www.wiltshire.gov.uk
Wiltshire Local Area Agreement Newsletter - Issue 6
Introduction
Since the last newsletter in November 2006 a huge amount of work has been undertaken by the block leads and their respective working groups to develop the Local Area Agreement. Alongside this has been the consultation process for both the Sustainable Community Strategy and the Local Area Agreement.
Second submission
The second draft Local Area Agreement was submitted to GOSW on Friday 12th January 2007 following comments made on the first draft and will soon be available on the Wiltshire County Council website.
Sustainable Community Strategy
David Maynard has been working hard following the end of the consultation period in late December, 2006, to consolidate the 53 responses on the Sustainable Community Strategy and the high level outcomes of the Local Area Agreement.
The overall aim of the Strategy, ‘to create strong and sustainable communities,’ was widely supported. A few consultees suggested additional phrases such as ‘socially inclusive’, and ‘prosperous’.
The inclusion of the word ‘sustainable’ in the title of the Strategy, and its aim of creating strong and sustainable communities attracted a great deal of comment. Many of the comments were sceptical that the Strategy was truly sustainable, and emphasised that a wide range of factors (including the need to co-locate new housing and associated community services, recycling, water and energy resource management, flooding, access to green space and landscape conservation, local food for local consumption, etc.) would need strengthening if it were truly to lead to a sustainable Wiltshire.
The following further factors were also cited as factors that may be going in an unsustainable direction at present: growth in second home/holiday homes; food miles, and bulk commodity agricultural production where other areas of the world can undercut us on cost; obesity trends and the potential increase in coronary heart disease and diabetes, etc; failure to attract young graduates to the County economy in sufficient numbers; loss of village shops and post offices; current levels of water abstraction.
In terms of the topics which consultees felt needed greater emphasis in the document, the following were suggested: the issue of migrant workers and their integration; improving rural access, particularly to health services; extending visible policing, especially in rural areas; expanding youth activities; retaining village shops and post offices; providing health and social care facilities close to communities where people live so that particularly elderly and disabled people can stay in contact with their social networks; giving more emphasis to other sections of the community that may be prone to social exclusion e.g. people with learning disabilities, gypsies and travellers, ethnic minority communities and disabled people.
A fuller summary of these results will be placed shortly on the Strategic Board’s webpage. The implications for the Local Area Agreement will be debated at the January meetings of WiSBEx (19th), and the WiSB(24th). The implications for the Sustainable Community Strategy will be discussed by WiSB at their 5th March meeting.
Enabling Measures
Enabling measures are measures taken by Government to reduce bureaucracy in an effort to free up local resources for delivery. Enabling measures are an opportunity for Government to recognise our strong partnership arrangements and ability to deliver via the Local Area Agreement. There are at present five business case submissions to GOSW for enabling measures from Government. Work continues to identify further measures where possible.
Next Steps
There will be a presentation to WiSB on the 24th January by Keith Robinson and the Block Leads on the development of the Local Area Agreement. The final submission to Whitehall will be on the 21st March 2007.
The draft project plan, and the minutes Project Board Meetings are available on the LAA area of the WiSB website to be found at
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/wiltshire-strategic-board.htm
Contact Details
By Post
Paul Bright
Partnership and Performance Manager
Wiltshire County Council
County Hall
Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 8JF
By Telephone
01225 713094
By Email
Opening hours
Monday - Friday 9am to 5 pm
