Avril Davies

2010-11 has been an interesting year of change.  The County Council put a lot of activity on hold not only in the time running up to the general election, but for several months afterwards until it was sure of the direction of change. It took the opportunity of that time to attempt to see where it could remove £90M from its budget over 3 years.

The Government did slash public spending in some areas, while spending more in others. Local Government appeared to have taken a very big hit, particularly this year, with what is described as 'front loaded' cuts, meaning more has had to come out of the budget this year than in the next two.


In the event, Bucks County Council had a far better settlement than expected. It is partly cushioned by the fact that 80% of its budget is already funded by Council tax, so was not affected, and only 20% is funded by the Revenue Support Grant.  The revenue support grant was cut by less than 1% overall, and by not increasing council tax the County was paid around £5m extra by the government. The County also received about £36m capital grant which was totally unexpected, very welcome, and much needed.


The reason the County has had still to make about £20M cuts is that inflation has to be taken into account, so rising costs have not been met, and specific funding grants for specific services and projects have been taken away, and merged in to the overall grant.

 There will be an effect on front line services, disproportionately in social care, learning disability and mental health. But the most obvious one locally is the change to the rural library service, where 14 local libraries, including Ivinghoe, where 50% of the funding is being withdrawn, and they are being asked to become Community Libraries, so that the service can be delivered in a different way.


As a Lib Dem Group we opposed the budget on the grounds of the choice to spend £9Mpa plus £30M capital on EFW plant at Calvert. Our alternative would have been to invest in more waste reduction and recycling and share EFW facilities on the County borders. I called it Buckinghamshire’s ‘Trident’ meaning that it was the most expensive budget item, with other possible alternatives, but was being driven along by a political agenda.


We chose, as examples for alternative investment of some of the money earmarked for waste; school improvement to close the achievement gap which is very noticeable in Bucks; no further increases in charges for social care, because that can lead to bigger bills later on as people do without support; and restoring bus subsidies, as these were decided on with no research. It was then established that nearly all users of subsidized evening and weekend services are using he buses for work, or other economic activity, such as shopping or leisure, or for caring for relatives in hospital or at home.

Locally we have been affected by the library issue. In Ivinghoe negotiations are going forward for the Town Hall trustees to look after the library, which is in the same building. The Trustees, with the friends of Ivinghoe Library, are negotiating a ‘service level agreement’ or equivalent with BCC for staff, books, and IT. Savings will be made through being able to pay for overheads independently, being a charity, and, hopefully, keeping the rent from the post office as income. They will need to generate income through grant applications, and the use of volunteers. The Friends and Trustees will be able to run the library independently.

The other very big issue exercising the Count Council has been the High Speed Rail proposals, HS2.  The intense opposition from the communities along the preferred route, through Great Missenden and Wendover led to the County Council opposing the preferred route, but advocating a West Coast main line alternative.  This option had been ruled out by the government, and those of us living with the line know how impractical and disruptive this would be, and highly unlikely to be implemented. However I have made it more than clear that while opposing the preferred route on the grounds of the business case and the effect on the Chilterns AONB, the County's position of supporting the west coast main line undermines their arguments, as if there is no business case there is no business case for the line anywhere. The west coast main line also runs through the Chilterns AONB - or didn't they know? I have not voted for any of the proposals to put money in to a fighting fund against HS2 because of the position on the West Coast main line.

Stop press. On Thursday 22nd April the County Council formally dropped their West Coast Main Line position.

My fellow county councilors who co-chair the GBWI Local Area Forum with me I think that the Forum has been very successful in bringing people together to share local concerns and common interests, and in putting funding in to local priorities. - Footpaths – Cheddington, Edlesborough, Aston Abbots, Ivinghoe; GBWI pilot FQP (see below); Youth activities

The Freight Quality Partnership to tackle the inappropriate use of country lanes by HGVs. An inaugural meeting was well attended by parishes from the three county divisions involved, Great Brickhill, Wing and Ivinghoe, as all have these problems. The freight industry also attended, as did the police, county and district councils. The working party and second full meeting has already made considerable progress towards collecting traffic information, contacting freight operators, getting full support of the County and District Councils, and setting up a website.

