Giving our villagers a helping hand

I am aware that the date on which the County Council was due to fix a new handrail on the corner of Challoner's Hill and Vicarage Lane has passed (7th Jan) and the work has not yet
been done.
Please rest assured that I am pursuing the Highways dept. to find out the cause of the delay
and when it will be completed. We are lucky that it has been a mild winter so far and the
pavement has not been too slippery.

Among other issues relating to roads around the village which were raised at last Tuesday's
Parish Council meeting are:

- uneven road surface on West Street opposite the Fountain Pub: water collects in the road
whenever it rains

- problem of cars parking on the corner of Buckingham Road and Sandholme where 3 accidents
have already taken place

Please contact me if there are any issues relating to roads or pathways around the villages
which you would like to share.

Merry Christmas to All

I would like to wish all visitors to this Blog a very Merry Christmas and every good wish for 2008.

I has been an exciting year for me as I have become a new Councillor on the Aylesbury Vale District Council and there has certainly been a lot to learn. One of the highlights was Steeple
Claydon winning the Best Kept Village award; the village football team is doing very well too.
I hope to continue to get to know the local residents and their concerns and to take up issues
on their behalf.

A very Happy Christmas to all.

Handrail to go up outside Doctor's Surgery

I am delighted to be able to report that following my request to Bucks County Council,
a handrail will be erected on the pavement outside the Steeple Claydon doctors' surgery
at the corner of Challoners Hill and Vicarage Lane.
The work will begin on 7th January 2008. Not a moment too soon, as our residents face
a steep and slippery slope and the prospect of ice and snow making it all the more treacherous.

This is the latest in a list of improvements which have been carried out to roads and pavements
in and around Steeple Claydon following my 'badgering' of the County Council:

- resurfacing of Addisons Road
- repair to pothole in West Street
- repair of large hole in road between Padbury and Steeple Claydon caused by a badger's sett
- inclusion of road from Steeple Claydon to Calvert in list of priority roads for winter maintenance.

I fully intend to keep up the good work on your behalf.

Steeple Claydon wins

Best Kept Village Award

I am delighted to be able to report that Steeple Claydon has been presented with the De Fraine Cup for the best kept village of its size in Bucks.

The cup was presented to the Chairman of the Village Council by the Deputy Lord Lieutenant.

We are the proud possessors of a 'Best Kept Village' sign which we can keep for at least a year.

The award is tribute to all those who worked so hard at keeping the village neat and tidy. Particular effort went into the surroundings of the village hall, the recreation ground and the well.

Congratulations to all concerned !

Touring the Ward with our local PCSO

On Sunday afternoon I toured the whole of the Ward with our local PCSO, Wendy. How lucky we are to have her as the officer responsible for the area. We travelled around in her fine Land Rover Defender, which took me back to my time in Tanzania when I was driving around in a Mark III ex-army Landrover which I shipped out from England.
We visited all the villages in the ward - Middle Claydon, Sandhill, Verney Junction, East Claydon, Botolph Claydon and Steeple Claydon - covering all the villages on foot. It's amazing how many details you notice by just walking round. We spotted what looked like a caravan encampment in the distance from Middle Claydon which we thought must be somewhere near the railway line, but couldn't work out how to get closer. We saw a vehicle with an expired tax disc and obscured number plates in East Claydon, and an abandoned vehicle with a smashed window in Steeple Claydon. We inspected the thatched seat in Botolph Claydon with an oak tree growing out of the roof which has had some graffiti inflicted on it and needs a small repair which I shall tell the parish council about. The public phone box in Middle Claydon was out of order and rather dirty.
There was a large fallen branch in Botolph Claydon, and some uneven patches on the pavement.
In Steeple Claydon, the Vicarage Orchard needs tidying up and a new dog bin is needed on the
adjacent path. It is also being used as an unofficial compost heap for garden waste. We spotted
several hedges which need trimming back. The wall along the footpath beside Sportsmans Close has lost a number of bricks and tiles which need replacing. The pavement in Addison's Road is in a very poor condition (the road itself has recently been resurfaced) and the pothole in West Street outside Willow Farm has subsided again.
Lots of small things to take up with the relevant authorities.
Another need is for a handrail outside the doctor's surgery on Vicarage Lane at the corner with Challoner's Hill where the pavement is very slippery with fallen leaves and will get worse when it is icy.
Wendy has 200 square miles of north Bucks to look after and clearly is an extremely dedicated and popular officer. It was a privilege to spend the afternoon with her. PCSO's have my 100% support.

Aylesbury Waterside Scheme

I have been very preoccupied recently with the plans for the new Waterside scheme in Aylesbury, which is causing a good deal of local controversy, mainly expressed through the pages of the Bucks Herald.
There are undoubtedly some good aspects of the scheme: notably, the improvement and opening up of the area around the canal basin and the Bear Brook, and the plans for the new
Theatre which looks great.
However, there are some justified concerns being expressed about the new shopping centre planned as an extension to the existing Hale Leys Centre, with the feeling that the plans that have been put forward by Warner Estates show little appreciation of the surrounding architecture and environment of the Exchange Street / Civic Centre area. There is regret for the loss of the horse chestnut trees and green space in front of the Civic Centre car park.
There is also a concern about the size and location of the proposed new supermarket on the south side of Exchange Street, and some questioning over whether Aylesbury really needs an additional supermarket at all.
I waded into the debate with a letter to the Bucks Herald, which the paper gave the rather misleading heading ' Waterside Plan will improve town'. This is not what I said, although I very much hope that the plan will improve Aylesbury. I said that the plan was designed to generate profits for both the council and the developers ( in response to a suggestion that it was an exercise in municipal socialism) , that the discussions over the details of the scheme were still going on, and that I hoped that those discussions will result in a scheme which is financially sound, and environmentally and architecturally sensitive.
2 points to emphasise: the development plans have not yet been formally proposed, so nothing has been decided as yet. Also, it is necessary to view the scheme as a whole and not just one element of it.
I am still optimistic, and hope that the council will take note of the very valid concerns which have been expressed about aspects of the plan.

My first month as a Councillor

I am gradually getting used to my new role as a District Councillor. I have been appointed to three Council Committees - resources, audit and economy - and have attended one meeting of each. I have also attended one Council meeting, and there is another special council meeting in July to discuss the plans for new development in Aylesbury.
There is some concern about the limited time and opportunity for response to the development plans, but in this the Council is obliged to follow the Government's timetable, or run the risk of losing its planning powers altogether.
More locally, I have been following up some of the concerns which Steeple Claydon residents have been contacting me about since my election. These include:
- orange cones at three different locations in and around the village. Bucks County Council have told me that they will carry out the necessary repairs at two of these locations (West St. and North End Road) and the third location is the site of a badget sett ! It's good to know our County Council is concerned about the local wildlife.
- one resident is concerned about the pumping station below West St which has an outlet pipe going into Padbury Brook. We went to visit the location last weekend - a good place to walk the dog. I have contacted Anglian Water who are responsible for the pumping station to see if they can check the quality of the water going into the brook.
- there is concern about youths misbehaving in the recreation ground, with broken bottles on the skateboard park.
- I have raised concerns about the condition of the roads in three places: the bottom of Addison Road, the road going out of the villiage towards Charndon (which I go down every day on my way to work) and the junction of this road with the road to Twyford which is very bad. The
County Council have said that none of these roads is in a 'dangerous condition'.