Agenda and minutes

Cllr Ashley Waite, Chair

Ashley welcomed all to the HWCB Meeting. 

Elaine did some housekeeping and informed the attendees that the meeting was being recorded.

Elaine Hassall, Community Board Manager

No comments.

Elaine Hassall, Community Board Manager

None.

Julian Rolfe

Julian Rolfe is Vice Chairman of Waddesdon Cricket Club. He thanked both the Community Board and Waddesdon Parish Council for their ongoing support.  His presentation informed on some of the projects that the Club are involved in which are enhancing the local community and how they engage with the younger generation and how much they have expanded provision to meet demand.  Junior cricket is very successful, and they are running a number of junior teams, incorporating ‘fun’ cricket and more formal teams. They have just started a girls’ only team and are monitoring how successful that is.  They are attracting members further afield such as Berryfields.  They run various fundraising events throughout the year. They work with local businesses to provide sponsorship and also work with the local Schools to get the local youth involved. They would like to engage with primary School children and plan to visit Schools to present at assemblies. They would like to increase the junior membership and develop the girls’ team and would like to host more County matches and they have a plan of how they can engage more people in the community.

Greg Smith asked what level of fees are charged. Juniors are charged £85 annually and adults are charged £100. Coaches are all volunteers.

Richard List asked how they have increased their junior teams. Julian said that word of mouth has had a huge impact on their success.  They also have teams that cater to all ages of the family so they can progress through the teams.

Ashley praised the club at being a family who encourages families to partake, who can all attend and develop at the club.

Helen Mee asked about grant funding and who is applying for funding and do they know what funding is available. Julian said that they don’t have a dedicated member of staff but will take it up with Paul Irwin if he is aware of the LEAP support that is available.

Marc Frost

Marc and Laura Frost presented information about the Board Games Club. The Club has been running for 18 months which ran from the Long Crendon Village Centre for 4 months.  They charged £1 to attend and sold cakes to generate income.  They then moved to the Café in Long Crendon called The Base, and were there for a few months, but found that their café costs were a barrier for those attending. They have since moved to Long Crendon Church House, which has been so successful that they have now started another club at Haddenham Airfield Pavilion.  They have received funding from the Community Board which has enabled them to purchase new games which were launched last week and were very well received.  The clubs attract all ages, and some people even attend alone. The clubs are great at addressing social isolation and are educational as well as fun. Those on the neurodiversity spectrum particularly find the board games club, a safe and encouraging environment to engage with others, which conventional clubs might not.  They now charge an optional £2 donation and provide refreshments free of charge and everyone is welcome. They thanked the Community Board for their funding which they had said made a huge difference to the service they offer.

Greg Smith asked about demographics, is it different in Haddenham to Long Crendon?  Marc and Laura said the ages vary from 3 years old to 80 years old. They attract all ages and demographics and said that they are completely inclusive. Elaine said that she visited the Long Crendon club and spoke with a lady who had just moved to the area and was so pleased that she was able to meet people in the community and her children were engaging with other people instead of sitting in their rooms.

Jenny Davies who lives in Ickford would be interested in a club like this in Ickford.  She will connect with Marc and Laura after the meeting and suggest an Ickford Facebook page where they could post to survey interest in the area. She also asked about safeguarding and Marc and Laura confirmed that they are both trained in safeguarding, and that children also have to attend with an adult.

Sue Gilbert, the Clerk for Haddenham PC said that she would arrange for posters to go onto noticeboards. Marc and Laura will drop some into the PC office.

The Long Crendon club is now self-sufficient, largely due to the low venue costs.

Cllr Ashley Waite, Chair

Ashley presented an update on projects and community funding.

Community Ownership Fund supports community groups across the UK to take ownership of assets that might which are at risk of being lost to the community.  Greg Smith explained the project in Haddenham, the grocer which was due to close, and a group of residents came together to take ownership of the shop which is now a successful community asset where people can purchase fresh food and is a hub in the community. They were able to generate a share ownership following seed funding from the Community Board to launch the scheme.  Ashley said that the COF does have an expiry date and funding will not be available past 31^st March 2025 and could be made useful in the community.

Ashley also drew attention to the SPAR £100k fund and the Heart of Bucks Healthy Ageing Fund. 

