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Flackwell Heath Residents AssociationSub Group - Planning & Environment |
May 2010
Wycombe Community Stadium You may have noticed in the local press there has been a ‘Collaboration Agreement’ between Wycombe District Council, Wycombe Wanderers and London Wasps regarding the provision of a new Community Stadium for Wycombe. The vision is to provide a sports village as well as a Community Stadium. Although the Adams Park site will be reviewed it is possible a new location will be necessary to provide the envisioned facilities. We will of course update you as more information becomes available. Should you wish to read more detail go to: www.wycombe.gov.uk/planning. Once in the planning portal click on planning news and then Wycombe Community Stadium. Litter Pick We have noticed that there is a build up of litter in various parts of the village again so are organising another litter pick on Saturday 12th June from 10.30am to 12.30pm, meeting on the village green, all are welcome please so please come and join us. Carolyn Leonard Chair of FHRA Planning and Environment Group 01628526512
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April 2010
Environment Spring at last seems to have come and the bulbs we planted last autumn are flowering at the front of the recreation ground and together with the work the Parish Council have done are making the area more attractive.
We have noticed that there is a build up of litter in various parts of the village again so are organising another litter pick on Saturday 12th June from 10.30am to 12.30pm, meeting on the village green, all are welcome please come and join us.
Planning The Planning Inspectorate have dismissed the appeal for permission to demolish the existing bungalow and build two 4-bedroom houses at 18 Wilfreds Wood Close on the grounds of harming the character and appearance of the locality and providing poor living conditions for the occupants of neighbouring properties or the development itself. We note however that a new application has recently been submitted for demolition of the bungalow and the building of a single detached 4-bedroom house with a separate garage/garden store. Carolyn Leonard Chair of FHRA Planning and Environment Group 01628526512
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February 2010
Planning ’The Magpie’ – Shanlys have been given permission for their second planning application for this site subject to planning obligations. The obligations can be viewed in the planning section of WDC’s website. Environment You will have noticed three of the cherry trees purchased by the Residents Association to commemorate our recent Cherry Fayres have been planted on the corner of Juniper Lane and Straight Bit. We are grateful to Chepping Wycombe Parish Council for their help in locating these trees which we hope over time will help the village to look even more attractive for residents and visitors alike. A considerable amount of further work has taken place on this corner, Parish Council staff have spread tons of topsoil to even the surface somewhat and work is in hand to plant a traditional Chiltern hedge and junipers. I understand the cost of transforming this area from a village eyesore to a very pleasant and attractive area has been exceptionally modest due to local Parish Councillors donating their time to help supervise the use of folk from the Community Payback Scheme in this work, and also to Councillor Julia Langley’s contribution for the hedge from her ward budget.
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January 2010
Planning The Magpie
The second planning application, an amendment of the first is still pending a decision. 18 Wilfreds Wood Close Environment There continues to be a considerable problem with dog ‘poo’ on public open spaces, for instance it has to be cleared off the recreation ground before Saturday football. This is very unfair to those having to do the clearing and also to responsible dog owners who clear up after their pets. There are two ‘poo’ bins on this particular area so there is really no excuse for this un-neighbourly behaviour. We understand the problem has been discussed at council level and there was considerable support for banning dogs from such areas, however it was decided to leave this in abeyance for the present. It is clear that a ban might be implemented in the future should the problem persist so PLEASE CLEAR UP AFTER YOUR PETS! We are still endeavouring to make the village look more attractive. We have however experienced problems with suitable sites to place cherry trees and planters. Some sites have services underneath, others are too near the highway and there are also the various bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. We are hopefully making some progress in these directions, albeit slow and hope that we will have some native species cherry trees and some new planters in the village over the next few months. About 500 spring bulbs have been planted in the recreation ground area, which we hope will brighten up the area in the spring. Minutes Secretary We have a need for a Minutes Secretary to help us in our endeavours to make the village an even more pleasant place to live. If you have some time to spare and feel you could help us in this way, please contact me Carolyn Leonard
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More planting in the village:
Our thanks go once again to Jeff Herschel for his efforts in helping to ‘beautify’ the village by replanting the planter outside Radhuni Indian restaurant. The Residents’ Association has been pleased to provide the plants some of which are already in flower. We look forward to seeing them grow and filling the planter with colour. We are also in the process of planting more spring bulbs in the village.
