Agenda and draft minutes

David Anthony (DA) welcomed everyone to the meeting. DA confirmed that Andy Chapman (Community Board Manager) remained unwell but Graham White would now be covering his position until his return. DA said the Board would now be more visible and active.

Andy Chapman (Community Board Manager) and Richard Ambrose (Service Director)

The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

There were no declarations of interest.

·      Monica Bergh – Youth Voluntary Services Coordinator, Bucks Council

·      The Energy Doctor – Victoria Nash; Better Homes, Better Health, Bucks Council

·       Ukraine Refugee Support – Cheryl Lane, Senior Refugee Welfare Officer, Bucks Council

Presentation – Youth: Monica Bergh (MB)

MB introduced herself and said she worked in the Family Support Service as the Youth Community Co-Ordinator. Her job was to support youth work and develop it in the voluntary and community sector across Buckinghamshire.

There were various ongoing projects, one of which was at Burnham Youth Club because their full time Youth Worker was unwell. MB stated that the team attended sessions, led the youth work and also supported repairs to the building.

MB stated that they did not know the issues for young people in Burnham, so Community Youth Rangers would be conducting a survey in the area with young people. She confirmed they were working with the Family Hub group to find out if there was any community work or collaborative projects we could work together on.  Andy Chapman had been looking into running a round table in Burnham to discuss with those that delivered youth work.  This could for example be with the Scouts, Brownies or lunch clubs. MB said this was on hold for the moment but was in the future plan.

MB introduced her colleague Debbie Hulme, and said she would like to organise young people and ambassadors to represent the Community Board to ensure it was speaking with young people as well.

MB said her team was happy to support and develop any initiative or answer any questions. If the Community Board felt something was needed to resolve an issue, MB said she would be happy to discuss a proposal.  For example, detached projects were being run in towns where youth engagement was difficult and they were also helping to run First Aid programmes (which could be rolled out in Burnham) to teach young people on what to do if there was a knife crime incident or if someone had taken drugs and was feeling unwell and/or struggling.

Questions:

John Carey (JC) stated that when Community Boards started it was mooted there would be a Youth Council for the area, and that he and Councillor Dillon had actively started working on this. However, it did not come to fruition. JC said he had been involved in youth work all his life and had been a school governor. He understood that a young persons voice was very important and asked how we could serve young people if we didn’t know what they desired. JC requested that the idea of a Youth Council be reinvigorated. Louise Hayday (the Burnham Parish Council Clerk) was also keen for this so JC asked what the views of others were.

MB reported that her colleague, Krissie Hutton, was trying to raise Ambassadors in each town, so even if there wasn’t a Youth Council, they could sit on Buckinghamshire Council’s to represent their areas. MB suggested that she meet with JC separately to discuss this further – Action 01 (JC/MB).

Manjit Kaur Bassi (MKB) said that MB had mentioned the youth support in Burnham and asked if this was something that could be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

GW presented the Corporate Update – see attached.

·       2023/24 Community Board budget

As stated by the Chairman at the beginning of the meeting, the Community Board had been without a manager for some time due to sickness. MD informed the Board that she had been trying over a period of months to find a caretaker to cover, and that we had been very fortunate in securing Graham White for a couple of days per week. She hoped this would increase until Andy was well enough to return. MD wished Andy a speedy recovery and wanted him back as soon as possible.

MD presented the Funding Summary report up to 30th September 2023 – see attached.

As a trustee of The Well @ Lent Rise, JC thanked the Community Board for their contribution to his project (The Meeting Place Parasol) which had really helped people.

MD affirmed that the Board were looking for these sorts of community projects as it wanted to make itself more visual over the coming months. She confirmed that the criteria was on the Council’s web pages as well the priorities for the Board.

Danielle Roberts (DR) wondered what the new application process was now the new highways contractor was in place. MD stated there was a new toolkit which Members were aware of. In terms of financial support for a highways application, the Community Board could fund up to £15,000.DR enquired if the toolkit was online. MD was unsure but said it could be shared if not. She added that Highways projects were very costly and sometimes a non engineered solution was all that was required. This could simply be around education, so each application was reviewed on a case by case basis.

