Trowbridge Town Council
October/November 2017 ReportWorking with the Community
Report to Policy & Resources Committee 7thNovember2017
The Town Clerk reports every two months to the Policy & Resources Committee with an edited version presented to the Area Board. Issues included on the agenda are highlighted and normally include an officer’s recommendation. Other matters are provided as report items only.
- POLICY
- Community Governance Review (CGR)– The Town Council Strategy says;
14. A TOWN COUNCIL FOR ALL OF THE TOWN
Trowbridge Town Council will continue the campaign to ensure that Trowbridge can have A TOWN COUNCIL FOR ALL OF THE TOWN, including all the built up urban areas which are not connected to their respective villages and if necessary will seek a further Community Governance Review when Ashton Park urban extension is being built-out or if other areas of development take place on the edges of the current town boundary, but recognises that this is unlikely to take effect before 2025.
1.1.1Ashton Road - Steeple Ashton Parish Council support a change to the boundary along Ashton Road. The Town Council has agreed that a sum equivalent to any Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) received will be paid to Steeple Ashton. This is one of the sites which had been subject to a planning application but is not being put forward by Wiltshire Council through the Housing Site Allocations process. A revised application has been submitted by the developer reducing the number of houses, extending green infrastructure close to Green Lane Wood and eliminating access from the site towards the woods, to reduce recreational pressure from residents seeking to access the woods. The town council supports the application and has welcomed the changes. (see 6.2.D)
1.1.2Ashton Park – When Wiltshire Council approved the boundary change between West Ashton and Trowbridge none of the maps showed the new Leap Gate Road. The new boundary approved therefore by Wiltshire Council followed the line of the old field boundary just to the south of the new road. West Ashton Parish Council and the solicitor at Wiltshire Council now seem to be of the view that they can change the decision of Wiltshire Council. I wrote to the legal department at Wiltshire Council following the last full council meeting, expressing the town council’s concern at this and have not yet received a reply.
1.2Free Parking Days–(AGENDA ITEM 7) Wiltshire Council allow each town aFree Parking Day allocationequivalent to two times the number of spaces in Wiltshire Council public car-parks. Trowbridge’s remaining allocation for 2017 is:Saturday 25th November (Christmas Lights switch-on) and Saturday 2nd December 2017 (Christmas shopping). Local businesses have been advised.We are considering options for 2018, which will probably include; Saturday 30th June(Armed Forces), Saturday 14th July (Active Festival), Saturday 20th October (Carnival). Wiltshire Council are currently consulting on a number of proposed changes to car-parking arrangements including the suggestion that they would remove the option of allocating free parking days in November and December. This could significantly impact on local businesses as Trowbridge has traditionally, like many other towns in Wiltshire offered these days for Christmas Lights switch on and Christmas Shopping, in conjunction with the Shires.
RECOMMENDATION: That Trowbridge Town Council opposes the proposal to remove the option of free-parking allocation to towns in November and December as this change would significantly harm local town-centre businesses.Additionally, the town council considers that in order to improve the financial viability of council car-parks in Trowbridge the management of them should transfer to Trowbridge Town Council.
1.3 Town Council Strategy 2017-2021The Strategy was approved by Council on 18th July, committee reports now include reference to the key aims within the Strategy.
1.4 Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) –I wrote to the minister at the Department of Work and Pensions following the last meeting, copied to other councils locally including Bath & North East Somerset. I have not received a reply.