‘Objective

This Freight Quality Partnership aims to work collaboratively with relevant stakeholders to direct heavy goods traffic to roads of most suitable use and to ensure that Buckinghamshire’s roads provide freight transport operators with the most efficient and user friendly routes through the county

Outcome
This Freight Quality Partnership believes that if the objective can be achieved the outcome of the work undertaken by and on behalf of the group will enable the County to get traffic flowing in a way that benefits the economy and the environment’

Pitstone Quarry 2 Application for landfill turned down


The long history of the quarry under Pitstone Hill completed another chapter in March when Bucks County Council refused planning permission for the quarry to be used for the disposal of inert waste. A site such as this in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty can only be used when there is inadequate provision in the County plan for waste disposal for the next 15 years. The County were able to show that there is enough landfill capacity elsewhere within the County, to prove there was no need to use Pitstone.

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty were designated alongside National Parks, and have the same status, the difference being that AONBs are closer to centres of population.

Cheddington Station Booking Office closure proposed. (result unknown at time of writing)


Many people including myself have written to deplore these proposals. Not only had the booking office been recently refurbished with toilets – more than can be said for Tring station – but the office provides a warm and sheltered place to wait, pick up a newspaper and a coffee, also better than Tring. Most importantly, not everyone is happy to use ticket machines. They are difficult to see in certain lights, slow, confusing, occasionally out of order, and above all don’t sell season tickets. And buying a ticket on the train you run the risk of getting fined.

Home to School Transport – Bucks County Council want changes to save £1.8M

At the time of writing changes to eligibility for free transport to school are being proposed by Bucks County Council in an effort to save £1.8M. By the time you read this, changes may already be decided, or the whole thing called in. Pupils travelling to Cottesloe School are unaffected, and I have had it in writing that free transport to Tring School from Ivinghoe and Pitstone will also not be affected, nor from Marsworth where the walking route is just short of three miles and considered unsafe. This is because Tring is the nearest secondary school. There is a ‘line’ in Cheddington however where Tring School and the Cottesloe school are equidistant, and I have requested clarification. I have also written to protest at the ridiculous proposal to provide free transport ONLY to the nearest school in a catchment area. This means that from this side of Aylesbury, grammar school pupils opting for the Henry Floyd would not get free transport, although had they opted for the High or Aylesbury Grammar they would. From the Haddenham side of Aylesbury, the position would be exactly in reverse. Additionally any changes would be applied to existing pupils even though last year it was made quite clear when choosing schools that transport to all three schools of more than 3 miles was free. This has caused a big stir especially in the south of the County, where parents have enlisted the help of their MP, Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, and may be calling for judicial review.

The Scrutiny Committee of which I am a member, has heard from parents affected, and criticised the way the consultation was inadequately publicised, difficult to access, and will be questioning the cabinet member concerned at a special meeting on 12th April

Local Initiatives

The County Council, as part of its economy drive has proposed that 14 rural libraries become community owned and managed. After several exploratory meetings following on from a presentation from the Library service in December, the Friends of Ivinghoe Library have re-formed, and the Ivinghoe Town Hall trustees have agreed to carry work forward. The new post office and shop in the building is really welcome.

The first meeting of the local Freight Quality Partnership pilot took place in February and again in April, and has set up a working group. The Partnership has members from most Parish Councils in the Great Brickhill, Wing and Ivinghoe Area, AVDC and Bucks County Council, the Police, the freight industry associations, and the Council for the protection of Rural England. The working group is currently collecting information, setting up a website, and making contact with adjacent counties, with a long term view of providing the tools to better manage freight journeys for the benefit of local residents and the freight operators.

County Council Budget Cuts

I usually steer clear of trying to explain complex financial issues, but the whole country is talking about ‘Cuts’ and here is no exception.

After the 2010 election and before the announcement of the spending review, Bucks County Council took the opportunity to see if it could remove £90M from its budget over 3 years.

When the cuts came the Government did slash public spending in some areas, while spending more in others. Local Government appeared to have taken a very big hit, particularly this year, with what is described as 'front loaded' cuts, meaning more has had to come out of the budget this year than in the next two.

