Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Matthew Walsh, welcomed everyone to the meeting. 

Apologies for absence were received from Buckinghamshire Council Councillors David Carroll, Gary Hall, Melanie Smith and Alan Turner; Councillor Catherine Campbell, Princes Risborough Town Council; Cllr Helen Holman, Ellesborough Parish Council; Councillor Wendy Monroe-West, Downley Parish Council and Cllr Robin Thomas, Stokenchurch Parish Council; Hilda Stearn, Hughenden Street Association and Jim Stevens, Chairman of the Road, Transport and Road Issues Action Group.

Note 1:  Councillor Robert Carington sent his apologies part-way through the meeting as he needed to leave at approximately 7.00 pm.

Note 2:  Councillor Clive Harriss left the meeting at approximately 7.00 pm.

There were no declarations of interest.

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 6 December 2022.

Jackie Binning, Community Board Manager, advised the majority of the actions in the previous minutes related to Item 5, the former Molins Site in Saunderton.   Responses had been received for each action and Jackie had circulated them to the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Councillor Broadbent for comment.  A weekly update report was received from the contractors. 

Sharon Henson, West Wycombe Parish Council Clerk, raised concern that the water required to keep the data centre systems cool might be obtained by boring the Chiltern chalk streams.  Jackie Binning to investigate.

Action:  J Binning

Councillor Simon Breese, Bledlow-cum-Saunderton Parish Council, stated that one of the councillors was in regular contact with the developers of the data centre site and requested that any issues be forwarded via Tracey Martin, the parish clerk.   Councillor Breese also advised that work was being carried out on an idea to avoid making Haw Lane railway bridge a single lane.

Cllr Breese also reminded everyone that the planning permission was granted a long time ago and the developers were keen to establish a dialogue.

Resolved:  The minutes of the meeting held on 6 December 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.

A presentation will be provided by Sergeant Oliver Brixey regarding North West Chilterns.

Sergeant Oliver Brixey provided a presentation, appended to the minutes.  Sgt Brixey advised that he covered Marlow, Princes Risborough and Chepping Valley Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NHPT).  The quarter four (October to December 2022) data provided in the presentation was for the highest impact crimes in the community.  The NHPT covered the following:  OP Signature, Schools, Knife Crime and Serious Violence, Burglaries, Vulnerable Adults, Young People, Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB), Traffic Offences, Rural Crime, Violence Against Woman and Girls, Attending Community Events, Community Engagement and Hi Visibility Patrols, Licensed Premises, Hotel Watch, Social Media and Communication.

The four priorities which had been agreed by the community for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 were:

• ASB
• Speeding and Anti-Social Driving
• Burglary
• Rural Crime

Sgt Brixey highlighted that a large amount of information was posted on social media.

Statistics were recorded by geographical area and the presentation contained quarter four statistics for the following areas:

Princes Risborough (and the surrounding villages) - ASB and Violence Against Person (VAP) had decreased.  There had been a spike in ASB in October (35 offences) but there were only 11 in December 2022.  Theft figures had been consistent across the year.  VAP had been in higher in the summer and burglary offences had spiked in January.

Downley – Theft offences were quite consistent but there had been a spike in ASB and VAP during November.

Stokenchurch – Theft offences spiked in October but figures were generally low.

Piddington – only two offences had been reported: one ASB and one rural crime.

Radnage – this area also had a very low level of offences reported.

Rural Crime – there had been seven offences during the last quarter with five in Princes Risborough, one in Piddington and one West Wycombe; the offences were wide ranging and no pattern was evident.

The following key questions were raised during discussion:

• Sgt Brixey confirmed that Downley came under the Wycombe West area.
• There were currently two police officer vacancies in Princes Risborough but officers would be starting imminently.  There were a number Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) vacancies across the area to be recruited to.
• Protective Study Leave was part of the new police training programme which comprised of a mixture of on the job training and protected learning time; this had an impact on the NHPTs due to the challenge of covering the gaps when incorporating the protected learning time.

The Chairman thanked Sgt Brixey for attending the meeting.

A presentation will be provided by Stuart Grosse, Group Commander Response South on:

·       BFRS summer pressures 2022

·       National Fire Chiefs Council 2023 campaigns

·       Local community campaigns

Stuart Grosse, Bucks Fire and Rescue Service (BFRS), provided a presentation, appended to the minutes and provided an overview with a slant towards the summer pressures of 2022.  The Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority organisation comprised of five councillors from Milton Keynes Council and 12 councillors from Buckinghamshire Council; the number of staff, fire stations, equipment and sources of finance were detailed in the slides.

