Agenda and draft minutes

Jilly welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Sophia noted housekeeping rules and that the meeting was being recorded for note taking purposes only. Attendees were asked to raise their hand if they wanted to speak and wait to be invited by the Chairman.

It was noted that Jilly would be chairing the meeting from approximately 19.00.

And as I'm sure you're aware of, the serious incident that occurred in Lowndes Way on the 18th of September, we have an update from Vince Grey, Head of Resilience Service and business continuity lead at Buckinghamshire Council, which I would like to summarise for your information.

Buckinghamshire Council - At 7pm on Wednesday 18th September the Resilience Service, responsible for emergency management on behalf of Buckinghamshire Council, received a phone from Bucks Fire and Rescue of a gas explosion and subsequent fire in Lowndes way, Winslow. This incident was a result of a gas contractor working on site and they had damaged a mains gas supply leaving over 800 properties without gas supply.

The Resilience Service attended the scene that evening on behalf of the council and liaised with fire officers, representatives from SGN gas and the housing scheme manager from Housing 21. Winslow CofE school had opened its doors to displaced residents and both Bucks Fire and Resilience Service attended the school and briefed the residents in person. Teams from Buckinghamshire Highways were also in attendance with regards to road closures.

Since the initial incident officers from both the Resilience Service and Buckinghamshire Highways have attended the location each day to support ongoing activity. This has also included liaising with representatives from the SGN customer liaison team based at the Winslow Sports and Social club and SGN employees based in Scotland. 

As per council policy an Incident Management Team meeting chaired by a council Service Director was stood up and initially met twice daily to review ongoing community support and review the work undertaken by SGN. These meetings are still taking place and will continue to do so until all the residents are back on gas supply. A Buckinghamshire Highways presence will support the ongoing road closures till no longer required.

The Resilience Service arranged the use of showering facilities at Sir Thomas Fremantle school the following evening and subsequently the same provision at Swan Pools leisure centre in Buckingham. The Resilience Service have remained in contact with Swan Pools on a daily basis to ensure the use of their facilities.

SGN have worked tirelessly to rectify the problem, but their works have been hampered by the amount of water that has entered the main gas pipe and this has delayed the recovery work quite significantly. SGN customer liaison teams have remained in Winslow since the incident. 

Of note is the community spirit that has been shown to work through this issue and in particular Mr David Lawrence of Winslow CofE school for opening up his school so quickly on the first evening, Sir Thomas Fremantle school for providing the community with hot  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

Apologies were received from; Simon Walker – Adstock PC, Jan Roffe – North Marston PC, Hugh Ellerton – Granborough PC and  Simon Wilkinson – Winslow Association of Business and Community.

Minutes of last meeting on 21^st May to be agreed.

Minutes from the last meeting were agreed.

No declarations of interest were raised.

Inspector James Davies

Inspector James Davies introduced himself and provided an update. James noted that Neighbourhood Crime focuses were currently Rural Crime, Anti-Social Behaviour, Violence Against Women & Girls and Business Crime were main the focusses at the moment.

‘It does matter campaign’ had just launched with aims to educate and empower victims to report non-contact sexual offences. The campaign had been developed with campaigner Lisa Squire from Buckinghamshire, who lost her daughter Libby in 2019 when she was at university to a sexual predator with an extensive history of escalating offending.

The team were working on force priorities and local community priorities- speeding, ASB and burglaries. There had been a shoplifting spree in Winslow- the PCC had funded a system for shopkeepers to share intel and information- many Winslow shops had signed up already. James noted that speeding enforcement was very time consuming and not always effective- the team have been doing some enforcement.

Q: Caroline Cousins, Great Horwood PC asked if there would be an E-scooter/illegal electric bike crack down?

A: James advised that they are sold without restrictions and E-scooter could not be ridden in a public place, E-Scooters could be modified to go faster. They are dangerous and not insured. Nationally and locally there had been lots of collisions, some serious. It was a hard task to manage as they are hard to stop. Users do not wear helmets so can’t be chased. TVP appreciated it was a concern and were ramping up enforcement- over 12 months TVP have been warning and informing and noted that a lot of people, especially parents, did not understand the regulations and dangers. There had been seizures of E-scooters.

Ian Whipp- Newton Longville Parish Council- Note Bletchley Road, when people come under the bridge that stop on the MK boundary was an issue for E-Scooter miss usage. There were signs up on the footpath and NLPC had been given verbal abuse when challenging.

Llew Monger, Winslow Town Council, agreed with Ian and Caroline’s comments- Llew advised he had raised this issue before with TVP. Llew agreed that legislation was needed. Llew disagreed that people buy without knowing it is illegal and that the majority of users would not care. Serious action was needed. Llew requested examples.

James advised that TVP knew E-Scooters were used for committing crimes and by people who commit ASB. James acknowledged that more work was needed on this.

