BUCKINGHAMPARK PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of a Meeting of Buckingham Park Parish Council held on

Tuesday6th September, 2016 at the Buckingham Park Community Centre

Present: Cllrs A Christensen (Chairman), Mrs A Looker, A Poth, Mrs L Jones, M Brett, T Berry

K Gray (Clerk to the Council)

2 ResidentsCllrs Mrs N Glover (BCC)

  1. Apologies for Absence

To receive and accept apologies for absence notified to the Chairmanor Clerk

RESOLVED: To receive and accept apologies for absence from Cllrs Whitlock (prior commitment) and Agoro (family commitment)

  1. Declarations of Interest

To receive any pecuniary or non-pecuniary declarations of interest

To receive and agree any Dispensations

  • Declaration of interest received from Cllrs A Christensen and Mrs A Looker on agenda item 10 - Grant Application to Scout Group.
  1. Minutes of the previous meeting held on 5/7/16

RESOLVED:To accept and sign the minutes as a true recording.

  1. Clerk’s Report

To receive a report/update from the Clerk on matters not on the agenda

  • Bucks County Council – Streamlining Local Government Presentation/Meeting

RESOLVED: Chairman to suspend Standing Orders (adjourn meeting) to enable questions from the public and any reportsfrom councillors.

Haretwell

  1. Questions from the Public & Reports. To receive any reports from Parish, County and District Councillors.
  • Cllr Mrs Glover (BCC) gave the following report:

School Places: Improved web service will help families apply for a school place: We want this to be the first port of call for everyone applying for a school place. There is a webchat facility so parents can ask for further explanation if they cannot find it on the website.

For the new service, go to

Fly Tipping:

More good news on catching fly tippers. Two men were fined nearly £1,000 each for an dumping waste in Wycombe. We’ve made reporting fly-tipping easy: upload details including location and photos online or on your mobile at Since the launch of the anti-dumping campaign we have secured 535 convictions with an overall saving of £1 million to the tax payer.

Bucks To Reach 95% Broadband Coverage: More of us in Buckinghamshire are going to be able to get superfast Broadband.A total of £2 million pounds will be spent helping get the last 10% of Buckinghamshire residents online and up to speed.
Councils forced to cut housing, cultural and transport budgets, new analysis finds: Press Association has used new government data to compare the change in council day-to-day expenditure across the decade. Its analysis found that in almost every area the amount of spending has dropped. Cuts averaging 29 per cent have been made by local authorities to budgets for cultural services and there has been a similar-sized fall in spending on transport services, which covers the upkeep of local roads as well as street lighting and concessionary travel fares. Funding for children and families' social care has gone up by around 16 per cent, while the overall level of funding for social care has stayed broadly unchanged. Cllr Claire Kober, Chair of the LGA's Resources Board, said: "Councils have increasingly had to do more with less in recent years while trying to protect services, such as caring for the elderly, protecting children and reducing homelessness, in the face of growing demand. Inevitably it has meant having less to spend on many of the other services people value, such as filling potholes and funding leisure facilities like pools, gyms, parks and museums. The next few years will continue to be a challenge and more difficult decisions will still have to be made. All councils will have to find further substantial savings from local services to plug funding gaps over the next four years and compensate for the rising cost pressures they face."
Queen’s Award for Voluntary Services: Is there anybody in Buckingham Park doing outstanding voluntary work? If you know of anybody who deserves recognition, please nominate them. Too many dedicated volunteers in Buckinghamshire are going unappreciated, says Lord Lieutenant Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire. We have a great tradition of voluntary service in Buckinghamshire. There is a huge number of committed volunteers without whom life in the county would be very much the poorer. Nominations for the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service can be made at:

  • Cllr Jones gave an update on the various events being organised.
  • Cllr Poth mentioned the flag pole still needed looking at.
  • Cllr Christensen (AVDC Cllr) reported in his written complaint to AVDC Planning Department concerning a local business and its business operating procedures. He also reported on the quote received from BCC for the cost of a traffic survey.He will be contacting Transport for Bucks concerning the amount quoted and report back to the parish council for discussion under an agenda item.

RESOLVED: Chairman to reconvene meeting under Standing Orders.

  1. Parking Strategy

To receive an update on the work related to the parking strategy and other plans.

Cllr Whitlock will be asked to provide a written summary of the feedback.

