Tuesday 27th November 2012
From the website of Warminster Town Council ~
Six representatives from Kingdown School’s head students attended Warminster Town Council’s Full Council meeting on Monday 19th November 2012 to present the results from a questionnaire they had circulated to every Kingdown student entitled “What irritates you about your town?’
The students, Sarah Gibson, Chloe Hurd, Will Hall, Harry Orchard, Tom Chilvers and Ellis Dackombe, spoke eloquently about the process they had undertaken. They had collated the responses into a report with six main topics: Leisure; Environment; Commerce; Community; Employment and Public Transport, filtering out any unreasonable findings. Litter in town and areas in which young people could socialise, including having access to free wifi, were the main issues that had been raised, along with the desire to update the park and have a road crossing near the school for safety reasons.
The councillors welcomed the approach from the students, and came forward with suggestions of ways in which Kingdown students could become more involved in community issues, including participating in the Wiltshire Assembly for Youth (WAY), Community Area Young People’s Issues Group (CAYPIG), having more involvement in the Youth Centre or even having representation on the Friends of Warminster Park Committee. The students were unaware of the existence of some of the groups, but were interested in finding out more. Councillor Jolley also suggested they could form a Civic Cadet Group under the auspices of the Town Council, undertaking voluntary work within the town for which they could earn credits to use on their CVs.
Councillors proposed that some of the issues the students had raised be dealt with informally, and noted that others, such as having free wifi in Warminster Library, were already being implemented.
The pupils’ desire to have a road crossing in Woodcock Road was commented on by Bill Parks, Head of Services Highways and Streetscene North at Wiltshire Council, who said he would raise this with the Community Area Transport Group for discussion. He congratulated the students on their presentation and the interesting issues they had raised, and also informed them that Wiltshire Council was currently looking at a new contract with regard to litter and the placement of bins, and would be working with the community to look at their requirements.
Councillor Fryer thanked the students for attending and speaking at the meeting, saying they had been a “breath of fresh air’. The councilors asked the Clerk to make the appropriate response to the paper submitted by the students.