On Tuesday 2nd 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.