Town council paves way for taking over Wiltshire Council services and assets

WESTBURY Town Council has taken the first step in taking over some assets and services from Wiltshire Council as the authority aims to cut its costs. The town council plan, later in the year, to take over green spaces, street cleaning, grounds maintenance and grass cutting. When future plans were discussed at a recent meeting, councillors turned down the opportunity of taking over Leighton Sports Centre and Westbury Swimming Pool, saying they would become a financial liability. Discussions are ongoing regarding the library and the cemetery.

The asset transfer will include 40 locations in the town including Victoria Gardens, Grassacres Park, All Saints’ churchyard and the grounds at the cemetery and Leigh Park Community Centre. As well as this, the town council agreed to take on the management of the toilets in Warminster Road and High Street car parks, which could also see the public conveniences refurbished.

In a statement, Westbury Mayor cllr Mike Sutton said, “At the Westbury Town Council meeting on Monday 8th January members voted to take on devolved services and assets from Wiltshire Council this year. Where appropriate, ownership of the asset will also pass to the town council.

“There is still a lot of work to do but it is hoped that in October of this year, green spaces and StreetScene will transfer to the town council, who will then take responsibility for providing services previously provided by the unitary authority. These services will include such things as street cleaning, grounds maintenance and grass cutting.

“We believe that providing these locally will give a better service to our residents. In previous years, money has been put aside to cover the expected costs and at present, is unlikely to have a major impact on the precept.

“At the same meeting councillors decided against taking on assets such as Leighton Sports and the swimming pool as they would be a financial liability. Discussions are ongoing regarding the library and the cemetery.”

At the meeting, cllr Matthew Dean called the request for the asset transfer by Wiltshire Council as “unreasonable” as the transfer would not include any money-making assets – just the maintenance of these assets.

“I don’t think we should proceed with this at this time,” he said. “I’m more convinced than ever before that we should have a package and it should be all or nothing for this council; I’m not satisfied that what’s on the table represents a good deal for our residents. I think it’s unfair at this time, with all the pressures that household budgets are currently facing, that in the next five/six years our residents will be paying significantly more for what we are proposing to take on.”

Speaking about the opportunity to take over the town’s cemetery, he said, “It’s totally unreasonable that Wiltshire Council is proposing to hold the money they receive from Westbury residents for the interment of ashes and burial of bodies; they are suggesting we should just take on the grounds maintenance without access to this money.

“It’s also unreasonable that they are requesting we take on the grounds maintenance of the car parks in the town without having any of the parking income or the ability to manage those parking assets. It’s unreasonable for us to operate public toilets, and quite rightly this council has proposed to refurbish those toilets, but they don’t want us to take on the freehold of that.”

Cllr Gordon King responded by saying that he thinks the town council would not have “any greater success” with regards to further negotiations over the asset transfer with Wiltshire Council and that he was happy with the recommendation to take them on.

Cllr Mark Bailey added, “Cllr Dean previously argued against this recommendation when it first came up and he put forward a counter proposal to link the green spaces asset transfer with other assets in the town. I thought he was wrong then and I think he is wrong now.

“The council agreed to accept the amendment to the recommendation, but after consideration, the town council’s service devolution and asset transfer group came to the conclusion that we don’t necessarily want all these hard assets. The main prize for the council is the chance to manage the green spaces for ourselves and we should press ahead with this immediately.

“Once we are in control of these spaces, we will be in a much stronger bargaining position to get the other assets. We will have the main thing we want in the bag and we will be in a position where we can say to Wiltshire Council ‘take it or leave it’.”

Westbury Mayor cllr Mike Sutton added, “I think we should proceed with this as the town is waiting for us to get started. It’s another way of taking Westbury forward to being a progressive forward-thinking council; I fully accept that some of the hard assets such as the leisure centre and the swimming pool we do not want and we should never take them on and I think they are a liability.

“Unitary authorities across the country are running out of money and future finances will be spent on social housing, homelessness and care. We either have to be progressive or we shut up shop and die. We don’t want the hard assets, but improving the street scene is integral to what we do and it will give people another chance to see this town council cutting their grass and cleaning their streets; Westbury belongs to them.”