Agenda and minutes

Welcome from Mark Winn, Chairman of the Aylesbury Community Board.

The Chairman welcomed people to the meeting.

To be presented by Amy Jenner, Aylesbury Community Board Co-ordinator.

Ms Jenner, Aylesbury Community Board Co-ordinator, gave an overview of how to use MS Teams to participant in the meeting.

To disclose any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.

Ms S Morgan declared an interest in the funding application for Manor Park. As a councillor she had been involved in setting up with the residents association and supported them to submit the application.

Mr R Khan declared an interest as a councillor for the Manor Park area.

Video message from Martin Tett, Leader of Buckinghamshire Council

Members of the board watched the following video from Mr M Tett, Leader of Buckinghamshire Council.

https://youtu.be/f0i722j79hw

To review and sign off the minutes of the meeting on 21 July 2020.

Video timing 7m 45s

The Chairman reviewed the actions from the last meeting.

RESOLVED

Member of the committee AGREED the action notes from the last meeting were an accurate representation.

To be presented by the Chairman, Vice Chairman and Amy Jenner, Aylesbury Community Board Co-ordinator.

Video timing 12m 55s

The Chairman and Vice Chairman gave a presentation accompanied by slides to be appended to these notes.

Ms Jenner, Aylesbury Community Board Co-ordinator, was unable to share a video about collaboration from the Aylesbury Community Food Group as planned. The video can be found here: https://youtu.be/6n_rBHrvRks.

Hannah Fenton, Sustain, and Benedicta Lasoye, Aylesbury Town Council, kindly provided a verbal overview of the Aylesbury Community Food Group (formally the Aylesbury Emergency Food Response Group). Hannah highlighted the following:

• Several community groups had come together to support common goals during lockdown. There had been no forum to do this previously.
• The groups had worked collaboratively sharing resources such as food, access to boxes and transport. They had promoted each other’s work and made referrals where appropriate.
• Worked to improve the nutritional content of delivered boxes.
• Had met weekly at the height of the crisis but is now transforming into the Aylesbury Community Food Group and meeting monthly.
• A great example of what can be achieved by community groups working together.
• The Aylesbury Community Food Group will report and feedback in to the Aylesbury Community Board.

Ms Jenner asked those present to share their thoughts on what collaboration meant to them using the website www.sli.do, attendees were also asked what their priorities were and what they would like to see from formal Aylesbury Community Board meetings. Feedback was also taken via the meeting chat bar.

ACTION

Ms Jenner would collate all feedback to be shared with these action notes.

To address questions from the public. Questions to be submitted in advance of the meeting to localities@buckinghamshire.gov.uk.

Video timing 44m 38s

This item addressed written questions received in advance of the meeting. Questions made on the night verbally or via the Teams chat would be collated and the answers circulated.

One written question had been received in advance asking what was being done to support homelessness in the town now lockdown was over and whether a soup kitchen could be set up in the town centre. The full question and written response from the Housing Team Manager, Buckinghamshire Council, would be attached to these notes. The Chairman added this issue could be included as an item for future meetings the Board wished.

ACTION

Ms Jenner would ensure this question and response were appended to the action notes.

ACTION

Ms Jenner would speak to the Buckinghamshire Council Housing Team about making this future agenda item.

To be presented by John Watson, Hale Leys Centre Manager.

Video timing 48m 52s

Ms D Fawcett, Aylesbury Town Centre and Regeneration Manager, Buckinghamshire Council, shared a presentation, a copy of which would be appended to these notes.

Ms Fawcett highlighted the following points:

• Those involved in the Leadership Recovery Team included Aylesbury Town Centre Partnership, Buckinghamshire Council Councillor for Economics and Growth, Aylesbury Town Council, Aylesbury Garden Town, Thames Valley Police, the retail sector, the food and drink sector, the leisure sector and this Board including Ms Jenner.

