Agenda and minutes

Contact: Jackie Binning (Community Board Co-ordinator)  Sally Taylor (Democratic Services Meeting Support)

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Chairman's Welcome

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting, particularly the new members of the Board and Sophie Payne.  Sophie introduced herself and advised she was the Service Director for Culture, Sport and Leisure at Buckinghamshire Council, which included library services, country parks, the cultural strategy and leisure facilities.

2.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Kama Wager, Localism Manager; Alan Ball, Chairman of Princes Risborough Town Council (TC); Alan Frost, Princes Risborough TC Valerie McPherson, Longwick-cum-Ilmer Parish Council (PC); Jane Rogers, Longwick-cum-Ilmer PC; Simon Digby, Piddington and Wheeler End PC; Teif Jones, Bradenham PC; Wendy Monroe-West, Downley PC; Simon Cope, West Wycombe PC; Sophie Phillips, Red Kite Housing Association and Clare Coates. Sharon Henson attended in place of Simon Cope for West Wycombe PC and Surinder Marshall attended in place of Andy Ball for Princes Risborough TC.

 

Notes: 

Cllr Carl Etholen left the meeting at 19.45 hrs.

Cllr Robert Carrington left the meeting at 20.00 hrs.

Simon Westwood left the meeting at 18.48 hrs.

Hilda Stearn left the meeting at 19.18 hrs.

 

The Chairman agreed to a change in the agenda item order; item 10, Community Matters, was discussed after the standing items (1, 2, 3 and 4).

3.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

Cllr Paul Nicholls, Hughenden PC and Cllr David Carroll, Buckinghamshire Council (BC) both declared an interest in that they lived on Cockpit Road, Great Kingshill. 

4.

Notes of the last meeting pdf icon PDF 459 KB

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 2021.

 

Minutes:

Resolved:  The minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 2021 were agreed as an accurate record.

5.

Look back at North West Chilterns Community Board 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 910 KB

The Chairman will provide an overview of what took place last year (see the Dashboard in the agenda pack).

Minutes:

The Chairman advised that the previous year had been a steep learning curve for the Community Board (CB) and explained that the CB would now be run slightly differently as the action groups had been standardised across all the CBs.  Changes had also been made to the funding formula and Jackie Binning, Community Board Co-ordinator, would provide guidance when required.

6.

Looking forward to 2021/22

To be presented by the Chairman, Councillor Gary Hall.

 

Key areas of focus:

i)                    To confirm the Action Groups and leads to deliver key areas of focus – these will include:

Ø  Environment and Climate Change.

Ø  Economic Regeneration.

Ø  Traffic and Road Issues group.

Ø  Community Resilience – joining the previous Young and Older and Crime and Antisocial Behaviour groups together.

ii)                  Next steps: who would like to be involved in action groups– looking for sign up?

Minutes:

The Chairman advised that anyone who wished to be involved in an action group should contact Jackie Binning, Community Board Co-ordinator.  The first meeting of each action group would consider the new objectives for the Council.

 

Resolved:  The following action group leads were agreed by the members of the CB:

 

Environment and Climate Change – Robert Carington

Economic Regeneration - Mathew Walsh

Traffic and Road Issues – Jim Stevens

Community Resilience – Val Macpherson.

7.

Economic Regeneration pdf icon PDF 120 KB

A presentation will be provided by Philippa Batting, Managing Director, Bucks Business First, on the Be Your Own Boss programme.

Minutes:

A presentation, appended to the minutes, was provided by Philippa Batting, Managing Director, Bucks Business First, on the ‘Be Your Own Boss’ programme which was funded by the Board last year and was a good example of supporting the priority on Economic Regeneration.  The economic statistics were available on the slides and Philippa reminded the Board that £3,000 had been invested which enabled 12 residents to participate in a two day short course, a named business adviser and mentoring support from a start-up champion.  Anyone based in the seven CB areas which had taken up the initiative could apply and there were two places available in the North West Chilterns CB area.  Philippa highlighted that there had been a noticeable increase in uptake during the last month and pointed out the testimonials provided by some of the participants.

