Saturday, August 19, 2006
Council houses transfer to Vale of Aylesbury Housing Association
On July 17th Aylesbury Vale DC will transfer all it’s housing to the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust. For tenants there will be little if any disruption, and for the first six months or so the housing trust will operate from AVDC offices with many of the same staff. The reason for the transfer is that instead of making over tenants rent payments to a national pool for redistribution to poorer authorities for housing improvements long since achieved by AVDC, the housing association can keep rent within Aylesbury Vale for improvements, and borrow additional funds to build more houses for families on the waiting list. AVDC like all other councils has not been allowed to use proceeds of the sale of council houses or raise money to build new homes for the twenty or so years since sales were first introduced. The Vale of Aylesbury Housing trust has an ambitious plan for improving former AVDC council houses with a five year programme of new kitchens and bathrooms.
Aylesbury New Lodge to be replaced – at last
In September this year the Bromford Housing Group will begin the total redevelopment of the Aylesbury New Lodge, the hostel for families made homeless. The redevelopment will be called Griffin Place and comprise 105 rooms and flats. The majority of homes will have their own bathrooms and kitchens, and be as close to a normal domestic environment as possible, but with an on site management team and high level family support and training facilities.
Green waste trial in Winslow to extend to Buckingham
The much publicised introduction of a brown second bin for garden waste and cardboard, including the up-to-now unrecyclable Yellow Pages, alongside a fortnightly collection of the ‘main’ bin, and continued collection of paper, cans, and plastic, has proved so successful it is being extended to cover Buckingham.
As a result householders are able to recycle as much as 60% of their rubbish. The recycling rate has increased in Winslow from 17% to 55% although that is expected to reduce over the winter months.
Bottle banks at Pitstone Wharf (Grebe Canal Cruises)
Please use the newly installed bottle banks at Pitstone Wharf if you find the kerbside container too small, or if the service cannot reach you. These banks are really close, and all recycling credits earned from them benefit you, the AVDC council tax payer, unlike the Tring ones, which benefit Dacorum.
Ivinghoe Youth Hostel Proposed Closure
After the public meeting in April, I composed a paper setting out the case for the hostel remaining open and sent it to all the 24 trustees, and to the all-party Parliamentary Youth Hostel group. As a result the Chief executive of the YHA has agreed to meet me at the hostel on July 20th.
Quarrendon Ancient Monument
Bucks Herald readers may wonder why I have taken the lead on AVDC in persuading the council to do more than the bare minimum to protect this site from the 6000+ houses that are going to be build next to it. It is because as chair of the Environment Scrutiny Committee more than four years ago, I set up a sub-committee to look in to the future of this important site. The sub committee commissioned a management plan from leading environmental and historic monument consultants, Alison Farmer Associates, who came up with a plan to safeguard the site and manage it in the future. The scrutiny committee under a new conservative chair unanimously recommended to the AVDC Conservative cabinet that funding be sought to implement the plan. Unfortunately the leader of the council refers to the monument as ‘ a pile of old stones’ and the cabinet are prepared only to ensure it is fenced off. They refuse to approach other partners such as English Heritage, or the EU, for help. The monument is currently owned by the Church Commissioners, but it is AVDC’s plans that are endangering the site.
The site was once a mediaeval village, with church and almshouses, and then an Elizabethan manor house with rabbit warren, seasonally flooded watermeadows for grazing, a mill, and ornamental watergardens. Nothing is left now except a series of moats and earthworks, and a bit of the church. However, because it has not been overlaid in subsequent centuries with other developments it has more to tell than most sites about it’s period, the air photographs are very clear, and the whole area which can only be grazed by sheep, is an oasis for wildlife. It is counted a site of regional importance.
It can be reached on foot from the A41 Waddesdon Road along the Aylesbury Ring footpath.
Avril Davies
12th July 2006
On July 17th Aylesbury Vale DC will transfer all it’s housing to the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust. For tenants there will be little if any disruption, and for the first six months or so the housing trust will operate from AVDC offices with many of the same staff. The reason for the transfer is that instead of making over tenants rent payments to a national pool for redistribution to poorer authorities for housing improvements long since achieved by AVDC, the housing association can keep rent within Aylesbury Vale for improvements, and borrow additional funds to build more houses for families on the waiting list. AVDC like all other councils has not been allowed to use proceeds of the sale of council houses or raise money to build new homes for the twenty or so years since sales were first introduced. The Vale of Aylesbury Housing trust has an ambitious plan for improving former AVDC council houses with a five year programme of new kitchens and bathrooms.
Aylesbury New Lodge to be replaced – at last
In September this year the Bromford Housing Group will begin the total redevelopment of the Aylesbury New Lodge, the hostel for families made homeless. The redevelopment will be called Griffin Place and comprise 105 rooms and flats. The majority of homes will have their own bathrooms and kitchens, and be as close to a normal domestic environment as possible, but with an on site management team and high level family support and training facilities.
Green waste trial in Winslow to extend to Buckingham
The much publicised introduction of a brown second bin for garden waste and cardboard, including the up-to-now unrecyclable Yellow Pages, alongside a fortnightly collection of the ‘main’ bin, and continued collection of paper, cans, and plastic, has proved so successful it is being extended to cover Buckingham.
As a result householders are able to recycle as much as 60% of their rubbish. The recycling rate has increased in Winslow from 17% to 55% although that is expected to reduce over the winter months.
Bottle banks at Pitstone Wharf (Grebe Canal Cruises)
Please use the newly installed bottle banks at Pitstone Wharf if you find the kerbside container too small, or if the service cannot reach you. These banks are really close, and all recycling credits earned from them benefit you, the AVDC council tax payer, unlike the Tring ones, which benefit Dacorum.
Ivinghoe Youth Hostel Proposed Closure
After the public meeting in April, I composed a paper setting out the case for the hostel remaining open and sent it to all the 24 trustees, and to the all-party Parliamentary Youth Hostel group. As a result the Chief executive of the YHA has agreed to meet me at the hostel on July 20th.
Quarrendon Ancient Monument
Bucks Herald readers may wonder why I have taken the lead on AVDC in persuading the council to do more than the bare minimum to protect this site from the 6000+ houses that are going to be build next to it. It is because as chair of the Environment Scrutiny Committee more than four years ago, I set up a sub-committee to look in to the future of this important site. The sub committee commissioned a management plan from leading environmental and historic monument consultants, Alison Farmer Associates, who came up with a plan to safeguard the site and manage it in the future. The scrutiny committee under a new conservative chair unanimously recommended to the AVDC Conservative cabinet that funding be sought to implement the plan. Unfortunately the leader of the council refers to the monument as ‘ a pile of old stones’ and the cabinet are prepared only to ensure it is fenced off. They refuse to approach other partners such as English Heritage, or the EU, for help. The monument is currently owned by the Church Commissioners, but it is AVDC’s plans that are endangering the site.
The site was once a mediaeval village, with church and almshouses, and then an Elizabethan manor house with rabbit warren, seasonally flooded watermeadows for grazing, a mill, and ornamental watergardens. Nothing is left now except a series of moats and earthworks, and a bit of the church. However, because it has not been overlaid in subsequent centuries with other developments it has more to tell than most sites about it’s period, the air photographs are very clear, and the whole area which can only be grazed by sheep, is an oasis for wildlife. It is counted a site of regional importance.
It can be reached on foot from the A41 Waddesdon Road along the Aylesbury Ring footpath.
Avril Davies
12th July 2006
# posted by Avril Davies @ 1:32 PM 
