Minutes of the Meeting held in the Phoenix Hall On Thursday, 14th July, 2022 at 7.00 p.m.

Report by Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling Avon Valley Division – July 22

 

SPTA Fires

It is a relief that after a huge effort by the Army and civil fire and rescue services the recent extensive fires on the Plain have been put out.  We all appreciate that the military need to train and are used to the normal range of activity and noise, but I am concerned that all possible lessons are learned and am pursuing this through our Public Health officers and their established liaison with MoD authorities.    

Cost of Living 

I would like to pass on the briefing given by the leader of Wiltshire Council at our June Cabinet meeting summarising the Council’s work to combat the recent increases in the cost of living.  I appreciate it is a long and complex read, but there may be nuggets in it that are relevant and may help some of those most in need.  Please draw on it and come back to me on any aspect you wish.  I would also highlight that while much of the support is in the gift of Central government we can and do lobby where we see a need to.  Through our MPs we have recently raised the issue of those living in park homes who may not benefit from the energy refunds 

Richard Clewer briefed us

“There is a range of support we offer or administer already in place that we are promoting, alongside support and initiatives being undertaken nationally. 

These include: 

∙ Providing the Local Welfare Provision, funded by Wiltshire Council, with £100,000 set aside for 2022/23. This is a scheme for those in crisis and the number of claims and recipients of this scheme are typically 1,000 per annum. 

∙ The Council Tax Reduction Scheme, which currently supports 26,000 households (10k of which are pensioners). We have allocated a further £140,000 to a Discretionary Council Tax Reduction Scheme, for those struggling most with the payment of council tax. 

∙ Administering housing benefit, currently delivered to 12,000 households, as well as the Discretionary Housing Payment Scheme where we have already committed almost 50% of the £330,000 available. 

∙ Delivering the first part of the Household Support Fund, and we were allocated £2.7m for the first six months of this year and there is no need for people to apply to Wiltshire Council, as eligible people are identified and contacted. 

This is being deployed to support: 

- Pensioners in receipt of council tax reduction and pension credit with £133. 

- Vulnerable working age households with £66. 

- Food payments during school holidays for those on free school meals or with early years pupil premium, or other vulnerable families (working with schools). 

- Vouchers for food and utility bills for those in temporary accommodation, supported accommodation or those recently moved into permanent accommodation. 

- Food banks and linked projects to ensure they can purchase and provide food to those most in need. 

We are also planning use of the fund for September to March, for which we have been allocated a similar amount as the first half of this year. 

∙ Offering the Holiday Activities and Food programme (known as FUEL in Wiltshire), which will run again in Wiltshire over summer 2022. FUEL is a free holiday activity and food project that offers those on free school meals the opportunity to take part in a range of fun activities and receive a nutritious meal during school holiday periods. 

∙ Paying the energy rebate, to those living in houses in council tax Bands A-D. This has already been received by over 100,000 households. We have been chasing bank details for over 40,000 households in order to issue them with payment. The final tranche of letters inviting them to claim were delivered on 25 May. 

∙ A webpage has been set up outlining the full range of What can we help you with? - Wiltshire Council and signposting to other organisations as appropriate. There is also a national version -  Cost of Living Support – Get government support to help with the cost of living

The announcement from the Chancellor last month was also further welcome news and this support in response to the short-term crisis is vital. 

It also means residents in Wiltshire will be receiving more than £220m through the various schemes in place. 

As well as this direct support on the cost of living, we are supporting a range of initiatives that address rising fuel prices through energy efficiency. 

These include: 

∙ Warm and Safe Wiltshire, which provides a free and impartial energy advice service and aims to reduce fuel poverty in Wiltshire. 

∙ A Home Upgrade Grant scheme which will open this summer delivering over £3m of support on insulation and renewable energy. 

∙ Through the Green Homes Grant we are delivering a £4.4m scheme that offers households an income of £30,000 or less, and living in a property that is rated D, E, F or G for energy efficiency, the chance to access up to £10,000 for improvements such as insulation, solar panels and double glazing. 

∙ We continue to invest in our council housing stock through the retrofit programme, helping some of our most vulnerable residents save money on their energy bills. The aim is to retrofit 500 homes a year and complete all 5000 of our council homes by 2030. 

∙ In May, we launched Solar Together, a joint buying scheme that allows communities to purchase solar production and storage at the right price. 

∙ We continue to promote other energy efficiency measures by social media, such as the £5k grants for heat pumps which began last month. 

I have held discussions with my Cabinet and our partners in other public service and voluntary sector organisations on what more we can do individually and collectively – including promotion of existing support, widening the scope of existing schemes, better targeting of vulnerable clients with support, tackling the risk of exploitation, reinvigorating initiatives such as car sharing and will continue to keep this area under review.”

Enhanced Highways Maintenance Funding

Some good news on highways and fighting fly tipping    

The appearance of our roads and verges is important to the public and local communities, but with funding limitations it has not always been possible to deliver the desired levels of routine maintenance on the network as safety maintenance has had to take priority.

At this month’s Cabinet meeting we agreed to increase funding by £683,000 annually over the next three years to improve the safety and appearance of the highway network. 

• Funding for road marking and lining will increase by £200,000 annually to address the backlog and make an enormous difference to the appearance and safety of the network. This will be used to renew give way, roundabout markings and stop lines, predominantly using ‘hand’ gangs within the urban areas and a programme of machine lining on the inter-urban roads, especially the A roads. The programme will be focused on an area-by-area basis which will see the lining brought up to standard over the next three years. 
• The budget for gully emptying will be increased by £333,000 annually to pay for another specialist gully emptying machine with jetting facility, supporting traffic management and additional equipment to be deployed to improve drainage. The provision of this fourth machine will enable the frequency of gully emptying to be increased. 
• Litter enforcement will be improved by investing £150,000 annually to provide monitoring cameras, three additional enforcement staff, and an advertising and awareness campaign.