were only two options from Devizes Town Council’s point of view. If the options were widened it made things more difficult. Wiltshire Council was happy for them to have ownership of the Market Place with some parking or no parking, those were the options. He advised that everyone he spoke to in the parishes was in favour of the Market Place becoming a venue for events. These were the people who would have to drive in to Devizes. The main resistance to the Market Place becoming an event venue seemed to come from people in Devizes town. However, there were a mass of people who were supportive of what Devizes Town Council were trying to achieve.

Simon Fisher agreed that they could only consult on what they could achieve. The questions that have been put forward in the widened consultation included options that they could not deliver.

Mr Fisher also advised the meeting that Devizes Town Council were about to start a £1.7million project on improving the Green Lane sport field.

·         Lucy Heasman – Making Devizes Makaton Friendly

Lucy Heasman, who had received a grant from the Devizes Area Board towards making Devizes Makaton friendly gave an update to the meeting.  All the Makaton licenses and training had now been done, therefore Devizes was now “officially” Makaton-friendly, This had taken 18 months of hard work and the funding from the Area Board had really helped. There were now 25 businesses and organisations that were Makaton friendly, this meant that they knew at least 30 signs. Stickers would be going up to promote the Makaton friendly businesses. The aim now was to promote this even more.

Cllr Laura Mayes gave her congratulations and requested that Rowdeford School were contacted to make sure they know.

·         Rob Jackson, St James’ Church, feedback and thanks for GOING UP GROWING UP grant.

In an additional item which was not on the agenda Rob Jackson of St James’ Church gave an update to the meeting. Mr Jackson wanted to pass on thanks from 77 year 6 students who were now year 7 students. After undertaking the Going up, Growing up course, which helped pupils transition from primary school to secondary school, their confidence had grown and they had increased self-esteem. The course had also helped family relationships. The course has been part funded by an area board grant and they were very grateful.

The Chairman stated that the board would like to repeat such a success.

An audience member also spoke regarding the refurbishment of Estcourt Place. This had been bought by St James’ Church to make a community centre. Although it was an early stage of the journey, this was going well. However, they needed a lift and were putting in grant applications to try to achieve this. The aim was that they could partner with local charities which no longer had a base, so that the charities could use the community centre.

The Chairman stated that the board would like to be kept up to date with progress and to help if possible.