The following points were discussed as a result of questions from members of the committee:

• The current focus had been on global solutions to keep people shopping. Later focus could be turned to specific groups for example young people.
• Ms Fawcett confirmed there was a lot of support for independent business from set up and dealing with landlords to social media advertising.
• Footfall numbers came from counters in the two shopping centres which were averaged, as well as marshals using handheld clickers on market days. High Wycombe town centre would be using hardware which counted the number of smart phones in the area which prevented double counting shoppers. This was too expensive for Aylesbury alone, but the Aylesbury team hoped to work with High Wycombe to look at options for sharing technologies.
• The Town Centre Leadership Team had been able to secure free parking in council car parks until the end of July. However, they had not been able convince Buckinghamshire Council to take this further and Ms Fawcett felt her team had reached the end of their influence.
• Board attendees expressed an interest in sharing updates about the town centre within their networks. Updates can be found and following the town centre Facebook pages ‘Visit Aylesbury’ and ‘Aylesbury Market traders’ or by visiting www.visitaylesbury.co.uk.

ACTION

Further questions could be asked via Ms Jenner. Answers would then be circulated to all participants.

To be presented by Inspector Simon Lincoln, Thames Valley Police.

Video timing  1h, 17m, 24s

Inspector S Lincoln, Thames Valley Police (TVP), gave a presentation a copy of which would be appended to these action notes

Inspector Lincoln highlighted the following points:

• Inspector Lincoln had joined the team in May 2020 and had been restructuring the Neighbourhood Policing Teams to make it easier to respond quickly to incoming demands.
• TVP relied on the public reporting crime so they could make plans for how best to deploy their limited resources. Inspector Lincoln acknowledged it was frustrating when the public did not see direct action as a result.
• Drugs – TVP had seen an increase in drug crime reporting. This was likely due to people spending more time at home. One key focus was targeting those who controlled the drug supply with significant success. Work had included visible enforcement, covert enforcement and support for vulnerable people exploited in the process.
• Violence – was the biggest area of crime reported locally. Violence included domestic violence, serious violence and violence linked to the night time economy.
• Partnership working included housing associations, Buckinghamshire Council, Aylesbury Town Council, Aylesbury Town Centre Partnership.
• Covid- isolating and shielding had impacted resources. Acknowledged the TVP approach for engage and explain may have caused frustration particularly when dealing large gatherings.

The following points were discussed as a result of questions from members of the board.

• Working with schools re safeguarding/domestic violence – There were two dedicated officers in working with Aylesbury Vale schools and the cadet scheme was also used to disseminate information about domestic violence.
• The legality of using parking cones - It was an offence to obstruct the highway however police response would be based on the level on distribution. Therefore, it would be unlikely action would be taken for low level disruption such as using cones outside houses to hold spaces.
• Drugs – residents felt they were not getting feedback when they reported crimes. Inspector Lincoln explained it was rarely appropriate to give direct feedback as it could reveal informants. Facebook was used to highlight actions and the Neighbourhood teams had recently introduced leaflet drops.
• Racial abuse – What could be done to address racial abuse due to covid and promote community inclusion? Inspector Lincoln acknowledged a lack of confidence in the police but encouraged reporting which allowed him to allocate resources. TVP had worked with the Community Safety Partnership to create a Hate Crime Referral Scheme so those who report crimes can be offered additional support.

ACTION

Further questions could be asked via Ms Jenner. Answers would then be circulated to all participants.

To be presented by Amy Jenner, Aylesbury Community Board Co-ordinator.

Applications for consideration:

·         Manor Park residents parking

Video timing  1h, 44m 21s

Ms Jenner, Aylesbury Community Board co-ordinator, Buckinghamshire Council, referred to the report circulated with the agenda.

The Board were asked to consider an application for £13,394.66 on behalf of the Manor Park Residents Association to support a residents parking scheme. Funding would cover the initial design and informal consultation, statutory consultation and implementation to be carried out by Transport for Bucks (TfB).

Concerns were raised including:

• Whether this would be the right type of application for the Board to support and whether the Board wished to set a precedent that may affect future applications.
• The costs quoted by TfB for carrying out work.
• Why would this not be paid for from TfB budgets if they considered the scheme “viable”.
• This was not the only area of Aylesbury that experienced parking issues. Would it be right to highlight this area for special treatment?
• Whether restrictions would just push parking issues into neighbouring streets (displaced parking).

ACTION

There would be further discussion outside the meeting and the application would be brought back to a future meeting for further consideration.

17 November 2020, 6.30pm

Currently scheduled as an MS Teams meeting.

17 November 2020, 6.30pm

MS Teams meeting.