Meeting documents
Venue: St Laurence Room, Market Square, Winslow, MK18 3AB
Contact: Liz Wheaton
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Apologies for Absence / Changes in Membership Minutes: Apologies were received from Trish Cawte from Winslow Town Council and Richard Blakelock from Hardwick Parish Council. |
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Declarations of Interest To declare any personal or prejudicial interests Minutes: There were no declarations of interest.
County Councillor Netta Glover brought to the meetings attention that David Rowlands has been awarded with a National Gold Badge by the Royal British Legion for his meritorious service to the Royal British Legion in Winslow over the last 30 years. |
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To confirm the notes of the meeting held on Wednesday 7 September 2011. Minutes: The action notes of the meeting held on Wednesday 7 September 2011 were agreed as a correct record.
Matters arising
The Chairman updated Members on the matters arising from the previous meeting.
The Chairman explained that Martin Tett, Leader of Bucks County Council, has recently visited Winslow. The Chairman took him to the Library and Youth Centre and introduced him to the staff there. Martin Tett was very impressed with the roads in the North of the County. County Councillor Brenda Jennings was also at this meeting.
Item 8
Ann-Marie Davies confirmed that the remaining budget (£2,000) has been spent – 6 new salt bins were purchased for the area.
Item 15
A Member asked why the terms of reference of the LAF was not an item on the agenda for this meeting. Mark Grindall, Localities Manager, responded by saying that there is a Task and Finish Group currently being set-up which is looking into the workings of LAFs and he felt sure that the terms of reference of the LAF will be part of the review. |
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Minutes: County Council budget and Bucks and Milton Keynes and Rescue budget
The Chairman read out the following update in relation to Bucks County Council’s budget and the Bucks and Milton Keynes Fire and Rescue budget.
"The County Council met on Thursday 16 February to discuss the budget for 2012/13 and 2014/15. Martin Tett, Leader of the Council, gave a budget speech outlining the decisions made and what the budget for the next three years will look like.
The Council has approved the budget plans, including a freeze on the Council Tax for the second year in succession. The budget requires the Council to make £42 million of revenue reductions over the next three years, on the top of the £26 million that have been made in 2011/12. 85% of these savings are service efficiencies rather than cuts, meaning that there will be a minimal impact on the level and quality of services provided to our residents.
In response to the need to make savings, as well as the recent public consultations, the County Council has agreed the following:
The net operating budget for 2012/13 is £328 million with capital investment of about £106 million.
In terms of Bucks and Milton Keynes Fire and Rescue budget, the Chairman reported that there will be no increase in council tax for the second year running but £4.8 million of savings over three years still have to be made. Moving the Bucks Control Centre to a combined centre in Cambridge/Suffolk will make a saving of around £600,000 a year. The move is taking place in April 2013.
HS2 update
The Chairman reported that Members of 51m, the alliance of local authorities opposed to HS2, have served a formal letter on the Secretary of State for Transport asking that the decision to proceed be rescinded and giving notice that they may otherwise challenge the decision by way of judicial review.
Winter Maintenance
The Chairman congratulated TfB on all the positive comments the team have received following the bad weather. The Chairman showed Members a copy of a leaflet which has been produced which compiles all the comments received from members of the public. A copy of the leaflet is attached.
Reduction of LAF meetings
The Chairman started by explaining the reason for reducing the number of meetings was primarily due to a need to save costs. The County Council is having to make significant savings and people are losing their jobs and there is enormous pressure on remaining staff. He went on to say that some LAF areas have reduced to 3 meetings or, in some cases 2 meetings a year. It costs around £1,000 in administrative costs to run each meeting, therefore the Chairmen of the ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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There will be a 20 minute period for public questions. Members of the public are encouraged to submit their questions in advance of the meeting to facilitate a full answer on the day of the meeting. Questions sent in advance will be dealt with first and verbal questions after. Minutes: The Chairman explained that two questions have been received in advance of the meeting – one from Mr van de Poll and one from Mr Gilbey.
Mr van de Poll emailed his concerns in relation to Bucks County Council’s policy in providing email addresses of Bucks County Council employees. A written response from Steve Bignell, Operations Manager at Bucks County Council, was included in the agenda papers.
