The Last Four Years... Chepping Wycombe Parish
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Winter 2015 Issue 88 CHEPPING WYCOMBE PARISH COUNCIL NEWSLETTER Flackwell Heath Loudwater Tylers Green A CHAIRMANS VIEW THE LAST FOUR YEARS... Last May, as happens every four years, Straight Bit Recreation Ground, which your Parish Councillors either sought re- enabled us to make a fl ying start there. In election or stood down to make way for addition to the playgrounds, we have also new members, thus forming a new Parish installed the Parkour facility at Straight Bit Council to represent you for the next Flackwell Heath with funding help from four years. I was delighted to be re-elected the Flackwell Heath Residents Association, Chairman of the Council. In this the fi rst and the Skills and Thrills in King’s Wood Newsletter of your new Parish Council we Tylers Green with funding help from the will look forward to new projects and what Bucks County Council Local Community we plan to do over the next four years, I Partnership. also felt it was appropriate to have a time for refl ection and to look back at what In our woods we have drawn up a we as a Parish Council achieved over the management plan for the Railway Land last four years. The list is actually very long in Loudwater, which we are slowly and we can all be proud of what we have implementing. In King’s Wood, Tylers achieved. Green, we put in the all-weather, all ability footpath and were delighted to be able to To start with we have made sure the complete the Queens Ride bridleway for younger members of our Community have the Jubilee Year for which we were assisted been looked after, as all of our playgrounds by Bucks County Council Rights of Way are looking better with new equipment team and with funding from Transport for and a refresh, although work is still ongoing Bucks public footpath improvement budget. as there is a lot more we want to do. We We have now completed the purchase of are very grateful for the contribution of Magpie Wood in Loudwater and we are £20k from the Flackwell Heath Residents now looking at what plans we want to Association towards the initial phase on implement there. (cont’d next page) 1 On Tylers Green Common we improved Within the offi ce we have reviewed all to what we do. Without Councillors most the banks and paths around Widmer our policies and systems and have been of these projects would not even have SAVE THE DATE Pond and our grounds team have put in busy bringing everything up to date. Our been considered and the creative ideas a lot of work to improve the surface of allotment and cemetery databases are being and unstinting support that Councillors the Common. Last spring with the help brought into the 21st Century and being give to the Committee Chairman to make of funding from the Local Community computerised and our land has fi nally all things happen is truly amazing. I must also Partnership we improved the surface of been registered with the Land Registry. pay tribute to the Councillors that stood one of the main paths across the common down at the election. Pam Mannering, to make it less muddy and easier for You will note that many of the projects we David Johncock, David Onslow and Sharon pushchairs and wheelchairs to enjoy. have undertaken have been joint working Herron all hung up their proverbial hats with other partners and funding put up by for various reasons, and to them we send a We have brought the community together other agencies and we must thank all our special heartfelt thank you for all your hard in Loudwater to create a Community partners we have worked with over the work during your term or terms of offi ce. Orchard which is going from strength to last four years to make things happen. As Some served for only a couple of years and strength and is enjoyed by many including a Parish Council we do not always have some for much longer, but whatever the pupils at the Loudwater School. In future funding available for things we want to do period they served, their input has been we also hope to open Community and working with other partners is one invaluable and the Parish Council could not Orchards in the other two wards. We put way of bringing things about sooner than have functioned without them. in a new footbridge over Back Stream we would otherwise have been able to. The ANNUAL opposite the entrance to School Way world of local government is moving more Whether as Councillors we stayed or with the assistance of Transport for and more towards Partnership working not, we can be proud that when the new Buckinghamshire to help schoolchildren and we need to make sure we don’t get left Council took offi ce in May 2015, they PARISH cross the stream safely and we fi nally behind where we wish to collaborate and received a Parish Council in excellent shape properly marked the permissive bridleway don’t get drawn into working with partners and with several strings to take forward around Derehams Sports Ground in where there is no benefi t. to the next level to get them started. The MEETING Loudwater. world and the country has changed a lot In addition to all the above we have over the last four years and so has local Wednesday, 6 April 2016 Talking of Derehams Sports Ground, we continued to look after all our land and government. What will the next four years starting at 7pm is the date have done a lot of work on the building and buildings with all our normal duties of hold for us? No one really knows but things for the next Annual Parish site and now part of it is let to a playgroup maintaining, tending, clearing, repairing, are a changing! We have to move with the Meeting and this time it and the other areas are also being well refurbishing, replacing…….. the list is endless. times and not look back as to how things used. The Councillors have all been out have been done in the past, old normal will be held in Loudwater meeting residents and canvassing opinions What we achieved cannot have been ways of working doesn’t mean they can’t at the Loudwater Club, done without the support of our staff in on various subjects at different village be bettered and we have to embrace new Birfi eld Road. events over the years, such as Penn Fun the offi ce and the grounds team led by ways of working to keep up with the times Run, Loudwater Fete and Flackwell Heath Graeme Christie. The last four years have and make sure that the Council we hand over Cherry Fayre and Big Picnic. been rather unsettling within the offi ce, in four years’ time will be fi t for purpose for since during this time some of the staff we 2019. Other projects which we have started but started with have moved onto to better not completed yet by any means include or other things. However, we now have Katrina Wood Chairman replacing our footway lighting with LED a superb team headed up by our Clerk lights, our signage project to replace our Wendy Thompson. We hope now to have worn and outdated signs around the some stability with the team to enable us villages, and the Movable Vehicle Activated to continue to achieve the things we want Speed Sign project in conjunction with the to. Seeing what we accomplished during a Neighbourhood Action Group and we now diffi cult unsettled time, think what we can have a MVAS for each village. The work now do with a settled team! with these projects are all ongoing and have been taken up by the new Council and are Having said that we must not forget to moving forward. thank all the elected Councillors for all the hard work and hours they give so freely 2 3 MEET THE NEW COUNCILLORS OUR FINANCIAL POSITION Haydn Darch has lived in Carolyn Leonard came to the The Precept for 2015/16 rose by 1.5%. The of £90,000 to pay for the costs of further Tylers Green for 34 years, is High Wycombe area in 1976 moving Precept is the term we use to describe the signifi cant improvements to Play Equipment married and has 2 children who to Flackwell Heath when she married parish council tax. The increase offsets the in all our three wards, but we may not need went to the local schools and her late husband Geoff in 1980. loss in what is now a grant from Wycombe it all. now live outside the village. On retiring, having been a teacher District Council and makes up for the all her working life she felt that she He has a Social Science degree loss over the last two years. Previously The purchase of Magpie Wood (see below) wanted to give something back to is already provided for as are the expected and recently retired after 45 the village that had made her so central government used to give us 100% years working in production management and support where housholds on benefi ts were urgent works to make it fi t for public welcome. She retired at a same time as the formation of access. The other major project is management development. He worked at senior the Residents’ Association. After joining she soon became excluded from paying Council Tax.