Reports

“Welcome to the Parish Meeting our first since 2019.

It has been good to get back to face to face Parish council meetings over the last few months. The pandemic is still making itself felt, but things appear to be returning more or less to ‘normal’ and we are trying to catch up with all the things that couldn’t happen whilst Covid was rife and we were holding zoom meetings to cover the basics.

In 2019 we were saying goodbye to our Clerk Alan Lambourne and welcoming our new Clerk Melanie Rose. Feels a little like Groundhog Day as I welcome our new Clerk David Hebburn to the Council and we say goodbye to Melanie.

We have several projects which are progressing, some more quickly than others but as I have found the wheels of local councils sometimes run very slowly!

We should shortly have our speed indication devices up in the village. The poles have been installed so hopefully soon. These were purchased with a grant from HS2. We finally have our Speedwatch group registered on the Web so once everyone has completed their online training we will be able to undertake Speed monitoring again.

We have purchased some trees which we will be planting on the Green to celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee. This will probably take place in September, so we don’t have to water them through the Summer. Thanks to Jo Hooper for taking on this project.

We are undertaking replacement of the street lighting as the units we are using are now no longer made and it will become increasingly difficult to source replacements. Hopefully our new ones will reduce costs and improve reliability.

We are still waiting to hear any progress on obtaining the land on Lower Green from Bucks Council. Suggestions for this area have included allotments, a wildflower meadow, an outdoor gym or a peaceful garden area. We will give further information if and when we manage to make any progress.

We had thought we had made some progress with a route for the Waddesdon to Westcott Greenway extension but unfortunately I think that one is back to the drawing board.

I would like to say thank you to my fellow Councillors for their support over the last year and also thanks to our Buckinghamshire Councillors for their support of our small village.

If you would like more information about how the Parish Council works and the important place we have in your community please come along to one of our meetings, the next being our Annual Parish Council meeting which is on Tuesday 31st May.

Thank you.”