Welcome to the Towards One Council Website, a one stop shop for all news relating to the transition to one council for Wiltshire.

Frontline Services - Current Activity

The Frontline Services Board has two representatives from each of the five authorities. The additional capacity at Board level reflects the amount of work that is now underway to move critical service areas forward and ensure regular communication and updates on progress within the five authorities. Board members champion the services prioritised for transition and transformation. They provide support and liaison for the service groups and represent them at Board level.  An exercise to ensure all services are integrated in the transition and transformation exercise has been completed and wide ranging discussions are in hand with key shareholders.

Parking and the Local Transport Plan

Rob Murphy was the guest at the Parking Practitioners’ meeting on 4 June to talk about his work on the Local Transport Plan for Wiltshire. The first LTP wasproduced in 2001, the second in 2006 and the next is due in 2011. The LTP is the 5-year overall statutory transport plan for the County; individual District plans form part of the LTP which sets out transport objectives, strategies, approaches to transport issues, such as accessibility, congestion and maintenance, targets and an implementation programme. He said WCC annually receives about £4m for small (integrated transport) schemes and £15m for maintenance schemes.

The LTP has to link with theRegional Spatial Strategy, whichincludes a parking policy, and a number of other strategies, for example the Community Strategy and Local Development Framework. Parking is an important part of the LTP and there is a separate LTP Parking Plan which is due for review. In essence, parking policy has to maintain the vibrancy and viability of town centres as well as encouraging people to use alternatives to driving, such as walking and cycling. Rob is also developing a LTP Issues Paper with Alan Feist to set out a long-term overall transport strategy - this may have implications for parking policy.

Service Area documentation

All service area lead officers have compiled PIDs, Plans, Issues Logs and Risk Registers. They also send in fortnightly Highlight Reports. These will soon be available for all staff to read and understand what every group is currently focusing on. The Frontline Services Workstream Plan has also been drawn up.

Service Workshops

Workshops have taken place with all county-wide frontline service teams in order to establish what needs to be done in each service area both pre and post April 09. This work has shaped the overall frontline services project plan that sets out the key actions and outcomes, including when key decisions will need to be taken.

New Service Areas in FLS

The new Service Areas, Sustainable Transport & Travel, led by Alan Feist, and Land Charges, led by Julie Marsh, are making excellent progress.

On 9 June, Tracy Carter brought a proposal for the FLS Board to approve Fleet as another Frontline Service Area. She noted that the councils’ fleets represent a substantial asset and suggested that the Fleet Transition Working Group’s brief be extended from Waste & Recycling to all aspects of management of owned and leased operational fleet. The Board was in agreement and this proposal will now go to the Joint Implementation Team.