Agenda and minutes

The Chairman extended a warm welcome to all those in attendance.

Apologies had been received from Anders Christensen, Roger King, Richard Lloyd, Waheed Raja and Denise Summers.

To declare any personal or pecuniary interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

Amy Jenner, Senior Community Board Manager advised of the relevant housekeeping rules and procedures.

To review and sign off the action notes from the meeting on 18^th October 2022.

In relation to the update on the Aylesbury Street Wardens at the previous meeting under item 5, a Member noted that an update on the Wardens covering the areas of Coldharbour and Buckingham Park remained outstanding. This would be followed up and a response provided.

Action: Amy Jenner

RESOLVED to approve the action notes from the last meeting.

To be presented by Inspector James Davies.

Sergeant Clare Farrow was in attendance to provide an update on the work of Thames Valley Police in the Community Board area. The following points were highlighted:

·         There had been a serious incident in Aylesbury involving offences of rape, assault by penetration and burglary. A 44-year-old male had been arrested and was remanded in custody following a particularly resource intensive investigation. This was an isolated incident. Work was also ongoing to identify a male who had committed four cases of indecent exposure in the Meadowcroft area.

·         Theft from motor vehicle offences had increased. These tended to be where vehicles had been left unsecured with bags or cash on display and residents were being encouraged to ensure vehicles were locked with valuables out of sight. Where required, orders could be placed on offenders preventing them from entering certain areas or approaching cars which were not their own. Catalytic converter theft was also a problem, and residents were urged to contact 111 if someone was seen working on a car without the bonnet open as this would raise suspicions.

·         There had been an increase in anti-social behaviour within the town centre with cannabis use in car parks and graffiti in areas. Due to limited resources, officers were looking to visit the parents of any young people identified as having been involved.

·         The Southcourt boxing club was starting shortly with an open morning on 13 March, 10 am to 1 pm. Local coaches were running the club and sessions would be £2 each and were open to both children and adults. The Board expressed interest in exploring whether funding could support expanding this to other areas, although this would also require police resource.

·         It would become clearer later in the year how many additional officers would be available in Aylesbury as part of the national police officer uplift.

·         A third site, in addition to Prebendal and Southcourt was being explored for knife boxes. One possibility was at Youth Concern in Whiteleaf.

·         For any crime not in progress, residents were encouraged to report this online to avoid the 111 call wait times. 111 should be used only where crimes were in progress. For any images of crimes captured and put on social media they should be accompanied by messaging such as ‘If you know who this person may be please contact the police’, to avoid them being named publicly which could cause difficulties in any case that reached court.

To be presented by Cllr David Thompson, Amy Jenner, Senior Community Board Manager and Priority Group Leads - Cllr Susan Morgan, Cllr Sarah James & Cllr Niknam Hussain.

Amy Jenner, Senior Community Board Manager provided an overview of Community Board priorities. Updates were provided on the respective sub-groups of Environment, Cost of Living and Education and Skills. Points highlighted included:

·         Environment - Councillor S James reported that the action group continued to meet monthly with people from a variety of backgrounds. Work had focused on active travel plans and routes; exploring opportunities for e bikes and cargo bikes; signage and repairs to cycle routes; and environmental health and the Aylesbury Wombles working together on reducing vaping.

·         Cost of Living - Councillor S Morgan reported that there was great work underway by local charities including youth concern who were expecting to have helped 1000 children by the year end. Charities were short on volunteers so the group had been looking at ways to drive volunteer numbers up in collaboration with Aylesbury Town Council. One possibility of doing this was to hold an event in an area with high footfall. -

·         Education and Skills - Councillor N Hussain advised that the group had been looking at forging partnerships with local bodies and charities and had been working in liaison with Oasis exploring how to use the Council’s levelling up agenda to help deprived areas within the town and identify gaps and possible programmes that would be beneficial to progress.

·         Amy Jenner provided an update on the wide range of community engagement and work undertaken by the Board since the last meeting, this included, amongst other things, attending Hale Leys shopping centre monthly to engage the local community on areas such as cost of living and travel methods; working with the active travel team about how best to support the launch of the new cycleways; working with heritage teams on new signage for cycle routes; and developing a project with year 5 pupils at Oak Green School with Feedback Global and BBOWT to improve the school’s green space

·         The agenda papers included updates on projects which the Board had funded including the Children and Young People Project, Only Me food based social session, Aylesbury Stem Program, UK Astronomy and the Aylesbury Vineyard Storehouse Ukrainian Hub. Board Members were encouraged to share information on the Vineyard Ukrainian Hub with any Ukrainians they knew of in their local community.

·         The dropped kerb project had been completed and the Aylesbury Junction Protection and School Entrance Restrictions Parking Review Statutory Consultation was open and could be completed at https://yourvoicebucks.citizenspace.com/roads-parking/aylesbury-junction-protection-parking-review-statu/  before 12 March.

