Submitted by Barbara
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9th September 2024
Dear resident,
I hope you have enjoyed a good summer and for those who got away or who took some time off, I hope it was a good break. I managed a few weeks away and am now back to a very packed agenda.
I’d also like to congratulate students who received exam results over the summer holidays. I know students, families and school staff have worked very hard to achieve a good set of GCSE and A Level results in our schools. Results day can be a mixed experience so we have got plenty of advice for next steps, whatever outcome you achieved.
Council services, of course, have been running as usual over the summer and I’d like to thank all our staff and everyone else, particularly key workers in the NHS, police and other emergency services, for whom summer is no different and who’ve been working hard throughout.
Proposed changes to planning laws
I have written about this before but I make no apology for majoring on it again. In my opinion this is the subject that, above all others, could most directly influence and potentially radically change our towns and villages. We now have a lot more details from the new Government and I want to make sure that you are aware of them.
The proposed changes relate to something called the ’National Planning Policy Framework’. This is simply the legal rules that all councils must follow in Planning. The proposed changes are complex but I will try to simplify them.
Firstly, the new Government is proposing introducing non-negotiable legal targets for the number of houses that must be planned to be built in an area. Previously this was a ‘starting point’ and could be modified due to constraints such as the Green Belt, the Chilterns Area of Outstanding National Beauty, flood plains, agricultural value etc. This would no longer be the case.
Secondly, the way this target would be calculated has changed very significantly. This means that the proposed target for Buckinghamshire would increase from 61,152 to 86,562 by 2045 – an increase of 42%! At the same time the proposed target for London has been reduced. On top of this Buckinghamshire would have to allow for an additional 5% to encourage builders to build and finally the Government is proposing so called ‘new towns’ of at least an extra 10,000 homes in addition. As a result, Buckinghamshire could be required to plan for and absorb almost an additional 100,000 houses in the next few years.
To enable this the next major change being proposed is to the Green Belt. Councils would be required to designate areas that make a ‘limited contribution’ to the overall Green Belt as so called ‘grey belt’. Developers would also be able to put forward sites that they claim are ‘grey belt’. This is clearly a very vague definition and could lead to many applications to build across much of the Green Belt.
Very importantly, if the changes come into effect as currently proposed then from early next year it will be very difficult to refuse applications even if they are not in existing and approved Local Plans.
Lastly, I am also concerned that, with the potential for such significant housebuilding in Buckinghamshire, there is no commitment to fund the necessary infrastructure and facilities from doctors to roads, schools and sewage treatment that will be needed to accompany these very large numbers of new homes and new residents.
The Government has been running a consultation on these changes during August and this will finish on Tuesday 24 September. I want to make sure that you are aware of these proposals and the consultation. You may strongly support these changes and think them a good thing or you may share my concerns. Either way I would encourage you to make your views known now. Once the changes come into effect the council will have no option but to implement them and this will mean big changes to existing Local Plans and Neighbourhood Plans. Now is the time to make your views known.
Please take time to submit a response to the government’s consultation on these proposed changes.
Roads
I’m sure many of you will have noticed an increased amount of roadworks this summer. I know only too well how much these irritate and annoy drivers, local residents and businesses. As I said before the break, we are at a point where the sharp increase in requests from utility firms, coupled with the impact of HS2 works, means it is harder than ever to identify ‘quieter times’ where we can schedule works to minimise impact, plus programme in our own £110 million maintenance and improvement works.
We have completed a number of resurfacing schemes over the summer with the better weather – which of course, is a positive. I know residents will have been impacted by roadworks and temporary lights however, especially from the two-week closure of the A418 into Aylesbury by HS2 – work that is beyond the council’s control.
Both the council’s Cabinet Member for Transport, Steven Broadbent, and I met with senior representatives from the main utilities firms last week. We made them very aware of the disruption that is being caused and, in particular, issues such as traffic lights being put up with no work taking place, lack of legal signage and repeat works on the same roads! We are working hard to encourage them to schedule works outside of busy times, particularly morning and evenings at the traditional ‘rush hour’ times.
