Gerrards Cross Annual Town Meeting 12Th April 2017

Gerrards Cross Annual Town Meeting 12th April 2017

Chairman’s Report – Cllr Chris Brown

I am pleased to say that Gerrards Cross Town Council has been very pro-active during the past year. All our Councillors are making major contributions to improving and maintaining the facilities in Gerrards Cross for the benefit of our residents and is a privilege to work with such a dedicated team of volunteers. We are very well supported by our new Town Clerk and AssistantTown Clerk.

Some highlights during the past year have been the formation of a residents committee to oversee the creation of a Neighbourhood Plan, our progress with taking on the Devolved Budget for Highways from Bucks County Council (BCC), the safeguarding of our green belt supported by our residents’ input to the Chiltern& South Bucks emerging Local Plan and the excellent work of our Boost Working Party.

We have undertaken a considerable amount of work on the Commons, including holly clearance, which has opened up the Commons for residents to enjoy. The bunds have now been reduced in height, tidied up and reseeded. The ongoing work removing silt and clearing reeds and trees around the ponds is working well. The Conservation Volunteers work on the Commons every month, tidying up footpaths and cutting back overgrown vegetation. Besides our regular volunteers, we have assistance of teams from Tesco and the Crowne Plaza.

We have been a leading Council in localising highways work under BCC’s devolved budget arrangements and continue to press for more responsibilities, including gulley cleaning and pothole filling. We have introduced new parking restrictions on various residential streets, organised our highways work into four quadrants and introduced sponsored flower troughs at the entrances to Gerrards Cross. Work on outstanding Highways projects, included the traffic lights and the block paving, has been slow and frustrating, but we are keeping the pressure on these.

The car parks in Gerrards Cross are now full to capacity at peak times and we continue to press for our preferred option for the capacity of the station car park to be increased. In response to the proposal from South Bucks District Council (SBDC) to build a multi storey car park in Station Road, we explored an alternative that would include parking, residential and office accommodation, but this was not acceptable to SBDC. In the absence of any alternative, we supported the SBDC proposal, subject to a number of improvements. However, this has now be delayed at least until next year, due to an objection by BCC.

The Council continues to review all planning applications received from SBDC. With the increasing numbers of plans, with many of these requiring site visits, we have two planning meetings a month. I am pleased to say that the new on-line system we have adopted has proved very effective in speeding up the whole process. We regularly review our recommendations against the decisions made by SBDC and these show a high degree of correlation.

Our Boost Working Party that brings together the many organisations in Gerrards Cross, continues to expand its successful activities. Recent successes are working with the Rotary Clubs on the Christmas Fair, our Best Kept Village improvements and the promotion of the Boost award scheme to recognise contributions from various organisation and individuals for their help in improving GX.

We have worked hard to improve communications with our residents through the Communications Working Party. This includes our new improved Voice newsletter published 3 times a year, use of Social Media with Facebook and Twitter and regular updates to our website.

We have supported the Community Association in improving the WW1 and WW2 buildings for the benefits of our residents and we have supported the Library with its new Citizens Advice Bureau.

The Council has opposed the proposals from BCC and SBDC on the formationUnitary councils, which we believe will be disruptive and will not result in any major improvements. In particular, we are very disappointed with the lack of inclusion of the Towns and Parishes in these plans.

With the recent co-option of Councillor Teresa Scott, we are now up to our full complement of 12 Councillors. I would like to thank Councillor Peter Grimes for all his hard work on the Council over the years, particularly on his chairing of the Commons Committee and his work with the Conservation Volunteers.

We look forward to working with our residents for the coming year. This will be particularly challenging, with potential changes to local authorities that will impact on our work. If you have some spare time, we always welcome your assistance on a number of projects, from participating in your Neighbourhood Plan to joining our Conservation Volunteers.