Bucks County Council had a far better settlement than expected. It is partly cushioned by the fact that 80% of its budget is already funded by Council Tax, so was not affected, and only 20% is funded by the Revenue Support Grant.  The revenue support grant was cut by less than 1% overall, and by not increasing council tax the County was paid around £5m extra by the government. The County also received about £36m capital grant which was totally unexpected, very welcome, and much needed.

The reason the County has had still to make about £20M cuts this year is that inflation has to be taken into account, so rising costs have not been met, and specific funding grants for specific services and projects have been taken away, or merged in to the overall grant.

There will be an effect on front line services, disproportionately in social care, learning disability and mental health. But the most obvious one locally is the change to the rural library service, where 14 local libraries, including Ivinghoe, where 50% of the funding is being withdrawn. They are proposed to become Community Libraries, so that the service can be delivered in a different way.

I and others think that the proposed spending of £30M capital and £9M pa revenue on a waste to energy plant at Calvert is unnecessary, and I described it as ‘Buckinghamshire’s Trident’ to the delight of the Bucks Herald headline writers. By which I meant that the money was needed more elsewhere.

Aylesbury Vale District Council has also received a significant reduction in grant. However it has decided to take the shortfall out of reserves in the immediate future, and bring forward a revised budget after the elections.

Ivinghoe Library Two important dates for your diary.
A good number of people turned out on December 16th to hear Paula Buck, acting head of head of culture and learning, and Cllr David Schofield cabinet spokesperson for libraries, to hear about BCC’s need to make less money go further in the library service.

By turning over the management of the library to a voluntary committee, and providing core funding, it is hoped to not only keep the library and librarian, but open longer and provide a wider variety of services. This way of operating would free the library from the restrictions of the Libraries Act, and a local management committee would be able to fund raise in ways the library service cannot.

On Tuesday February 1st there will be a meeting at Ivinghoe Village Centre at 7pm to re-form the FRIENDS OF IVINGHOE LIBRARY and brainstorm ideas of how we want Ivinghoe Library to be in future.


This will be followed on Thursday February 17th with another meeting in the Town Hall with the County Library people, working out how to take those ideas forward.

Road gritting information on line.


Many people will have already found the BCC web page  http://www.transportforbucks.net/Winter-maintenance.aspx that tells you where the gritting vehicles are, when gritting is taking place, and how much grit is being applied. There is also a link to this on the village website http://www.ivinghoe.co.uk/
 where BCC gritting news updates sent out on Twitter also appear automatically.



Refuse and recycling information by text
Although most of the waste and recycling collections have continued in the snow and ice, rounds have taken longer and unfortunately not all streets can be covered in the time. Finish times are dictated by the closing time of Newton Longville landfill site, and once or twice in the bad weather this site did not open at all.

For free up to the minute information text avdc sub Friday to 60060 and register for free text updates throughout the year on refuse and recycling collections. Or you can do it on line, at http://www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/do-it-online/avdc-text-alerts/


Area 13 speed limit review recommendations agreed by BCC cabinet

The long awaited recommendations to changes to some local speed limits were approved on 24th December. The full details of the decision can be found here http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/moderngov/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=2175
and the review, here http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/bcc/transport/area_13.page.

Now that we have finally got here, whether or not they can be implemented in the current financial climate remains to be seen.

Councils hit hard in Government spending review cuts.

The County Council says that although the cut in the rate support grant will be only 0.6% of an overall budget of nearly £400m it will actually lose nearer 14% or £11m when other grants are taken in to account in 2011. A further £8m will be cut in 2012. However those grants were often given for specific projects, now completed.

The County has been planning for £90M in cuts over 4 years, which some have challenged as an extreme reaction. Cutting staff and services causes a great deal of stress to Council staff, and very vulnerable people who receive services, or who may need services but will lose their entitlement. That is not to say that there is not a case to reduce management overheads, inefficiencies, and provide service in a different, more cost effective way.

Aylesbury Vale District Council says it is the worst hit of all the Districts in the country, with cuts of 14% in grant this year.

Both Councils will have tough choices to make at budget time and their priorities will be widely challenged.

Energy from Waste (EFW) decision for Calvert called in

The BCC cabinet decision to go ahead with provision of an EFW plant at Calvert has been called in by the local County Councillor and is currently being taken through scrutiny special meetings before being returned to cabinet for further deliberation.

