At its Full Council meeting on Tuesday 28^th January 2020, Councillors of Haydon Wick Parish Council set the precept for 2020/21 at £822,375.57 which, on an average Band D property, is £91.23 per year. This represents an increase of 9% on last year’s precept and yet despite the increase, is still significantly lower than many other Parish & Town Councils in Swindon.

Last year was an important year for the Council, having made significant improvements to the quality of its grounds maintenance contract and the refurbishment and maintenance of many of its 24 play parks. As such the Parish Council recognised it was paramount that it sustained these improvements into 2020/21.

Chair of the Council, Councillor Linda Brown said: “This financial year we want to maintain our service delivery, apply improvements where required, look at where additional efficiencies can be achieved, keep our Parish a great place to live and to deliver some exciting projects. This year’s budget and precept should enable us to deliver just that for our residents.”

A full breakdown of the budget and detailed explanation will be in the Haydon Wick Living magazine being delivered to residents of the parish in March and available soon on this website.

If you are worried about an adult at risk of going out and forgetting their way home, help is at hand.

This information is intended to assist family, friends, care workers, Telecare providers, responders and the police if the person goes missing.

Please complete this booklet and keep it in a safe place. If possible please also complete and save the electronic version of the form, available to download at: www.wiltshire.police.uk/herbertprotocol

The booklet contains a lot of questions – do not worry if you don’t have, or cannot get, all of the information it asks for – some of it won’t apply to everyone. There are sections intended for professional carers; please don’t worry if you do not understand what they mean. Please save this booklet – either in electronic format or handwritten – in a place where it can easily be found if the person it refers to goes missing. It may need to be located quickly, at any time, day or night, by the police who may need the information to begin the initial searches.

The police will only ever ask for the form if the person is reported missing.

Thank you for taking the time to complete it. It could help to save someone’s life.

We’re on the look out for Haydon Wick Heroes!

Do you know someone who has gone ‘to infinity and beyond’ to make their community a good place to live? Someone that is passionate about fundraising for a good cause? Or even a young person who has achieved something amazing this year?

Show them that you are proud of them by nominating them for a community award!

For more information please visit the Haydon Wick Heroes page by clicking this link www.haydonwick.veep.uk/our-community/haydon-wick-heroes

For the attention of Haydon Wick Ward residents.

Consultation on BT programme of intended public payphone removals

BT has instigated a public consultation on their proposals to remove 24 payphone callboxes within the Borough. Notices have been posted in each of the relevant phone boxes to inform users and passers-by of the proposals and the consultation process.

The following location has been identified as a potential candidate for removal.

Location: Bryony Way

Postcode: SN2 2SJ

No. of calls: 16

The details of this consultation are currently on the SBC website. Responses should be sent to either forwardplanning@swindon.gov.ukor Forward Planning, Swindon Borough Council, Wat Tyler West House, 5thfloor, Beckhampton Street, Swindon SN1 2JG.

BT offers 3 possible responses to the proposal to remove a callbox:

1. Agree to the removal
2. Adopt the callbox. Where the local callbox is a traditional red phonebox, BT are encouraging communities to purchase for £1 in order to use the box for the benefit of the local community benefits eg as a library. Further information on this process can be found in the document attached and at: https://bt.com/adopt
3. Object to the removal. Ofcom Regulations state that BT has a duty to provide ‘reasonable geographic access to public call boxes’ and offer the following as relevant factors to consider in relation to each callbox:

• Whether the area in which the box is located has a relatively high proportion of people on low incomes or in rented properties who could be less likely to have access to mobile or fixed line telephones.
• Whether the area requires a phone box for emergency calls, perhaps near an accident black spot or near to a community facility.
• Whether the area has poor or sporadic mobile network coverage.
• The level of call volumes made from callbox which can give an indication as to its usefulness or value to the community.

A case will need to be argued for each objection, backed up with evidence.

The Council is currently seeking a suitably qualified Contractor to manage and maintain shrubs, hedges and bushes as shown in the tender pack. The period of the tender is three years to commence from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2023.  For further details go Contracts and Tenders.

Councils may choose to pay their members an allowance, known as a ‘parish basic allowance’, to recognise the time and effort they put into their parish duties and to reimburse them for out of pocket expenses.

The last review of these allowance was undertaken by an Independent Remuneration Panel in June 2015, so Swindon Borough Council (SBC) decided it was time to undertake another review.  This latest review concluded that the previously adopted recommendations for parish and town council allowances should be endorsed and applied by all parish and town councils in the Borough.

Their recommendation for Haydon Wick’s Councillor allowance for the municipal year 2020-21 was £1,719 p.a. per elected member and £5,131 p.a. for the Chair.  The total cost would be approximately £34,200 p.a.

Currently, Haydon Wick Councillors receive £861 p.a. per elected member and £1,600 p.a. for the Chair, amounting to approximately £17,100 p.a.  Should the Parish adopt SBC’s recommendation, this would result in more than a 200% increase.

At its August 2019 Full Council meeting, Haydon Wick members considered SBC’s recommendation and agreed to decline the recommendation of the Panel and to keep to the Council’s existing arrangement – that any increases are consistent with its own staff pay increases per annum.

Meet our latest Haydon Wick Heroes

Councillor Manro Vice Chairman of the Parish Council presented Charlie and Callum students at Nova Hreod School with a Community Service Award for their hard work earlier this year when they cleared rubbish around Basil Close play park in Haydon Wick.
The Parish Council was alerted to some car tyres, metal objects, and general waste which had been piled up by a bin at Basil Close Play Park Haydon Wick. At first we wondered if this was fly tipping, but it soon became apparent from Facebook comments that two young lads had spent one Saturday morning clearing this rubbish from the hedgerows around the play park.
As their identity was unknown it took some time to locate Charlie and Callum, but with the help of Facebook our Officers were able to make contact and arranged with Nova Hreod School to present them each with a Community Service Award for their fantastic efforts in keeping their local area clean and tidy.
During the presentation Charlie recalled how hard it was hard pushing the tyres up the slope to get it to the bin, and how there was a hedge which was hard to get into, but Callum got through to pick up the rubbish and his jacket got stuck on the branches.
Councillor Vinay Manro praised them both for their efforts, and thanked them for thinking about their local play park, the public and local wildlife.
#haydonwickheroes

Haydon Wick Parish Council is currently seeking a contractor to supply the re-design and installation of an existing Skate/Wheeled Facility at Haydon Leigh off Westfield Way, Swindon, SN25 1JP.  Click here to download the RFQ.

For further enquiries please contact the Clerk on clerk@haydonwick.gov.uk.