Jenny’s Wootton Bassett Blog

At Thursday’s Town Council meeting Paul Harrison of the Sports Association and  Paul Burrell of Pegasus Planning Group introduced the plans they are about to submit to NWDC for the Sports Hub Project. I particularly asked about the problems of youngsters getting to an edge of town site and Paul Harrison said they would be running a mini-bus service to pick children up for fixtures. They had already explained that they would be constructing a footpath back from the new entrance to the bus stop, and having a toucan crossing (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toucan_crossing)  The plan for the Sports Hub looks good, but residents near the Rylands Field won’t like the site being redeveloped for housing. They should look at the plans and put their views. The development will be for 164 dwelling units, 30% of which will be affordable housing, bringing some new housing very accessible to the town centre. A green space of .2 hectares next to Rylands Way is proposed.

The main topic at the meeting was time restrictions on High Street parking. NWDC are asking about a questionnaire they intend to send out to businesses and residents. It was the feeling of the meeting that the residents were the main ones who needed to be consulted – Brian Taylor had earlier spoken for the Chamber of Commerce unequivocally calling for 2 free hours limited parking on the High Street. It was felt that the Council should just get on with this, at the same time working out a scheme for residents parking, and the implications for nearby roads. It didn’t seem as though our District Councillors had had any input to the consultation plans.

The meeting had a police report from Sergeant Andy Fortune.  He reported that a number of people had been identified for graffiti painting and prosecutions were pending. When I asked about this he said he hoped word of this would get round and discourage others. He is also working with the school and youth club.  

On Tuesday 2^nd I went to my first Town Council meetings after my election.First was a short Planning meeting, considering a car port in Wood Street, an extension in Vale View, and an extension in Honeyhill. Cllr Gibbs said regarding North Wilts District Council’s decision  to give permission for the development on the Beaufort Arms site that he was disappointed at the lack of support given to the Town Council’s view by the District Council and in particular by Cllr Toby Sturgis who is a County Council member for the area.

 At the Revenue & Resources Meeting grants were approved to the Prospect Hospice for Community Nurses (£500) and to British Legion to fund a band at this year’s Remembrance Parade (£300).We discussed the Council’s web-site. Several of us felt it is rather boring! Staff shortages have kept it from being kept up to date but since I started asking about it updating is getting better. Staff were asked to find out about services that would develop the site and maintain it in return for advertising revenue. My view is that we just need to get the content up to date, readable and interesting – it isn’t that difficult.  After looking at the Annual report on the CCTV system we decided to get some more information about likely technology improvements, and the effect of the change to a Unitary Authority.

Thinking about how the Council’s cash balances are invested it was decided not to change. As part of this item there was some discussion about the forthcoming budget setting process. Peter Doyle asked that staff included proposals for the Town Council Council Tax to stay the same or have a small decrease.