BFRS had four Community Safety Priorities:

• Safer homes
• Safer neighbourhoods
• Safer roads and
• Safer environment

The North West Chilterns (NWC) area formed part of the High Wycombe service delivery area; there was a wholetime fire station in High Wycombe as well as two on call part-time stations.  There had been 78 fires in the open in the NWC area during 2022.

Summer pressures – July and August 2022 brought record temperatures which resulted in many challenges.  There were two major incidents on 19 July 2022 (the highest ever temperature was recorded on this date); one in the north of the county near Milton Keynes and one in south at Woodburn Moor, High Wycombe.  BFRS was also attending three other incidents which resulted in extremely stretched resources and support provided by neighbouring fire and rescue services.

The call data for 19 July showed a 439% increase over the previous five year average for that date and a 258% increase for 12 August.  A full evaluation had been carried out to improve the service delivery at future events.

New Challenges – the second longest tunnel in the UK was being constructed under the Chilterns by HS2 and one fire had already occurred.  Climate change was resulting in hotter summers and wetter winters; major development in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes needed to be considered along with Fire Reform White Paper.

The Chairman thanked Stuart for the presentation and added that there were a large number of prevention initiatives carried out in the community.

·       Action Groups Briefing Reports (attached) – to be presented by the Chairman, Councillor Matthew Walsh.

·       Funding applications and 2022/23 budget – to be presented by Jackie Binning, Community Board Manager.

·       Priorities 2023/24 - to be presented by Jackie Binning, Community Board Manager, see public health report for information regarding our board area - Local Profiles (healthandwellbeingbucks.org).

·       Buckinghamshire Council Update (attached) – to be presented by Sophie Payne, Community Board Champion/Service Director, Culture, Sport and Leisure.

Jackie Binning, Community Board Manager, referred to the action group briefing reports in the agenda pack.  The Chairman emphasised that all the action groups had been extremely active and thanked all the members for their time and contributions.  

Jackie confirmed that since writing the Transport and Road Issues briefing report, Cllr Stephen Reading had attended an action group meeting and gave a presentation on the Parish Council’s speeding concerns at Bledlow Ridge.  The Parish Council would like traffic calming measures installed, which the action group supported, so a funding application would be submitted when able to do so.

Jackie advised that the NW Chilterns Cycling and Walking consultation document had been circulated and the deadline to respond was 31 March 2023. Members of the Community Board were encouraged to submit their comments. 

Funding Update – Jackie shared the funding table which had been circulated to the Board earlier in the day and appended to the minutes.  The funding situation had been changing daily and the table included all the applications which had been approved by the Board along with the pending and multi-board project applications.  At the time of the meeting there was approximately £28,000 remaining but there were a number of pending applications which, if approved, would result in an underspend of approximately £7,000.  Other funding requests had also been received which could mean the underspend would be used.

The Chairman added that there was a good spread across the whole community board area and highlighted that the contributory funding figure was significantly higher than last year.

Community Board Priorities – Jackie advised that the Board needed to consider the priorities for 2023-24 and there was a link to the Public Health report in the agenda pack.  The existing priorities were:

·      Community Resilience (which included young and older people, crime and antisocial behaviour and health and wellbeing)

·       Economic Regeneration

·       Environment and Climate Change

·       Transport and Road Issues

The aims and objectives were agreed within the action groups. 

Following discussion, the consensus was that the current priorities largely represented the needs of the community but it was agreed that, before a decision was made, Jackie would email all the board members to ask for their comments on the priorities for 2023-24 and circulate the priorities from the other Community Boards.

Action:  J Binning

Buckinghamshire Council Update

Sophie Payne, Community Board Champion and Service Director, Culture, Sport and Leisure, highlighted the following from the update in the agenda pack:

·   The Local Heritage Listing – Buckinghamshire was one of 22 local authorities to receive funding to update the list of locally important assets.  A map was available on the website showing the nominations and also a list of the assets and their status.

·   Funding had been received to install new electric vehicle charging bays in 16 Council car parks.

·   The Local Plan – following a call for brownfield and wider sites, over 700 sites had been submitted for consideration and were being assessed against criteria for possible future development.  Further engagement with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

·       Question time:  to respond to questions received.

·       For information purposes:

Live countywide and local Consultations, go to Your Voice Bucks website Your Voice Bucks - Citizen Space

No public questions had been received. 

27 July 2023 – to be confirmed.

27 July 2023