VFW Catches On
The Vision was written to stimulate debate and action
Here is just some of the progress that has been made
..... If local authrities make a 'strong and sound' case then councils will get the green light to build and manage homes that people need - Wiltshire Council have this week announced a £40 million budget to do just that.
.... Scruffiest 'sweatshirt lowest common dominator' schoolchlildren are found in Wiltshire - September 2012 and Kingdown School bring back the tie and blazer for their new intake and vfw can reveal that 40 per cent of the pupils in other years have jumped at the chance.
.... Our town hall is nothing short of a disgrace - 2012 and it is now back in private hands who have carried out some repair work (needed to protect their investment) after a it became the hottest issue in town
....Provide a professional website to promote the town nationally and internationally - 2010 town council has now published an improved website although some of it is still under used or 'under construction'.
....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 and the town council are now (autumn 2012) actively co-ordinating a jobs fair.
....Older boy racers speeding recklessly around the town in their cars - the police neighbourhood tasking group have several times made speed checks in the town a quarterly priority but in 2012 centralised to Trowbridge.
....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 now provides late night street pastors.
....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 - 2009 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 - 2010 this has been put on the agenda of the Mayoral Initiative Group and a councillor has promised to report back but failed to do so
....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 which is ideally suited for this role - 2012 the town council proceeded to spend around £1 million on moving their offices to this building after ignoring the 'parish poll'.
.... 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 trumpeted as being piloted in January 2009 but nothing happened.
.... We highlighted the need to make improvements to the entrances to the town, especially the flagship Boreham Road - 2010 this is being done and more are planned in 2012.
.... 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 - 2010 Wiltshire council have provoked a huge backlash about this matter... the town council and local unitary councillors failed to stop it. These are our car parks not the county councils and were paid for by Warminster UDC ratepayers. A limited refund scheme is in place.
....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.
Updated 9th October 2012