Local Area Forum and Freight Quality Partnership

Led by Ivinghoe Parish Council, Christabel Boersma and I have called an inaugural meeting on 3rd February at County Hall for people interested in forming a Freight Quality Partnership for the Great Brickhill, Wing and Ivinghoe Area. The money to pilot this project has been made available through the Local Area Forum which next meets in IVINGHOE TOWN HALL at 7.00 pm on February 15th , where the meeting of February 3rd will report back. FQPs in other areas have been able to bring road hauliers and residents face to face to understand each others needs and make mutually beneficial changes.



Best wishes for 2011



Avril Davies

District Councillor Ivinghoe and Pitstone

County Councillor

Ivinghoe Division

Aylesbury Growth Area

After years of talking and preparing for thousands of homes to be built around Aylesbury, the new government has abandoned the plans. AVDC had not completed the planning for this growth, but had been given notice by the Planning Inspectorate that the controversial plans to site the development on Aylesbury’s ‘Eastern Arc’ were likely to be found ‘unsound’. As a result AVDC has voted to withdraw those plans, and fall back on the saved plans from the previous District Wide Local Plan, now about 10 years old. Although this will have no effect on individual planning applications in the villages, it does leave the Vale vulnerable to speculative major developments such as seen recently in Buckingham, Soulbury, Fleet Marston and Winslow.



Waste and recycling

AVDC has now sunk to 232nd out of 394 authorities for the percentage of waste recycled – having previously been 71st out of 408. This is mainly because AVDC does not collect garden waste for composting. Other authorities have introduced this on a fortnightly rotation which has vastly increased both the amount of waste collected as well as the percentage recycled. However, Worcester recycles the same way as AVDC and manages to recycle 36% compared to AVDCs 23%. The government targets are based on weight, and AVDC introduced glass recycling in response to this, but what AVDC collects, steel, aluminium and plastic, which have most value and positive effect on the environment, is disadvantaged. The main point I am making is that although we have a fantastic household waste site at Aston Clinton, not everyone can take advantage of it, and there are many elderly people and those without a car who need to have garden waste collected for composting. The green bag scheme which operates at the moment is totally inadequate for hedge cuttings and woody waste which needs shredding and cannot be home composted. The County Council has been unable to secure composting sites in Aylesbury Vale, and it is almost impossible for community composting schemes to get licences. The District Council has used this as an excuse not to improve anything about the recycling service at all and do not have any sense of urgency about it. In an answer to a question from Cllr Cashman (Cheddington) they are still only considering measures recommended in a scrutiny review eight years ago to increase the size of the containers, collect mixed recycling including card and textiles.



Quarry 2 Pitstone



Several years ago BCC granted permission for Clark Contracting to restore part of the quarry with inert waste. About 2 years ago Clarks applied for a variation to that permission. BCC have been unable to determine this while waiting for the Environment Agency to respond with their view. The Environment Agency in their turn have to be satisfied that the applicants could fulfil the terms of the licence they would require should planning permission be given. Meanwhile I understand that Chilterns AONB have objected to the current application, although they did not object to the earlier one. This means effectively that we are back to the drawing board on this one. Bucks planners are hoping to bring this all to Committee for decision on December 14th.





HS2 update



The Secretary of State for Transport Philip Hammond has undertaken several well publicised tours of the route, and high profile meetings with Buckinghamshire MPs and Councils. The report back on this is that he remains adamant that HS2 will go ahead on the preferred route through the Chilterns. While this may be good news for those living near the West Coast Main Line as we do, it is not good news for those near the other route.



I am still incensed that Bucks County Council are arguing that there is no business case for HS2 and that it should not run through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, while promoting a West Coast Main Line (new route or upgrade is not clear) alternative on the case for business, and which also runs through the AONB. Surely this position undermines their whole case?



Libraries



Thank you to the two people who came forward to stand by as Friends of Ivinghoe Library after my item in the last issue. Bucks have drawn up a libraries strategy and I have been invited to a special preview as Ivinghoe is included. I will be meeting with Paula Buck, head of Libraries on October 26. I expect to hear that we can have a community library supported by the council at best, and no library at worst. I will keep everyone informed as the Library needs supporters.