  1. Developer Updates

To receive any updates from the Developers regarding adoption or maintenance

Cllr Christensen shared the following report from Simon Atkins of “Developers Eyes” who are responsible for the work prior to adoption:

  • Community Park

Playdale have installed as promised (eventually) 2 x picnic benches as per the landscape proposal drawings for the park. The remedials were also resolved to the zip wire and damaged swing seat. We have now set up a schedule for an Operational Inspection of the park carried out and reported by ourselves on a monthly basis as instructed by Taylor Wimpy. The first of this type of inspection was carried out by myself on 22nd August 2016 on both the Community Park and the NEAP. Following this report there has been a number of further remedials which need rectifying, one being the replacement of the remaining existing swing seat for the toddler cradle swing. Taylor Wimpy has signed off these works to procced, I have placed an order for parts needed, once received these works shall be booked in. This is also the case for the NEAP.

We have this week completed the instalment of 4no benches, two with arm rests and two without in the central cobbled area of the park. The drainage issue is currently being reviewed following a number of different options form contractors which we are waiting to hear back from AVDC regarding this.

  • NEAP

Missing benches have been installed this week with 3no replacement trees booked for early next week to be installed. An Annual inspection has been ordered today and we are currently awaiting a date for this to take place. As the Community Park I have also scheduled monthly Operational Inspections which again produces a written report.

I am waiting on a date back from AVDC for a final inspection hopefully later next week to proceed with adoption of the NEAP.

  • WLR

The Western Link Road as of the end of this week will be complete of all snagging identified by BCC and a final inspection with BCC will take place asap to proceed this to adoption.

  • Prince Rupert and Colonel Grantham Avenue

We have received two tenders back and waiting on a third, the two received are currently being reviewed by us and Taylor Wimpy. As you can imagine there is a huge amount of work involved in this tender which means an in-depth review is needed to ensure all areas of works are covered within tenders. We are anticipating the tender will be awarded November 2016. Phase 3 snagging/unfinished works by MV Kelly have been identified with them and we are awaiting a program, this includes surface finishing, damaged kerbs/edgings, street signs, street lighting etc.

  • POS areas

All areas are being tendered in to separate parts as per Transfer Plans to ensure this is completed in a timely and cost effective manner. We are anticipating this work will start November/December 2016.

  1. Transfer of Open Spaces

To receive any updates on the transfer of open spaces via Developer/AVDC to BPPC

Discussion took place on the current situation regarding the Developers and AVDC on adoption of open spaces and it was RESOLVED: That the parish council should not agree to transfer of open spaces until all works are carried out to the relevant standard. Cllr Christensen will be discussing this with AVDC Officers in due course.

  1. Finances and Orders for Payment

RESOLVED: To agree and authorise the following orders and retrospective orders for

payment:

  • Vision ICT Website Hosting£66.00

RESOLVED: To receive and agree the Councils Financial statements, income / expenditure report presented by the Finance Officer.

  1. Public Consultation

To receive and discuss the feedback from the public consultation with residents.

To agree any actions, as necessary.

A verbal report was given on the feedback received from the consultation evenings which covered the following points: Traffic “Rat Run” roads in BP, anti-social parking and speeding concerns, dog fouling, community litter picks requested, roads signs need installing, drug dealing taking place, cctv requested and noise concerns.

  1. Planning Applications

To receive, comment and to either object, support or oppose the following planning

Applications. To consider late applications presented by the Clerk.

All applications are sent to councillors electronically and cllrs should look at the AVDC website for details of all applications prior to decision at parish council meeting.

  • 16/02438/APP6 Bridge Leys Meadow, BP

Rear conservatory to be used as living space

RESOLVED: No Objections

  • 16/02863/APP5 Leys Close, BP

Insertion of pitched roof dormer to the existing front facing slope and roof lights to the existing rear rood slope

RESOLVED: No Objections

Cllrs Christensen and Looker left the chamber at this point

RESOLVED: That Cllr A Poth chair the meeting at this point

  1. Grant Request

To consider a grant request for £750 to the Buckingham Park 1st Scout Group.

Cllrs copied into grant request information email from Scout Master.

RESOLVED: That a grant be made to the Buckingham Park 1st Scout Group of £750.

RESOLVED: The cheque to be made out to 12th Scout Group and handed to the council’s Finance Officer to issue to the relevant Scout Master.

Cllrs Christensen and Looker returned to the chamber at this point

RESOLVED: That Cllr Christensen chair the meeting.

There being no further business of the Council, the Chairman closed the meeting at 9pm

Signed: ______Date: ______

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