TCAF STEERING GROUP
Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday 22 February 2010 at 4 pm at Clarendon College
Present:
Colin Kay
Lance Allan
Bob Brice
Rachel Efemey
Margaret Howard
John Knight
CC (Chair)
TTC
TTC/TCAF Econ
WC
TCAF H&SC
TT C
Jeff Osborn
Gaynor Polglase
Doug Ross
Mary Stacey
David Baker
TTC/WC
TCAF/PC LG
TCAF PO
TCAF/BA14C
T&DC0C
1.
Welcome: Colin welcomed all to the meeting.
2.
Apologies: These had been received from Peter Barnett, David Cullop, Tom James and Angela Milroy
3.
The Minutes of the Meeting held on 4th January 2010
 These were approved as a correct record subject to correcting the spelling of Rachel’s surname
Efemey.
Trowbridge Area Board Meeting, Thursday 4th March 2010
 The Minutes of the previous Board Meeting had been distributed.
o Mary Stacey stated that she had given her apologies for this meeting although that was
not recorded.
o TCAF’s involvement in the Agenda setting for the Board meetings was welcomed. There
is still concern with the level of public involvement at Board meetings but there has been
an improvement.
o The Budget exercise was felt to be somewhat superficial and really has no influence on
the actual budget or on the provision of local services.
o Despite some concerns about the proposal for the new Library to be built into County Hall
this was generally considered to be quickest way forward and the promise is that will be
as big and well fitted out as the Library proposed for the Waterside development.
o The delay on the disposal of the Margaret Stancomb School was welcome and the
Steering Group confirmed its support for the Wiltshire Rural Music School’s proposal to
acquire the main Hall and parking space for its own use.
 The Joint Project Officers’ Report to the Board Meeting was welcomed. Progress with the “Sticky
Dot” exercise was noted and will be reviewed at the next Steering Group meeting. All were
pleased that it will feature at the next Board Meeting.
4.
5.
Theme and Other Group’s Notes/Minutes/Reports.
The various Minutes and reports had been circulated. The main points highlighted were as follows:  Economy and Transport: o The new Transforming Trowbridge Board is the main active body focussing on
Economic Development in the Trowbridge Community Area. Its most recent meeting was
held on 2nd February 2010 and is reported on under Item 6.
o The Chamber of Commerce, via its Retail Impact Group is very concerned with the
burgeoning number of Charity shops which have an unfair advantage over commercial
shops in terms of the business rebate which they get. This is an Issue /Concern which
they Chamber wish to have stated and addressed in the Community Area Plan.
 Culture: - Mary Stacey reported that BA14 Culture had met earlier in the day: o Satisfactory progress is being made on the development of the website which it is hoped
will go live this month or early in March
TCAF is the Community Partnership whose aim is to improve the quality
of life and wellbeing of all people in the Trowbridge Community Area.
o
We are being involved in consultation for the new library, with their consultation
questionnaires having been approved
o We are working with the Thrive Dance Event due to take place on Saturday 1st May 2010
where we will have a small marquee.
o We are recruiting performers, displays etc for our major cultural event due to take place
in the Civic Hall on Saturday 10th July 2010.
o It is hoped that the Group working with the Town Council can attract funding to secure
the lease of premises in Stone Mill to use as an Art Gallery.
 Environment: - We are looking to reform a wider based Environment Theme Group so as to
develop the capacity to move forward more positively.
o Waste collection was to have undergone and strategic review and were hoping to take
part in the consultation on this. However this review has been postponed pending the
Election.
o The Friends of Biss Meadows are continuing their environmental work and Wiltshire
Council and Trowbridge Town Council are both supporting them.
o We attended the Wiltshire College Environmental Event at Trowbridge College.
o Trowbridge Fairtrade Group is running an extensive series of activities during Fairtrade
fortnight from today 22/02/10 to Sunday 7/03/10.
o The Friends of the Trowbridge Community Sensory Garden have asked for the
Trowbridge Area Board’s support in preserving the Sensory Garden now that the Town
Hall is included in Wiltshire Council’s list of disposable assets. The Steering Group
reconfirmed its support for preserving the Sensory Garden.
o Trowbridge Town Council has responded very positively to our request for it to update its
Environmental Policy.
 Education: - Kate Oatley is participating in the Extended Schools Network once again.
o We are to be carrying out consultation work including the “Sticky Dot” exercise at a
number of schools in the next few weeks.
 Health and Social Care: - Margaret Howard reported that: o We continue to work closely with NHS Wiltshire and WC. Recently we obtained the
specification for the Single Point of Access and Out of Hours Service. The contract has
been awarded to Wiltshire Medical Services the operator which has been providing these
services and the Minor Injury Service locally for some years. We should not experience
any significant changes.
o TCAF will be working in partnership with WC and NHS Wiltshire on the Health and
Wellbeing Fair and Workshop being held at the Civic Hall on Wednesday 24th February
2010. We will take the opportunity to run our “Sticky Dot” exercise.
o Information from the Trowbridge Area Strategic Needs Assessment Workshop will be
used in our updating of the Community Area Plan.
 Community Safety: o It is with great sadness that we record the death of 22year-old Trowbridge based PC
Daniel Cooper on 1st February 2010 in a traffic collision whilst on duty. Our thoughts are
with his family and colleagues.
o The monthly Bluez n’ Zuz disco events, now being held at Silhouttes Cafe, are attracting
more young people including some from neighbouring villages.
o Wiltshire Fire and Rescue has been giving fire safety advice at local Primary Schools.
o The recent organisational assessment of the Fire Authority stated that “Overall it
performs well. It delivers value for money adequately and manages its performance
well”.
