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Parish Meeting Minutes - 16 Apr 1996

Minutes of the Longwick-cum-Ilmer Parish Meeting on 16th Apr 1996.

ANNUAL PARISH MEETING - 16 APRIL 1996 RECORD OF ATTENDANCE

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF LONGWICK-CUM-ILMER PARISH HELD AT LONGWICK VILLAGE HALL ON TUESDAY, 16TH APRIL 1996 AT 8.00PM

Present: Mr B W Butler (Chairman) Mr J V Maude (Secretary) Cllrs Mrs Brock, Mrs Priestley, Mrs Rogers, Mr Harper, Mr Lawrence and Mr Walker. Also present were Ms Jaqueline Elton (Central Railways plc), PC F Austin (TVP) and 8 electors of the Parish.

1. MINUTES. The Minutes of the Annual Meeting held on 18th April 1995 were read, confirmed and signed.

2. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT. I will try to keep my report brief this year. During the last year the Parish Council has considered 36 planning applications, and of these has objected to 4. During the same period Wycombe District Council has approved 31, refused 3, and 2 have been withdrawn.

At last year's Annual Meeting we discussed at some length highway matters. Buckinghamshire County Council have now withdrawn their proposal to close Chestnut Way near the railway bridge. The Parish Council objected to the closure in isolation and a number of parishioners also objected. We are still awaiting the result of the surveys which BCC were going to carry out near the Post Office and in Lower Icknield Way.

The Parish Council has continued to support the Village Hall Management Committee. Our major financial provision was a grant towards the drive and car park. The Village Hall Management Committee are to be congratulated on this achievement, in particular their retiring treasurer, Mr Ray Bannard, who prepared the successful application for a grant from Buckinghamshire County Council.

The Parish Council continues to maintain the playing field with support from the Sports Club. We have moved the swings and fenced in the play area at the entrance to the field; we are grateful for financial assistance for this project from The White Horse and the Buckinghamshire Playing Fields Association. We are now considering how to improve the equipment within the play area; it is likely this will be staged as finance becomes available. The area between the last house in The Green and the play area has been resurfaced; this should prevent this being churned up by vehicles entering the playing field, and also provides a few additional parking spaces.

A survey of footpaths was made by Parishioners last autumn and confirmed they were mainly in a good state of repair. Mrs Rogers is working on the design of a Parish Paths map.

Parish Councillors planted some trees last November in a number of locations, including the southeastern edge of the playing field near the Sports Club garage; further planting is planned for this autumn. The trees were provided by Buckinghamshire County Council.

At last year's Annual Meeting we received a briefing from Mr Stuart Patterson of the Warden Housing Association on the affordable housing scheme for Longwick. I am pleased to be able to report that the planning, approval and design are progressing for the development next to the old Methodist Chapel. The contract for work is due to be let next month, with building commencing in June and completion by next February. It has been agreed that they will be known as Centenary Cottages; this name being chosen to commemorate the 100 years of Parish Councils.

Parishioners are no doubt aware of a proposal by Central Railways to improve the railway line through Longwick and to run freight trains from the Midlands to and through the Channel Tunnel. The Parish Council has not formally discussed the scheme as it is waiting for detailed plans to be available. We invited Central Railways to send a representative to this meeting, and I am pleased to see that Ms Jaquie Elton, their PR Officer has been able to be with us to answer parishioners questions; she has also provided some written information, which I will read later if you wish.

Finally, I would like to thank our Parish Clerk, Mr Jim Maude, for the advice he provides me and all the work he undertakes on your behalf.

3. PAROCHIAL CHARITY ACCOUNTS.

In accordance with the Charities Act, the accounts of The Princes Risborough Charity were laid before the Meeting. Mr Maude summarised the accounts as follows:

The accounts of The Monks Risborough Parochial Charities had not been made available to the Clerk before the Meeting, so could not be tabled.

4. ACCOUNTS 1995/6 & PRECEPT 1996/7. Mr Maude placed before the Meeting the Statement of Accounts 1995/6 of the Parish Council (see Annex), and advised the Meeting that the Parish Precept for 1996/7 would be £5716.00.

5. QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR. Ms Jaqueline Elton (Central Railways plc) gave a short resume of the company's plans and then answered many questions from the floor; their intention was to use existing lines where possible, together with 2 major terminals at the M1/M6 and M1/M25 junctions, to transport trucks between the Midlands and the Channel Tunnel. Upgrading of the existing track in this area would amount to little more than minor lowering of tracks/raising of bridges to accommodate overhead catenary electrification. It was hoped to submit detailed applications to Government shortly, but the approval procedure would require at least 2 parliamentary votes and a series of Public Enquiries which could take 2 years; this would be followed by some 3-4 years of construction works (2-3 months in this area with only minimal disruption to existing passenger traffic). In answer to environmental concerns from parishioners living near the railway, it was hoped to minimise noise by electrification and thereby meet Governmental noise guidelines/limits; where appropriate noise barriers may be considered. Potential vibration was not considered to be a problem in the open air, and would be minimised by the high levels of track and rolling stock maintenance necessary to provide the anticipated reliable services necessary to attract freight companies to the track. The visual impact of the overhead catenary (necessary to be compatible with existing tunnel system) would be reduced by design (ie, single cantilever rather than headspan systems currently in use on West-coast Mainline). Present plans envisaged main use during daylight (3-4 trains/hr in each direction) with lower use at night (1-2 trains/hr); these would interleave with existing Chiltern Trains passenger services. There may be scope long-term for a 3rd party to run additional passenger trains to and from the Midlands (eg, to new/refurbished stations at Lutterworth, Rugby, Brackley, Woodford Halse and West Wycombe) but this was not specifically planned for at this stage.

Ms S Rutherford asked if anything could be done to alleviate the major increase in traffic through Longwick during the last 10 years, eg, speed cameras, traffic calming. Mr Maude said that there was no scope for reducing traffic on an A-class road (such as Thame Road) and explained the current criteria which BCC apply to determine priorities for traffic control measures; fundamentally, the extent of need is determined by the severity/frequency of speed related personal injury accidents occurring along a given stretch of road (and accepting that resources would never match the perceived needs). Although traffic levels had increased materially in Longwick over the years, there was no commensurate increase in the (thankfully) extremely low accident record in the village; unfortunately this meant that, in comparison with other parishes in the County, Longwick would come very low on any priority list for traffic calming measures. The Parish Council had already done all it could do independently by jointly providing SpeedCheck signs and co-operating with police efforts to carry out quite frequent radar speed checks on the Thame Road. Chairman said that the matter would be considered again at the next Parish Council Meeting, to see if anything else could usefully be done.

Mrs Priestley proposed a vote of thanks to the Chairman; she knew the amount of work that being a Parish Council Chairman entailed; adopted unanimously.

There being no other questions, the Meeting closed at 9.35pm.

[Signature: B. W. Butler] 8 APR 97.

ANNEX

LONGWICK-cum-ILMER PARISH COUNCIL

STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS - 1995/6