Parish Council History
From Lacey Green History
click Parish Council for reports
LACEY GREEN, LOOSLEY ROW and SPEEN PARISH COUNCIL by Miles Marshall, researched to 1988.
CREATED 1934
Our own Parish Council dates only from 1934, when at a time of much realignment of local government boundaries, we broke away from Princes Risborough Parish Council where we had been included as the ‘Upper Hamlets’.
It was about this time that Princes Risborough were installing a new sewerage system, the cost of this was to be shared by the whole electorate whilst we in the Upper Hamlets would derive no benefit whatever from this new service. There seems no doubt that the strength of public feeling up here about this injustice had a considerable influence on the boundary changes at that time.
The first meeting of the Lacey Green Parish Council, whose responsibilities embraced Loosley Row and Speen, took place in Lacey Green Village Hall on 17th April 1934 when those present were Wm. A. Walker (acting Chairman, from Princes Risborough) John William Saunders, James Parslow, Randolf John Wood, Arthur Aldridge, Horace Sidney Harvey, Alfred William Adams, Garnet East and Robert Bailey (acting clerk). Declaration of acceptance of office were signed by all the above, except Mr. Walker
In the proceedings that followed, J. W. Saunders was elected Chaiman, representatives were appointed to serve on the Rating and Valuation Authority for the year whilst Speen and Lacey Green C of E School Managers were chosen for 3 years. Bernard Fieldwick (manager of Lloyds Bank, Princes Risborough) was appointed Treasurer. Robert Bailey of Vine House, Church Street, Princes Risborough was appointed to act as clerk ‘during their pleasure’ and to perform such duties for an annual salary of £6 to be paid in quarterly instalments! His integrity being secured in a ‘Bond sum of £50’. also see Councillors Parish Council
The Council, then as now, consisted of seven elected members; two have usually come from Speen and five from Loosley Row and Lacey Green, but since we were ‘Warded’ in April last year this proportion is now a legal requirement. In fact whilst all five councillors in Loosley Row and Lacey Green were returned unopposed in 1987, the Speen seats were contested.
These Councillors choose their own Chairman and appoint the Clerk who is, of course, a professional paid public servant and not a voting member of the Council. The paltry sums paid to these dedicated, well informed and precise gentlemen, emphasises how much we have owed to them for their loyal service over the years. Though the salary if a little more realistic these days (it is calculated to a strict formula based on rateable values and is currently £800), no man without a mission in his heart would do the work they do for such sums. I have come across a number of them in my lifetime – they are a race apart – they must know the law as it relates to the powers and responsibilities of the Council and usually, now, combine their office with that of Treasurer. A study of the neat, confident handwriting of generations of our Clerks in the old minute books is a revelation I itself. Our present clerk, George Crombie, was appointed on 1st November 1976. (click George & Margaret Crombie for more about George)
Perhaps it is appropriate here to affirm that no elected member of the Council receives any payment whatsoever, though the Chairman may, in certain circumstances with prior consent of the Council, incur modest expenditure for entertainment when official duties call for it. There are no perks!
But to return to 1934, matters dealt with at the next meeting included repairs (costing £1 – 17s – 6d) to the gate and fence of the village pond called ‘Black Pit’ or ‘Deep Pit’, overhanging hedges, fire hydrants, clear views for traffic at important junctions, a footpath and the provision of telephone kiosks.
Another responsibility of the Parish Council in those days was the appointment of Parish Constables. They had nothing to do with the County Constabulary and wore no uniform. The office was medieval or earlier in origin and once was concerned with the local military organisation under the sheriff. Later they became under the control of the justices of the peace but in more recent times the appointment was honorary with only nominal responsibilities. In 1935, Sidney Hickman, Sidney Janes, Ernest Anderson Jnr. and Ernest Frank Rixon were nominated to serve for the ensuing year. The office of Parish Constable was abolished by the Police Act of 1964, though in certain circumstances the honorary appointment could be continued.
As long ago as 1936, street lighting was already being hotly debated and a quotation was obtained from Aylesbury Boro’ Electricity Dept., of £3 for a 100w lamp which the Council thought excessive. However, the balance of opinion then and since seems to have rejected the idea of street lights in the village.
The origins of local democratic government by public assembly probably go back as far as Alfred the Great and certainly survived the Norman feudal system of central government. William the Conqueror was content to leave local administration to the old Saxon pattern. The Parish was of course ecclesiastical in origin but formed a useful unit in rural areas for secular administration.
The Parish Council, as we know it today, is as recent as the Local Government Act of 1894 which laid down that rural parishes of more than 100 inhabitants must, in addition to holding an annual Parish Meeting between 1st February and 1st April, elect a Parish Council at the meeting by a show of hands, the chairman having a casting vote when needed, unless a poll is demanded before the end of the meeting by any one parochial elector. A poll however shall not be held unless, either the chairman of the meeting consents or the demand is supported by not less than ten local government electors or one third of those present whichever is the less. It must be a day fixed by the Returning Officer, between 14 and 21 days after the demand and must be taken by ballot, paid for by the Parish Council.