The Bucks Debate and Public Spending Cuts



While there is so much speculation in the papers about cuts it is a good time to get away with cutting services. The County Council latest is that it thinks it will be facing a £90M budget deficit next year. How much of this is from reduced grant and how much from overspending may never be known. The Government spending review hasn’t taken place at the time of writing, and next years budgets are not yet known. Facts are in short supply. Bucks County Council held a series of events around the County in September called ‘The Bucks Debate’ where members of the public were given information on about 30 services provided by the council and asked whether they wanted them to remain as they are, reduce, or discontinue. Unfortunately they did not allow for the option that the Council should hand them over to someone else, such as a Trust, another council, or charity. I am chairing a review of the County Council’s consultation processes at the moment and we will be asking consultees, members of the public, outside experts, and others their views on how Bucks communicates, and how it uses the responses, including The Bucks Debate.



Speed Limit Review Area 13



This is plodding on.The steering group of local councillors, the review team and the police met on October 7th and with two exceptions, all the changes consulted on are being recommended for implementation – next financial year. Meanwhile there is considerable work to be completed before then, publishing the changes, surveying the sites for signage, and getting tenders for the work. In the climate of cuts I referred to earlier the little things that matter so much to rural communities seem most vulnerable. We have a ‘big society’ in our village communities, but volunteers are run ragged already. The only thing we can do about speeding is be responsible for our own driving.



Community Car Scheme



Even though the Ivinghoe Division, I am reliably informed, does not fit the profile for ‘Big Society’ maximum volunteering ( not enough wealthy retired folk) I’m delighted that the meeting in the summer to get a community car scheme running in our villages has found enough people to be able to start.

HS2 Latest
Back in April Bucks County Council stated their preferred alternative route for HS2 was along the West Coast Main Line. They weren't too clear whether they meant upgrading the existing line, or following one of the HS2 alternative routes that swept through Pitstone Green business park and on to Cheddington. Either proposal was equally unacceptable to me and I proposed, and lost, an amendment to a motion at the County Council requesting that this preference be deleted from their submission to HS2 and that all routes through the Chilterns AONB be opposed equally. After the discussion several Aylesbury Vale Conservative Councillors told me they supported me but had not been able to vote for me on party lines.
Many people have subsequently pressed the County Council to come round to this view, including our MP, the Chilterns Conservation Board, and local individuals. At a meeting in July with the cabinet member for transportation Val Letheren, hinted to me that the County were now re-considering their position as expressing a preferred alternative could weaken their overall case - exactly the point I made at Council.
My opinion is that the West Coast Mail line option is so impracticable and expensive it was rightly discarded in the first place by HS2 as a viable alternative; but that the County Council should not have suggested damaging one part of the County in order to protect another 'more valuable' part. Val Letheren in debate said that 'their' Chilterns AONB was 'more valuable' than 'ours'.
The government are currently reviewing the whole thing to see if it can link in Heathrow Airport .

Changes to Adult Social Care Services
Changes have already begun in Bucks and elsewhere so that people needing social care (to enable them to live in their own homes for example) are able to decide for themselves what services they need, through spending their own personal allowance. Eventually everyone eligible will receive their own budget. This means people will need very good advice and information on choices available to them, and a much more diverse range of services will have to be made available to people. As part of these changes the County Council are looking at day care services. They have begun to talk to individual users of day care centres and to the wider public on how the current service might be provided in the future. In Aylesbury Vale they are proposing a new super-centre in Aylesbury, with a subsidiary centre in Buckingham, and a network of community facilities where users can choose to go in the day. The detail on these community facilities has not yet been filled in, nor how people will be supported in choosing what to do if they don’t want or are not able to attend the new day centre. I am expecting a lot more information on which to make a judgement after the consultation has been completed and people’s preferences have been heard, the financial aspects have been looked at and the full plan proposed. Naturally current users and their carers have been very unsettled by this. However it is very early days, and although it is expected day centres will be closing, there are no dates, and changes for people will happen on an individual basis only when their needs are being provided for.

