Thursday, April 06, 2006
April 2006 news roundup
Deer Collision Project stage 2
In the Autumn the Three Counties Project - Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire County Councils, the National Trust and the Chilterns Conservation Board installed special acoustic devices on the Northchurch Road to give off a sound when triggered by passing traffic to stop deer from going on to the road. In March additional interactive signs have been installed near the Ashridge Golf Course. These signs will be activated both by speeding traffic and by deer crossing the road. If found to be effective, they will be extended to other areas. Ashridge road safety review
Hertfordshire County Council are also currently consulting on a comprehensive range of measures to improve road safety in the Ashridge area including speed restrictions and road markings and other safety features.
Area speed limit review
Speed limit review for the whole area (Ivinghoe Division, part Wing, part Bierton.) is currently undergoing ‘formal consultation’ with statutory agencies. It will be ready for public consultation followed by implementation in 2008. (for those new to the area this is running at least 3 years late)
Community Policing
Thames valley police are beginning a community policing scheme in Aylesbury Vale before going on to the rest of their patch. A launch meeting was held in Pitstone Hall for all the villages in ‘Wing South’ - Wingrave to Dagnall more or less. The meeting was poorly attended compared to some others in the Vale, probably due to insufficient publicity. Improving the ‘visibility’ of the police was an important issue raised, along with road safety and anti-social behaviour. The local Neighbourhood Action Group, meeting in Pitstone Hall on June 8th will tackle these and other issues.
One important announcement made by the police at the meeting was that Ivinghoe, Pitstone and Edlesborough’s bid for a Police Community Support Officer has been successful, and someone is currently being recruited and trained to begin work in the summer.
Station car parking
A planning application has been put into Dacorum BC for a car park on the unsurfaced part of the existing car park at Tring Station within the bounds of railway property, not on the extended car park, now closed, in the AONB. The car park will be two storeys high, the top floor level with the existing surfaced car park. A condition of the new car park will be improvements to all means of transport to the station including bus travel. Bucks County Council officers have already joined forces with Silverlink and the Herts CC to negotiate bus services to Pitstone.
Corry Cashman, Lib Dem District Councillor for Cheddington, has taken Silverlink on over the charges at Cheddington Station, asking for reductions to be considered for weekends and off peak as well as improvements to the layout of the car park. This is as well as Bucks CC negotiating for free parking for cars arriving with more than one passenger.
Luton Airport
Luton Airport gained approval to extend its western airspace applied for in 2004. This means that when the wind is in the east planes can now approach the airport over villages to the north west of the airport, avoiding Luton itself and Leighton Buzzard. As previously, planes will still line up with Pitstone Windmill on their descent to the runway, so no change there. There may be more planes over Cheddington, but as the airspace was previously un-allocated to any airport, Luton planes have been using it when free for some time.
If the proposals to replace the runway at Luton are approved, a new runway will be built almost 1KM south of the present one, necessitating alterations to all flight paths.
In the Autumn the Three Counties Project - Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire County Councils, the National Trust and the Chilterns Conservation Board installed special acoustic devices on the Northchurch Road to give off a sound when triggered by passing traffic to stop deer from going on to the road. In March additional interactive signs have been installed near the Ashridge Golf Course. These signs will be activated both by speeding traffic and by deer crossing the road. If found to be effective, they will be extended to other areas. Ashridge road safety review
Hertfordshire County Council are also currently consulting on a comprehensive range of measures to improve road safety in the Ashridge area including speed restrictions and road markings and other safety features.
Area speed limit review
Speed limit review for the whole area (Ivinghoe Division, part Wing, part Bierton.) is currently undergoing ‘formal consultation’ with statutory agencies. It will be ready for public consultation followed by implementation in 2008. (for those new to the area this is running at least 3 years late)
Community Policing
Thames valley police are beginning a community policing scheme in Aylesbury Vale before going on to the rest of their patch. A launch meeting was held in Pitstone Hall for all the villages in ‘Wing South’ - Wingrave to Dagnall more or less. The meeting was poorly attended compared to some others in the Vale, probably due to insufficient publicity. Improving the ‘visibility’ of the police was an important issue raised, along with road safety and anti-social behaviour. The local Neighbourhood Action Group, meeting in Pitstone Hall on June 8th will tackle these and other issues.
One important announcement made by the police at the meeting was that Ivinghoe, Pitstone and Edlesborough’s bid for a Police Community Support Officer has been successful, and someone is currently being recruited and trained to begin work in the summer.
Station car parking
A planning application has been put into Dacorum BC for a car park on the unsurfaced part of the existing car park at Tring Station within the bounds of railway property, not on the extended car park, now closed, in the AONB. The car park will be two storeys high, the top floor level with the existing surfaced car park. A condition of the new car park will be improvements to all means of transport to the station including bus travel. Bucks County Council officers have already joined forces with Silverlink and the Herts CC to negotiate bus services to Pitstone.
Corry Cashman, Lib Dem District Councillor for Cheddington, has taken Silverlink on over the charges at Cheddington Station, asking for reductions to be considered for weekends and off peak as well as improvements to the layout of the car park. This is as well as Bucks CC negotiating for free parking for cars arriving with more than one passenger.
Luton Airport
Luton Airport gained approval to extend its western airspace applied for in 2004. This means that when the wind is in the east planes can now approach the airport over villages to the north west of the airport, avoiding Luton itself and Leighton Buzzard. As previously, planes will still line up with Pitstone Windmill on their descent to the runway, so no change there. There may be more planes over Cheddington, but as the airspace was previously un-allocated to any airport, Luton planes have been using it when free for some time.
If the proposals to replace the runway at Luton are approved, a new runway will be built almost 1KM south of the present one, necessitating alterations to all flight paths.
# posted by Avril Davies @ 8:00 PM 
