Agenda and minutes

The Chairman extended a warm welcome to all those in attendance. The presentation for the whole meeting can be found on pages 7 to 20 of the action notes.

Apologies had been received from Councillor Gurinder Wadhwa, Councillor Sue Chapple, Councillor Mary Baldwin, Councillor Denise Summers, Sherrilyn Bateman, Ashley Morgan, Benedicta Lasoye, Clare Samways, Debbie Bartlett, Prakash Dey, Emily Davis, Emma El Badaoui, Hannah Asquith, Mark Willis, Tom Beeston, Stuart Grosse, Nic Beesley, James Henson, and Sharon Thorman.

There were no declarations of interest. 

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

Updates were provided on actions from the last meeting:

·       Aylesbury Street Wardens – Councillor Anders Christensen noted that wardens were not covering Coldharbour and Buckingham Park. Amy advised that this action was now closed. Street wardens were financed from Community Safety and the remit of their role was the Town Centre only.

·       New highways contract commenced on 1 April 2023. Board Members were keen to understand how Community Board projects would be achievable. Amy advised that a new brochure would be launching in the next month or so and an update would be provided at the next meeting. Statutory consultation was underway in relation to Junction Protection markings in Aylesbury, the Aylesbury North parking review was also underway.

·       Members were keen to have Parking Enforcement Officers enforce the area appropriately. This had been raised with parking services.

·       Parking Services had advised that there was a shortage of Enforcement Officers, there were some vacancies and they were looking for people to apply on the council website. The 3 minutes of observation period was an issue as people were often not stopping for more than 3 minutes, therefore Officers were unable to enforce. Parking Services would continue to monitor this area. Parking Services provided the following data:

ACTION: Amy to provide update on Community Boards/Highways at the next meeting.

RESOLVED that the action notes from the last meeting be approved.

To be presented by Inspector James Davies.

Inspector James Davies provided an update on the work of Thames Valley Police in the Community Board area. The following points were highlighted:

·       Thames Valley Policewere goingthrough a structurechange andmerging all their areas to cover the whole of the Buckinghamshire unitary area rather than the old District areas.

·       TheSouthcourtBoxing Club hadbeen asuccess, TVPwere lookingat setting another one up in Quarrendon and had undertaken some engagement activity.

·       TVP had the lowest number of reports of ASB in the country; this was thought to be down to lack of trust and understanding of where to report what. The Chairman noted that it would be good to explore how the Board could promote the measures that could be taken against anti-social behaviour.

·       TVP were awareof underreportingin termsof shopliftingfrom thehigh street and were concentrating on prolific offenders.

·       The focusfor TVPwas on neighbourhoodcrime, residential burglaries,home invasions,vehicle theft. It was noted thatmotorcycle theftwas increasing.

·       There continued to be work on keeping women/girls safe to ensure that they felt confident to walk through parks and areas across the town.

·       TVP were undertaking long term work to help minority groups trust the police and break down the barriers.

·       TVP continued to explore different ways to engage with communities.

·       The Bucks Hate Crime hotlinehad launched.

·       Members of the Community Board reflected on a previous meeting regarding the impacts of vaping in the community. There was an appetite to continue with this work.

ACTION: Amy to introduce James and Kath Dunn

ACTION: Amy to circulate details of the next Vape meeting to Board Members

To be presented by Claire Tilson, Buckinghamshire Community Wellbeing Hub Manager.

Claire Tilson,Buckinghamshire CommunityWellbeing HubManager providedan introduction to the BNU Community Hub. The following points were highlighted:

·       Claire delivered a short presentation which can be found on pages 21 to 26 of the action notes.

·       The hubis situatedin Aylesburyand wouldsoon berolling outat theWycombe campus too.The spacehad beendeveloped byBNU staffand externalpartners. Theobjectives were tocreate ashared spacewhere healthand socialcare professionalsand VCSEproviders cancollaborate inthe samespace tosupport learner wellbeing and mental health through wellbeing services.

·       Within thecollaborative space,partners wouldprovide opportunitiesfor work shadowing,placements orvolunteering withthe VCSEproviders andhealth and social care partners

·       The space wasfree topartners touse forfor hotdesking, trainingand development, meetings.

·       There was a give and take ethos with BNUasking fora commitmentto giveback tothe studentsthat attendthe university.

·       Anyone  interested  in  getting  involved  could  contact  Claire- claire.tilson@bnu.ac.uk

Action: Amy to share the contact details of Claire and Paige Fox-Rendle, Director of Youth Volunteering at Aylesbury Youth Action.

To be presented by Cllr Mark Winn, Cllr Susan Morgan and Amy Jenner.