For the years 1934, ’37 and ’46 elections at Lacey Green were always by a show of hands but in 1949, a period of great social change, with a Labour Government in power, the Parish Meeting was crowded with ex – servicemen and others bent on change and a show of hands threw out the old guard. The election was challenged and the subsequent ballot reversed the decision, reinstating all the former Councillors.
In 1952, the year Ted Janes first served on the Council, to continue for 35 years, 27 of them as Chairman, there were 14 nominations but at the last moment all the old Councillors withdrew thus ensuring an entirely new Council.
In the following years there has usually been a ballot unless the small number of nominations meant they were returned unopposed. To qualify as a local elector (parish, district or county) your name must appear on the current Register of Local Government Electors and you must have been a resident in the area on the previous 10th October. You must be a British subject or a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, have been 18 years old or more by 15th February and not be subject to any incapacity to vote. Elections are held every four years on the first Thursday in May and the Returning Officer is appointed by the District Council.
The village ponds and a well in Loosley Row, all one time a vital part of the domestic water supply, have long been the responsibility of the Parish Council though some of these derelict water holes have been sold. ‘Whitewashings’, for instance in Kiln Lane and now in Tony Smart’s garden, one at ‘Gracefield’ near the electric sub-station and another near ‘The Haven’ in Main Road. There is still a village pond, called ‘Wigmore’ at Widmer Farm in Pink Road, ‘Deep Pit’ in Kiln Lane, another at Turnip End and one in Studridge Lane in Speen which still belongs to the Parish but the well in Loosley Row has been filled in for safety.
It is probably not generally realised how wide are the powers of a Parish Council, provided that what they do is in the interest of the local community and that the electorate is prepared to find the money through the Parish Rate, The Parish Rate incidentally is collected by the Wycombe District Council as part of the General Rate, The Parish Council has to make a ‘precept’ to the District Council for the amount of money it needs for the year. A penny rate in our parish is worth £3700 but last year our Council only asked for £1500 or 0.4 pence in the £. We can’t complain of that.
With the above proviso, an enterprising Parish Council may provide facilities ranging from bowling greens to orchestras, cemeteries to riding schools, planted grass verges to launderettes and public clocks. The list is far too long to print here. It can also require the Highway Authority to take action to clear a public right of way, illegally blocked, repair public footpaths and bridleways. It can administer parochial charities and undertake many other duties in the public interest.
From time to time our Parish Council has taken a firm action in respect of public nuisances such as speeding through the village and thoughtless indiscriminate parking which has necessitated calling for the help of the police. Laudable as this may seem to most of us, it always seems to engender resentment amongst some who have perhaps taken privilege for granted and who subsequently shown their resentment in their behaviour towards members of the Council. Oh dear! What a long time it takes some of us to grow up!
Around 1962, the District Council asked the Parish Council for help in naming roads and lanes in the parish for name plates to be fixed. For simplicity and economy, alas, a number of cherished local names were lost when Mill Lane became Main Road, the Stret, in Loosley Row was lost and Darvills Hill only survived as a name on a farm gate.
A prominent feature of the local skyline, visible for miles from the Oxfordshire plain, is the line of old larch trees along the hedge in Pink Road. These have suffered much in recent years. The task of replanting many of these with young trees is entirely the work and enterprise of our Parish Council.
The Parish Chairman’s ceremonial badge of office was beautifully crafted by Fattorini’s, the civic and masonic jewellers. It depicts our windmill, an open farm gate and the beech trees which have always been such a feature of the district. Engraved upon the bars of the ’necklace’ are the names of all the holders of the office since 1934.
When first mooted, Ted Janes suggested that the cost might be met by the sale of two more plots of derelict land surrounding the disused ponds, but the Council would have none of it. Nothing daunted he offered to raise the money by public subscription but the first local elector he happened to ask was none other than Randall Evans who belatedly only joined the Council last year. Randall, always a keen supporter of local affairs was taken with the idea at once and offered to pay the cost himself and present it to the Council, so we are all indebted to him for this added civic dignity to the holder of this important office who is currently Councillor D. E. White.
Don White and his merry men have recently brought themselves into the limelight by that splendid piece of work ‘The Village Plan’ which was circulated, on foot by Councillors, to every home in the parish. We may not agree with all the proposals set out – I don’t myself. I have a horrible vision of our grandchildren condemned to live in a sort of Newlands Park, Chiltern Museum, with brick and flint ad nauseam – be that as it may, it was a great effort. The public meeting which followed was quite well attended for such a village event and I believe that we should support our Councillors in every way we can.
They are our watchdogs and the planners and are now under statutory obligation to take notice of local opinion on all planning matters as expressed for us by our Parish Council but they must be seen to have the weight of public opinion behind them.
Shall we make our next Annual Parish Meeting an all-time record? (12th April), 8.30 pm Lacey Green Village Hall.)
The Council now meet monthly to give more urgent response to matters as they arise and although we cannot take an active part in their deliberations, we are all welcome to attend. Next meeting: February 23rd.