1.5 Data Protection – New regulations called the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are now coming into force and will have significant implications for all local councils. Officers are undertaking training and will advise the council of requirements in due course. The Town Council will need to ensure that the central contacts database is managed and controlled. Members will also need to consider registering with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
1.6 Planning for the right homes in the right places – (AGENDA ITEM 8) The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is undertaking a consultation ‘Planning for the right homes in the right places: consultation proposals’ . One particular section and consultation question is particularly relevant to town and parish councils as it relates to Neighbourhood Planning. See extracts from the consultation on the following two pages:
RECOMMENDATION: That in response to the government consultation ‘Planning for the right homes in the right places’; Trowbridge Town Council (a) agrees that a local plan should set out the housing need for designated neighbourhood planning areas and parished areas within the area and (b) disagrees with the proposal for a formula-based approach to apportionhousing need to neighbourhood plan bodies in circumstances where the localplan cannot be relied on as a basis for calculating housing need.This proposal is flawed because, where parish boundaries are drawn tightly around larger population centres in an area and the most sustainable locations for significant house building are in the neighbouring parishes, then the calculation based upon a simple percentage of existing parish population would fail to provide adequate levels of development. For example, if Wiltshire did not have a Local Plan then Trowbridge parish would be allocated 2880 houses out of the Wiltshire total of 42,000 and West Ashton Parish would be allocated fewer than 40. (The Wiltshire Core Strategy in effect allocates a few hundred to Trowbridge and over 1000 to West Ashton). Another example would be North Hertfordshire where the plan currently under examination allocates a site for 2800 houses in the parish of Bygrave on the outskirts of Baldock but the consultation proposal would lead to an allocation of only 37 houses to Bygrave.
1.7 Wiltshire Core Strategy Review (AGENDA ITEM 9)– The Town Council Strategy says;
2. FUTURE GROWTH
Trowbridge Town Council will continue to support growth in areas no more than 2km from the town centre including to the East and South East of the town at Ashton Park and brownfield sites including Innox Mills and Bythesea Road.
The Town Council does not support development in the open countryside between the urban envelope and the neighbouring villages of Hilperton, North Bradley and Southwick.
Proposals which come forward through the Housing Site Allocations Plan will be supported only if they are within the 2km distance criteria, are designed to integrate well with the town and can support sustainable development of Trowbridge, providing improvements to the environment, communication links and recreational opportunities.
Trowbridge Town Council will, in preparation for the next Core Strategy 2016-2036, consider favourably a review of the Greenbelt to the North and West of the town, as long as it is demonstrated that this is the best way of delivering the required number of new homes to support sustainable development of Trowbridge within 2km and leads neither to; the coalescence of Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon nor; the significant diminution of the landscape character around Bradford on Avon.
Wiltshire Council is due to commence a period of public consultation this week on the Wiltshire Local Plan Review - Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 Consultation on the Scope of the Plan.This is brought to the Policy & Resources Committee for consideration or if required for referral to Full Council on the 21st November to allow a longer period for consideration.
One of the significant proposals is a change to the Housing Market Areas (currently North & West, East, South and West of Swindon) to include Swindon Borough and for the four HMAs to be: Swindon, Chippenham, Trowbridge and Salisbury. The proposed Trowbridge HMA includes Bradford on Avon, Westbury and Warminster (but not Melksham).
RECOMMENDATION: That the committee refers further consideration to the Full Council meeting on 21st November to allow full consideration of the matter within the consultation period.
1.8Disqualification Criteria For Councillors and Mayors(AGENDA ITEM 10)
This consultation paper sets out the government’s proposals forupdating the criteria disqualifying individuals from standing for, orholding office as, a local authority member, directly-elected mayor
or member of the London Assembly.
RECOMMENDATION: That Trowbridge Town Council welcomes the government’s proposals to strengthen the restrictions on those who are subject to certain specified offender categories and believes that there may be other categories which have not been specified which should also lead to disqualification.
1.9 Review of Wiltshire Council Electoral Divisions – The Local Government Boundary Committee for England (LGBCE) has commenced a review of the electoral arrangements for Wiltshire Council and Wiltshire Council has appointed a committee of 10 councillors to make recommendations to the Council. The first task will be to determine the number of councillors which Wiltshire Council should have and then to draw division boundaries to ensure that each division has a similar electorate. Any changes to division boundaries will have an impact on the number of wards for Trowbridge Town Council and the council may need to consider how many town councillors there should be if there are, for example five, six or eight wards in the town rather than the current seven wards. The changes would be implemented at the next elections in 2021.
