Agenda and minutes

Venue: MS Teams

Contact: Clerk - Anne-Marie Kenward Email: democracy@buckinghamshire.gov.uk  Community Board Co-ordinator - Michelle Parker Email: communities@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcome and Introduction

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed attendees to the meeting and reminded them of online meeting etiquette.

 

2.

Apologies / Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Cllr B Chapple.

 

The Chairman declared a non-pecuniary interest under agenda item 5 - Ollie’s Scout Hall as both the unitary ward councillor and a parish councillor for Aston Clinton. Ms Kenward, clerk, noted it was not necessary to declare pre-existing support for the project.

 

3.

Minutes of the Last Meeting pdf icon PDF 476 KB

To review and agree the minutes of the meeting held 9 November 2022.

Minutes:

Actions from the previous meeting were reviewed. Actions had been completed with two exceptions:

  • Ms Parker, Community Board Co-Ordinator, continued to work with Thames Valley Police (TVP) to arrange quarterly face to face meetings with parishes.
  • Work with the Buckinghamshire Council Health and Adult Social Care Select Committee (HASC) regarding future NHS provision locally continued.

 

RESOLVED

The minutes of the meeting held 9 November 2021 were AGREED as an accurate record.

4.

Wendover Library Refurbishment

Update by David Jones, Head of Libraries.

Minutes:

Mr D Jones, Head of Libraries, Buckinghamshire Council, gave an overview of the planned refurbishment at Wendover Library.

 

Mr Jones highlighted the following:

  • Funding had been received from the Arts Council’s Library Improvements fund (£310k), Buckinghamshire Council’s Capital Fund (£120k), Buckinghamshire Culture (£10k), Wendover Parish Council and fund raising from Wendover Community Library Trust. They had been unsuccessful accessing the HS2 Community Fund.
  • The project aimed to expand and remodel the library
  • The refurbishment would include:
    • A total building re-fit.
    • Enclosing the courtyard area to create more indoor meeting space. Flexible, affordable meeting spaces for activities with a particular emphasis on those that improved on digital inclusion, social isolation and health and wellbeing.
    • Card based access to allow use outside of normal opening hours. This could double the availability of meeting space and access to the library on a self-service basis.
    • The Buckinghamshire Culture funding would be used for an art installation.
    • Inclusion of solar panels and electric vehicle (EV) charging.
  • There would now be opportunities for local consultation on design.
  • The current frontage included an art installation by local artist Wendy Lewis in conjunction with Lindengate. If this could not be incorporated into the new design the aim was to return it to Lindengate.

 

RESOLVED

Member of the Committee Board thanked Mr Jones for his time.

5.

Petition - Ollie's Scout Hall pdf icon PDF 897 KB

Report by Bob Daniels, Head of Asset Management.

Minutes:

Mr N Walker spoke on behalf of the Aston Clinton Scouts. A copy of their petition was available to view online. The start time on the recording was 18m 50s.

 

Key points highlighted included:

  • Aston Clinton Scouts had been looking for a permanent home for over a decade, somewhere to meet and store their equipment. Over this time the group had continued to grow as the local population increased. They were currently a group of 100 with 45 young people on the waiting list to join.
  • A previous offer by Buckinghamshire Council (BC) of a building on the Green Park site had not been viable. The Scouts would have been responsible for funding significant capital works but with a maximum lease of only 15 years. This offer had now been withdrawn.
  • There had been significant housing development in the area and local feeling was that developers needed to give back to the community by providing a new scout hut.
  • The Scouts had identified a developer willing to include a scout hut as part of an application to build 5 houses on a plot known as “land adjoining the Old Rectory, London Road, Aston Clinton”.
  • Planning permission had been granted in August 2021 (21/00759/AOP) however there were issues with a restrictive covenant and with access over land owned by BC.
  • The group had gathered 2511 signatures to show local support for the London Road application.
  • BC had suggested an alternative site, Bulls Field, which was outside of the village losing the benefit of the central location. It was also felt that development on the Bulls Field site would not benefit from the same local support. It was stated that the Council was aware that this site was outside the current permitted development area and would be unlikely to be granted planning approval.

 

Mr J Reed, Director of Property & Assets – Buckinghamshire Council (BC), gave an overview of the report produced in response to the petition and circulated as a supplement to this agenda.