Friends of Ivinghoe Library needed

There are NO PLANS TO CLOSE IVINGHOE LIBRARY. But how it is run MIGHT change. We need a re-formed Friends of Ivinghoe Library to meet that challenge when it comes.
The Government comprehensive spending review in the autumn is expected to lead to budget cuts in local government. The libraries are always vulnerable. As it is, nearly all BCC’s library resource has been poured in to the new library at High Wycombe, and it’s still unable to open on Mondays. In the past the County has always closed down what it cannot control. In the last round of library cuts everything was taken out of the affected libraries; computers, books, shelves, even the kettle. The community libraries that were set up in their place started with nothing. The two in the Chalfonts have been so successful that the County are considering a re-think whereby the county could partner a community library. In other words they could call on the community to support a much depleted service, while still providing the building and the IT for example, but leaving the community group to find the books, and even the staff. This would be bad news for Ivinghoe, and I would do all I could to prevent it, but closing the library would be even worse. To help stave off the day when we might be faced with this please contact me about becoming a Friend of Ivinghoe Library.

Great Gap Circular Walk grand opening September

This project began as a long held aspiration for a safe footway to link Great Gap to Ivinghoe. A bid put in by Ivinghoe parish Council was supported by other Parishes in the Local Area Forum, and developed in to a circular walk right up to the canal at The Brownlow. The path will open in September once the nesting season is over and it becomes possible to breach the necessary gaps in the hedges. This project, made possible only by the vision of the BCC rights of way team in seizing an opportunity, and the hard work of Jackie Wesley, BCC Local Area Forum Co-ordinator and Ivinghoe resident, in bringing grant funding bodies and landowners together, has so caught the imagination that not only has the BCC cabinet heard all about it in great detail, and sanctioned the grand opening, but BBC Radio is supposed to be making a programme about it ( and may have already done so).
Cheddington High Street and Footpath to Cooks Wharf

The High Street is going to be resurfaced in August, Hooray. The final length of the footpath project has been awarded funding from the Local Area Forum and the Comma Fund and can now be completed too the benefit of three parishes, Marsworth Pitstone and Cheddington.

Community Car Scheme and trial Freight Quality Partnership

These two new projects are being initiated through the Local Area Forum - where the County and District meet the Parish Councils and interested members of the public. The initial car scheme meeting is planned for 14th July and it is intended that two schemes will cover the villages of the Ivinghoe County Division along the lines of other successful schemes throughout the country.

The Freight Quality Partnership is a piece of work that will look at how villages in other parts of the country have worked with local and national businesses to promote mutual understanding of the needs of the haulage industry and residents, with the aim of reducing the impact of freight on the rural environment. Although the County’s emerging transport plan had this as a priority, everything is on hold until the government’s spending plans are known(!) so the Forum has agreed to support the preliminary work by the community in setting up a partnership . Anyone interested in finding out more baout either of these please contact me acdavies@buckscc.gov.uk. or jwesley@buckscc.gov.uk
The Local Area Forum has a delegated budget to spend on priorities put forward and decided on by the members, and is able to attract additional funding for nearly all it does.

Community Leaders Fund

The first call on the fund for this Division this year was to ensure the Great Gap Circular walk didn’t fail ‘for want of a nail’. Subsequently it has been able to pay for deer alarms (that broadcast radio4) for the new Pitstone allotments and benches for the Cheddington School orchard. These small sums have all been little nails completing bigger projects, and there is still a bit of money in the pot.

A report in The Bucks Herald on Wed 31st March, stated that: “Bucks County Council, supported by all of Bucks district councils, is advocating a route which follows the west coast mainline and includes an intermediate station at Milton Keynes”.

It must be made clear at this point that as far as HS2 Ltd and the Department of Transport, the West Coast Main Line options have been rejected and Bucks County Council have not been invited to state a preference. Consultation on a single route west of  Wendover and Aylesbury is scheduled to begin in October 2010.

Bucks County Council has published a full colour A3 leaflet opposing the officially proposed route, proposing instead one of the rejected alternatives along the West Coast Main Line, supported by all County Districts.

At an AVDC council meeting on 14th April, under pressure from Avril Davies, (Lib Dem, Pitstone and Ivinghoe) Corry Cashman (Lib Dem, Cheddington and Marsworth) and Peter Cooper (Independent, Wingrave and Aston Abbots) the District Council withdrew its support from the west coast main line option, and declared its opposition to all HS2 routes through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding natural beauty and Aylesbury Vale.

