Agenda and minutes

Cllr Ashley Waite, Chair

Ashley welcomed everyone to the meeting. Elaine went through some housekeeping and etiquette.

Elaine Hassall, Community Board Manager

There were no comments and the notes confirmed as correct.

Elaine Hassall, Community Board Manager

Gregory Smith declared an interest as Chair of Trustees for Blooming Fruity (which had been supported, including financially, by the Community Board).

·       Domestic Resource Efficiency Service (‘Energy Doctor’ scheme – Victoria Nash Including questions.

·       Library of Things – Ashley Waite Including questions.

Library of things ‘I’d like to borrow’- Ashley gave an update on Library of Things- a CB project which is one year in. After a slow start, it now has a new website- idliketoborrow.com and Facebook page. Ashely wished to thank Buckinghamshire Railway Centre for partnering with the CB on the project.  The project was now looking for donation of stock & volunteers/trustees. The Library was open to all Bucks residents and was working with ShareBee.

Cllr Greg Smith highlighted that Zero Carbon Haddenham have also set up a scheme with ShareBee,

Energy Doctor scheme- Vicky Nash- Vicky gave a summary of the Energy Doctor scheme- funded by the UK Prosperity Fund. The service is available to all Bucks residents who meet the criteria for support. Vicky has recently been working with Alms House in Quainton.

Service currently provides low-cost retro fit measures and is making the most of new funding streams. More costly upgrades can sometimes be accessed through Better Housing, Better Health. Next year the scheme is looking to include water saving measures.

It was asked whether the service was at capacity. There are 150 enquiries currently in the system. However, more publicity is needed to promote it in rural areas.

·       Bernie’s 10,000 Can Challenge – Ashley Waite Including questions

·       Aspire Bucks – Paul Irwin Including questions

10,000 can challenge- Ashley Waite delivered a short presentation to introduce the item. Bernie has also sponsored a hamper appeal for families in need to access a Christmas meal. Please contact hadwadcb@buckinghamshire.gov.uk if you would like to get involved with volunteering and donation or visit Bernwood Bus Facebook

Ashley highlighted FoodCycle at the Vineyard- which offers a free meal on a Tuesday evening for residents in need of a meal and socialising. Open to anyone and always looking for volunteers.

Christmas Present Appeal

Paul Irwin shared some information about Inspire Bucks Christmas present appeal. The charity is looking for donations and trustees. Please contact Paul or Ashley if you are interested in trustee opportunities. Also looking at a Care Leavers project- looking to give vouchers to support with independence. 

Elaine Hassall, Community Board Manager

Elaine showcased some of the boards work- including Proud of Bucks, Long Crendon Board Games Club, Community Orchards and forthcoming events.

Support is available for Community Fridges- contact Helping Hand if there is a need in your area. Can be linked into existing schemes, such as allotments.

All to share details of local events if you would like the Community Board to support and promote on their Facebook page. Elaine shared local project ideas that could be replicated in other areas.

Elaine highlighted how Community Board funding had been allocated and shared the current priorities.:

• Health & Wellbeing including Cost of Living
• Environment
• Road Safety including Active Travel

Ashley highlighted digital recycling as a gap that could be filled- if anyone is interested in getting involved.

Action: Elaine/Paul to look into thermal imaging cameras for the board to be available to parishes.

It was noted that footpaths and cycle paths were not mandatory in new developments. Paul advised that developers should incorporate sustainability but not all projects were viable for various reasons.

Cllr Greg Smith advised that the Planning committee was committed to achieving a particular standard and we should ensure a higher standard is set which ticks all the boxes including health and wellbeing, Climate Change etc.

He also felt CB funding did not reflect the population shift and that 2/3^rd of the population lives in either Haddenham or Berryfields and that the CB budget spent did not reflect the growth in those areas. He felt a large proportion of funding addressed Children and Families which was great but felt that Parishes had a larger older population which also needed support.

Paul advised that we could not confirm the population numbers exactly as that split but invited Greg to join him to explore support for older people.

Action: Paul, Elaine and Greg to further explore need for support for older people in the form of a task and finish group.

Regina Ichim from Berryfields asked how we raised awareness about the CB?

Elaine highlighted that the board works closely with Berryfields PC and had put on a health and wellbeing event in the community centre last year but had had trouble getting residents to attend even though it was well promoted.

Ashley highlighted that the population in Berryfields is a younger generation. A lot of projects have been funded in the past, but these are now sustainable, so they do not require additional funding.

Cllr Greg Smith – asked about the collection of data and evidence to identify issues and find out what people needed. Elaine advised that available data is not sufficiently granular enough to identify pockets of need in our diverse communities and the role of CB members is to raise any identified local need.

The state of footpaths was raised, and Cllr Nic Brown advised that this needed to be fed back to Councillors as is outside the scope of the Community Board.

Sue Pusey from Westcott asked about intergenerational projects.

Paul gave examples of recent  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

·       LCWIP update

·       Parish Workshops update and discussion around Warm Hubs and Supporting rural GP surgeries.

Buckinghamshire Council update provided in the agenda pack.

Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP

Ashley shared a very brief ‘current status’ position on the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) from the Transport Strategy Team who were leading on this piece of countywide work. There will be an update to all Community Boards in due course, but the update below was provided to the CB given local interest.

“Workshops have recently been held with Buckinghamshire Council members, grouped by Community Board area, where the aspirations put forward have been considered.  We are in the process of determining which inter-settlement corridors are to be taken forward for inclusion in the draft LCWIP. There will be public consultation on the draft, likely in early 2024.”

Paul added that the CB was not the forum to debate this.

It was asked whether there was any S106 funding for LCWIP?

Paul advised that we could not advise on any specific fund but the aim of the LCWIP was to get projects lined up and ready in case government or other funds became available.

David Truesdale commented that some S106 funding locally had to be spent within a 10-year time limit or risked being lost.

Review of Family Information Day held in Berryfields

Corrinna Martin gave an update on the Family Fun Day held in Berryfields on 23^rd August - a presentation can be found appended to the action notes of the meeting. Young people and those with SEND said they wanted more safe spaces to go. All they wanted was a room with some games (indoors and outside), ‘old style’ youth work. She posed the questions of how can we do that as a community? How can we engage parents/grandparents? It is appreciated that some areas may only have a few young children- how can we get them together.

It was noted that the Council has a Youth Coordinator who can support exploring youth needs/youth clubs.

Regina Ichim, a resident from Berryfields, offered to get involved - promoting the CB and could ask neighbours if they would be interested in getting involved.

Action: Elaine- to follow up on intergenerational ideas for Berryfields with Regina and Corrina Martin from the Family Information Service.

Parish Workshops update

Parish workshops- Ashley gave a summary of the 2 workshops which had taken place- the notes have been shared with both groups.

Presubmitted question on 20 mph limits

Ashley read out question received from John Lewis regarding 20mph policy for schools. The following response was read out.

The current policy of Buckinghamshire Council is that Buckinghamshire Council and Thames Valley Police (TVP) currently only support a 20mph limit on roads without traffic calming where mean speeds are at or below 24mph. Change a speed limit | Buckinghamshire Council

Following a countywide review of speed limits for all public roads in Buckinghamshire in 2012, the Council are currently not funding any further speed limit changes across the county.  

At the Cabinet meeting on 13th July a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Elaine Hassall, Community Board Manager

Not asked.

Thursday 30^th November 2023 at 6:30 pm at Waddesdon Community Centre

30^th November 2023 - Waddesdon Community Centre.