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Hallmark February 1986 Reporting Parish Pump Politics. By Councillor Ray Gosling. (click Ray & Jill Gosling for more about Ray)

I'm starting my report with some good news, the Parish Council rate is being reduced by 25%! Unfortunately, this is a mere drop in the ocean when compared with the possibility of a 30% increase in the county rate. Our reduction only represents 0.2p in the pound. Nevertheless every little helps.

Road safety is still causing concern. With large lorries, speeding traffic, cars obstructing pavements and the dangers associated with parking outside the school, we seem to have more than our fair share of traffic problems for a village as small as ours. The feeling of the Parish Council is. that action has to be taken before another serious accident occurs. Hence we have made requests to the police to monitor the speed of traffic through the village and take action against those who insist on parking on pavements, it would be a shame if these measures produced prosecutions against village residents, so be warned.

Planning is once again in the local limelight. As I hope many of you already know the modified South Bucks Structural Plan was at last released by the Department of the Environment and as we all hoped the whole of Lacey Green and Loosley Row is to be brought into The Green Belt. All seemed well until Wycombe District Council objected, wishing our villages to stay as they are and to be held in reserve for possible future development. As a result there.is to.be. another public. enquiry. The Parish Council along with many local residents have written in support of the proposals and although we feel confident, vigilance must still be maintained.

On routine planning matters we are continuing to see "in-fill" where new houses are built in the grounds of larger, older properties, I think most people would agree with me that the mere recent developments stand out from the older properties like a sore thumb, So if you are considering developing your garden or even an extension, please try to make the building in keeping with its surroundings. It is a great pity that in our "Chiltern Villages" brick and flint the traditional local building material is now in a minority.

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Hallmark December 1986. Parish Pump Politics By Councillor Ray Gosling (Ray & Jill Gosling)

With the coming of winter the traffic situation in Lacey Green and Loosley Row has markedly deteriorated.

Added problems for parking. Along with the well-known problems of parking outside the school, speeding and obstruction of pavements, we now have to add the sheer volume of through traffic and dangerous parking outside Hickman's Stores.

The cause of the former, we believe to be the expansion of Strike Command and of more concern is that people are finding our villages a quicker and more convenient route into and beyond Wycombe. The question of parking outside the shop is quite a different matter. We are pleased that Mr. and Mrs. Norris and family have taken over and revitalised Hickman's Store and we would in no way wish to damage trade, but the irresponsible parking on some of the approaches to the bend and even by parking on the opposite side of the road defies belief. During the rush hours particularly vehicles negotiating ''the bend" take their lives in their hands; all it is going to take is one speeding car, at the wrong time, and we could well have another fatality.

The Parish Council has thought long and hard on what we can do to alleviate these problems. The answer unfortunately is very little but we have decided to carry out an extensive campaign to try and prompt action by the District and County Councils. As part of this, we have already had a meeting with the Thames Valley Police who have agreed to work with us and carry out the following package:

1. A speed check is to be carried out somewhere in the parish in the near future – be warned.

2. Support for the Council is extending footpaths up past the Black Horse and from the Village Hall to Roundlands.

3. Fixed penalty fines for "bad" parking throughout the village i.e. obstruction of footpaths, parking on bends etc.

4. Work with the council in encouraging customers of the shop to use the Village Hall car park – no matter how short the stay.

In addition, we are actively pursuing the possibility of an entrance into Strike Command from A4010. This, of course, will require National Trust agreement, which may not be possible under their charter, but think of the benefit to Bradenham (a N.T. village) as well as ourselves if we succeed! Lastly, we hope to persuade the County Council to bring forward the improvement of the A4010 (scheduled for 1990) and hence make the main route into Wycombe a more attractive proposition than the winding roads of our villages.

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