However the County Council Conservative administration put a motion to the County Council on 22nd April which stated that ‘any routing’ through the AONB was unacceptable, and that the proposed alternative routings through Buckinghamshire are ‘equally unacceptable’. They then went on to say that if a case was made for high speed rail the council’s preferred routes are ’along the West Coast Main Line or in a non-AONB routing.’ The County Council cabinet members were unable to clarify if they were referring to the HS2 (rejected) west coast main line proposal, passing MK to the west, or an option of their own devising alongside the existing route.

Avril Davies proposed an amendment to the motion, requesting removal of any mention of the west coast main line preference, which was defeated on party lines. She said that if the main reason for opposing the route was the effect on the AONB, preferring a different route, still through the AONB, would weaken their case. That it was not clear which route they meant, that it is not necessary to commit to any route at this stage, and that they no longer had the support of AVDC. Persisting in advocating the WCML would bring a blight on house prices in the area which HS2 had specifically intended to avoid by proposing one route only.

There are many other very good reasons for HS2 not to follow the WCML, most of which contribute to its official rejection by HS2 and the government as an option.

In the County Council debate the cabinet member for Transportation made it clear that they wanted to use the west coast main line option as a trade off for ‘our more beautiful Chilterns’, and said that ‘people who live by the West Coast Main Line knew they were near the railway when they bought their houses’. The Cabinet member for planning stated that the possibility of a station at Milton Keynes would bring benefit to the Bucks economy.

Afterwards Avril Davies said ‘Their motion was nothing more than crocodile tears about the AONB, as they made it quite clear they are perfectly happy to offer up parts of it as a sacrifice to protect their own back yards, and gain some economic advantage at the expense of others, namely, us. They made it quite clear they place a lower value on the quality of life for residents of this part of Bucks’.

County Councillors Annual Report 2009-10
Each year some of the Parishes in the Ivinghoe Division ask me to contribute an annual report as County Councillor so I usually make it my contribution to the newsletter at this time, to share it more widely. I am County Councillor for Ivinghoe, Ivinghoe Aston, Pitstone, Edlesborough, Dagnall, Northallm Slapton Cheddington and Marsworth and was re-elected in July 2009 for a third term. I am also District Councillor for Pitstone and Ivinghoe and I will write a similar report for the next newsletter for the District Council as well as any up to date news.

In June 2009 four yearly elections were held and the County Council began a new term with 46 Conservatives and 11 Liberal Democrats. There are no Labour members. Two former Labour members who joined the Liberal Democrats were re-elected for a High Wycombe Division. All members sign a Code of Conduct, make a Declaration of Interests on the public record, and are paid independently assessed allowances, which are also published. Local Government is far more tightly regulated and far more transparent than National Government on these matters.

The County Council is run on a Cabinet system with cabinet members responsible for service areas, and a Scrutiny Committee which keeps controversial decisions under review and sets up working groups to scrutinise aspects of the County Council services and make recommendations to Cabinet. The County is responsible for Adult and Family well-being, which includes Social Services; Children’s Services including Child Protection and Education; Transportation, Planning (some) and Environment. It has Libraries, Trading Standards, Archaeology, Archives, and Museums, Registrars and Economic Development, Country Parks and other such discrete services fitted in to the three main directorates. This is also the first year that services have been delivered in a significantly different way via two major contracts; one for home to school transport and one for highways and related matters.
The very wide range of County services is reflected in the Cabinet Forward Plan. For July there were 60 items, and it rolls forward throughout the 4 year term. Many decisions (in the plan) are about long term strategy documents, and service plans, such as the Freight Strategy and the Local Transport Plan 3 that are being consulted on at the moment and have been to the Local Area Forum for example. Some, but very few, are major strategic decisions such as the Energy From Waste Procurement decision, from Covanta in Bedfordshire, which I mentioned in my October report, but which is currently being re-visited because of a legal matter. Most decisions are operational, about a school, such as Academy Status for Quarrendon, or additional money for potholes.
All this can be found on the County Council website, but only a taste in the Buckinghamshire Times. The website recently won a SOCITM award for its design ,content and useability.

