The Residents Association

Hallmark May 1998. report by Michael Hardy

We intend to hold a Public Meeting on 14 July in the Village Hall to launch Neighbourhood Watch as a self-contained group and to discuss the proposed Village Appraisal specimen questions. Here is an opportunity to ask for what you want to see happen in our community or state your opinions.

What a splendid community we are!! I suppose self-praise is somewhat hollow but when it comes from the police, our MP, our Councillors, one should take account of it.

Thank you to all those who visited the Crime Prevention Exhibition on 23 April. The police estimate 1000 attended, a figure we won't disagree with!!

An even larger 'Thank you' to all those who helped on the day, the ladies who kept us going with tea and coffee, Age Concern Group, Victim Support Group, Neighbourhood Watch Team and last, but not least, the RAF and local police. We made history. We were not the first exhibition, we are the best. Thank you letters have been sent to Mr. John Patten, the Minister of State and our own MP, The Rt. Hon. Timothy Raison.

We have received several congratulating letters. As a direct result of the Exhibition 8 new Neighbourhood Watch Groups have started up outside our village.

The Association have now joined 9 other Associations to form the Risborough Area Residents Association representing over 18,000 people in the immediate surrounding area, all in the main represented by our County Councillor Denis Hart, with the intention of pressing for some planning of better roads and something to be done about crime.

Speen Village at the time of writing are fighting hard to resist a planning application to use a wood bordering with the village for a 'War Games Area'. We give them our moral support and anything else that will help. It's a dreadful prospect for a small community to face.

Changes have taken place in your committee which now has a wider representation under Chairman George Munro - the previous Chairman Philip Rhodes has stood down.

The Antique Roadshow on 30 September promises to be an exciting affair. A reserve list for tickets is now open. Tickets will be £3 per person with a £1 valuation fee per item, the limit being 2 items per person. Mr. David Battie well known to us on the TV Antiques Roadshow will be the valuer, he specialises in ornamental glass and pottery. Remember the date is 30 September, 7.30 pm. Tickets are limited, so reserve yours.

Hallmark May 1999. The Lacey Green and Loosley Row Residents Association

The Association held its Annual General Meeting at St John's School Hall on Tuesday evening the 6" April. Forty-six members of the Association attended; there were apologies from Barbara Chalkley and Edith Dean.

The Association has had a busy year, and there is more to do.

The audited accounts showed the Association in a satisfactory position: for the year 1998/99 there had been 201 paying members, and there had been an excess of income over expenditure of £173. The Association has made an interest-free loan of £500 to the Village Hall Committee.

To combat the traffic problem which threatens to blight our villages, the Association has allied itself with the Parish Council and the Chiltern Society. The Committee feels that a speed camera is essential: the absence of the device is beginning to be conspicuous. Every time an approach is made, however, it is met with a courteous refusal. At present the Police authority is required to finance speed cameras – although all revenue goes to central government. This is – apparently under review, and the Committee felt that a change in financing would prompt a change in attitude. Overall, it was felt that a groundswell of public opinion was beginning to make itself felt, and that in the longer term real improvements could be expected.

The parking problem at the school had been addressed, but without any success: the situation was no different from that a year earlier. The school's popularity had done nothing to improve matters.

The Committee had also objected to Wycombe District Council's proposal, under the spur of — government requirements, to erect 650 houses in Princes Risborough. It was felt that the resultant 17%-18% increase in the town's population would make itself felt in still more traffic using the two villages as a commuting route between their new homes and their employment in High Wycombe. On the Neighbourhood Watch front, Sheryl Burroughs reported that all was quiet — a little too quiet, she felt, because a recent meeting she had held had attracted only one visitor. Sheryl will be pleased to let any enquirers know the address and telephone number of their Area Watch Co-ordinator.

The Village Clean-Up Day takes place on Saturday the 17th April, and it is hoped this will be well attended.

William R Briggs, the Association's auditor, was re-appointed for the year 1999/2000.

During the year three committee members had retired – Frank Glenister, Roger Brudenell and Majella Robinson – and the Association is now much in need of new Committee members. Pamela Lidgley kindly agreed at the meeting to join, and was very much welcomed.

Questions from the floor at the Annual General Meeting illustrated and emphasised the main preoccupations in the villages:

Parking near the school: a renewed attempt to solve the problem is needed.

The Village Shop: the Committee was in touch with Joan Smith, who is co-ordinating an initiative to investigate the viability of an attempt to resuscitate. A preliminary meeting had been arranged for the 13th of April.

The Traffic Problem engendered a great deal of interest and suggestions, and a discussion about the criteria which had to be met if the villages were to qualify for various provisions. A certain amount of cynicism emerged about these: it appeared that the rules for such provisions were more celebrated in the breach than the observance.

After the meeting Dr Sandy McFarlane gave an illustrated talk on Princes Risborough High Street in the Nineteenth Century. Followed by a glass of wine, it raised a great deal of comment and provided the culmination of a thoroughly pleasant evening.