News from developments:
The planning appeal to allow the demolishing of the bungalow at 28 Sedgmoor Road and the building of two 3-bed houses has been dismissed by ‘The Inspectorate’.
The appeal to build 9 homes on ‘The Magpie’ site is still to be determined. In the meantime Michael Shanly Homes have submitted another application for the site. We will update you when we hear more.
Thank you to those of you who have contacted me in the past month or so with your comments and views. We appreciate it and find this very useful.
This will be my last article in 2009 as there is no issue of ‘The Grapevine’ in January so we would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and New Year.
Carolyn Leonard Chair of FHRA Planning and Environment Group
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October 2009
What a load of rubbish!
In our quest to make a difference in the village we held our latest litter pick on 3rd October, it was great to welcome new folk and our thanks to all who came and collected 23 full bags of rubbish, including old carpeting, bits from cars plus a large tyre. Our thanks go to Terry, Kerry and the guys at the depot without whose help our tidying up of the village in this way would be impossible.
Chatting to Kerry I find the litter problem in the district is costing the council thousands of pounds a year, which of course is reflected in our council tax payments. This however is avoidable if we all take a little more care and dispose of our litter properly. Prevalent this time, sweetie papers, the type small children tend to have and cans and bottles stuffed in the hedges.
It was very disconcerting to see the amount of dog mess, particularly on the recreation ground. Please may we make a plea to those dog owners to deal with this matter responsibly, there are two dog waste bins situated on the recreation ground so there is really no excuse for it, and after all a dog poo bag takes up little room in your pocket or bag. Chepping Wycombe Parish Council pay a considerable amount each year to have these bins maintained so let’s make it worthwhile and use them rather than leaving the mess around to cause a health hazard and messy shoes.
Another problem is the amount of discarded cigarette ends, apart from being difficult to pick up I gather that these take around 15 years to degrade completely and have been shown to cause pockets of pollution due to the nicotine and other waste products concentrating as they decompose. On a more positive note we didn’t find all the used bus tickets we did the time before so well done for that. Please consider joining us for our next effort to tidy up the village, we would really welcome you.
There is now a big hole in Heath End Road where ‘The Magpie’ once stood, however at the time of writing the appeal by Michael Shanly Homes for building 9 homes on the site is still in progress. We will update you when we hear more.
Lastly thanks for contacting me on a range of issues; it is good to hear your comments and concerns, which we do try to address.
Carolyn Leonard Chairman FHRA P&E
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September 2009 NEWS FROM FLACKWELL HEATH RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATIONPLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT GROUPBeauty is in the eye of the villager!
Hopefully you will all have seen the big improvement, particularly to the areas around the trees at the Aries House parade of shops in the centre of the village.
The Resident’s Association has been pleased to provide the materials and plants as part of our campaign this year to ‘beautify’ the appearance of the village, however a huge thank you must go to Jeff Herschel (Chair of Chepping Wycombe Parish Council and a village resident) for his tremendous effort in not only doing considerable work himself but also in securing the services of the ‘Community Payback Team’ in providing labour for this venture.
The Magpie Development
Those of you who submitted representations regarding the proposed ‘Magpie’ development should have received notification from WDC that Michael Shanly Homes have submitted an appeal on grounds of ‘Non-Determination’ and inviting any further comments to be made directly to ‘The Inspectorate’ whose decision will be final. We are however continuing to monitor the situation and during the week prior to writing this article have advised ‘Highways’ of the condition the contractors working on site have left the public pavement in, also of the encroachment onto it of fencing and the draping of this with netting obscuring visibility for those wishing to cross the road to Magpie Close. We have also contacted the Planning Department with concerns regarding the trenching work causing these problems.
Babs Park
The Inspector adjourned the Babs Park enquiry at the behest of WDC to allow further time for reconsideration and enforcement action. It is thought this will not resume until sometime in 2010.
Imagine the Future 5
A big thank you to my team for giving up their valuable time to consider ‘Imagine the Future 5’ and also to those of you who contacted me directly. We looked at the specific questions raised in the document concerning Flackwell Heath and concentrated on those as the document was so wide ranging. Our submission contained the following:
We concluded that in general the High Wycombe area is not big enough nor equipped enough to deal with the traffic problems which developments of the sizes proposed in the document will cause. We also asked WDC to keep us updated on developments from this document and received acknowledgement of this so will keep you posted on relevant matters as we hear about them.
Keep your comments coming!