8.

Environmental and Climate Change

Kirsty Shanahan, Buckinghamshire Community Energy (BCE) will explain how BCE could work with the Community Board and provide an overview of the Community Centre at Studley Green which the North West Chilterns Community Board funded last year.  

Minutes:

Kirsty Shanahan, Buckinghamshire Community Energy, provided an overview of the funding provided for environmental and climate change projects in the North West Chilterns Community Board area: 

 

Studley Green Community Centre – grant for solar panels.  An application had been made for lottery funding/other funding for the shortfall of £2,500 to upgrade the electrical system.  The Centre would also consider replacing the oil fired heating in the autumn.  Confirmation was awaited on the rapid EV chargers which would provide funding to the Centre.

West Wycombe Village Hall/Community Centre – consideration was being given to the installation of solar panels and upgrading from storage heaters to air conditioning which would reduce energy consumption and save approximately £5,000 per annum.  There were also plans for mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and double glazing/draft insulation but planning permission needed to be checked.

 

Speen Village Hall – consideration was being given to solar panels; no data was available, but an application would be made to the CB.  The Speen Environmental Action Group was running an event at Speen Festival in September 2021.

 

Wycombe Solar Streets – the group was working with the High Wycombe CB but was also open for villages in the area.  The scheme enabled people to get together ‘en masse’ to make cost savings of scale.  For more information see Solar Streets.co.uk.

 

Princes Risborough TC and Risborough Community Bus – thanked the CB for their support, particularly from Jackie Binning, Community Board Co-ordinator.

 

The following key points were raised:

 

Sharon Henson, West Wycombe PC clerk, advised that the biggest concern was over planning and how the National Trust would view the ideas as West Wycombe Community Centre/Village Hall was a heritage building in a conservation area.  Kirsty stated she was aware of the situation and that plans would be in keeping with the building.

 

Robin Thomas, Stokenchurch PC, asked for a report on Studley Green Community Centre/Village Hall as the PC was the landlord, with a view to inviting Kirsty to a PC meeting.

ACTION:  Kirsty Shanahan

 

Cllr Matthew Walsh stated that Princes Day Care Centre would be investing in solar panels and invited Kirsty to view the centre. 

 

The chairman thanked the presenters and reiterated that if anyone had a project or idea that they should approach Jackie Binning, Community Board Co-ordinator.

9.

Community Board Updates pdf icon PDF 224 KB

To be presented by Jackie Binning, Community Board Co-ordinator:

 

·       Funding – to provide an overview of the new funding procedure and budget breakdown (part of the agenda pack).

·       Funding applications since the last meeting – Buckinghamshire Open Weekend: £5,000 - A 4-day programme of creative and cultural activities themed to stories taking place between 22nd and 25th July 2021.

·       Action Plan – next steps will be to create a high level action plan which will be presented at the next community board meeting.

Minutes:

Jackie Binning, Community Board Co-ordinator introduced Lucy Dowson from Visit Buckinghamshire and advised that Lucy would be able to help from a tourism and environmental prospective to reduce carbon footprint and help tourism businesses to become greener and more sustainable.

 

Jackie provided a high level funding update slide, which was part of the agenda pack. The amount carried forward from 2020/21 was £109,228 and the budget for 2021/22 was £244,096 making a total of £353,324.  Jackie asked the CB to make use of the funding to make an impact on the area and asked for members to promote the CB and contact Jackie for information/support.  Each CB would make funding allocations for 2021-22 and must spend a minimum of 15% on projects to improve the environment, a minimum of 15% on projects supporting economic recovery; however, it was noted that there was a 25% cap on funding for transport projects.

 

Clear funding procedures were in place and Jackie explained that she would send out a monthly funding email asking CB Members to support the funding applications received.  Jackie emphasised the importance of Members responding with their comments in order for the process to work and provide the funding to those who needed it.