Mr van de Poll felt that the response was unsatisfactory and said that there appeared to be no consistency in relation to the explanation. Mark Grindall, Localities Manager, responded by saying that there has been further correspondence on this issue and the policy is currently being reviewed and options are being looked at. He asked Members to email him if they have any similar issues in future.
Mr van de Poll commented that he hoped that the Task and Finish Group who are looking into LAFs will speak to Members of the LAFs in order to pick up on the areas of concern. Mark explained that the Task and Finish Group has only just formed and has not met yet and the scope of the task and finish group still needs to be confirmed. Ann-Marie Davies said that it is hoped to hold a number of workshops for LAF Members which will provide an opportunity for issues and concerns to be raised.
Mr Gilbey, Great Horwood Parish Council, emailed the following question.
"Following the disquiet from many town and parish councils concerning the use of the New Homes Bonus by AVDC, it would be interesting to hear how much Bucks County Council has received, what it has used it for and what is its policy for deciding the allocation of funding in the future?"
Mark Grindall, Localities Manager, responded by saying that Bucks County Council received £417,000 in 2011/12 for the New Homes Bonus. How the funding is going to be allocated is still under active discussion and no formal decision has been made.
A Member asked who is responsible for making this decision. The Chairman suggested that he speaks to County Councillor Peter Cartwright, who is the Cabinet Member for Resources. |
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Petitions None received Minutes: There were no petitions. |
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East/West Rail briefing and actions Patrick O’Sullivan, Project Manager, East/West Rail Consortium, will present this item. Minutes: The Chairman introduced Patrick O’Sullivan from East/West Rail. During his presentation, he made the following main points.
The Chairman thanked Mr O’Sullivan for his very useful presentation and said that the LAF would invite him to a future meeting to report on progress of the project. |
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Diamond Jubilee & London 2012 - Bucks involvement Provisional presentation by Vanessa King, 2012 Programme Manager. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman introduced Christine James, Communications Assistant for the 2012 Programme Team. Christine provided Members with information on the planned Diamond Jubilee events and explained that a celebration toolkit has been produced to help communities to celebrate. She went on to say that Bucks County Council has also produced an Olympics leaflet which contains useful contact details and information on how to find out more via the website.
Attached are the documents which Christine referred to in her presentation.
Christine said that the team are wishing to speak to more local voluntary organisations and asked Members to pass on her details to relevant organisations. Her email address is c-cjames@buckscc.gov.uk. |
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Thames Valley Neighbourhood Police Update Minutes: The Chairman welcomed Inspector Emma Garside. She started by reporting to Members that the new non-emergency number (101) has now been launched. The boundary changes have been agreed which means that the rural boundaries around Aylesbury Vale will now be co-terminus with the Local Areas. These changes were due to be implemented on 1 April 2012 but ICT difficulties has meant that the implementation date will now be October time.
There are now 10 special constables aligned to the Winslow and Buckingham area which provides more visibility. Events such as Halloween, Bonfire Night passed without incidence.
Thames Valley Police have teamed up with members from Trading Standards to conduct face-to-face visits to the most vulnerable people in the area. February is a notorious month for increased reports of door-step crime.
Inspector Garside explained that theft from motor vehicles is still one of the main crimes in the area, particularly the theft of car number plates. There have been a couple of operations undertaken with local garages to fix anti-theft screws to number plates. There was an event in Whitchurch recently which resulted in 53 vehicles having anti-theft screws fitted in two and a half hours. There have been instances of catalytic convertors being stolen which is a much harder crime to prevent.
Inspector Garside reported a recent crime in the Mursley area where an elderly person was involved in a distraction burglary by people posing as water meter checkers. She asked Members to be extra vigilant.
Speed enforcement and road safety still remain priorities in the area.
The police office in Winslow is currently open 3 days a week (10am-2pm) but there are plans to open 5 days a week and more volunteers are being looked for.
Simon Dudley reported to Members an increase in iron works thefts which Inspector Garside is aware of. 28 pieces have been stolen in the last 3 months. Simon urged Members to call 101 if they see anything suspicious. Inspector Garside asked Members to call 999 if they see it happening as it is a ‘crime in action’.
