Bucks County Council
From Lacey Green History
Hallmark November 2022.
The end of the year 2022 is rapidly approaching and what a year it has been. In June we celebrated Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and then in September, we mourned her passing with the proclamation of King Charles’ accession to the throne.
With the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, all of us in the UK are seeing a rise in the cost of living, energy costs, interest rates and inflation.
Buckinghamshire Council is working hard on its priorities and spending plans for next year. So, like other Councils across the UK, the Council is in the process of setting its budget for 2023/2024. 82% of the cost of providing all its services comes from the collection of Council tax.
On 12th October, Buckinghamshire Council launched “Money Matters” – the way for residents to tell us what matters most to them when we allocate available funds during next year. The budget will pay for services such as road repairs, adult social care, children’s services, running libraries and leisure centres, and support for residents facing hardship.
This consultation closes at midnight on 20th November. You can complete the online survey or download a printed version and send it back. Here is the link to the website:
https://yourvoicebucks.citizenspace.com/corporate-services/budget-2023-24/
With the financial pressures Buckinghamshire Council runs the “Helping Hand” initiative which is there to help individuals or families in need, those on low incomes and those who are experiencing a financial emergency or crisis.
Details can be found here:
https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/cost-of-living/
The Bledlow Ridge Household Recycling Centre closed in March 2019 due to Buckinghamshire County Council having to make savings due to financial pressures even though there was a petition with over 4,500 signatures opposing the closure.
A Community Interest Company was set up with the support of 12 Town and Parish Councils to act as a vehicle to submit a planning application to re-open it independently. With the Covid pandemic and the transition of the Councils to the new unitary, the application went to appeal due to non-determination. The Planning appeal was dismissed in August 2021 by the Planning Inspector solely on the CIC not having an adequate Minerals and Waste Management plan.
With the transition to the new unitary, Buckinghamshire Council has made savings within the Climate Change and the Environment Portfolio, and with the expansion of Princes Risborough in the next few years, the Cabinet met on 22nd September and voted to re-open this facility sometime in November if not sooner.
Hallmark June 2024. Meet Your Councillors. Report by Mike Piercy
A couple of weeks before Easter our councillors held a ‘surgery’ in Lacey Green Village Hall so I went along to meet them. We are in the Ridgeway West ward of Buckinghamshire Council and three councillors have been elected for our ward. They will be running 4 surgeries this year. Today the surgery was being run by Councillor Shade Adoh and Councillor Robert Carington.
They did not hold a surgery in Lacey Green last year and as it was still early in the year, word had not got around as much as they would like and very few residents attended. We agreed that more publicity will be needed for the next meeting in Lacey Green at the end of November. I was told that though they are happy to discuss any topic, people come to the face to face meetings to discuss the more complex and delicate issues.
Each councillor has specific responsibilities within the Council. Councillor Adoh speaks on equality and diversity. She is also on the Council's select committee for adult and social care and the select committee for children and education. She also sits on the Fire Authority executive. Councillor Carington is Vice Chairman of the Transport, Environment and Climate select committee as well as sits on the Audit and Governance Select Committee and the Standards Committees. Both of them have full time jobs outside the council and both have families to look after. They must have very full diaries!
Councillor Adoh has been a councillor since 2015 and has been through the merger of the old District and County Councils into the unitary authority. We discussed projects that the councillors have worked on in our ward.
They talked about the role of the North West Chiltern Community Board and the funding it can bring to local charities and good causes. If you look at their website you can find some examples of local projects that they have carried out.
If you are associated with a local organisation who are trying to raise money then the Community Board should be one of your first contacts.
They can provide grants of up to £1,000 for small projects, or contributory funding of up to £15,000 for larger projects.