 

One funding application had been received since the last meeting which was for £5,000 for the Buckinghamshire Open Weekend (22-25 July 2021).  This application had been supported by the CB and a detailed breakdown would be provided at the next meeting.

 

A high level, live, action plan would be created and available from September 2021, to show the activities and priorities of each action group.

 

A query was raised as to whether the TC could apply for a pot of money to respond to requests from smaller, community organisations, who did not have the structure to apply through the CB; Jackie explained that this used to be possible but the updated procedures now allowed for smaller groups to apply for funding.  Help was also available from Community Impact Bucks and the small grants pot.  Jackie to discuss with Surinder Marshall.

ACTION:  Jackie Binning

 

The Chairman thanked Jackie for her engagement with community groups and emphasised that North West Chilterns CB was one of the most successful community boards. 

10.

Community Matters pdf icon PDF 380 KB

·       Petition – Great Kingshill: to be presented by Jim Stevens.

·       Proposal for Average Speed Camera’s on rural lengths of the A40: to be presented by Jim Stevens.

·       Questions time: The Chairman will respond to questions from:

Ø  John McKeown and Geoff King – HS2 traffic and verge cutting.

To be presented by Jackie Binning, Community Board Co-ordinator for information purposes (part of agenda pack):

·       School Transport from September 2021.

·       Consultations: to review County wide and local, go to Your Voice Bucks website Your Voice Bucks - Citizen Space

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Great Kingshill Petitions

Jim Stevens, Chairman of the North West Chilterns CB Traffic and Road Issues Action Group, provided a presentation, appended to the minutes, on the traffic issues in Great Kingshill. Two Petitions had been submitted to the Council in April 2021 by Great Kingshill residents, setting out their concerns with traffic on specific roads in the village – and specifically the impact of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and the narrowness of a section of Cockpit Road where HGV’s mount the pavement to pass each other. 

 

Jim stated that he was not employed by BC; he was a volunteer and local resident in the North West Chiltern area with experience of dealing with transport and road issues similar to those raised by Great Kingshill residents. Jim stated that his role was to take an independent approach. 

 

Jim described the residents’ concerns and the petitions, which sought to ban HGVs on a number of roads in the Great Kingshill area (shown on the map).  There was also a current planning application in for Binders Yard, but this petition response did not deal with the planning application as it was a separate matter and was being dealt with through the Council’s statutory planning procedures. 

 

Various data had been used by Council officers to assess the traffic conditions and this helped inform a comprehensive initial assessment of the issues raised by residents. Council officers had produced a report setting out their findings and this was appended to the minutes.

 

In summary, the following points were made:

 

  • A classified traffic turning count was carried out every two years and the data was provided for the years 2016, 2018 and 2021.  The roads carrying the highest number of HGVs were Copes Road and Cockpit Road.  The traffic increase was shown in red fill on the slide showing daily traffic volumes.  There had been a small increase in the number of HGVs using Cockpit Road and a significant increase in light goods vehicles e.g. online shopping delivery vehicles.  Stag Lane had seen the highest increase.  Across Buckinghamshire, HGVs expressed as a percentage of daily traffic was 3-5%, nationally 5%; in Great Kingshill it was 1.1-2.6%. 
  • Traffic speed had been measured in Cockpit Road which had resulted in speed enforcement discussions with Thames Valley Police and the possibility for local community speedwatch interventions.
  • BC had a Crash Analysis Policy; the 5-year collision record for Great Kingshill had been checked in line with this policy and this showed that the thresholds for intervention by the Council, as the Highway Authority, had not been exceeded. Many other locations across Buckinghamshire exceeded the thresholds and this determined where interventions were being prioritised by the Council.
  • The air quality in Prestwood on the A4128 was measured annually and the data showed that air quality had been largely static during the past 5 years and c.50% below the national threshold. The Prestwood data could be a reasonable proxy for air quality on the A4128 through Gt Kingshill.

 

The initial  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

Date of the next meeting

Wednesday 3 November 2021 at 6.30 pm.

Minutes:

Wednesday 3 November 2021 at 6.30 pm.