To give you a personal flavour, as it’s very hard to know what to report on in such a report, I would say that since the elections the main preoccupations of the Council have been the ‘transformation’ of the organisation - its structure, its way of working, its use of IT, in order to reduce its costs. So far about half of the 500 anticipated staff cuts have been made and as you can imagine this makes working at the County Council very difficult for people not knowing how long they will have a job for, and inevitably services will suffer to an extent. For two years or more the County has been working with the four Buckingamshire Districts and the Fire Authority to set up a shared ‘back office’ service with a partner from the commercial sector such as BT or IBM. The costs of this so outweighed the savings that all the Districts and the Fire Authority withdrew in the New Year. The budget process takes a good 4 - 6 months with officer reviews, majority party reviews, and finally a public questioning by an all party scrutiny panel of each cabinet member over 2 days. Fourthly, the two contracts I referred to above with Amey and Jacobs Ringway have also had to bed down , and among members there is considerable concern as to whether these are going to be able to deliver.
Locally, looking at my quarterly reports over the year, published since 2008 on the County Council website, this year has been no exception with items on the perennial topics of HGV traffic and the Speed Limit Review, Now finally in Public Consultation for this area. It will take as long to develop the Freight Strategy Partnership approach to HGVs, as outlined in the recent consultation, but it is better than doing nothing, which is the current approach. The major planning application for Quarry 2 Pitstone still hasn’t come to committee more than a year after it was submitted,. The Children’s Centre in Ivinghoe, but for the whole Division, should begin building any day now - as with the speed limit review this part of the County is last or nearly last to be commenced. The Household Waste and Recycling Centre has opened at Aston Clinton which has been good news.

Finally, very locally I am always pleased to be able to put the Community Leaders’ Fund to good use and this year it has helped Cheddington Scouts, Slapton Village Hall toilets, Marsworth Parish Newsletter, and a new stairlift for Ivinghoe Town Hall.

The Local Area Forum has made a big difference to how the parish Councils and the County Council work together. The parishes from three County Divisions, Wing, Great Brickhill and Ivinghoe have worked together on their priorities and made some major achievements. The budget grant went to Cheddington last year for its footway, but the Ivinghoe circular walk which links Ford End, Great Gap and the Grand Union Canal attracted enough grant funding from elsewhere to make it look as if it’s going to happen any time now. Aston Abbots was also successful in getting a footway. Each Forum opens with a police and highway maintenance ‘clinic’ and has a varied agenda to follow. It has looked at good neighbour and community car schemes for example, and has had information directly on the Childrens Centres, Adult Social Care, Buses, and meets annually with London Midland Trains.

My role as a Councillor, as well as the local casework and correspondence which is easily an hour a day checking emails or phone calls plus at half to a whole day actually doing something about them, is meetings and preparing for meetings. I am a member of the Scrutiny Commissioning Committee which since July has had quite a heavy workload. It has looked at the value of all County ‘discretionary’ - prevention in social care for example. I have looked at the Swan Rider scheme which was losing #4M a year, and am currently looking at the Thames Valley Partnership which costs Bucks #1.4M to maintain speed cameras from which it gets no return, and other speed enforcement. I went out to Whaddon one morning at 7.30 am with an enforcement team recently. I didn’t do the budget examination this year, although I did on two previous years. Important reviews coming up are the Winter Maintenance review which will look at everything connected with gritting and potholes. I have been in correspondence with a local resident and asked if his letters can go to the review group as evidence of how the County is perceived by a reasonable citizen, with a view to the committee putting that point of view to those responsible for winter maintenance, both officers and cabinet member. Performance of both the major new contracts are going to be scrutinised minutely. In September I am going to chair a review of how the County carries out its consultations.

I am also a member of the Public Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee which is the local statutory watchdog for health services locally. This committee has recently joined with Oxfordshire and Hampshire to look at rural response times for the Ambulance Service. I am also the spokesperson on Adult Social Care for the Lib Dem group. Finally I am a member of the Bucks and MK Fire Authority where my main interest is the work the fire authority can do in reducing health inequalities with the PCT and County Council.
Avril Davies