Ian Whipp- advised there was an issue in village (Newton Longville) with scams. A lady was charged £400 for a gutter cleaning. It was reported on 101 and it was felt TVP response wasn’t professional enough. Ian Carter then took this forward. The parish have shared information with the residents to highlight these incidents. No update has been received from TVP. Ian asked what TVP could do about it. Ian thanked Ian Carter and Matt Holman.

James acknowledged rural scams. Trading standards collect intelligence and take cases on. There is a joined-up approach already and further feedback was welcomed.

Action: James to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Beki Osborne CEO 

Beki introduced herself as the CEO of Sexual Assault & Abuse Support Service, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes (SAASS). Beki noted that she grew up in the area and that it was a pleasure to be joining the meeting.

Beki’s update can be found appended to the action notes.

No questions were asked.

Gideon Springer, Head of Community Safety, highlighted Safe Spaces- a national partnership to work with businesses for safe spaces for vulnerable people in towns, cities and villages. Gideon’s presentation can be found appended to the action notes.

Wendy Taylor, Soulbury Parish Clerk- advised she led on Safe Spaces in Winslow as a PCSO in 2017. Wendy noted that some businesses still have stickers in the window.

Action: Gideon to arrange a sweep of Winslow high street to check signage is up to date.

Llew Monger advised he had passed a message to Jeff Crisp for Winslow ABC to focus on this. Llew passed on thanks to Beki for her presentation.

Action: Gideon and Llew/Jeff to make contact to look at delivery for support for Safe Spaces.

Julie Rushton Head of Parking Services, Buckinghamshire Council

Julie Rushton, Head of Parking Services, gave an update regarding the parking strategy that was in place for operations across Buckinghamshire. The strategy could be found here.

Key points to note:

·       There is an aspiration to increase number of Enforcement Officers by 10.

·       There has been an introduction of the National Parking Platform- the customer can choose which platform they use (Ringo, Just Park etc).

·       Parking payment machines were being reviewed for improvements. 79% of cash payers are now using card or digital.

·       Free parking arrangements were being reviewed- this had been streamlined to provide a consistent approach. There would be 2 free days available per year and 2 days for December.

Parking in Winslow:

·       Hours of control, a 21-day consultation was held in January 2024.

·       All feedback was considered - Cabinet made a decision in July 2024.

·       Charges were introduced in September 2024.

·       Following further engagement and feedback was received and changes to Sunday charges are proposed- it had been recommended to make it 70p all day (from £1.70). It was being considered as it had come to light around the new train station car park and concerns with on-street parking. It was hoped this would come into place in October 2024- the change needed to be legally advertised for 21 days.

·       On street charges- this was reviewed in December 2023, all feedback was reviewed and a second informal consultation had been proposed. It was expected that this will take place before the end of the year.

Q: Caroline Cousins, Great Horwood PC asked- if an impact assessment on the businesses was undertaken?

A: Julie advised that the focus was on the hours of control and focussed on the users of the car park and turnover of spaces. Julie advised that consistency was reviewed.

Julie advised that when looking at charging the hours of control is focused on trying to create consistency in terms of users of the car park creating that turnover of space as well. Julie said her Team also look at ensuring that the car parks themselves are paid for by the users to make sure that we're covering the cost of the service.  Julie also noted that she doesn’t have the data for local businesses financial accounts.

John Gilbey, Winslow Bowls Club noted that the club had 56 paying members, 25 living outside of Winslow and needed to come in to play and to maintain the site. The charges would impact these users. The Bowls club play matches with 21 clubs regularly who would also have to pay to park. The club would not survive without hiring out the club to partners who will also be interested. John advised the bowls club will not last more than 2/3 years with new parking charges in place.

Julie noted there was a legacy arrangement with Winslow Town Council until the end of March 2024. The usage was data driven- Buckinghamshire Council are open to free funded schemes being delivered. Parking Services were in a difficult circumstance and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Jeff Crisp from the Winslow Association of Business and Community gave an overview of the groups role to support local economic regeneration. There was a broad set of objectives to make Winslow a better place to live, work and visit. There had been a lot of partnership working and meetings with the MP and EWR and that membership was broad. An invitation was extended to those within a 3-mile radius of Winslow to get involved. Jeff noted complementary priorities with the Community Board and was keen to work in partnership.

Action: Anyone interested in getting involved should contact jeff.crisp@outlook.com

Martin Dickman

Martin highlighted the key points as per the appended update.

Llew Monger asked how Community Board funding would be apportioned fairly under the new model.

Amy Jenner, Senior Community Board Manager, Buckinghamshire Council noted that Community Boards were more than just a funder and that they can offer a lot to communities through networking and partnerships. Community Board Managers had access to funding searches to support those looking for funding.

Sophia Comer, Community Board Manager

This item was not delivered verbally due to the meeting over running and is appended to these notes.

21^st January 2025, 6:30 – 8:00pm

The next meeting was scheduled for 21st January 2025, 6:30 – 8:00pm

Cllr Billy Stanier thanked everyone for attending.