Meeting documents

  • Meeting of Winslow & District Local Area Forum, Tuesday 16th September 2008 7.30 pm (Item 8.)

There will be a 20 minutes 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.  One supplementary question is allowed to be submitted by the member of the public from whom the question originated.

Minutes:

The Forum received the following questions from John Gilbey from Great Horwood Parish Council.

 

Question 1. 

Although Great Horwood is part of the Winslow LAF it comes under the Buckingham North-East NAG.  The next meeting of the NAG has been arranged for the same date and time as the Winslow LAF.  Is it possible to re-align the NAG groups to match the LAF Groupings?  If this is not possible can there be co-ordination between the organisers of the two groups to avoid date and time clashes.  (I guess this comment also applies to Little Horwood)

 

Response:  The representatives from Thames Valley Police agreed to obtain a response.

 

Question 2.

In the BCC Winslow Area Newsletter July 2008 Issue 1, there is reference to the first wave of applications for Vehicle Activates Signs (VAS) having been assessed and letters sent to Parish Councils advising them of the outcome.  Over many months Great Horwood has raised the issue of speeding in the village with representatives of the transportation department of BCC, including Tim Fowler, Ann-Marie Davies and David Cairney, with our local PC and PCSO including regularly at NAG meetings and also with our County Councillor and our District Councillor but we have never received any information on this VAS initiative.  Why?

 

Response:  A detailed response had already been sent to Mr Gilbey.  The forum noted that a request had been made for funds from the delegated but it was not successful.  With regard to the VAS initiative, officers were unaware of this and undertook to find out further information.

 

The Forum noted that the Council Policy on VAS was approved last year and they can be made available dependent on budget and assessment of location.  Parishes wishing to have a VAS should apply to Sian Thomas.  The cost takes into account power sources and location and each site would be individually assessed.  Speeding initiatives are being presented to the Parish Forum on 13 October and further information can be obtained from the BCC website.  Leaflets will be circulated to all Parishes and adverts will appear on the LAT vans.

 

It was suggested that a TSID may be more suitable for the location and it was agreed that Anne Marie Davies would look into this issue.

 

Action:  Anne Marie Davies

 

Steve Orchard stated that the £125,000 delegated budget for local committees would be devolved down to the LAFs.  However, the current year’s programme was already committed.  Money would be available from 2009 onwards.  Town and Parish Councils will be notified once the level of funding has been set for 2009/10.  Schemes will be scored as they were for Local Committees and it will for the Forum to make the final decisions.  Bids for VAS could be made from that money.

 

Funding for traffic calming measures was discussed.  This could be bid for from the devolved funding but it would be for the LAF to make the decision and make recommendations to the Head of Transportation.  However, there may not be enough money for chicanes, stand outs and bollards. 

 

Advertising of Local Area Forum meetings was discussed.  These would be advertised on the BCC website, LAT vehicles and Parish magazines.  Members could also sign up for Alerts on the BCC website on the following link:  www.buckscc.gov.uk/democracy.  Meetings would also be advertised in the press if it was felt necessary.

 

Meetings would be open to the public as were the Local Committees.  The public would be able to put forward questions in the allotted slot.

 

If there were issues which affected more than one area, joint forums could be held in order to have a full debate.