 Trowbridge Neighbourhoods Partnership: o The Partnership was interested to hear from Hayley Bell, TTC’s Leisure Activities
Development Officer of the extent of Active Trowbridge’s work in all the Trowbridge
Schools using their 20 Sports Apprentices/Sports Coaches. In addition to coaching a
range of sports and running different before and after schools clubs the apprentices work
towards a Level 2 NVQ qualification. Funding for much of this work has been attracted
through the Extended Schools Network.
o The construction under the Dropped Kerbs project funded jointly by TTC (£5,000) and
WCC (£5,000) has been completed ahead of schedule. It is hoped that there will be a
similar jointly funded project in 2010/2011.
 Parish Councils Liaison Group: - Gaynor Polglase reported that: o Neighbourhood policing is working well in the 4 rural Parishes. She now chairs all the
Tasking Group meetings and the priorities identified are owned by the local communities.
TCAF is the Community Partnership whose aim is to improve the quality
of life and wellbeing of all people in the Trowbridge Community Area.
o
o
6.
Antisocial behaviour is a current problem in Hilperton and Southwick which is being
addressed.
Traffic speeding through the villages remains an ongoing problem.
Transforming Trowbridge Board.
Mary Stacey, our representative, reported on the significant points which arose at this meeting: o The former WW Planning Liaison meetings are to be recommenced to develop a better
and useful relationship between the business community and Development Control.
o Adam Nardell should be able to relinquish his Chippenham responsibilities by the end of
April 2010.
o The main purpose of the Wiltshire Council Internal Vision Board is to coordinate crossdepartmental support for the 3 Visions and separate Internal Vision Boards are to be set
up.
o A Steering Group has been formed to interview 3 tenderers re the Scoping and Vision
Study.
o The Core Strategy consultation material does not contain a Trowbridge Transport Plan and
indeed contains little transport information. It is said that a local Transport Plan will be
developed as the Core Strategy consultation provides clearer information on future
infrastructure development. There are present concerns with traffic jams in the Town
Centre.
o There is a present need to improve the appearance of the Town with a number of key sites
giving the town a “down at heel” image e.g. the former Peter Black and Tesco sites; the
Rose and Crown pub; the former Tremans site and to a lesser degree the Bowyers site. It
is hoped to find some funding to make some temporary improvements. The TiB initiative
was praised by Harry Hilliard as a practical way of raising the profile of the Town.
7.
Recommendation to TTC re extending its Environmental Policy.
Lance Allan reported his Recommendation to tomorrow night’s Policy and Resources meeting as follows: “a) Contribute to (rather than lead) a local Environment Day initiative.
b) Update the Council’s Environmental Policy to incorporate these new commitments
c) Include the implementation of the Environmental Policy in the TTC Strategy 2008 – 2011.
d) Designate an officer as its lead Environmental Officer and
e) Give future consideration to the establishment of an Environmental Officer post if external funding
................can be found.”
8.
Updating the Community Area Plan in 2010.
Work has started with 27 issues having been identified as current. A “Sticky Dot” exercise is being run
with young people and their parents through school contacts, which aims to identify the priority issues. At
the same time we are asking those taking to identify other issues and/or concerns they may have. We
have in mind to visit Luncheon clubs, businesses and to attend other people’s events and will also use
Questionnaires, Focus Groups and face to face interviews with the support of our Future Jobs Fund
temporary staff.
We will periodically review with the Steering Group, the Area Board Manager, relevant WC support staff
and of course the Area Board to ensure that all are convinced that our methods enable us to identify the
key issues.
We need to work closely with all our partners, as we did for the original Community Area Plan because
they need to buy into the Plan and commit themselves to addressing the local issues and concerns. Our
Partners are Wiltshire Council, NHS Wiltshire, Wiltshire Police, Wiltshire Fire & Rescue, Wiltshire
College, Trowbridge Town Council, the Parish Councils of Hilperton, North Bradley, Southwick and West
Ashton, Trowbridge & District Chamber of Commerce, local Schools, Trowbridge College, Transforming
Trowbridge, Selwood Housing Society and the other Housing Societies/Associations.
The original plan identified under 8Themes 1) The Issues and Concerns 2) What the partners are doing
now (to address the issues and concerns) 3) In the future the partners will (take action to address the
issues and concerns) and 4) set realistic key targets by 2013, the next election date for Councils’
elections.
The format of the proposed Plan Update was discussed and it was agreed that the Plan will be published
on our website, hopefully the Board’s website, and in loose leaf format to enable it to updated quickly and
easily. Hard copies of the plan will be held for consultation by the Library, Councils, schools etc. It is not
our intention to publish a glossy document as we did originally as we do not consider this to be cost
effective nor a prudent use of limited funds.
TCAF is the Community Partnership whose aim is to improve the quality
of life and wellbeing of all people in the Trowbridge Community Area.
We need to use other means of publicising our work via the media, press, radio and television, other
publications and by linking with those who already publish newsletters e.g. WC, the Area Board, TTC,
Parish Councils, local businesses. It was stressed that we do need to publicise what we are achieving by
working in partnership.
Terms of Reference.
These are still in need of updating. It was agreed that a small working party, consisting of John
Knight, Lance Allan, Doug Ross, Rachel Efemey and Laura Pictor (WFCAP) would complete this
work before our next meeting.
9.
Dates of next meetings 2009/2010.
Special Meeting re the Core Strategy on Monday 30th November 2009 from 4pm to 6pm at
Clarendon College.
Mondays 4th January and 22nd February 2010 from 4pm to 6pm at Clarendon College...
TCAF is the Community Partnership whose aim is to improve the quality
of life and wellbeing of all people in the Trowbridge Community Area.