www.wiltshire.gov.uk
Parish Newsletter - July 2007
Welcome to the July issue of the parish newsletter.
One Council for Wiltshire
Friday, June 22 saw the end of the Department for Communities & Local Government’s consultation period on bids for unitary authorities. The Government is expected to announce which bids have been successful by the end of July. The council’s final submission has now gone to the DCLG and can be seen, along with all the background to the bid, on the One Council website www.onecouncilforwiltshire.co.uk. If you require a hard copy, please call 01225 757593.
Over the last three months, the county council has held One Council road shows in venues from shopping centres to high streets, farmers’ markets and supermarkets; chatted to parents at school gates; delivered postcards and magazines explaining the bid to all homes in the county and held exhibitions at all libraries. More than 50 meetings have taken place with parish councils, town councils and other organisations in the county.
If the bid is successful, Wiltshire County Council has decided to ask an independent organisation to appoint a panel of local people to oversee the transition from five councils to one.
Smokefree Wiltshire – Bus Shelters
Regulations relating to prohibition of smoking in enclosed public spaces include bus shelters where 75% of the shelter is enclosed. These shelters are required to be signed as no smoking areas. The county council has been busy installing signs on its own shelters. However if you have only one or two shelters and are having difficulty in locating self-adhesive signs suitable for fixing to glass or other smooth surfaces to the correct format, please contact us and we will send you some at no charge. Please send requests to Dennis Compton Signs will be sent by post as quickly as possible. Stocks are good but not without limit. Installation will be for the parish to arrange.
Consultation on revised preferred options for the Wiltshire & Swindon Minerals and Waste Development Control Policies
The county council is to publish development plan documents for a formal round of consultation:
- The Wiltshire & Swindon Waste Development Control Policies: Revised Preferred Options Report July 2007.
- The Wiltshire & Swindon Minerals Development Control Policies: Revised Preferred Options Report July 2007.
The purpose of this second formal round of consultation is to address a range of comments and fundamental issues of “soundness” prior to entering the final phase of development plan document preparations and the submission stage. Consultation on these documents will run during August and September 2007. Copies of all the documents published for consultation will be on the county council website from August.
Parish Steward Programmes
The summer programmes are now on their way to all parish councils. There are programmed visits for the months of July and September; August will see the stewards engaged in painting handrails and posts. Office managers in the divisional offices have lists of the features that we are painting this summer. Please check with them if you are in any doubt. This programme is subject to possible changes to individual parish dates as a result of the holiday commitments of the stewards and divisional offices will be in direct contact to arrange changes or cover to suit. Throughout July, stewards will be on the lookout for ragwort which will be removed to a covered skip prior to incineration. Common ragwort is poisonous to horses and other livestock and can have potentially fatal consequences if ingested either in its green or dried state. Further information on this is included in the letter that accompanies the programme.
Tackling Food Waste
While most of the contents of your household bin can be recycled, food waste still has to be taken by truck to a landfill and buried where it will produce the greenhouse gas methane. It’s not a very environmentally friendly process and, because of EU fines, increasingly expensive. So Wiltshire County Council is piloting a scheme to help householders be greener. It is offering 2,000 kitchen digesters to residents, heavily-subsidised. There are two types available and both deal with both raw waste from food preparation and left-over cooked waste, including such traditionally difficult to dispose of items as cooked fruit and vegetable waste, bones, fish and meat. For more information about the kitchen digesters visit www.recycleforwiltshire.com
Changes to 635 Bus Service – Bristol to Chippenham
The 635 bus service, currently provided by FirstBus between Bristol and Chippenham, will be withdrawn in its present form from Saturday, July 28. In its place, from Monday, July 30 will be two replacement services; one between Bristol and Marshfield (provided by FirstBus) and the other between Marshfield and Chippenham (provided by Faresaver Buses). They will still both be referred to as 635 to ensure continuity. Most journeys will connect at Marshfield which will allow through journeys to be made and Wiltshire Day Rover and First South West Day tickets will continue to be accepted throughout, although Senior Citizen Passes will not be able to used to cross the county border at Marshfield (until after April 2008). A timetable is available to view here (pdf 51Kb) 
. For further information, contact Nigel Bruce-Robertson on 01225 713577.
News in Brief
Community Highway Meetings
The attendance at the 2007 highway meetings was the highest so far. Everyone who attended seemed to enjoy both the presentation and the demonstration of our pothole filling machine. If you were not able to attend this year, please consider it for April/May 2008. Invitations will be sent out in February. The slides that were shown are available to view here (pdf 1224Kb) .
Emergency Planning Rest Centre Exercise
Wiltshire County Council’s Emergency Planning Unit (EPU) is holding a rest centre exercise on Sunday September 23 at Leighton Recreation Centre, Westbury from 10 am to 4 pm. The aim of the exercise is to allow rest centre teams from the department of community services and the voluntary agencies to practice documentation and welfare processes for people evacuated from their homes during an emergency. The EPU already has a number of community emergency volunteers agreeing to take part as evacuees but need more volunteers. If you are willing to take part in either the morning or afternoon or perhaps do the whole day, please contact Susan Jefferis or phone 01225 713159 for an application form
Development Opportunity
The county council, together with the four district councils, has agreed a package of development sessions for councillors which comprise the Wiltshire Improvement Partnership Member Development programme. One of these sessions, “Chairing Skills”, is being held at Salisbury District Council offices on Friday, July 13 from 2-4.30 pm. Places are limited but if any town or parish councillor would like to attend, please contact John Quinton at the county council (01225 713054) to book a place.
Streetscene
Streetscene is one of the four key priority projects adopted by the Wiltshire Strategic Board (WiSB) and incorporates a number of services that have an important impact on the ‘street’ and public open spaces in terms of their appearance and condition. Streetscene aims to improve the attractiveness, safety, cleanliness and usability of Wiltshire’s street and lane scene. If you have any queries regarding Streetscene services, a list of useful contacts is available here.
Agendas, reports and minutes
are available for all meetings that are open to the public. You can view these by visiting the Committee Papers website.
This newsletter is produced by the communications team at Wiltshire County Council.
We would be pleased to receive your comments / feedback and any changes of address / parish clerk details to:
Contact Details
By post
Communications Unit
County Hall
Bythsea Road
Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 8JN
By email
