Have your say on review of AVDC ward boundaries

The independent Local Government Boundary Commission for England is asking local people for their help to draw up a new pattern of council wards for Aylesbury Vale District Council.

Following a public consultation earlier this year, the Commission has also announced that it is minded to recommend that the council should have 59 councillors in the future, the same as the current arrangements.

The Commission now needs information from people and groups across Aylesbury Vale district to help it to produce a new pattern of wards to accommodate 59 councillors.

In drawing up new boundaries, the Commission aims to deliver electoral equality for voters in council elections so that each councillor represents roughly the same number of voters. The review also aims to ensure that the new council wards reflect, as far as possible, the interests and identities of communities across the district.

Max Caller, Chair of the Commission, said: “The starting point of an electoral review is for the Commission to take a view on the number of councillors who should represent the authority in future. On the evidence presented to the Commission, we are minded to recommend that Aylesbury Vale should continue to have 59 councillors in future.

“We are now asking local people and organisations to help us draw up new wards for the district. As we develop the recommendations, we will take into account local community identities as well as ensuring electoral equality for voters.

“Your views will make a difference. We will carefully consider all evidence that is provided during this phase of the review whoever it is from and whether it applies to the whole district or just a small part of it.

“We will publish all the submissions on our website so that local people can see all the various proposals we receive. Residents will then have a further chance to have their say after we publish our draft recommendations in January 2014.”

Local people have until 1 October 2013 to submit their views. Further information on the review and interactive maps of the existing wards can be found at consultation.lgbce.org.uk and www.lgbce.org.uk

Vale of Aylesbury Plan submitted to government by AVDC

A major blueprint which shapes how Aylesbury Vale will develop over the next two decades has been submitted to the government for independent examination.

The Vale of Aylesbury Plan Strategy sets out a framework to plan for jobs and homes in the area until 2031.

The plan, which will be examined by a planning inspector, proposes that Aylesbury Vale District Council will provide for the delivery of 13,500 new homes. Almost 10,000 of these are already at the advanced stages of planning such as those on Buckingham’s London Road and the Aylesbury East development at Broughton Crossing.

As well as working on all the necessary infrastructure, the council is also planning for a minimum of 6,000 additional jobs within the Vale.

Submission of the document follows the revocation in March this year of the South East Plan, which had previously guided planning policy.

Councillor Carole Paternoster, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, said: “This plan is vital to our future, establishing how the district should develop over the next two decades, and putting in place important policies that will enable us to deliver our vision. It will also give the Vale the protection it needs to guard against speculative or ill-suited developments. Councillors and officers have been working hard to reach this important milestone and I want to thank everybody in the Vale who has helped us develop this plan and bring it to fruition.”

The dates for the examination in public will be set by the government’s Planning Inspectorate. It is expected to be held in November/December. That will lead to a planning inspector’s report on whether the plan can eventually proceed to adoption.

Submission of this strategy document follows the pre-submission publicity in May and June. In total 129 respondents commented on the plan, which resulted in a total of 584 comments being made (one respondent can make multiple comments). All these comments will be passed to the Planning Inspectorate to be taken into account as part of the examination process.

High Speed Two update

The following update oin High Speed 2 has been circulated by Bucks County Council:

Legal Challenge

The Supreme Court appeal will be heard on 15/16 October 2013.  Five judges will hear the appeal with the majority decision going forward.  The two grounds of the challenge are a lack of a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and a second EU Directive - the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive (EIAD).

Construction routes

HS2 Ltd has now shared their proposals for construction routes.  The map is available on the 51m website.  This could affect communities who previously may have thought that they were not affected by HS2 (map is bottom of column 2).

http://www.51m.co.uk/

Roads update

HS2 Ltd has recently agreed the following will be included in the formal ES;

·     Maintain access at Bacombe Lane, Wendover

·     A4010 (Risborough Road)

·     Maintain access to Perry Hill and West Street, Calvert

·     A41 Waddesdon realignment

Petitioning Strategy

Indications from HS2 Ltd lead us to think that the formal Environmental statement (ES) will be published in October/November with the hybrid Bill being deposited in November/December. It is likely that the consultation on the formal ES will take place during December/January 2014. Individuals and organisations who consider this consultation period too short are writing to the Secretary of State (via their MP) to request that the consultation be longer than 8 weeks, to take into account the Christmas period and the fact that the documentation will be so much larger than the draft ES. For hybrid Bill petitioning, most of the Buckinghamshire upper tier authorities have now appointed a Parliamentary Agent to act on their behalf.

We are looking to provide a Guide to Petitioning to help communities and other stakeholders who are directly and specially affected to take forward their own petitions.  There is a toolkit for petitioning on private bill on the Parliamentary website (http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/commonspetitioningkit.pdf) 

Property and compensation consultation

You will no doubt be aware that this re-consultation was launched on 12 September and runs to 4 December 2013.  Schemes that may be introduced are express purchase, sale and rent back of properties that will be demolished, (rural support zone) property bond or voluntary purchase, alternative sale and rent back or long-term hardship scheme.  A number of events have been organised by HS2 Ltd.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/property-owners-protected-by-hs2-compensation-scheme

CPRE visual maps

CPRE and a company called ITO have developed a website that shows how High Speed 2 (HS2) would be constructed, what the landscaping would look like, how loud would it be and much more.

You can link to the website here http://hs2maps.com/

Community forums

We understand that this current round of community forums will be the last for the foreseeable future.  HS2 Ltd has said they will continue to meet with individuals and organisations most of whom will be involved in the petitioning process.

Buckinghamshire County Council HS2 team

marcus40.rogers@gmail.com mob 07702 490999

jcopcutt@buckscc.gov.uk tel 01296 383793

alexday@buckscc.gov.uk tel 01296 382409

sagibson@buckscc.gov.uk tel 01296 387540

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