Lastly thanks to those who have contacted me since our last article, it is good to hear from you and to try to help you or to put you in touch with those who can.
Carolyn Leonard Chairman FHRA P&E
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July 2009 Firstly, I should like to thank all those folk who contacted me regarding the various items we wrote of in our June P&E Group article, that also appeared in the Grapevine. It was encouraging that you support us in our efforts to try to improve the quality of life in the village. It was good that some of you sought me out at the fantastic Cherry Fayre last Sunday. I was so pleased to meet you and put faces to phone calls and e-mails. For those of you particularly concerned regarding the traffic problems caused by the container lorries endeavouring to manoeuvre into Babs Park on Blind Lane, the Public Enquiry is still ongoing. As you know it commenced on June 23rd and during this and the next day various witnesses were questioned. However there was insufficient time for all the evidence to be presented, so the enquiry was adjourned until 10am on 1st September in the main Council Chamber in Wycombe. A number of you contacted me regarding the planning application submitted by Michael Shanly Homes for ‘The Magpie’ site. Whilst we recognise this site needs development so it does not become an even worse eyesore than it is now, we were pleased so many of you also wanted to see the ‘right’ development there. All your comments were valuable and were used in our submission expressing our reservations and concerns. The main points of our submission were:
Apart from the usual applications for extensions, conservatories and the like the only application we have noticed since our last article is for the corner of Wilfrids Wood Close and Blind Lane (09/06232/FUL). The proposed development here is to demolish the existing bungalow and erect 2x 4 bed houses. You will no doubt have noticed the recent delivery through your door of Wycombe District Council’s ‘Imagine the Future 5’ booklet outlining some of the proposals for the development of the Wycombe area and giving notice of the various events and exhibitions being held during July. At the M40 Gateway Area meeting on July 13th there was good representation of FHRA and also our local councillors both at Parish and District level. National government demands an average of 380 dwellings per annum extra in South Bucks, most of these in the Wycombe area over the years leading up to 2026. Clearly major developments will be necessary to achieve such numbers as in filling only provides small numbers per annum and such possibilities are limited. Clearly the proposals for approximately 550 houses on RAF Daws Hill and 450 on Abbey Barn South are those likely to affect Flackwell Heath the most. At present there appear to be three options for delivering necessary road improvements. One of these being a southern link road (SLINK) with a price tag of £6.5M excluding land costs. With developments of such a large scale there are clearly huge implications for the area and of course Flackwell Heath. Wycombe District Council would like to have our view on these proposals but there is a deadline for all submissions – 4.45pm on Friday 14th August. May we urge you to read the booklet which was delivered and to go on Wycombe’s website www.wycombe.gov.uk/planningconsultations. The document you require is ‘Delivering the Strategy for Wycombe’. It is a large document so you may wish to be selective. We hope to put in a submission but need your views so it is representative of what you think about the proposals. Please provide your comments to Carolyn Leonard as soon as possible. click here for contact details Lastly may I remind you of our next litter pick on Saturday 3rd October from 10am to noon, meeting on the village green by the Community Centre. We welcome all the family including children and dogs. Gloves, litter pickers and bags supplied.
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June 2009 We are pleased that the Parish Council are planting two of our cherry trees on Heath Lawn. We look forward to seeing them grow and bloom, commemorating the first two Cherry Fayres. We hope to provide others elsewhere in the village at a later date for the other Cherry Fayres. We are also grateful for all the work done by the Parish Council in conjunction with the folk on the Community Payback Scheme, affectionately known as ‘The Chain Gang’. This has made a tremendous difference to the appearance of the corner at the junction of Straight Bit and Juniper Lane. A big thank you to the organisers of the scheme and to those who voluntarily give up time to supervise the work. Our thanks also go to all those involved in the huge improvement in safety for walkers along Sheepridge Lane. It is now a pleasurable experience to walk along here. We were wondering if there is an architect in the village who would be interested in joining us and using their expertise to help us visualise how different areas of the village could look. At the moment we are considering the Post Office area in particular. We have noticed a full planning application has been made by Michael Shanly Homes for 9 houses (3 of them socially rented) on ‘The Magpie pub site. For those interested in looking at this application it is available to download on the Wycombe District Council website or alternatively you can call in at the Planning Department. Its reference number is 09/05991/FUL. Any comments can be submitted through the website or by letter. We would also welcome your views, either positive or negative to Carolyn Leonard click here for details
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