Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Members heard apologies from Jenny McAteer, Sue Severn and Noreen Shardlow

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meetings held on 3^rd March and 20^th July 2021.

The Minutes of the meetings held on on 3rd March and 20th July 2021 were approved as a correct record.

Members to declare any interests.

There were none.

Katrina briefly informed Members that following the petition received, the necessary internal approval process for work to commence had taken longer than expected. The start time for work was originally late-September, however work was still yet to begin. The member of the public who raised the petition had been notified of this, and Katrina informed the Board that there would be an update when things progressed.

Peter Brazier gave an update to the Board on the ongoing work of the Highways Action Group since the previous meeting. The following key points were noted:

·         Once the Westfield Road petition had been adopted, the Action Group was seeking to add a weight limit for vehicles travelling on the road between Ivinghoe and Pitstone unless they were loading or unloading along it. The adoption of the petition was necessary for the weight limit to be imposed, as the road would become declassified once the petition was adopted.

·         Peter confirmed that the Action Group’s ‘Double Yellow Lines’ project in Ivinghoe had been approved by Cabinet ahead of the meeting and was awaiting a lead date from Transport for Buckinghamshire as to when work would begin.

·         The Hardwick road widening project was submitted to the Board prior to the meeting but had been halted pending an explanation for the disparity between cost quotes. However, the feeling was that the project had the necessary support to be approved.

Chris Poll gave an update to Members on the future work of the Environment Action Group. The following key points were noted:

·         As part of Buckinghamshire Council’s effort to improve and expand cycleway infrastructure across the County, the next meeting of the Action Group would have officer input on how best this could be accomplished in the Community Board area. Chris identified a connection between Bierton and Wing as one such example, with a longer term aim of increasing the number of cyclists able to access Aylesbury.

·         Katrina reminded attendees of Buckinghamshire Council’s county-wide tree planting initiative that set a target to plant 500,000 new trees over the next ten years. The Woodland Trust’s offer of free trees was being promoted as part of this effort, and could be accessed through the Community Board. Orders of 50 trees would be placed, and parishes could request as many trees as would be suitable in their areas. This was linked to wider celebrations due to take place to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and a cross-council steering group had been formed to maximise opportunities for residents to celebrate the occasion. Community Boards were being encouraged to consider hosting events and activities that could bring communities together in this aim following the pandemic. A link to further information and guidance regarding the Jubilee celebrations could be found on the Council’s website. Ideas included: community lunches, street parties, exhibitions, library events and tree-planting. Anyone interested in further information was encouraged to contact Katrina. Katrina would respond to Richard Blacklock’s question concerning the planting of trees on private land following the meeting.

·         The Action Group would speak with officers at a future meeting to discuss the identification of areas for wildflower planting as part of the county-wide project. Local partners were also being sought to help facilitate the initiatives including the provision of necessary machinery and tools.

·         An application to build a surfaced footpath/boardwalk around the lake in Watermead had been received to improve accessibility, whilst also mitigating flood risk and environmental damage caused by walkers straying from the footpath.

Peter Cooper gave an overview of the work undertaken by the Health and Wellbeing Action Group. The following key points were noted:

·         The Action Group was seeking to provide immersive dementia training for local volunteer groups, businesses, places of worship and interest. The intention was to provide attendees with small grants worth up to £500 to improve accessibility facilities for those with dementia. A delivery partner was being sought before the location and time for the training could be finalised, although it was hoped that this could be piloted in Wing before being taken up in other areas. Peter confirmed that this would likely form part of a wider project supporting elderly residents, and would help those involved to identify and support those with developing dementia.

·         The Action Group had established signposting sessions in Wing and Wingrave to put residents in touch with people ‘in the know’ in their areas. This included PCSOs, Parish and Unitary Councillors, social prescribers, and other local community figures. Attendees were encouraged to investigate setting up similar session in their own areas. The existing models for setting up such a meeting would be shared by Katrina following the meeting.

·         A Community Swimming Pool Feasibility Study would be conducted concerning the replacement of the existing aging swimming pool at Overstone School with a public swimming facility. Traffic, Parking, Environment and Buildings would be included as part of the study.

·         6 school staff members in the Wing and Ivinghoe are had expressed an interest in undertaking training led by the MIND charity to improve their capability in supporting children struggling with their mental health in school. An application for Community Board support had been submitted with exclusively positive feedback

·         Social benches had been established as a pilot in Wing to help foster community cohesion following the extended lockdown periods. Members of the public could sit on the bench which invited others to converse with them. It was hoped that similar schemes could be adopted more widely across the Community Board area.

