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Area Boards - in a Nutshell

The Community Board will be a formally constituted arm of the new Council for Wiltshire and will have delegated authority assigned to it to act as a local executive arm of the Council. In the longer term, the aspiration is for other key organisations providing public services to the area – such as the Health, Police and Fire services - to be represented on the Board and for them to make executive decisions at these meetings too.

Functions

  • To provide a focus for community leadership, local influence and devolved decision-making, through the democratic mandate of elected councillors
  • To influence the allocation of resources and delivery of public services in the community area in order to pursue local priorities and issues (to include services provided by the Town and Parish councils as agents under contract to the Council)
    • To bring together key service providers and the local community into a coherent cycle, linked to budget and decision-making processes, where:
    • current conditions and future priorities are considered in the round through an annual State of the Community Area Debate;
    • priorities for action to address these issues are published in a Local Area Assessment;
    • budget priorities are set and grants are awarded for local projects, using participatory budgeting techniques, at an annual Decision Day event;
    • persistent sticky issues are identified and failing services are held to account through Local Challenge.
  • To agree a framework for consultations carried out in the community area on behalf of the Council (and, in the longer term, consultation carried out by other partners); also to provide feedback on major statutory consultations on behalf of the community area
  • To allocate core funding for the operation of the Community Area Partnership and project funding for identified community priorities; to develop participatory budgeting processes and to be instrumental in supporting and developing funding applications to external bodies and funding streams
  • To provide excellent two-way communications for the community area about public service provision and to the Council and Cabinet about the implementation and effectiveness of policies

Membership

  • Elected unitary councillors in the community area (the chair to be selected from and agreed by this group) plus one Cabinet member of the unitary council
  • The Board would also have as standing members elected representatives from the Town and Parish Councils in the community area and the Chair of the Community Area Partnership; and would also invite representatives of the Police, Fire and Health services at a senior decision-making level, as appropriate