County Councillor's Quarterly Report
April 2012
Annual Parish Meetings 2012
I plan to be at all the parish assemblies coming up in this month, having
already attended at Cheddington in March. I will touch on the contents of
this quarterly report, as well as some other items in my report to those
meetings. Regrettably this last twelve months has been more difficult for
me than usual to attend more than the occasional parish council meeting. I
have found the Local Area Forum a very good opportunity to catch up with
you, as well as regular emails on specific issues, which I hope you have
found supportive and helpful.
Speed Limit Review
I have received copies of all the legal
documents required for the speed limit changes and works are scheduled to
commence on the various sites Monday 26 March 2012 and are planned to be
completed by April 13th. At the time of writing I have unfortunately seen no
evidence of this, but I hope that by the time you read it everything will be
in place!!? After an implementation period the new limits are formally
reviewed again to assess their effectiveness, all as part of the due
process, but I don’t know when this will be. This review was first proposed
in 2003, and begun about 2007.
Bucks introduces more charging for home to
school transport
From September the County will introduce
transport charges for any pupil not attending their nearest ’appropriate’
school. This does not mean school which you have chosen or been selected
for, but school which is capable of delivering you the required educational
attainment. All upper schools are considered as being able to provide an
education to a grammar school qualified pupil. (A grammar however is not
deemed suitable for anyone who has not qualified)
In effect unless you need a special school,
and live more than three miles from your nearest school, Bucks will only pay
for you to go to your nearest upper school within the county boundary. Tring
School and one or two others currently attended outside the county boundary
are included in this arrangement, so those getting free transport toTring
already will continue to do so.
Last year far more draconian and inconsistent
charges were proposed and withdrawn, except for sixth formers and
out-of-catchment pupils who are currently paying large fares. This level of
charging for younger pupils was reconsidered as a result of responses to
those proposals, and some loud objections from people such as myself, but it
is now proposed to phase in the charges, at a much reduced rate. Charges
will be introduced at £10 per week to pupils about to start secondary this
September, and £2 a week administration charge for pupils in years above
already with travel places to schools not their nearest.
New arrangements at the household waste
recycling site
Bucks County Council has awarded a new
contract to operate these sites, with some changes..
Form 1st April the sites will open an hour
later and have fixed summer and winter opening hours. From 1 April – 30
September summer opening times will be in place and all the sites will
operate from 9am – 6pm. From the 1 October – 31 March, winter opening hours
will be in place and the sites will operate from 9am – 5pm.
The second change which will be introduced
on-site is an improved reuse service, which is going to be phased in over
the coming months from April 2012 – July 2012. This will include a shop at
the Aston Clinton site. Materials suitable for reuse will be collected from
the county’s recycling centres and sold. These details are being finalised
by the contractor and their partnering charity organisation and will be
publicised as soon as completed.
The new contract will also provide enhanced
customer experience with ‘meet and greet’ attendants available to help
customers unload waste to ensure items are recycled and reused. Users of the
site will also notice new signage and improved layouts of recycling
containers.
Local Area Forum May 15th St Michaels
School Stewkley
Agenda items for this forum ( yet to be
confirmed) are proposed to include the community environmental toolkit,
developed by Community Impact Bucks and BCC, Luton Airport expansion
proposals, and the annual report to the LAF from London Midland trains.
All BCC Committees now live webcast
This has been happening for some time, and
has an amazing number of viewers. More than 500 for a scrutiny meeting. The
recordings are available on the Bucks website, and helpfully can be viewed
by member, or by agenda topic.
http://www.buckscc.public-i.tv/core/
Avril Davies
County Councillor
Ivinghoe Division