·         The Action Group was also seeking to put information boards along popular local walking routes to provide information on the local wildlife and local history of the route to ramblers. It was hoped that this would help encourage more people to exercise and explore their local areas. Peter confirmed that this should be taken up alongside efforts to improve accessibility to public footpaths, not all of which were adequately maintained.

·         Finally, a pre-application discussion was being held concerning improving accessibility in local parks, through improved play equipment, and better entrances, pathways and safer surfaces.

·         Katrina would also seek clarification on the Ivinghoe library drop-in centre being set up at a future Community Board Chairman’s meeting, as had been discussed prior to the move to the Unitary Council model. Stephen Lott confirmed that the Beacon Library had good IT infrastructure and could be a suitable location for a more developed centre in Ivinghoe.

Katrina gave an overview of the Funding Summary Report. The report detailed the current spending of the Community Board on funding applications to date, informed

Members of the budget remaining in the various funding streams and highlighted projects being considered for funding at a later date. The following key points were noted:

·         The total of funds allocated to applications so far stood at £20,251.80

·         The total remaining budget stood at £253,104.20

·         The total cost of applications currently under consideration for funding stood at £115,128.60, which, if approved, would equate to roughly half of the remaining budget which was fantastic for this stage of the year and showed a real engagement to contribute ideas for projects.

Katrina also confirmed that the following applications had been approved for funding:

·         Double Yellow Lines (£4,375.80) – Application by Ivinghoe Parish Council

·         Community Swimming Pool Feasibility Study (£10,000) – Application by Overstone School

·         Commemorative Benches to Enable Rest and Socialisation at the Local Nature Trail (£875) – Application by Wing Parish Council

·         12 Month 1:1 Mentoring Project for 11-17 Year Olds (£5,000) – Application by Action 4 Youth

Marco Dias informed Members that a quote had been received to introduce 50 20mph advisory signs outside schools across the County. The design of the signs was being approved by Councillors and a pilot scheme would run in the Buckingham and Villages Community Board area in the coming weeks before being considered for expansion into other areas. Each school would receive two sets of 20mph advisory signs and two sets of ‘No Idling’ signs. The estimated cost of the 50 signs was between £500-600. It was hoped that the installation of the signs could be facilitated by local Parish Council volunteers.

Peter Cooper reminded attendees that he had written to all Parish Councils in the County promoting a potential policy change to bring the introduction of enforceable 20mph speed limit zones in line with Oxfordshire, where Parish Councils would be supported in implementing zones by the Local Authority, a policy not in effect in Buckinghamshire. Peter requested that resolutions from Parish Councils on the matter be sent to him to compile into a document which he would present to the Cabinet Member for Transport and the Community Board.

Katrina informed Members that Public Health England had published Public Health Profiles (PHP) for the Community Board area. The PHP gave an overview of the health statistics in the Community Board area and gave some recommendations for improvement. Katrina confirmed that these would be discussed at the next meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Action Group and invitations would be circulated following the meeting.

Katrina provided some statistics submitted by Thames Valley Police (TVP) concerning their ongoing work in the Communty Board area and wider County. The following key points were noted:

·         The neighbourhood team consisted of 2 PCs and 4 PCSOs overseen by Inspector James Davies and Sergeant David Kuttner.

·         Over the past 12 months, Aylesbury Vale had seen a 18% decrease in residential burglaries, 21% increase in robberies, 33% increase in theft from motor vehicles and a 1% decrease in theft of motor vehicles.

·         Over the same time period, the Wing and Ivinghoe area specifically had seen an 18% decrease in residential burglaries, a 100% decrease in robbery offences a 10% decrease in theft from motor vehicles and a 22% increase in theft of motor vehicles.

·         TVP had conducted work combatting Hare Coursing, as well as break-ins and theft from farms and other rural buildings

·         TVP was establishing a dedicated rural crime team which will deal with rural crime issues and threats across the force.

·         TVP hoped to make arrests  following a spate of thefts from cars parked at local beauty spots.

·         Operation Arctic would be in effect over the winter months to pre-emptively raise awareness of higher rates of dwelling burglaries over the winter months. TVP would hold crime prevention surgeries, carry out environmental audits with the council and patrol areas identified as hotspots.

·         The priorities for TVP in the Wing and Ivinghoe area moving forward would be combatting rural crime and preventing burglaries.

Stephen Lott informed Members that there would be changes to the community speedwatch scheme coming into effect from 15th November, and he would be trying to get speedwatch coordinators together to prepare. TVP coordinator Wendy Taylor was helping to coordinate this. Anyone wanting to be informed and involved with community speedwatc and to be briefed on the changes coming into effect was encouraged to contact Katrina to be put in touch.