If someone wanted to make an application, DR asked who they should contact in the first instance. MD confirmed that all applications, whether it be for highways, a general project or small grant, go through the Community Board Manger (Graham White for this Board) to have those initial conversations and to steer the applicant appropriately in terms of funding and funding avenues. If large amounts of funding were required, the Boards can look to collaborate with other organisations to make the money go further.

Ruth Senior (RS), the Clerk from Taplow and Dorney Parish Council said she had spoken to Andy earlier in the year about a project in Taplow, and that he’d agreed that it was something they could potentially apply for. MD requested that RS contact GW to discuss her application and the conversations already had with Andy as we were not privy to that. RS said she would email MD with the application information – Action 04 (RS/GW/MD)

As money was tight for highways schemes, CL stated that the Parish Council did not want bollards put up in Church Street as the delivery lorries would not be able to access the public house that was located there. In addition, she wondered when the bypass that was blocked during covid could be reopened.

DA confirmed that George Sandy was standing down as the Chair for wellbeing action group and that Trevor Egleton had kindly agreed to take over. There had been no recent meetings but DA said they would re-commence going forward.

MD informed the Board that there were three actions groups – Infrastructure, Highways and Improving our Environment and Wellbeing.

MD then presented a visual slide which provided an overview of how the Community Board worked in partnership with the local community and how it could help.

e-Petition – Dropmore Infant School

Gita Street (GS) reiterated that she was the retired headteacher of the school and was part of Littleworth Community Road Safety Group who were with her as part of the call. GS introduced Heather Joy, a parent at the school, Judith Lovell, a local resident, Fiona Greenfield, a governor at the school and local resident, Kevin (surname unknow) a parent, Mrs Waugh, the current headteacher and Danielle Roberts (who was on a separate call).

GS stated that the group were addressing Littleworth Road’s safety issues – these were as follows:

•            High volume and speeding vehicles.

•            No safe pedestrian road crossing/

•            No safe pavements.

•            Poor parking control.

•            Poor road signage.

GS said that the Community Board had been made very aware of these issues for several years. In her six years as headteacher, GS had seen it as her duty of care to ensure that the children had a safe route into the school, and had reported the need for road safety improvements with the Community Board on several occasions.

GS confirmed that there was a huge volume of high speed traffic, there was no pedestrian road crossing, no safe pavements, poor parking control and poor road signage. GS asked the Board if this was good enough for children of a school in our area.

GS added that where there were no safe pavements, children had to walk on the road with high speed cars. There was no way to cross the road safely. There was poor parking control and the road signage was not very obvious, so families had to use the road and drivers were not aware of the potential dangers they were causing.

These issues had resulted in the e-petition being raised where 639 votes of support were received. GS believed this demonstrated the huge support of the local community and the extended local community.

GS said that the Board were asked to comment on the e-petition on 19th May 2023, so she presumed that it had been read and understood. In summary, GW advised that the e-petition was requesting safe pavements, a dedicated safe crossing, additional signage and speed reduction. GS understood that Neil O’Leary (NOL) was going to summarise the report, but she wanted to make very clear that their requests were non-negotiable. Now, after several years, the group were asking for the Board’s commitment to move this forward as soon as possible, and to conduct a feasibility study, with a view of implementing all the recommendations and all the conclusions.

GS added that safe pavements and a Pelican Crossing with lights were required from the infant school to the Montessori nursery as there were small children walking that road. Where the Montessori was located, a safe pavement from the pelican crossing to the Jolly Woodman was required so that parents could park and the roads were safe – this was also non-negotiable.

Furthermore, GS requested the unanimous support for the findings of the report and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

There was no further business to discuss

Tuesday 6^th February 2024 on MS Teams.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 6h February 2024. It will be on Teams. Once the weather improves the Community Board will resume in person meetings.

DA confirmed that George Sandy was standing down as the Chair for wellbeing action group and that Trevor Egleton had kindly agreed to take over. There had been no recent meetings but DA said they would re-commence going forward.