Agenda and minutes

Venue: MS Teams Virtual Meeting

Contact: Elaine Hassall (Community Board Co-ordinator)  Christina Beevers (Democratic Services Support)

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Chairman’s Welcome

Cllr Michael Rand – Chair

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave an overview of the virtual meeting procedure rules.

2.

Notes From Last Meeting pdf icon PDF 462 KB

Elaine Hassall – Community Board Coordinator

Minutes:

Resolved:

 

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 25th November, 2020 be approved as a correct record.

3.

Declarations of Interest

Elaine Hassall – Community Board Coordinator

Minutes:

There were none.

4.

Introduction to Community Board Service Champion

Joan Hancox – Service Director Planning, Growth and Sustainability

Minutes:

Joan Hancox was unable to attend the meeting and gave her apologies.

5.

Buckinghamshire Council Climate Change and Trees Strategy pdf icon PDF 280 KB

Cllr Bill Chapple - Cabinet Member Environment and Climate Change

Minutes:

Mr B Chapple gave Members a brief overview of Buckinghamshire Council’s Climate Change & Air Quality Strategy + Tree Planting Programme. The slides for the presentation, including links to useful further documentation would be circulated to Members and appended to the Minutes.

 

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions related to Mr Chapple’s presentation and were informed that:

 

·         £0.79m would be put towards the maintenance of the trees planted as part of the scheme to ensure a high survival rate, though it was expected that between 5% and 20% of the trees could be expected to be lost.

 

·         It was hoped that the finalisation and introduction of new Neighbourhood Plans in Buckinghamshire would better reflect the realities of climate change locally, and apply more pressure to planners to develop in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly way.

 

·         Savings of £150m were expected over the 30-year contract with Greatmoor Energy-From-Waste Facility, which burned 100,000 tons of waste from Buckinghamshire each year. This generated energy for 40,000 homes and prevented waste from going to landfill sites and producing Methane, which was 20x more potent that the Carbon Dioxide produced at Greatmoor. 54% of waste in Buckinghamshire was recycled and this was not being incinerated.

 

·         Biodiversity banks were being considered in the plan to enable some re-wilding across Buckinghamshire as part of a wider approach to promote and increase natural biodiversity across the County. The Government’s Environmental Bill published later in the year would provide some clarity on this issue.

 

·         Mr E Barlow would pass on queries concerning the possible installation of electric vehicle charging points for Brill Parish Council to the Transport team for further investigation.

 

·         Following the announcement that the Oxford-to-Cambridge Expressway was to be cancelled, there would be an investigation into possible alternative uses for the land, including further tree planting.

 

Members thanked Mr Chapple for his time and presentation. Ms E Hassall would pass on any further questions for a response where necessary.

6.

Thames Valley Police – Neighbourhood Update

PC Lee Turnham – Community Speedwatch Coordinator

Minutes:

PC Lee Turnham was invited to update Members on the work of Thames Valley Police (TVP) in the Community Board area.

 

PC Turnham informed Members that TVP hoped to reinstate the community Speedwatch initiative by the beginning of May, provided that the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown remained unaltered. This would begin with a pilot area, and Members were encouraged to consult www.communityspeedwatch.org for further details.

 

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions related to PC Turnham’s presentation and were informed that:

 

·         The reintroduction of the community Speedwatch initiative would be undertaken in phases, using existing data from 2019 to identify priority areas and Parishes.

 

·         Anyone with MVAS machines containing data that had not yet been analysed and processed by TVP should contact their local neighbourhood team to have the machines collected.

 

·         The digital system coming into operation in the pilot area was expected to be robust enough to tackle the quantity of data it was likely to face, and had proven effective in other areas in which it had been adopted. PC Turnham drew Member’s attention to its deployment in Sussex over the previous two years as an example.

 

·         Speedwatch was ultimately an educational initiative, and did not prosecute drivers that it caught speeding.

 

·         Members were encouraged to contact their TVP local neighbourhood team if they felt that lorries were causing damage to roads.

