Buckinghamshire Council News

Report from Buckinghamshire Councillors

The new authority has now been running for about seven months and we hope that residents have found the public services provision to be virtually unaffected by the new arrangements. Of course, the task of converting a County Council and four District Councils into a single Unitary Authority is always going to be a challenge particularly at the same time as dealing with the extraordinarily difficult circumstances surrounding COVID 19.

There are some important changes in the way that the new authority provides services to parishes. The main differences are the way that planning applications are called into planning committees and the establishment of community boards. These community boards are intended to provide a forum for local issues and the link to your boards is through your Parish Council and Buckinghamshire Council Councillors. As your representatives we continue to strive to ensure that housing development is fair to our community and that our roads and infrastructure are able to support our housing allocations. The new authority has declared that environmental issues should be given a very high priority. The need for this is recognised globally and we need to do all that we can to ensure that we protect the environment for the generations following us. We are lucky to live in a lovely county and we should endeavour to keep it that way.

Following the recent lockdowns, we would like to say thank you for all the wonderful work that has been done by the local volunteer groups. Our three parishes all had street wardens or volunteers who have continued to help those within the shielding group by going out and doing their shopping, collecting medicines, and chatting to those in social isolation. The generosity of all those that put in the time and effort is utterly amazing. We have supported requests from local groups and charities by applying to the Councillor Covid-19 Crisis fund and all the applications were successful.

Dealing with the spectre of HS2 is an ongoing everyday challenge. We work with the Wendover HS2 Mitigation Group and have been instrumental in setting up a HS2 working group with one councillor from every affected ward. Along with council officers and HS2, they will focus on, and bring to the attention of HS2, the concerns and impact that this project will have on our communities; and will consider and put forward requests for mitigation. We have been told that the first of HS2’s Schedule 17 applications in the Wendover and Stoke Mandeville area are expected soon. Its main focus will be the Wendover Dean Viaduct and associated works. Once these applications have been dealt with there will be further stages in the process, such as “bringing into use”. You can be certain that, as your Buckinghamshire Councillors, we will be making sure that the Council and its officers do as much as they lawfully can to defend Wendover, Halton and Stoke Mandeville and achieve the best mitigation they can from HS2.

These are all areas that affect our community on a daily basis, and it is our job as your Councillors to make sure that your voices are heard and that Council decisions that are made are for our collective benefit.

Residents can still contact the three of us in the usual way via email: peter. strachan@buckinghamshire.gov.uk steve. bowles@buckinghamshire.gov.uk richard. newcombe@buckinghamshire.gov.uk. The Council website has further contact details and we welcome your calls and correspondence.

Cllr Steve Bowles, Cllr Richard Newcombe & Cllr Peter Strachan

Wendover Community Board

Our priorities Each year we will look at what matters to our local area the most, using data and local intelligence to help us determine the priorities our board will focus on. Some of this information can be found in the Wendover Local Profile (PDF document). We will involve residents, partners, local groups and organisations in understanding what the local issues and priorities are.

Priorities for 2020/21:

• Support our local community to recover from COVID-19

• Focus on the Health and Wellbeing of our local residents

• Support our adults, vulnerable residents, and children to live their best lives

• Work towards sufficient Transport, Highways and Infrastructure for the area

• Ensure that the area is a safe environment for local residents

These priorities will help us determine where we take action and allocate funding to improve the local area. If you're interested in getting involved, please contact localities@ buckinghamshire.gov.uk or visit our Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/Wendover- Community-Board-106980914566051/