2.RESOURCES
2.1FINANCIAL RESOURCES
2.1.1 Accounts (AGENDA ITEM 13)The Town Council produces quarterly accounts (April-June, July-September, October-December & January-March), reported to each spending committee and collectively considered by the Policy & Resources Committee. The second quarter accounts for 2017/2018 will be circulated in a separate report.
2.1.2 Draft Budget 2018/19 – (AGENDA ITEM 18)– to be circulated.
2.1.3 Internal Audit (AGENDA ITEM 19 Private and Confidential) – The Internal Auditor visited the town council on 12th and 13th September. We have been undertaking a comparison as part of a review of our Internal Audit provision. Due to the commercially confidential nature of the results of the review this item is taken as a Private and Confidential item at the end of the meeting.
2.1.4 External Audit – Our external audit has been completed by Grant Thornton for 2016/17 accounting year. Once again we achieved an ‘unqualified’ audit, which means the auditor found no issues of significance to report. The ‘Notice of Conclusion of Audit’ has been published on the website as required by the Regulations, as well as the completed Annual Return. Our External Audit for 2018/19 will be undertaken by PKF Littlejohn, appointed by the new sector led body; Smaller Authorities’ Audit Appointments (SAAA), following the demise of the Audit Commission.
2.1.5 Risk and Audit Panel – The Panel reviews all matters relating to finance, audit, insurance and risk, prior to the Policy & Resources committee. It next meets on 31st October 2017 at 15:00.
2.1.6VAT Visit – Two VAT officers undertook a visit to the Town Council on Thursday 14th September, from HMRC in Glasgow. Finance Officer (Lin Goodenough) and RFO (Lance Allan) met with them and were able to satisfactorily answer their questions. We received an e-mail from them on 19th September confirming that they were closing the enquiry.
2.1.7 Grants – The Full Council meeting on 19th September agreed to make an additional grant of £2000 to Wiltshire Mind towards their Counselling project for Polish speakers.
2.1.8Consultation with new residents (AGENDA ITEM 11) – The Town Council distributed consultation letters in early September to all of the households in the three areas (Shore Place, Paxcroft Mead and Old Farm) which transferred from neighbouring parishes to the town on 1st April. See attached summary of responses.
RECOMMENDATION: That the responses received from residents following consultation should be used by the department managers and the council is assessing specific budget priorities from 2018/19 to 2021/22.
2.2HUMAN RESOURCES
2.2.1 New Starters
Matthew Mayne – Groundsman started on 1st October.
Ellie Osborne – Apprentice HR and Business Admin started on 1st October.
2.2.2Reorganisation: Leisure Services – Following a review of the Leisure Services team the following appointments have been made;Richard Rees- Deputy Supervisor, Aaron Seviour- Client & Projects Coordinator, Jasmine Todd- Senior Sports Coach and Connor Stevens- Camp Coordinator.
Information Services – Following a review of the Customer Services and TIC team, the TIC Supervisor roles were put at risk of redundancy. As a result,Philp Bath will leave by reason of redundancy during November andMike Holden has accepted an alternative position as Customer Service Advisor.
2.2.3 Leavers: Maryrose Mantle, Community Development Officer has retired and left work before the end of October.
3.SERVICES -Department Managers make detailed reports to their respective committees which are published the week before the committee meeting. Trish Carpenter is the Council Secretary responsible for administering these committees.
3.1CULTURAL SERVICES- This area of service is delegated to the Museum Curator, Clare Lyall. The next Museum and Tourism committee meeting is 12th December 2017 at 6.30pm.
3.1.1 MUSEUM– Trowbridge Museum is an award-winning museum located in the Shires Shopping Centre telling the story of west of England woollen cloth manufacturing and its influence on the town. We are seeking to expand the museum into an additional floor – see Item 4.1. We work closely with The Friends of Trowbridge Museum.
