The Vision was written to stimulate debate and action - here is just some of the progress that has been made
The Vision includes and has seen positive responses to our ideas for....
....
....Our town hall is nothing short of a disgrace - it
is now the burning issue and the Civic Trust now combined with the town
Preservation Trust (and three well read local websites) are to lead the
campaign to restore it to its former glory.
....Provide a professional website to promote the town nationally and internationally - town councilhas now published an improved website.
....Recruitment of a Warminster economic development officer - no real activity but the town council will be asked to take on more responsibilities by Wiltshire Council.
....Older boy racers speeding recklessly around the town in their cars - the police neighbourhood tasking group have twice made speed checks in the town a quarterly priority.
....The number of times that local police community support officers were sent off to other duties - the police have agreed to set and abide by an 'abstraction' limit.
....Community wardens provided by the local authority in contact with the police by radio - no moves by the local authorities but a church group is looking at introducing this.
....The
broken window syndrome where if there are two windows broken then
vandals find it easy to break two others and the same for litter
leading to anti-social behaviour - a voluntary community group WETS has been formed tackling these issues.
....There
are many clubs and organisations playing a hugely beneficial role in
the life of the town that should be invited to the Mayor's annual gala awards - partly achieved as the mayor has organised a Mayor's Day at the Assembly Rooms inviting local organisation to show themselves.
....Town councillors should be made portfolio holders and report back on a regular basis - no
real uptake but a councillor has been asked to chair a communications
committee and another is looking into an idea for young people (see
below).
....Young people want somewhere just to hang out and teen shelters are the answer - it has been agreed to provide a teen shelter in the town park.
....To find out more about what young people want we could set up a shadow youth council - this has been put on the agenda of the Mayoral Initiative Group and a councillor has promised to report back.
....We need a full blown community centre
in the heart of the town where the elderly can meet and mix with other
age groups of town and those that provide the services that they need
and we believe that should be the Assembly Rooms - if
the town council proceed with their current 'bigger bureaucracy' plans
ignoring the 'parish poll' they will have failed the people but one
councillor has written a paper in favour of the community hub. The Audit Commission is also putting pressure on councils to do more
....The local authority should start building new council houses and managing them drawing on the expertise of Salisbury District - new council houses have been given the go-ahead for Wiltshire after the new unitary authority successfully made a bid.
....We need a better community bus service - a scheme was announced as being piloted in January 2009.
..... We highlighted the need to make improvements to the entrances to the town, especially the flagship Boreham Road... this is being done and there are even plans for five new trees to be planted (but three will have to go!!)
....In order to secure free parking for Warminster we proposed the transfer of the ownership of the car parks to the town council with legal safeguards - Wiltshire
council have provoked a huge backlash about this matter...But town
councillors are coming round to this viewpoint and it could happen.
These are our car parks not the county councils and were paid for by
Warminster UDC ratepayers.
....The widened pavements in the town centre provide opportunity for the Friday market to return to the streets - the Christmas Lights switch-on moved into the Market Place without too much disruption.
In
addition to this the visionforwarminster website raises new issues
through its hot topics which most recently have seen the public made
aware of the true cost of the town council public works loan board
application.
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