Agenda item

To be presented by The Vice-Chairman

The Vice-Chairman led a verbal discussion in which the following suggestions for priorities were made:

Chesham Town- economic development and regeneration. 

“Town Team” was put together several years ago.  Previous funding had been allocated and was yet to be spent.  Several local groups were involved such as Chesham Connect, Economic Development Officer and Chesham Renaissance Community Interest Company.  This would be a great opportunity to formalise the work already completed over the last couple of years.  There were exciting opportunities with this project as well as challenges such as change of retail on high street and the impact of Covid 19.  The work would directly relate to the Villages.  It was highlighted that it was important to have wide representation in this group, including a Buckinghamshire Councillor, an officer and the Chairman of the Planning Committee. The planning would influence the next five to ten years of regeneration.

Village Forum

The group was keen to ensure that the views of the villages were understood in terms of decision making.  The first meeting of the forum had already been held with high levels of attendance.  The work carried out would feed into the board so that there was an emphasis on village activity. 

HS2

HS2 would have a heavy impact on some villages but would affect all villages and Chesham town to an extent.  The previous Chiltern District Council liaison group was successful at holding contract liaison officers to account.  It was suggested that the Chesham and Villages board could liaise with Amersham and Missenden Community Boards to tackle the issues and hold officers to account.  

Mr Williams highlighted that a meeting had been set up with the HS2 Community Engagement Managers and an emphasis was placed on engagement with Community Boards.  The HS2 sub group chair would meet with the group on a regular basis.   It was highlighted that knowledge across the group was crucial and it would be in everyone’s interest to share knowledge across the Community Boards.

Chesham Resilience Response Group

Chesham Action Volunteer Group had been set up several years ago and was actively working with issues and helping local residents.  The Covid-19 crisis had made it clear that the fastest and most proactive response came from local community organisations.   Chesham Support for Coronavirus had been a fantastic model of how the group responded and allocated various tasks.  A lot of learning has come from this response and it would be beneficial to capture the information in the case of a second peak or another crisis. 

In response to concerns that this could demonstrate the council attempting to oversee the organisation of the local voluntary groups directly, it was clarified that this was not the intention.  Member involvement was on an informal capacity and during the Covid-19 crisis Buckinghamshire Council Area Co-ordinators had reached out to local groups to offer support with best practice, safeguarding and information.  The concept of the group would be to offer support and funding when needed, not dictate the activity carried out.  Members of the board suggested that the requirements of the smaller village may vary from the group.

Community Forum

This would focus on how the board would interact with police, ambulance and fire services to set priorities.  Ms K Wager, Localism Manager highlighted that the localism management team had met with the Chief Inspector to discuss this.  A suggestion had been made of holding a workshop with Community Board Chairmen and the relevant sub group leads.

The environment was important to all residents and would be a key theme through all aims and sub groups.