Ashley will add this item to the agenda for Community Board meetings going forward to draw attention to the community funding that is available.

I’d Like a Bike – Ashley presented this project, which is a bike recycling project based at Quainton Railway Centre.  They are providing bikes to a variety of people who don’t have access to a bike and discussed a case study for a child who was leaving care where they were able to provide a bike to them in order to travel. Ashley is looking for donations of bikes that could be recycled. Ashley could also arrange for bikes to be dropped at people’s homes if they would like to volunteer to recycle the bikes. He would also like to get the word out and has posters which he will distribute for display.  Jenny Davies suggested that Ashley contact the scouts in Aylesbury to request volunteers to fix bikes.  Helen Mee suggested that Ashley contacts the apprenticeship scheme in Aylesbury who might be interested in fixing up bikes as part of their apprenticeship scheme.

Elaine Hassall, Community Board Manager

Community Board Priorities

Elaine presented the 24-25 priorities of the Board.  Elaine directed attendees to the minutes from November which included the priorities work that she had undertaken.  Elaine explained that the priorities aren’t changing too much but the names are changing and will provide more clarity on the priorities:

• Green and Clean
• Community Support and Belonging
• Enhancing Where We Live

Marc Frost said that he partakes in the Wombles in Long Crendon and said that they have difficulty with insurance and who can take part, particularly for DofE volunteers. He said that Thame and Aylesbury Wombles do have insurance and it would be helpful if all the Wombles have an umbrella insurance that covers everyone that is partaking. Jenny Davies suggested that a template of best practice of how a Wombles group could run might be helpful. Sue Gilbert, the Clerk said that the PC in Long Crendon should cover the insurance for Wombles. Elaine will explore the issues raised.

Alan Thawley said that he is concerned that the Green and Clean priority is too focussed and excludes electric cars which is a shame. Greg Smith seconded this concern. Elaine said that Buckinghamshire Council does have a strategy for electric car charging and also an idling scheme, but that the priority should cover anything that affects the environment.  Elaine will relook at the wording for this priority.

Jenny Davies said that she thinks the ‘Community Support and Belonging’ and ‘Enhancing Where We Live’ is too close and some further description to show the difference between them. Elaine will look into this.

Community Board Activities

Elaine presented some things that the Board had been involved with: 

They organised the Green Living Event at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, which was well attended and some positive outcomes, although they were limited at having to hold the event on a weekday during the day.  They will look at attending future events on a weekend or an evening to generate footfall from residents.

The Road Safety Competition results were in and Stone CE School won with their entries, which will be made into road side posters on lampposts.  The School will receive a £500 voucher to be spent towards their School Travel Plan goals.

Independence Day – 4^th July, is a local business campaign where residents can nominate their local business that goes the extra mile.  Elaine visited The Dinton Hermit and Tiggywinkles as part of this campaign.

Parish news – Elaine has visited the Dinton Orchard and the Dinton Playground. The Community Board funded the orchard and an extension to the playground.  The Waddesdon Horticultural Society approached the Board to help them purchase some lightweight outreach tables for them to use at events.  Elaine visited the Waddesdon PC orchard which was also supported by the Community Board. The Community Board recognises, as part of our Environmental priority, that orchards are a valuable source of biodiversity and encourages their reintroduction.

Projects for 23-24 – Elaine provided a list of projects that were funded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Cllr Ashley Waite, Chair

Buckinghamshire Council Update

Alan submitted a question regarding plastics in village halls asking perhaps we could encourage village halls, parish councils etc, in the CB area to adopt a plastic free policy. Elaine said she would find some best practice examples and circulate these to the CB.

Jenny Davies doesn’t have a single use plastic policy but would be happy to look into it for Ickford PC.  Greg Smith said that if you make it easy for people to separate their recycling, they will do it, so it’s a matter of putting things in place in order to make this easier for people to recycle.

Jenny Davies would like some support in communicating with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Highways to discuss a damaged bridge in Ickford.  She would also like some advice on building a village hall.  Elaine will look into these queries and put Jenny in touch with other parishes who have undertaken a similar project ie Chearsley and Aston Clinton.

Elaine Hassall, Community Board Manager

Attendees were asked for any suggestions of topics and speakers for the next meeting.

Elaine asked if any parishes present would like to host the next meeting.