Westbury
Westbury Area Joint Strategic Priorities
Westbury Area Joint Strategic Assessment
Additional population, deprivation and life expectancy data can be found in the Westbury Your Community Data pack (click here to view the PDF).
Cllr Jerry Wickham
Chair of Westbury Area Board
Since the last CAJSAs, we have worked to improve outcomes for our communities and there are many examples of great locally led projects that have made our community area a better place to live, work and visit. Through the Area Boards there is a growing level of community involvement in decision making and the information presented here will allow us to go further to ensuring that we focus on creating healthy and vibrant communities. As well as the challenges we face there are many opportunities for us to make our community stronger.
This new assessment allows us both to focus on the future and continuing to make our community a place people want to live, work and visit, but also reflect on all we have already achieved.
Westbury
Westbury is situated below the vast chalk escarpment on the edge of Salisbury Plain. The parishes of Bratton, Edington, Tinhead and Coulston, Dilton Marsh, Hawkeridge and Heywood surround the town.
The community area spans 73km2 most of which is rural with Westbury town in the centre.
Westbury Community Area has an abundance of wildlife and areas of historical interest. Bratton Camp, close to the White Horse, contains Neolithic remains dating from 3500 B.C. Roman artefacts found around the community area suggest a large amount of Romano-British settlement in the area dating from the 1st to 5th centuries A.D. The area’s richness of wildlife is demonstrated by the number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest, which include Westbury Ironstone Quarry, Upton Cow Down, Bratton Downs, Salisbury Plain, and Picket and Clanger Woods.
The community area is home to the famous Westbury White Horse, which is carved into the chalk escarpment overlooking the town. Westbury boasts a Georgian market square and some fine Victorian buildings. For a smaller town, Westbury has good rail links to other parts of the country, being on the Bristol line and having express trains from London to the West Country stop here.
Westbury is a significant commercial and industrial centre due to the major West Wiltshire Trading Estate and adjacent Northacre Industrial Estate, which help provide employment to a growing population, drawn into the community area by a number of new housing developments on the edge of the town. In addition to this, there are several smaller estates on the northern side of the town.
Our Community Area JSA for 2016
What we’ve changed since 2013/14
Children and Young People
A child poverty summit took place at Matravers School with primary schools, Wiltshire Police, the children’s centre, the local health trainer, church groups, town councillors, housing associations and Crosspoint. It was decided to set up a healthy eating activity with Community Area Partnership funding, particularly for single and older people.
Bratton Youth Club received grant funding for their older children’s session at The Jubilee Hall and the Baptist Church offers regular youth activities for younger children.
In November 2016 a new youth club will be in operation twice a week at the Leigh Park Community Centre funded by the local youth network
Community Safety
People in Westbury wanted to work together to reduce incidents of domestic abuse and help victims. Wiltshire Police have a new community policing programme running across the county and are providing regular updates at area board and parish council meetings.
A poster and flyer campaign also took place in Westbury to provide information to those suffering or at risk of domestic abuse on how to get help.
To protect those who are most vulnerable the local BA13 Partnership group have been issuing In Case of Emergency cards to the local community and have successfully continued the Safe Places scheme
Culture
Activities for young people have been promoted across social media, the local newspaper, Our Community Matters website and a regular newsletter. The range of activities on offer continues to grow with Leigh Park Community Centre running sessions twice a week overseen by the community youth officer and a team of volunteers. The community centre was successful in obtaining a grant to provide equipment and games for the youth club and in the longer term an asset transfer may provide land and accommodation for activities.
Westbury held their popular annual arts festival in 2015 and there were specific sessions aimed at young people.
Environment
To promote recycling Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and Selwood Housing ran a campaign to engage with residents of streets throughout Oldfield Park where there were low percentages of recycling. Close to 60 black boxes were giving out to residents and around 500 doors knocked on.
The town council decided to employ two part time caretakers to help tackle littering locally and the Clean for the Queen campaign led to a decision to keep equipment for community use and regular tidy up events. Over 100 bags of litter were collected over the course of a weekend as part of the Clean for the Queen campaign.
Health and Wellbeing
To connect people socially and improve activity levels a Westbury Shed group has been set up and two allotment plots have been secured for the group to use. The group works with other local stakeholders and produces healthy foods for local cooking clubs. Westbury Shed have now opened their first workshop in the town with further workshop space planned.
To help encourage take up of sport area board funding has helped Westbury Rugby Club buy a scrum machine, the cricket club buy a scoreboard and the football club make pitch improvements.
An older people and carers champion has now been recruited and is in post in the community area.
Leisure
In 2014 local people were keen to maintain the town’s swimming provision. In 2016 leisure facilities remained open and there has been investment in the library site. This funding will enable increased opening hours and an ‘access via a swipe’ system.
Transport
To enhance local cycle routes the town centre now has bike racks for the community to use when cycling into town.
Cllr Jerry Wickham
Chair of Westbury Area Board at the time of publication
Since the last CAJSAs, we have worked to improve outcomes for our communities and there are many examples of great locally led projects that have made our community area a better place to live, work and visit. Through the Area Boards there is a growing level of community involvement in decision making and the information presented here will allow us to go further to ensuring that we focus on creating healthy and vibrant communities. As well as the challenges we face there are many opportunities for us to make our community stronger.
This new assessment allows us both to focus on the future and continuing to make our community a place people want to live, work and visit, but also reflect on all we have already achieved.
Download the Westbury Community Area Joint Strategic Assessment via the button below
To find out how Westbury Community Area compares to other Community Areas on a specific theme please visit the relevant Key indicator page.
Additional population, deprivation and life expectancy data can be found in the Westbury Your Community Data pack (click here to view the PDF).
Download the Westbury Community Area Joint Strategic Priorities via the button below
At a Community Event in Westbury, residents voted on which issues to prioritise locally. The full range of issues that could be voted on, as well as those selected as local priorities can be found on a summary slide, accessed by the button below. The items shown in red are those that have been selected by the local community as priorities in Westbury Community Area.