Agenda and draft minutes

Cllr Mark Winn, Chairman of Aylesbury Community Board, welcomed everyone to the meeting. Mark introduced Cllr Denise Summers as Vice-Chair and Amy Jenner as Senior Community Board Manager.

Cllr Tom Hunter-Watts, Cllr Gurinder Wadhwa, Cllr Mary Baldwin, Cllr Tim Dixon

None

Amy Jenner, Senior Community Board Manager, shared the emergency evacuation procedure.

It was noted that the meeting encouraged participation- if people would like to speak they should raise a hand and wait to be invited to speak by Cllr Mark Winn.

All actions were completed.

Members agreed to sign off the notes as accurate.

To be presented by Sgt Clare Farrow

Sergeant Clare Farrow, Thames Valley Police (TVP) provided an update on work in the Aylesbury area. The key points were:

-       NOS bin launched at Southcourt Baptist Church. A full load had been emptied already which indicates initial success.

-       TVP are working with Trading Standards regarding the illegal sale of vapes. Several premises had received warnings.

-       Retail crime is a priority- TVP are focussing on providing a proportionate response. Low level shop lifting can lead on to bigger things. There had been 20 charges brought against shoplifters in Fairford Leys.

-       Clare highlighted the continued focus on county drug lines.

Q: Cllr Sarah James asked how to pass intel in regard to illegal vaping on.

A: Clare advised to pass on to her to be fed into local teams- clare.farrow@thamesvalley.police.uk

Q: Cllr Anders Christensen asked what the advice was to residents if they see others using NOS?

A:  Clare advised to gather intel and pass on to TVP.

Q: Cllr Mark Winn asked what TVP were doing about the ongoing Highways closures in Broughton Lane, where residents were moving the signs.

A: Clare advised that a number of notice of intention of prosecution letters had been issued. Clare is working with Buckinghamshire Highways to manage this problem.

Q: Ian Beard, Prebendal Farm Street Association, highlighted the issues with pavement parking in Prebendal Farm and asked if legislation was  being introduced to enable enforcement of this.

A: Clare advised that there was no legislation yet.

Cllr Susan Morgan highlighted that there had been some good outcomes in Elmhurst from the reporting of dangerous parking.

Dangerous parking can be reported using the following channels:

-       FixMyStreet (buckinghamshire.gov.uk)

-       Report a parking problem | Buckinghamshire Council

Action: Amy to introduce Jane Mason (Buckinghamshire Council Economic Regeneration) to Clare Farrow regarding retail crime priority.

To be presented by Mark Russell, CEO AgeUK

Charities together

Mark Russell, CEO AgeUK provided an update regarding:

-       Charities together- a partnership project to support people of all ages.

-       AgeUK older people’s update including Welfare Benefits project summary (which received funding from the Aylesbury Community Board).

The information shared can be found in page 27 of the slide pack of the supplement agenda pack.

Q: Cllr Susan Morgan asked for clarification on the Charities Together concept.

A: Mark advised that it was a similar model to the AgeUK existing Welfare Benefits service to older people but through partnership was open to all. The project focussed on bringing skills to support casework as well as better signposting through local organisations who are listening directly to the community.

Q: Cllr Niknam Hussain asked how do we stop older people getting left behind with tech advances?

A: Mark advised that there is a lot of work taking place around accessibility- including a petition to ensure that for every online form there is an offline version and the Age Friendly project led by Public Health which includes an accessibility focus.

An introduction to the National Paralympic Heritage Trust

To be presented by Vicky Hope-Walker, CEO NPHT

Vicky Hope-Walker provided an introduction to the National Paralympic Heritage Trust (NPHT) as per the appended presentation.

Q:  Cllr Alan Sherwell, Aylesbury Town Council, asked how we can do more to bring NPHT work into Aylesbury.

A: Vicky advised that it was hard to communicate but that the message needed to continue to be pushed and asked for support and ideas to do this.

Sergeant Clare Farrow noted that TVP was focussing on seldom heard communities and would be keen to look at opportunities to work with NPHT  to ensure people feel support by TVP.

Action: Amy to share Clare contact details with Vicky

Community Board Priorities, Engagement and Funding. To include:

-          Welfare Benefits- AgeUK

-          Update from youth interns, AYA

-          Road Safety campaign

Amy Jenner, Senior Community Board Manager, led an update regarding Community Board activity and further information could be found on page 30 of the supplement agenda pack. Amy reviewed each of the 5 priorities and invited guests to update as follows:

Ian Beard, Prebendal Farm Street Association (PFSA), provided an update on PFSA  and the positive growth. Ian thanked the board for their funding contribution and advised that it had enabled meetings to take place at the community centre and that resident participation had increased.

Taofeek Oyeyemi, a local musician and community development advocate, shared details of the Open Mic project he is delivering later in the year. Taofeek thanked the board for the local connections and advised he was working with the Buckinghamshire Council Youth team to further explore his ambitions.

Dave Evans, local resident, provided an update on his Club Expo event (planned for May/June time) which he is leading with support from the board. Dave advised that he is looking for more clubs to get involved- anyone with ideas for clubs should contact Dave via aylesburycb@buckinghamshire.gov.uk.

Henry Mannall, Aylesbury Youth Aylesbury (AYA) Intern,  and Paige Fox-Rendall, Director at AYA, provided an update around AYA work and how Henry has been engaging to seek the views of young people- especially around skills and employment. Henry and his colleague Vicky’s posts were part funded by the Aylesbury Community Board. Henry advised that through this role his confidence had grown massively and that he was pleased that he had been able to effectively engage with young people of a similar age to him.

An update was provided by Amy regarding the vaping priority. A possible project was being worked up- more information would be shared. Board members highlighted that they weren’t all aware they could recycle small electricals.

Action: Cllr Anders Christensen to link Amy with Buckingham Park School around their work to support reducing vape waste.

Action: Amy to provide link for information about small electrical recycling:

Check what you can put in your bins | Buckinghamshire Council

-          Question time

-          Opportunity Bucks Update

No questions were received in advance.

Amy Jenner, Senior Community Board Manager, made reference to the Bucks Council update as per page 7 of the agenda pack.

Cllr Susan Morgan and Amy provided a brief update regarding Opportunity Buck:

·         The North-West area action group met in early January. It was attended by around 25 local groups, residents and stakeholders to discuss priorities for the area for potential delivery of initiatives. They are scoping a detached youth piece of work to gain feedback from young people in the area before designing offer.

·         A festive lunch was held in the Dairy Maid Pub in December to increase connections/ reduce isolation. Great engagement opportunity and lots of feedback from residents for potential activities. A couple of residents had now joined the community board as a result.

·         Smoke free parks signage/competition - Thomas Hickman school held a competition for signage to encourage people not to smoke in playgrounds. The winning signage will be used in several parks in the North-West area.

Cllr Mark Winn thanked everyone for joining the board and encouraged people to keep in touch and promote Community Boards within their networks.

A future meeting date (likely July 2024) would be circulated shortly.