3.1.2 Visit Wiltshire–The Museum, Civic Centre and Town Hall Arts work together and have a joint membership of Visit Wiltshire.
3.1.3 Culture – We also work in partnership with other cultural organisations including Drawing Projects at Bridge House to develop the cultural aspects of the Trowbridge community.
3.2LEISURE & INFORMATION SERVICES–This area of service is delegated to the Head of Leisure and Information Services, Hayley Bell.The next Leisure Services Committee meeting is 12th December 2017 at 7pm.
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Trowbridge Town Council
October/November 2017 ReportWorking with the Community
3.2.1 ACTIVE TROWBRIDGE – Provides sports coaching programmes to local schools throughout the term, Fun Days during the school holidays as well as free Summer Roadshows and the annual Active Festival which was held on Saturday 15th July in Trowbridge Park.
3.2.2 MARKETING & EVENTS – We use a variety of ways to communicate with those who live in, work in and visit Trowbridge.Social media, Trowbridge Information Centre, Web-sites:
information about council services and links to other local web-sites;
for Civic Centre, events and activities &
for the Museum, and
Discover Trowbridge Magazine provided by Brightside Marketing Solutions. The Autumn edition was published in August covering the period September - December 2017. The Calendar of Events isat the end of the report.
3.3NEIGHBOURHOOD & VENUE SERVICES– This area is delegated to the Deputy Chief Executive, Bill Austin. The next Direct Services committee meeting is28th November2017 at 7pm.
3.3.1 Civic Board– The Civic Board (which reports to the Direct Services Committee) next meets on14th November.It is responsible for overseeing the operation of the Civic Centre as a commercial conference and entertainment venue.
3.3.2Facilities–The Facilities Manager (Karl Buckingham) is responsible for managing the Civic Centre and other buildings, all of the utilities and services on behalf of occupiers including our external tenants, as well as health & safety, procurement, project management, insurance and the relationship with promoters for entertainments.
3.3.3Information Technology – We have installed new computer systems throughOakford Technology. Telephones werealso replacedin September/October.
3.3.4 Neighbourhoods – We manage the Town Park, play and recreational facilities, CCTV and a range of other environmental activities.
3.3.5 Christmas Switch On Event – (AGENDA ITEM 12) to consider re-siting the Christmas Light Switch On event to outside the Civic Centre this year to avoid any last minute problems arising from an electricity issue in Fore Street and scaffolding on the Town Hall at that time.
RECOMMENDATION to approve the re-siting of the Christmas Light Switch On event to outside the Civic Centre in 2017 to avoid any last minute problems arising from an electricity issue in Fore Street and scaffolding on the Town Hall at that time.
4.TOWN COUNCIL PROJECTS
4.1 Museum Project ONWARDS & UPWARDS –The Town Council Strategy says;
Trowbridge Town Council will; complete the project ‘Onwards and Upwards’ to expand Trowbridge Museum; secure funding from the HLF and other funders and; will contribute around £900,000, funded from borrowing at a cost of up to £50,000 per annum. The new Museum will reach out from its base in Home Mills in The Shires, to encompass the whole town, through visual links from the top floor, interpretation and signage at key locations and significant buildings linked to the museum.
The Council and its Landlord at The Shires agreed a letter of intent for a 25-year lease on the existing second floor and additional third floor of Home Mills on 18th September. The Council reiterated its long term commitment to Trowbridge Museum on 19th September. The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) met on 19th September to consider a round two application and informed us on 20th September that it had been successful, awarding £1,172,500 towards the £2.49 million project.
The five-year financial plan shows that the Council can fund the Project from the HLF grant, grants from other funders and borrowing of around £900,000 funded from a £50,000 per annum contribution from the Council Tax over 25 years.We have so far received over £100,000 towards the project in donations from third party funders and the public.A Start-up meeting for the Delivery Phase was held on Tuesday 24th October. We will need to complete the lease to obtain permission to start and will then commence the process of appointing a Project Manager to manage the procurement process and the relationship with the Architects and construction contractors.