A Member asked whether all gullies around the county are lockable to prevent being stolen. Simon explained that there are around 22,000 gullies in Aylesbury and they can only be replaced with a lockable one when something happens to it. |
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Local Priorities and Budget update Mark Grindall, Localities and Communities Manager, to provide a verbal update. Minutes: Mark Grindall, Localities Manager, explained that permission has been granted to carry-over the budget from 2011/12 to next year as it has not been spent. The Local Priorities budget for 2012/13 will now be £40k. He then went on to explain the Participatory Budget Scheme which has been piloted in the Wendover area and proved very effective and it was well received by the local residents. He said that the local priorities are grouped and presented to the local community who can then identify specific projects which meet the priorities – normally around 10 projects would be presented to the community and the local residents can then vote on which project they would most like to support.
A Member asked how the voting would be monitored to avoid people voting more than once for a particular project. Mark explained that when a person votes, a cookie is put on the system so that person would not be able to vote again. He acknowledged that there are always exceptions to the rule.
The Chairman asked Members of the LAF whether they would be happy, in principle, to support the Participatory Budget Scheme.
A Member felt that it was a rather cumbersome route to spend a relatively small amount of money and felt that it would be better if each parish/town council were to be given an amount of money.
A Member asked whether the costs to publicise the schemes would have to be paid for out of the allocated £40k. Mark responded by saying that it was not his intention to use part of the budget to fund the publicity. Inspector Garside suggested community messaging, Twitter and other social media as possible methods to publicise the scheme at no cost.
A Member expressed concern in relation to the cost of communications and said that the actual budget is only £20k each year so they felt it was a lot of effort and resource for not very much money. Mark said that he felt the scheme would help with local engagement.
Another Member agreed with the above and felt that it was a waste of what are already very limited resources and felt that a reality check needed to be undertaken.
A Member suggested that the reason there is nothing concrete being undertaken in terms of the local priorities is due to the changes in structure and the way the way the budget used to be allocated was much better, ie. the LAF would consider all the schemes received and allocate the budget according to the priorities. The Member felt that the LAF should go back to this method of allocating the budget as the local councils have regular contact with their own areas and know what their local priorities are.
Mark then asked Members whether it was the will of the LAF not to consider the Participatory Budget Scheme.
The Chairman suggested that Members send him schemes from their local areas for consideration under the local priorities funding.
Mark agreed to ... view the full minutes text for item 10. |
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Transport for Buckinghamshire Update Minutes: Simon Dudley, from Transport for Buckinghamshire, referred Members to the report included in the agenda pack. He reported that there has been a problem with one of the road patching machines with a number of parts having been stolen. More localised decision-making helped to increase efficiency during the Winter months.
Simon reminded Members that information on all the work undertaken by TfB can be viewed on the County Council’s website.
A Member asked about Community Speed Watch. Inspector Garside responded by saying that a number of local parishes have already bought the equipment and asked Members to encourage more communities to come on board.
The representative from Little Horwood thanked Simon and his team for the road maintenance work undertaken on the Winslow Road.
A Member asked when the Area 14 Speed Limit Review is due to take place. Simon said that he would have to look into this after the meeting.
Action: Simon Dudley |
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Minutes: Teresa Lane, Lead Area Officer from AVDC, introduced her colleague, Andy Wilkins. Andy provided Members with a presentation on the changes to the refuse and recycling in the Aylesbury Vale. He circulated copies of his presentation to Members
During his presentation, Members asked the following questions.
Members were asked to note the AVDC update and if there were any questions in relation to the content of the update, please could Members contact Teresa Lane (tlane@aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk). |
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Information items |
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Bucks CC Change to Household Waste Recycling Centres Information item Minutes: Members were asked to note the report. |
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Youth Centre Update Minutes: Members were asked to note the update. |
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Libraries update Minutes: The Chairman referred Members to the note which was circulated before the meeting. |
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Open Forum Minutes: There were no questions under open forum. |
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Date of Next and Future Meetings The next meeting will take place on Thursday 21 June 2012. Venue to be confirmed.
Future meeting
Thursday 25 October 2012. Minutes: The next meeting is due to take place on Thursday 21 June 2012.
Future dates
Thursday 25 October 2012 |