Agenda item

Chalfont St Giles

The Parish Clerk gave an update. She referred to the new Buckinghamshire Council street naming and numbering policy where any changes now had to be agreed at the Community Board and the Parish Council. The new road was on Dibden Hill and Tier Cottage which used to be a farm and had been converted into six houses and they now wanted approval to change the name to Horse Croft Close recognising a name of a field which was called Horse Croft. The Community Board Co-ordinator would inform the relevant department of the consent of Members.

The Community Board supported the name change (proposed by Des Bray and seconded by Tim Butcher).

The Parish Council were in full support of the Community Fridge and it would benefit surrounding parishes. The Parish were also looking at CCTV. There was a concern about the monitoring of CCTV and it would be helpful to work together on this to provide community monitoring in one location. There have also been issues with flooding in parishes and that a three year rotation of gully cleaning was not sufficient with climate change. All Together Community had distributed 30 advent calendars to people who were clinically vulnerable which had been appreciated by the community.

Chalfont St Peter

Cllr Linda Smith gave an update and reported that they had also experienced problems with flooding as well and were hoping to have a meeting with Thames Water as this had been an issue for a while. The Christmas celebrations had been cancelled but the Christmas lights would be put up next Sunday. 17 trees were left to plant to complete 100 trees with reference to the Project mentioned above; these were verge trees to help with HS2. HS2 would fund a memorial garden at Chalfont St Peter’s churchyard and the grant would be £75,000 and the Parish would go out to tender shortly. Further funding was required.

Cllr Harrold referred to the previous comments made on flooding and reported that Chalfont St Peter had 400 extra homes built which could have contributed to the flooding. He referred to the CSP Connected website but encouraged residents to write to Thames Water direct to put pressure on them to address the problem.

Denham

The Parish Clerk referred to two projects the Red Cross Building and the Scout Hut, preparations for Christmas and to put out a new grants scheme to help voluntary organisations through covid-19.

Fulmer

David Brackin gave an update. He expressed concern about communications with Buckinghamshire Council regarding flooding and highways with residents having to help clear ditches, parking issues around Black Park – restrictions had been put in place which had meant that cars were now being parked on verges and time was being taken responding to the Pinewood planning application for a visitor attraction which residents were concerned about. The Council were also looking at CCTV and would like to tie in with other systems. The bins were not being collected and he commented that online reporting with fix my street and missed bin collections were not working as responses were not being given. Cllr Darby responded that the missed bin collections would be related to the waste contract coming to an end where service delivery was reduced and the new contractor would be Veolia. If online reporting did not work residents should contact their local councillor.

Gerrards Cross

Chris Brown gave an update and thanked the Community Board for bringing back the LAF bid for improving traffic in Mill Lane. It had been a notorious problem for 10 years where children walked to school with no footpath. There had been a pothole pilot in Gerrards Cross for two years and they have taken over responsibility for potholes on non A and B roads. This was completed by private contractors at a very competitive price. The pilot would continue until the end of March and this was funded using their parish precept. He expressed concern about communications with Buckinghamshire Council Highways Department with issues that had not been resolved for some time eg street lamps and bollards being knocked over, flooding on Oxford Road, drains being blocked. The Community Board Co-ordinator reported that three forums would be held each year with highways to address these concerns. The Chairman reported that this could be taken up by the Highways and Infrastructure Sub- Group.

Cllr Darby reported that the new Council had come together at the beginning of April and needed time to align its processes. She informed the Board that all elected Councillors had been given the opportunity to meet with their Local Area Technicians. She again emphasised that it was important to feed concerns through local Members. Cllr Hollis shared the concerns of Gerrards Cross Town Council and commented that the TfB website needed to be updated. The Local Area Technician had also been on sick leave so their Parish Council Chairman was having a drive around with the LAT Manager to look at local issues. He reported that they have a couple of large potholes and flooding. Cllr Hollis was meeting with the Cabinet Member for Transport on 26 November 2020.

Hedgerley – no update.

Seer Green

Mandy Thomas Chairman gave an update. For Christmas they had fitted a socket to a lighting column near the shops which would be used for the Christmas tree. There would be no celebrations however. They would also be doing an advent calendar. Two applications have been submitted; one for repairs to the surfacing of the playground and wildflower planting at the three entrances to the village. They also had flooding issues at all the three entrances to Seer Green and one also in the middle of the village. The LAT had looked at this issue but the problem had returned. The flooding on Chalfont Road was a concern. One of the equestrian centres was draining water off their land which was exacerbating the flooding making it impassable. A series of cars have been written off due to the flooding. The supersucker helps the issue but only temporarily.

There are also parking problems in the village following installation of a yellow line which was extended outside the Cricketers pub area. Displaced parking was now occurring along the street. From Seer Green garage to Cricketers pub vehicles were on the wrong side of the road. Buses were getting held up and vehicles were trying to turn in this narrow road. The Scheme had not worked and she had contacted TfB.

The Chairman reported that if any problems were not being addressed they could be escalated to the Service Director Champion which had been launched in the last 10 days. A champion would be allocated to each Community Board. The Chairman and the Community Board Co-ordinator would be meeting up with the Service Director Champion in the next few days and he could raise the two issues from Fulmer and Seer Green Parish Council.