·         With the new highways contract commencing on 1 April, work was ongoing in respect of how Community Boards would link in with projects. Further information would be shared in respect of this prior to the next Board meeting.

Action: Amy Jenner

·         It was confirmed that this year’s underspend would be carried forward but it had not yet been agreed how the total underspend would be apportioned against each Community Board.

To be presented by Mark Russell, CEO Age UK and Naved Siddiqi, Social Researcher Ethnic Minority Research Project – Update October 2022. – Oasis Partnership

Mark Russell, CEO, Age UK and Naved Siddiqi, Social Researcher attended to present an update on the Bucks Minority Ethnic research project findings. The report could be viewed in full here - https://oasispartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Listen-Learn-Adapt-Research-Project.pdf

Board Members were taken through areas of the report including the background and context; the research and methods used; what residents’ views on charities were; the need for charitable support; the barriers people faced and the recommendations that came out of the report.

As a result of the report a wide range of work was to be planned and undertaken and the report was a starting point to commence conversations with the right people and groups and ensure everyone is engaged and working to support minority ethnic communities as best they could. Areas recognised as requiring improvement included improving awareness and outreach of services; charitable organisations diversifying their boards and staff teams; improving education and understanding of cultural norms; and forging new connections with important groups and figures in minority ethnic communities.

The Board thanked Mark and Naved for the presentation and comments raised reflected the view that there was a great amount of work to be done following on from the research in respect of improving how charities engage with and involve all members of society.

To be presented by Molly Meek, Youth Mentor, Action 4 Youth

Holly Meek, Youth Mentor, Action 4 Youth attended to provide an overview and evaluation of the mentoring project which the Community Board had provided funding for. Holly advised that the expected caseload for the project was 12, however the project had reached 25 young people. 14 young people had finished their work, 10 were being worked with currently and a further 1 was on the waitlist. Referrals had come through from schools, parents and social care. All young people who had engaged in the project had made great progress as could be seen in the slides appended to the agenda pack along with a case study which provided the Board with an example of the sort of work that had been undertaken. Holly thanked the Board for its funding and would welcome consideration for any future funding given the success of the project.

·       Proud of Bucks Awards

·       Community News 

·       Petitions - Cambridge Street and Mandeville School 

·       Buckinghamshire Council update 

·       Opportunity Bucks

Proud of Bucks Awards

Proud of Bucks Award winners would be selected in March with an event scheduled for 19 May at the Waterside Theatre to announce the winners and recognise everyone nominated. A formal invite for Board Members would be circulated in good time.

Post meeting-note: It was highlighted that this date clashed with the Aylesbury Town Council Mayoral Inauguration and a new date would be found.

Public Question

Mr Antonio Ribeiro, local business owner and resident attended to request an update on whether progress was being made on Cambridge Street improvements with the pavement licence expiring in September this year. The Board heard that the previous petition had been taken on board by the Council and the regeneration of Kingsbury and Market Square was integral to meeting the strategic vision for Aylesbury Town Centre. The feasibility of a permanent closure to traffic was being explored however if it were not possible then other ways to enhance the environment would be looked at. It was confirmed that residents and businesses would be consulted throughout the process to ensure the best outcome was reached for all.

Cambridge Street Petition

Hoi-Shen Radcliffe presented the petition raising concerns at couriers and customers use of the footpath and cyclepath to the businesses along the stretch of Cambridge Street from the Aldi store to the post office. Vehicle users were reported to disobey road markings, were blocking and damaging the cycle path and traffic officers were rarely present in the evenings to prevent this. There had been a number of near misses of residents and children, particularly users of the Martial Arts Club who ran classes in the evening.

A statutory consultation was underway in relation to junction protection markings in Aylesbury and the Aylesbury North Parking review is also underway. It was noted that the Council wanted to work with businesses to find a solution outside of engineered solutions. Members were keen to ensure parking wardens policed the area appropriately. This request was to be raised to Parking Services.

Action: Amy Jenner

Mandeville School Petition

Amy provided an update on the Mandeville School petition advising that she along with the local area technician, local member Councillor Raja, the Deputy Dead Teacher and senior road safety officers had met and discussed options including the school setting up their own active travel programme, a possible MVAS on site, and as a last resort the movement of the bus stop. Work would continue with the school to try and solve the problem.

Community News

The Buckinghamshire Community Wellbeing Hub Project Brief was included on page 69 of the reports pack for the Board’s information.

Buckinghamshire Council update

This could be seen on pages 65 to 67 of the reports pack.

Opportunity Bucks

Matt Everitt, Service Director for Service Improvement attended to present information on the Opportunity Bucks programme which was the Council’s local response to levelling up and was broadly aligned to the national agenda. Further details could be seen appended to these minutes. Whilst Buckinghamshire  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Date of next meeting TBC

Thursday 29 June at 6 p.m.