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The Chesham Society Volume 144 Winter 2015 Established 1957 Chiltern District Council’s emerging local plan An increasing number of towns and villages have adopted a Neighbourhood Plan and despite the seeming confl ict between the Government’s encouragement of Localism and their own Planning Inspectorate frequently ignoring local views, such a Plan is probably one of the better ways of protecting and enhancing an area. Understandably, because of the huge costs now involved, Chesham Town Council has decided not to follow the Neighbourhood Plan route. As you are no doubt aware the Chiltern District Council is The next proposed currently going through the stages of preparing a new Local Consultation Period is Plan and this gives Chesham Town Council and the Chesham relatively short so in Society an opportunity to incorporate within the Plan many order to be in a better position of the features and benefits that would have flowed from a to respond we have embarked on an exercise to Neighbourhood Plan. better demonstrate some of our Visions with a virtual model of how the Town of Chesham might be developed. In March 2015 we submitted our “Response to the Local Plan Initial Consultation” to Chiltern District Council containing In order that as many people as possible can be involved our eight Visions for Chesham and these have been featured in with our proposals, Chesham Town Council and the previous editions of Focus. Chesham Society will be holding a Public Meeting in mid February 2016 at which the The timetable for progressing the model will be available and the Plan has now been delayed. The Issues CDC Consultation Document and Options public consultation will and our response can be now run from mid-January to early discussed. March 2016 with the second stage of consultation in October/December Meanwhile CDC consultants are looking at preferred options and preparing a number of evidence submitting objections. In March 2017 there will be the Final Consultation Continued on page 8 on the proposed plan. Photograph courtesy of Terry Cherrill Terry courtesyPhotograph of Putting Cheshamwww.cheshamsociety.org.uk first www.facebook.com/cheshamsociety @cheshamsociety The Chesham Society WINTER 2015 Chairman’s report It appears winter has arrived today as I write this report on Friday, November 13 and the fi rst autumn storm hits the British Isles. For once I was right when I mowed the lawn yesterday, changed the engine oil and stored the mower for the winter. No such respite will be seen for the Early indications are that the plan will be driven by house Chesham Society with our two major numbers with an extra 7,300 houses required by 2036, ongoing campaigns - there are longer so that will indicate well over 1,000 for Chesham. There than normal detailed reports in this is no mention so far of improvements to infrastructure, issue, the first from Jim Conboy on HS2 and the second nor how to ensure no detrimental effect on business or from Roger Smith on the new Chiltern District Local Plan. encroachment on the greenbelt. It will be interesting to see I strongly recommend reading these as your committee Chiltern District Council’s issues and options for this next believe both will have a profound effect on Chesham, albeit stage of the consultation. in very different ways, and that our society must be “putting The Chesham Society, in conjunction with Chesham Town Chesham first.” The committee is seeking feedback from Council, is planning a second public meeting and workshop our members to indicate whether you believe we are on in mid-February to get your input into the Consultation. the right path – the AGM on January 26 will be a suitable We are progressing our Visions for Chesham, which we time for discussion. presented in February 2015 and have commissioned a local Tony Franks and Jim Conboy (our town councillor architect to prepare a 3D model of a development proposal and Chesham Society member) both did a superb job for Star Yard which will be on display at the workshop. It is presenting our petitions to the HS2 Select Committee at hoped that this will invoke strong reactions for and against Westminster and of course another of our members, Ray and promote discussion. We will give you the meeting date Payne, has also been in the front line presenting the case soon so please keep this free to come and participate. for the long tunnel option. Seeing the Select Committee in My very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year. I hope action was an interesting experience – their resilience over to see you at the Murder Mystery Dinner on December 10, such a long petitioning period was impressive! which promises to be a great evening’s entertainment and The next consultation phase of the Local Plan will not a successful fund raiser to support the Chesham Society’s commence until early January for a six week period. ambitious plans for 2016. Tony Molesworth Merry Christmas Editor’s letter Happy HELLONew and welcome Year to the Winter 2015 edition of Focus. Putting Ches I cannot believe I am writing my last Focus letter for 2015, On behalf of everyone here at the where on earth has this year gone? Chesham Society, thank you to all our members for continuing to Maybe it flew by because it has been quite the action packed support us this year. year for the Chesham Society, what with taking an active role in Chiltern District Council’s Emerging Local Plan (2014 – We hope to see you at the Murder 2036), campaigning against HS2 and commenting on a wide Mystery Dinner on December 10 so range of planning applications that will affect Chesham. we can thank you for your support personally while raising vital funds for the Society to ensure we can keep Putting Next year will be even busier for the Society, as work on Chesham First. Chiltern District Council’s Emerging Plan steps up a gear. However, we will also be busy organising our popular biennial May I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Heritage Open Day, which will take place in September, so do New Year. keep an eye out for more details on that. Camilla Goodman 2 Putting Chesham first Focus Winter 2015 Petitions and Presentations Since the last issue of Focus, The Chesham Society and Chesham Town Council made a joint presentation of their petitions to the HS2 select committee. Our aim was to show how HS2 construction traffi c would have adverse impacts on business in Chesham, and on tourism in this part of the Chilterns. Several local companies helped us illustrate this point. We also indicated how congestion, on the A413 in particular, would cause disruption throughout the area, and displace some commuter traffi c through Chesham. Earlier presentations had shown that the traffi c predictions made by HS2 Ltd were inconsistent and unreliable. The presentation was well received by the committee, who entirely from the southern end, at a considerable saving on complemented our lawyer (James Burton) on an exemplary previous plans, and with less disruption in the Wendover- presentation. At the end of the September sessions Stoke Mandeville area than would be caused by the present they declared themselves satisfied that there would be (HS2) scheme. traffic congestion problems, in particular on the A413; unfortunately, they did not say what should HS2 has been directed to be done about it. work with Transport for Bucks on a package of road improvements to fix Additional Provisions the problems currently As you may have read in the foreseen - we are concerned Autumn edition, the committee that this process will not requested HS2 Ltd to extend the be completed during the Chilterns (bored) tunnel as far as committee stage of the South Heath, instead of emerging bill. The extra road works in the middle of Mantles Wood. will increase the cost This required amendments to of the present scheme, the bill, which in turn entails so further reducing the a further round of petitioning. differential cost of a We anticipated that this would longer tunnel. be along the lines of “the tunnel The Chesham society & town council presentation will go as far as South Heath”, In response, the Society to the HS2 select committee we would respond “couldn’t you and Chesham Town manage to get to Leather Lane,” and that would be it. Council have now submitted new petitions, requesting that the committee reconsider the long tunnel options, and When the documents were published, we were surprised asking for consultations on any new transport proposals. heshatom find fi thatrst HS2 had included far more traffic information than in their previous publications, and that some of it looked almost believable. The queue on the B485 at the ... and beyond Missenden roundabout (morning peak) had increased to Apart from our local difficulties, HS2 is having trouble with 95 vehicles, from the previous prediction of two. All this the designs for a terminus at Euston. Its current proposals new information showed that the proposed scheme could would take two existing platforms out of service. It does not not be delivered, using the existing road network, and that have permission (from the Environment Agency) to tunnel major upgrades would be required – as we had been arguing under the River Misbourne, and there is no safety case for all along. the Chilterns twin-bore Tunnel. In December, the (United Nations) Aarhus convention committee begins hearings into the legality of the Hybrid Bill procedure. The Next Round... The changes to the predicted road capacity provided another The autumn review of HS2 has been postponed to spring – opportunity to petition for the extension of the Chilterns someone must be worried they might fail.