 

·         PC Turnham supported the enforcement of the 20mph speed limit in place in the Bernwood area as part of Community Speedwatch, which had seen an average reduction in the speed of traffic passing through villages from the mid-30s to the low 20s where it had been in action.

 

·         Members were encouraged to consult the announcement made by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley regarding Community Speedwatch. This could be found at the following link: https://www.thamesvalley-pcc.gov.uk/news-and-events/thamesvalley-pcc-news/2021/03/restart-and-relaunch-for-community-speedwatch-in-2021/

 

·         MVAS cameras could be purchased commercially from Amazon, and used with TVP insurance. Anyone wishing to purchase and use an MVAS camera was encouraged to contact PC Turnham for a Service-Level agreement in advance of using the camera on the roads.

 

Anyone wishing to contact PC Turnham directly with further questions and queries, could do so by emailing him at lee.turnham@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

7.

Community Board Updates pdf icon PDF 527 KB

Elaine Hassall – Community Board Coordinator

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Ms E Hassall (Community Board Coordinator) gave an overview of the Haddenham & Waddesdon Community Board area as well as an update on the work of the Community Board and its Working Groups so far. The slides providing specific details on Community Board projects and funding applications over the past year would be circulated to Members and appended to the Minutes of the meeting.

 

Anyone with further questions about the Community Board or wanting to get involved in the work of one of the Working Groups was encouraged to contact Ms Hassall at: hadwadcb@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

8.

Launch of Wild Aylesbury Vale Project

Cllr Paul Irwin – Vice Chair

Minutes:

Mr P. Irwin gave an update to Members on the launch of the Wild Aylesbury Vale project, which would take the form of a competition between local Parishes and communities. The competition had been created in partnership with several local organisations including Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), Lindengate and Chiltern Rangers. Participants could make any contribution towards improving and developing green spaces and encouraging natural biodiversity. Entries could be made between 1st April and 30th June, 2021.

 

Mr Irwin also drew attention to the launch of a £500 minor grant scheme which had been agreed at a previous meeting of the Community Board. Parish Councils and local residents were eligible to apply and the money would be put towards interesting green projects in the Community Board area. Funding decisions would be taken by the Environment and Green Spaces sub-group.

 

Members asked questions of Mr Irwin and were informed that:

 

·         Brill Environment Group would be eligible to enter the competition and send a representative to the Environment and Green Spaces sub-group.

 

·         If the grant scheme became oversubscribed, it was hoped that more funding could be allocated to incentivise the promotion of biodiversity and green spaces locally.

9.

Community Matters (Pre-submitted questions from the Community Board)

Cllr Michael Rand - Chair

Minutes:

It was confirmed that five written questions had been received by the Community Board Coordinator, but that the person who submitted them was unable to attend the meeting. The questions would receive a response outside the meeting.

 

Members were also encouraged to participate in the business of the Community Board more actively moving forward, particularly with funding applications, as Members were always welcome to make comments concerning potential projects for funding. For further information regarding this and the work of the Community Board, Members were encouraged to contact Elaine at: hadwadcb@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

10.

Topics for Future Consideration

Elaine Hassall – Community Board Coordinator

Minutes:

Communication with Members would take place to discuss the potential for physical meetings in the future as social restrictions associated with the pandemic eased. Some Members were of the view that virtual meetings would be a more appropriate platform for the Community Board, owing to greater convenience in attending meetings resulting in higher attendance figures. Others expressed the view that physical meetings make informal discussions with attendees before and after meetings easier, facilitating a deeper networking environment.

 

Another Topic concerned potential avenues to enhance existing MVAS systems, to feed data into the Thames Valley Police system and ensure that it was an effective deterrent.

 

It was hoped that a future meeting could discuss ways in which the Community Board might play a more active role in promoting and improving the health of people in the local Villages.

 

Members were encouraged to submit any further ideas for future topics to Ms E Hassall.

11.

Date of Next Meeting

Wednesday 9th June at 7pm (Provisional)

Minutes:

9th June, 2021 (Provisional)