Annual Report 2015-2016

Chairman’s Report
The Town Council has had a busy and challenging year. Following the consultation on the Neighbourhood
Plan a great deal of time was taken to make the necessary revisions to reflect the views of residents
and we are now waiting for the independent inspector’s comments before the plan can be put to a
referendum.
As a result of increasing financial constraints, Wiltshire Council is offering parishes the opportunity to
take on certain assets that they will no longer be maintaining. A Devolved Services Working Group has
been set up to consider which assets the Town Council wishes to take on and negotiations are well
under way for the transfer of the town park into Council ownership from 1st July 2016 along with the
public conveniences in the park and in the Central Car Park. This has involved a great deal of work
drawing up maintenance contracts to ensure that all the details have been covered.
The Council is currently formulating a Strategic Plan for the period 2016–2021, which will update the
Civic Plan. In addition to the day-to-day operational work of the Council this will look at any major
projects that need to be undertaken, such as devolved services, and there will be an accompanying
service plan to detail how these will be delivered. The strategic plan will be based on the priorities
outlined in the Neighbourhood Plan.
There have been some truly memorable events this year, not least the
visit of the Duchess of Cambridge to Action on Addiction’s Centre for
Addiction Treatment Studies (CATS), The Manor House, Warminster on
10th December. The Duchess is the Patron of the charity and it was an
honour for the town to receive her on her first ever visit to Wiltshire
and fascinating to learn about the excellent work that is carried out at
the centre.
It was also an honour to be one of the stopping points for Walking with
the Wounded’s Walk of Britain. The visit of this inspirational group of
walkers to the Civic Centre on 6th October was truly uplifting and the
assembled crowd gave them a fitting and rousing send-off as they left for
the next stage of their walk. They really appreciated the packed lunch
that we supplied for their next stopping point at Stonehenge.
Equally rewarding was seeing how many volunteers came out
to help Clean for the Queen on 4th and 5th March,
demonstrating the pride that residents have in our lovely
town. We had support from young volunteers from the Scouts,
Cubs, Beavers and Explorers and from some of our older
groups such as the Royal British Legion, Boreham WI and U3A,
as well as many individuals who wanted to clean their own
favourite areas. There were over 150 volunteers on 5th March
cleaning the park and many more parts of the town and a total
of 257 bags of rubbish were collected.
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