 

Key points highlighted included:

  • The land adjoining the Old Rectory, London Road, Aston Clinton was privately owned but was subject to a restrictive covenant that required BC’s agreement to remove.
  • There was also the issue of access across land owned by BC.
  • The developer had made a financial offer to resolve these issues but the BC report outlined why the Property Team would not agree to these amendments meaning the whole development, not just the scout hut, could not progress. Effectively, BC had a property position on the development and could stop it progressing.
  • An alternative site at Bulls Field had been suggested by BC.

 

The following points were discussed and made by Members of the Board:

  • The Bulls Field would not be a sustainable site as it was on the periphery of the village. The proposed London Road site was an ideal location as it was central to the village; the Scouts would have access to the park for wider activities without having to travel from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Project Spotlights

·         Youth Outreach Programme – Pete Swinson, Wendover Youth Action Manager

 

·         Nature Based Programme – Charlie Powell, Lindengate

Minutes:

The following groups gave an update on the funding received from the Community Board.

 

Mr P Swinton, Wendover Youth Action.

  • Funding had been received in October 2021.
  • The group had worked in partnership with Active in the Community putting on 4 sessions, lasting 2 hour each, over the October half term. Activities included football, handball, tennis, frisbee, golf and inflatables.
  • Sessions were attended by 47 young people aged 9-18 years old. 90% were from the Wendover area.
  • Sessions had raised awareness of the youth club and allowed workers to reengage with groups who had stopped coming to the club.

 

C Powell, Lindengate.

  • Funding was put towards programmes for young people, 4 groups of 16–18 year olds and 4 groups of 13-15 year olds. Programmes were 6 weeks long with referrals made by local schools.
  • They had only been able to run 1 of the 4 planned programmes for the younger age group. This was felt to be due schools and Child and Adults Mental Health Services (CAMHS) being busy making it difficult to engage with them. There was also feedback from schools that it could be difficult to get the necessary consent forms completed by parents, issues with transport and delays due to young people and staff contracting covid.
  • Feedback from the sessions that had gone ahead were 100% positive.

 

7.

Smoke Free Parks pdf icon PDF 640 KB

To be presented by Public Health.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Ms E Davis, Public Care practitioner, Public Health (PH), and Ms R Kineen, Public Health Practitioner trainee spoke about the following local initiatives. A copy of their slides would be appended to these minutes.

 

Smoke Free Sidelines

  • First launched in Norfolk 2017 Smoke Free Sidelines worked alongside the Football Association’s (FA) Respect campaign. The message was that children copy adult behaviour.
  • Buckinghamshire Council (BC) can provide interested clubs with promotional items such as t-shirts, car stickers and teardrop banners free of charge. The FA would provide training.
  • Further details would be shared with Ms M Parker for circulation. ACTION Ms Kineen.

 

Smoke Free Parks

  • PH wanted to run this initiative as a pilot over the next 2 years. A set design for signage would be decided with a design competition and surveys would be used at the 1-year mark to gage the success.
  • PH would be reaching out to parish councils asking for support shortly.

8.

Budget Overview pdf icon PDF 439 KB

To be presented by Michelle Parker, Community Board Co-Ordinator.

Minutes:

Ms Parker referred to a report on the Board’s finances for 2021/22, a copy of which would be appended to these minutes.

 

The following points were discussed:

  • The budget had been reduced from £800,000 down to £290,466. The final budget for 2022/23 was yet to be confirmed.
  • The report included a list of applications approved, in progress and for consideration. There were a small number of applications that needed approval before the end of the tax year and Ms Parker would make provision for this to happen either by meeting or email. ACTION Ms Parker.
  • The opening date for 22/23 applications would be sometime in April 2022. Final date to be confirmed.
  • Cllr S Bowles confirmed there was a BC working group looking at a way to streamline the application process and pay grants faster. They were also considering whether applications and their status could be displayed on the BC website.

9.

Community Matters

Questions to be submitted in advance of the meeting to michelle.parker@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

Minutes:

There were none

10.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

There were none.

11.

Date of Next Meeting

Discussion to set the date of the next meeting, to be held in person.

Minutes:

Date and location to be confirmed for May 2022.