Agenda item

·       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 communities was encouraged.

·   The Tourism Strategy – a survey to inform the new visitor strategy would be open until 17 February 2023 to hear views from residents, businesses and stakeholders to ensure that the Tourism Strategy would maximise the benefits to the county.

·   Food waste toolkit guidance to support residents with the increase in the cost of living for residents was available on the Council website.  Jackie offered to circulate the link.

Action:  J Binning