Agenda and minutes

Matthew Walsh (MW) (Chairman of the North West Chilterns Community Board – NWC CB ) welcomed everyone to the meeting to discuss the NWC Active Travel Aspirations document.

MW informed the CB that the meeting would be recorded for the purposes of JB writing the notes. Once the notes had been approved the recording would be destroyed.

Apologies for absence were received from Buckinghamshire Council Councillors Robert Carington, David Carroll, Shade Adoh, Councillor Valerie McPherson, Longwick cum Ilmer Parish Council, Councillor Stan Jones, Hughenden Parish Council, Councillor Cathryn Davies, Lacey Green Parish Council, Councillor James Cripps, Great and Little Kimble Parish Council, Councillor Helen Holman, Ellesborough Parish Council, Sophie Payne, Service Director, Wendy Morgan-Brown, Head of Community Boards, Makayla Devlin, Senior Community Board Manager and Nicola Surman, Funding and Support Team Leader.

There were no declarations of interest.

To be presented by Jim Stevens (Lead of the Transport and Road Issues Action Group (see report and NWC Active Travel Aspirations document attached).

Jim Stevens (JS) (Lead of the Transport and Road Issues Action Group) presented a shortened and modified version of the presentation carried out during the Community Board meeting on 27.07.23 – see attached.

JS stated that there were two recommendations which were part of today’s presentation. One was to support and adopt the document, and the second was to formally request Buckinghamshire Council (BC) to use the document to help develop BC’s Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) and to make our document available on BC’s website.

JS then presented his slides – the key highlights were as follows:

• “Wheeling” was referred to as this was a specific point raised by Steven Broadbent (SB), Cabinet Member for Transport during the NWC CB meeting on 27.07.23. JS stated that although wheeling was already referred to in the document, it was important to make it clear to the Community Board that our document was about  Cycling, Walking and Wheeling.
• The NWC Active Travel Aspirations document would complement and support BC’s Strategic LCWIP and would provide local information and evidence for those who were interested in cycling, walking and wheeling in the North West Chilterns area of Buckinghamshire.
• The NWC Active Travel Aspirations document contained nine maps but, for brevity, only Map 1 was presented to the Community Board. JS described the map and that it showed local aspirations for inter settlement routes within the North West Chilterns area. These had been developed from various sources, including from feedback received through the consultation carried out with Community Board members earlier this year.
• As an example of content, JS highlighted the active travel cycling, walking and wheeling link from Hughenden Valley, Cryers Hill to High Wycombe and beyond. He also highlighted the A4010 Active Travel Route from High Wycombe through to Stoke Mandeville which was a continuous route with no gaps. JS said this particular route along the A4010 would facilitate active travel movements from all of the new developments around Aylesbury, High Wycombe, Princes Risborough and surrounding areas and was  therefore very important.

JS advised that his presentation was to facilitate the discussions at this meeting and referred back to the recommendations to the NWC CB.

To be led by Cllr Matthew Walsh.

MW thanked JS for his presentation and asked the Community Board if they had any questions.

SB also thanked JS for the presentation and to TRAIG for putting the document together. He then referred to section 7 in the document where he thought it was trying to set out policies. For example, SB confirmed that there were references to how road repairs across the County should have a different prioritisation. He added that BC had a very clear highways safety inspection policy relating to highway maintenance, and new ways of working had been submitted to Community Boards, enabling them to manage this issue. SB stated that parking and roads were a Planning matter and asked JS if the document could reference its concerns instead of suggesting a different policy should in place. SB advised that policy making was down to Cabinet Members through full Council. He stressed that he would not be able to sign up to this document if it said that we must change some of our policies in our area and beyond it.

JS confirmed that he had no issue with amending the document and already fully understood that the Action Group were not in a position to set policies. JS stated that the Action Group’s work could however provide a very local perspective to help policy reviews conducted by Buckinghamshire Council. JS said that he would be happy to add an introductory paragraph to section 7 and would review the wording of each paragraph of section 7 to ensure consistency with the introductory paragraph. (Action 01).

To be led by Cllr Matthew Walsh.

MW thanked SB and JS who both had made important points. MW then went to the vote and requested the CB indicated with a “thumbs up”.

Before the vote was taken, SB confirmed that he was happy to express a view on Recommendation 1 and only on Recommendation 2 if it was about making a “request”. MW stated the vote was about the NWC CB agreeing to “request.”

MW then asked the NWC CB for who was in favour. JB informed the Board that Cathryn Davies, Lacey Green Parish Council was in favour but Councillor Robert Carington was not in favour.

MW counted the votes and confirmed that there was a clear majority in favour and said we would take this as approved and that the NWC Active Travel Aspirations document would be submitted to BC as part of the recommendations.

JB asked if the Community Board would like to view the document with the changes before it was submitted.  MW advised that he would as he wanted to ensure that all members were happy with the wording (Action 02).

Summary of actions raised during the meeting:

Action 01: JS to update section 7 of the NWC Active Travel Aspirations Document around policy setting – ie reference the Community Board concerns instead of suggesting a different policy should in place.

Action 02: JB to circulate the revised document to the NWC CB. Once the revised wording has been formally agreed, JS/JB will submit the document to BC.

The meeting was then closed at 6.25 pm.