At present the fines we can levy are too small to be an effective deterrent. Very importantly, we had worked with the previous Government to both significantly increase fines but also introduce something called a ‘Lane Rental’ scheme. Sadly, the election stopped these changes being introduced. We are now discussing the Lane Rental scheme with the new Government. This would cover major roads in the county, where, if a utility firm wants to carry out works on the highway, they effectively have to ‘rent out’ the section of road they will be digging up, paying for the time they are taking the road out of use. This should prove a significant incentive to get works completed on time. and we hope will be far more effective than the limited amount we are able to fine utilities firms when they don’t adhere to the conditions of their works permits
I know management of roadworks has been a significant concern for residents throughout this year with the higher levels of disruption and we are doing what we can to improve things, including increasing the number of people in our Streetworks Team and carrying out more regular site inspections to check firms are working within their permit arrangements.
I do read local social media posts that always blame the council for work mainly by the utility companies and tell us that we should ‘get a grip’ but the reality is that we currently have limited powers.
I do hope that these actions, along with the conversations we’re having with the utilities firms will make a difference; I do have to be honest though, the level of works on our local network is at an all-time high so the best advice we can offer is to ‘check before you travel’ even on your regular journeys. With our limited powers, we will do our very best to improve things and do what we can to minimise disruption.
Money Matters – give your views on how your council tax should be spent
Summer is barely over but setting the annual budget, particularly for a large council like ours, takes months of planning – alongside constant budget monitoring of our spending and income of course.
We have started the process for working out what our 2025/26 budget will look like and how much money we will need to cover the costs of our services and the big projects residents want us to fund like our £110 million road improvements programme and investing in our town centres.
Setting our budget has been acutely challenging in recent years and things haven’t got any easier. Funding is tight and costs and demand have shot up, particularly for services that support our most vulnerable residents. As I’ve mentioned before four services (adult’s and children’s social care, temporary housing accommodation and taking children with additional needs to and from school) take a massive 71% of our overall budget. This leaves us with 29% to cover everything else, so with council tax making up 79% of the funding for all of our costs, its crucial residents tell us how they want this money spent.
We are also awaiting any information from the new Government about any additional reductions in our funding in the coming national Budget. I suspect that we will again be faced with some very tough decisions to take locally to continue to ‘balance the books’ so please tell us what your priorities are.
Our ‘Money Matters’ survey is the way to do this – so please click on this link and give us your views.
Winter Fuel Payment and Pension credit – important information
We have a large population of pensioners in Buckinghamshire and under the government’s plans to withdraw Winter Fuel Payments from all except those in receipt of pension credit or other means tested benefits, the council estimates 93% of all Buckinghamshire pensioners could lose this allowance, which is vital to many of our older households. A significant concern is that a number of eligible pensioners are not currently claiming pension credit, so will miss out on a Winter Fuel Payment when they are eligible and in genuine need. Therefore, I wanted to highlight how to check if you or someone you know is eligible – through this information on the government’s website. Given the proposal to withdraw the payment from most pensioners, it’s critical that those eligible for these payments receive them. We will be providing more information on this in the coming days and weeks and it’s a topic I will be revisiting in future updates.
Local events
After updating you on planning, roads and budgets, while these are of course, pressing and important, it’s nice to finish on something a bit ‘lighter’!
We have had some fantastic events over the last few days and weeks that I wanted to highlight. Firstly, High Wycombe had a brand new, day-long festival for the whole town on Sunday (8 September). Borne out of the council’s WhizzFizz festival, this was a feast of arts, culture, entertainment and food.
After a little early rain, the sun shone. Highlights were exhibitions, food stalls, theatre performances and workshops, with live music too! I went along and it was fantastic to see so much going on and so many people enjoying themselves. It was a day for the whole family to enjoy. Thanks go to the High Wycombe Community Board and the Rothschild Foundation for additional funding and grants which helped make this happen.
After a morning in High Wycombe, I went to Amersham to experience their annual Heritage Day. This runs every year and is a brilliant occasion with vintage cars, street food, artisan markets and exhibitions by the local Museum. Again, I had a great time and congratulations to all involved in organising it.
We are blessed with a rich cultural offering here in Buckinghamshire and there’s always something to do. You can also check out our touring Creative Champions Art Exhibition, being hosted at community locations across the county to celebrate the county’s proud paralympic heritage. This weekend there was also a Heritage Open Day at the Discover Bucks Museum in Aylesbury and a Steaming Day at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre near Quainton this weekend; sadly I could not make it to these but I hope they also went really well.
We have a busy time coming up bringing forward new policies and decisions so I’ll keep you fully informed through these regular updates, if you find them useful please circulate them to local websites, Facebook groups and encourage friends and family to sign up via the sign-up page on our website.
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