Priorities:

Amy provided an overview of Community Board priorities and the work undertaken to date to help deliver these. Amy highlighted that the current priorities were not reflective of the work that the Board was actually delivering. The group held a detailed discussion on suggested updated priorities.

Simon highlighted that many of the priorities going forward linked to volunteering, with the exception of the priority around vaping.

The suggested priorities, following discussion were amended as follows:

Making Aylesbury a great place to live and thrive, working with partners to:

·       Support residents to come together and increase community spirit within their local neighbourhood through the delivery of community-based initiatives.

·       Provide opportunities for residents to develop new skills.

·       Develop a volunteering strategy for Aylesbury.

·       Support exploration around the physical and environmental impacts of vaping.

·       Influence behavioural change to improve road safety around our schools.

·       Supporting Opportunity Bucks priorities identified by ward partnerships in Aylesbury North, North-West and South-West.

Engagement:

• Amytalked throughthe gamesclubsurveyand explained thata local resident/Memberof alocal clubwanted tosee ifanything couldbe doneto increase Membershipsthrough collaboration.The boardwere encouragedto promote this survey.
• Amyhad sharedfeedback intothe localcycling andwalking infrastructure plan along with the TransportStrategy aswell ashaving conversationsabout a fast food strategy.
• Amyhad attendedthe Parksand Openspaces meetingwith otherservices including youthand communitysafety. Amywas workingwith Monicaaround supporting youth engagement in town.

Funding:

• Amyhighlighted thatthe communityboard isnot agrant funder.Project funding shouldpredominantly bedriven throughthe developmentof projects identified through work around the priorities.
• Roneish(Caribbean CommunityLunch Club)fed backon the75thWindrush Day event and thanked the community board for its small grant.
• Lee(Florence Nightingale)updated thegroup onthe progressof TheWiz production. Leehighlighted afew challengeswith transportationfor some young people. A short video about the project can be viewed here.

ACTION: Amy & Sarah to have further discussion with Lee about transportation for the children.

ACTION: Lee to circulate ticket information for upcoming Wizz performance.

To be presented by Kate Sheard, Community Wildlife Manager, BBOWT.

Kate Sheard, Community Wildlife Manager, BBOWT attended to present feedback and evaluation of the Oak Green project as per pages 27 to 40 of the action notes and video here.

Points highlighted included:

·       The project was born through collaborative discussion with Oak Green School about a desire to improve their green spaces whilst also providing learning opportunities for the pupils.

·       Kate went through the presentation and explained the importance of behavioural change and how it could help the environment.

·       The project engaged with around 130 Year 5 students.

·       The next steps were to explore how Oak Green could take the designs to implementation stage and to explore opportunities to deliver in other local schools.

·       Kate welcomed any suggestions for wildlife/ nature projects in Aylesbury and could be emailed at katesheard@bbowt.org.uk

To be presented by Amy Jenner on behalf of Rebecca Nutley, Feedback Global.

Amy presentedthis itemon behalfof RebeccaNutley, FeedbackGlobal, toprovide an overviewof feedbackand evaluationof theOnly Meproject, onwhich avideo can be viewed here.

During discussion, points raised included:

·       Feedback Global werekeen todeliver alarger scaleversion ofthe projectto continue deliveringthe greatoutcomes highlighted.Feedback Global were looking for funding to support this.

·       Board membersagreed thatfunding throughthe CommunityBoard should be explored.

ACTION:Amy &Becca todiscuss projectfunding supportthrough theAylesbury Community Board.

·       Questions received in advance 

·       Buckinghamshire Council Update 

·       Opportunity Bucks 

Questions received in advance:

·       No questions were received in advance

·       Martina (resident) asked about a lamppost that had been reported through Fix my Street and had been getting worse. Martina would contact Councillor Winn with details so that this could be followed up.

ACTION: Councillor Mark Winn to follow up regarding the lamp post maintenanceissue when he receives the details.

Buckinghamshire Council update:

·       As per page 13 of the agenda pack the Buckinghamshire Council update was highlighted.

·       Dave Furze (Community Transform) provided further information about Play Streets.

Community News (as attached to these notes on pages 41 to 42):

·       Amy explainedthe energydoctor schemeand whatthe benefitscould beif residents qualified for support.

·       Amy promotedDance forHealth Dementiaand Dancefor HealthOlder and Longer Health Conditions – both on 27 July 2023.

Opportunity Bucks:

·       Graham providedan OpportunityBucks update.The nextAylesbury Community Daysof Actionare 20^thSept and20^th October. Grahamis leading onfollowing upfrom theactions fromthe workshopwhich tookplace in June.

·       A reel of the Quarrendon and Meadowcroft Community Day of Action can be viewed here.

Thursday, 16 November 2023

Next meeting date: Thursday 16 November 2023 - venue TBC