Meeting documents

Claire Hudson, Definitive Map Team

Jonathan Clark, Strategic Access Advisor

Joanne Taylor, Operations Team Leader

Phil Turner highlighted the following items from the report detailing matters determined by Committee.

Items 1 & 2, Great Missenden and Great Missenden/Wendover

Following planning inspections, the orders have been confirmed and cases closed.

Items 3 & 4, Taplow and High Wycombe

Following public inquiries and planning inspections, orders have been confirmed and the cases closed.

Items 6 & 7, Westbury (Route 1 and Route 2)

The footpaths are now on the definitive map.

During the update, the following question was asked.

Item 9, Wooburn, is it correct that the landowner was due to sign the agreement but subsequently did not accept the offer and refused to sign the agreement? The landowner had refused to sign the agreement for the last 13 years.  Compensation was offered but the landowner wanted far in excess of what the land is worth. Sustrans was brought in as the negotiator. Under Section 26 of the Highways Act, an inspector on behalf of the Secretary of State will normally direct the county council to financially compensate the landowner.  Part of the wider strategy is the aim to link Bourne End and High Wycombe along the old railway line and to create a bridleway. It is hoped that the first section at Wooburn Green will be delivered in the next 12 months.

Jonathan Clark gave the following update about strategic access;

Item 45 - HS2 - the Select Committee for High Speed Rail is currently hearing evidence from other counties. The Select Committee hearings for the Colne Valley started week commencing 9 March 2015. The Select Committee will reform after the General Election.  The County Council will appear first to discuss Colne Valley, followed by the AVDC area and Chilterns area.

In terms of Rights of Way, a meeting took place on the 2 February 2015 and a further meeting will take place on the 19 March 2015 to discuss any last minute requests that have been made.  HS2 Ltd has provided all the mitigation requested within the limits of deviation (land allocated as being taken control of as part of the Bill).

Item 48 – public stakeholder meetings are taking place to discuss the Princes Risborough to Aylesbury branch line which has 16 crossings. The decision about increasing the tracks to 2 lines will be made in spring 2015.

Item 49 – the Chilterns Conservation Board undertook £2,000 of surface and step improvements on the footpath through the Chequers Estate on the Box Woodland promoted route around Aston Hill. This includes the installation of two new kissing gates.

As the budget with the Strategic Access team had an underspend, funding was offered to the Haddenham and Thame Walking and Cycling Group to replace approximately 20 stiles with gates which was match funded with £1,500 from the parish council.  In addition, following a grant of £9,000 from the Wycombe Local Area Forum and an additional supplement from Rights of Way, volunteers from businesses, Community Payback and local volunteer groups have carried out clearance work on paths in High Wycombe.  Resurfacing of the some of the bridleway through Keep Hill Wood, high Wycombe is also about to take place.

Item 51 – in the financial year to March 2014, 174 applications made in the Aylesbury Vale District required comments relating to Rights of Way.  The total number of applications received to date is 207.

Item 52 – 316 donors have contributed to the Donate a Gate scheme. A series of articles celebrating the 8^th year, 300^th donor, 400^th gate and £100,000 of private investment in the Chiltern’s Walking Network have appeared in the winter edition of the Chiltern News.

During the update, the following questions were asked.

Has what was previous agreed about the diversions for HS2 survived? The vast majority of what was asked for has survived.  There were a number of additional improvements for mitigation involving the dedication of new paths and assurances have been agreed in this regard from HS2.

How many crossings will there be across bridleways resulting from EWR?  There will be two crossings.

Joanne Taylor gave the following update about Rights of Way operations.

Item 53 – there are still two vacancies in the Rights of Way Operations team for a part time Assistant Officer and full time Area Rights of Way Officer.  Interviews for both vacancies took place at the beginning of March. Appointments are to be confirmed.

Item 54 – a mid-year review of capital funding projects by BCC resulted in the removal of £100,000 from the emergency capital budget from the Rights of Way Operations.  The remaining capital money (£50,000) has been allocated to the Thames Path to carry out works to dangerous bridge structures.

Item 55 – the interim results for the performance targets for the current financial year show that current performance is well within target. The figure of 163 for the number of structures removed/altered was achieved with help from the Chilterns Society.  Feedback has not been received from the Ramblers Association on the number of volunteer hours.

Item 56 – it is anticipated that 20+ parishes will take part in the clearance scheme as part of devolved services. Invoices have been received from some parishes who have not signed up to the scheme.  As the work has been done, payment of the bills has been honoured.

Item 57 - it is anticipated that the number of parishes taking part in the scheme this year will increase to 50+ as devolved services now includes additional tasks such as hedge cutting.  An idea of the number of parishes signing up to the scheme should be available in April.

During the update, the following questions were asked.

Is funding guaranteed for all of the parishes who sign up to the clearance scheme? There is a fixed sum of money for all of the functions that have been devolved.  Some of the parishes are forming larger clusters to take on the administration role for the devolved services.

Will the amount of funding increase if additional parishes join the scheme or is there an allocated amount of funding depending on the percentage of parishes taking part? The payment would have to be reviewed if more parishes come on board. Some parishes are being a bit reticent in joining the scheme in terms of waiting to see what happens and not wanting to sign up until after the election has taken place.

There is some concern about the mapping taking place in West Wycombe. Some of the Highways mapping information had to be updated. The information is as accurate as is can be. The areas identified should be exactly the same as what has previously been cleared. There has been a dispute about the Highways verge mapping in and out of the 30mph zones.

The information said there were about 100m of highway verges to be cut in the 30mph zone when in reality there is about 3000m to be cut. The understanding is that parishes will be required to take part in devolved services. The officer said she is unable to comment on the requirement for parishes to take part in devolved services. Only a certain amount of the functions for maintaining the public highway can be devolved to parish councils as the responsibility rests with the County Council.

Some parish councils are hesitant to sign up to devolved services because of financial reasons.  The cost for the devolved services has been looked into and is a lot more for parishes to provide themselves.  Is the County Council prepared to provide a grant to help with the costs? The Deputy Cabinet Member for Planning and Environment said it is uncertain how long the funding will be available. Parishes such as Stewkley have taken on extra functions such as clearing hedges and signs. There is a schedule outlining the responsibilities of devolved services. The clusters are being pump primed to fund the purchase of equipment such as mowers and high visibility jackets etc.

·           Could some parish councils increase their precept to raise money for devolved services?

·           Smaller parish councils are reluctant to increase their precept.  Some parishes already have their own operatives and machinery.

·           Some small parishes are reluctant to accept help from the larger parishes and some larger parishes won’t take on work from smaller parishes.

·           Some small parishes only receive a precept of about £10,000.  This amount needs to double before they could take on devolved services.

What amount of precept do parishes receive per person? Band D is approximately £70 per property.