Council - Wednesday 15 April 2026, 4:00pm - Buckinghamshire Council Webcasting

Council
Wednesday, 15th April 2026 at 4:00pm 

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  1. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  2. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  3. Cllr Robin Stuchbury
  4. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  5. Cllr Isobel Darby
  6. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
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  1. Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
  2. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
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  1. Cllr Julia Wassell
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  1. Cllr Llew Monger
  2. Louise Harrison - Chief Fire Officer, BFRS
  3. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  4. Cllr Peter Martin
  5. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  6. Cllr Parveiz Aslam MBE
  7. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  8. Cllr Michael West
  9. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  10. Cllr Anja Schaefer
  11. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  12. Cllr Jackson Ng
  13. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  14. Cllr Robin Stuchbury
  15. Louise Harrison - Chief Fire Officer, BFRS
  16. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  17. Cllr Alex Collingwood
  18. Louise Harrison - Chief Fire Officer, BFRS
  19. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
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  1. Cllr Mark Winn
  2. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  3. Cllr Alex Collingwood
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  5. Cllr Khalil Ahmed
  6. Cllr Mark Winn
  7. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  8. Cllr Niknam Hussain
  9. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  10. Cllr Mark Winn
  11. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  12. Cllr Phil Gomm
  13. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  14. Cllr Mark Winn
  15. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  16. Cllr Alex Collingwood
  17. Cllr Mark Winn
  18. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
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  1. Cllr Jackson Ng
  2. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  3. Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
  4. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  5. Cllr Susan Morgan
  6. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  7. Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
  8. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
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  1. Cllr Susan Morgan
  2. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  3. Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
  4. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  5. Cllr Steven Broadbent
  6. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  7. Cllr Kathy Gibbon
  8. Cllr Steven Broadbent
  9. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  10. Cllr Llew Monger
  11. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  12. Cllr Steven Broadbent
  13. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  14. Cllr Caroline Cornell
  15. Cllr Steven Broadbent
  16. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  17. Cllr Phil Gomm
  18. Cllr Steven Broadbent
  19. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
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  1. Cllr Robin Stuchbury
  2. Cllr Steven Broadbent
  3. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  4. Cllr Peter Brazier
  5. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  6. Cllr Ed Gemmell
  7. Cllr Peter Brazier
  8. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  9. Cllr Lesley Clarke OBE
  10. Cllr Peter Brazier
  11. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  12. Cllr Christine Adali
  13. Cllr Isobel Darby
  14. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  15. Cllr David Carroll
  16. Cllr Isobel Darby
  17. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  18. Cllr Mark Winn
  19. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  20. Cllr Kelly Thornton
  21. Cllr Mark Winn
  22. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  23. Cllr Arman Alam
  24. Cllr Mark Winn
  25. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  26. Cllr Peter Strachan
  27. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  28. Cllr Mark Roberts
  29. Cllr Peter Strachan
  30. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  31. Cllr David Moore
  32. Cllr Peter Strachan
  33. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  34. Cllr Thomas Broom
  35. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  36. Cllr Sherrilyn Bateman
  37. Cllr Thomas Broom
  38. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  39. Cllr Maz Hussain
  40. Cllr Thomas Broom
  41. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  42. Cllr Adekunle Osibogun
  43. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  44. Cllr Anna Crabtree
  45. Cllr Adekunle Osibogun
  46. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  47. Cllr Patrick Fealey
  48. Cllr Adekunle Osibogun
  49. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  50. Cllr Steve Bowles
  51. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  52. Cllr Jonathan Waters
  53. Cllr Steve Bowles
  54. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  55. Cllr Andy Huxley
  56. Cllr Steve Bowles
  57. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  58. Cllr Robert Carington
  59. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  60. Cllr Dominic Pinkney
  61. Cllr Robert Carington
  62. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  63. Cllr Kathy Gibbon
  64. Cllr Robert Carington
  65. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  66. Cllr Robert Carington
  67. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  68. Cllr Julia Wassell
  69. Cllr Carl Jackson
  70. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  71. Cllr Simon Rouse
  72. Cllr Carl Jackson
  73. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
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  1. Cllr Alex Collingwood
  2. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  3. Cllr Steven Broadbent
  4. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  5. Cllr Alex Collingwood
  6. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  7. Cllr Jonathan Waters
  8. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  9. Cllr Anja Schaefer
  10. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  11. Cllr Robin Stuchbury
  12. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  13. Cllr Frank Mahon
  14. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  15. Cllr Simon Rouse
  16. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  17. Cllr Frank Mahon
  18. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  19. Cllr Alex Collingwood
  20. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  21. Cllr Steven Broadbent
  22. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  23. Cllr Ed Gemmell
  24. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  25. Cllr Anna Crabtree
  26. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  27. Cllr Anna Crabtree
  28. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  29. Cllr Thomas Broom
  30. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  31. Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
  32. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  33. Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
  34. Cllr Ed Gemmell
  35. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  36. Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
  37. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  38. Cllr Justine Fulford
  39. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  40. Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
  41. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  42. Cllr Carl Jackson
  43. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  44. Cllr Matthew Walsh
  45. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  46. Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
  47. Cllr Chris Chilton
  48. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  49. Cllr Robin Stuchbury
  50. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  51. Cllr Alex Collingwood
  52. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  53. Cllr Catherine Oliver
  54. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  55. Cllr Simon Rouse
  56. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  57. Cllr Steven Broadbent
  58. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  59. Cllr Hazel Arthur-Hewitt
  60. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  61. Cllr Carl Jackson
  62. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  63. Cllr Susan Morgan
  64. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  65. Cllr Jonathan Waters
  66. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  67. Cllr Thomas Broom
  68. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  69. Cllr Alan Sherwell
  70. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  71. Cllr Chris Chilton
  72. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  73. Cllr Robin Stuchbury
  74. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  75. Cllr Steven Broadbent
  76. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  77. Cllr Matthew Walsh
  78. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  79. Cllr Carl Jackson
  80. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  81. Cllr Gregory Smith
  82. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  83. Cllr Frances Kneller
  84. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  85. Cllr Maru Mormina
  86. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  87. Cllr Trevor Snaith
  88. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  89. Cllr Clive Harriss
  90. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  91. Cllr David Moore
  92. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  93. Cllr Michael Bracken
  94. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  95. Cllr Gregory Smith
  96. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  97. Cllr Ed Gemmell
  98. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  99. Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer
  100. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  101. Cllr Ed Gemmell
  102. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  103. Cllr Clive Harriss
  104. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
  105. Cllr Ed Gemmell
  106. Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja
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  1. Webcast Finished

Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:00:00
Thank you for attending this afternoon's meeting. I'm Safraj Raja, Chairman of the
supported by Councillor John Chilva,
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:00:34
who is my vice chairman.
A warm welcome to all members,
honouring alderman and members of the public
in attendance and watching online.
Members recall that we approved the appointment
of the council's new CEO at the last meeting.
I would like to offer a very warm welcome
to Zina Etheridge, who is attending
her first full council meeting this afternoon.
We look forward to working with you
and wishing you the best for your role.
It is with great sadness that I report passing of former Elsbury Rail District, Councillor
Robert Lehman.
Robert represented Buckingham North ward between 1995 and 2003.
On behalf of the council, I send my condolences and best wishes to Robert's family and friends.
I would like to invite Councillor Robin Stucksbury to say a few words about Robert.
Thank you very much for this opportunity. Robert was a great friend of mine. When I
Cllr Robin Stuchbury - 0:02:05
got involved in public life in 1999, he was there to welcome me and put up with me. But
what Robert was, was one of those individuals who actually changed and did things. Robert
in his life was a district councillor, an effective district councillor in the days
when Alan Sherwood run the council.
He did some of which is poignant in the sense
that in Buckingham we have all the parks and assets
which were transferred for the district council
to Buckingham town council.
Robert was mayor at the time
and took part in those negotiations
and we paid a pound for them.
And I thought that was a very fair negotiation.
Robert also in his time was a mayor of Buckingham
as you can see in the photograph
and was a very effective mayor,
why he was working in London,
managing a, what they call communications company in London.
So he did that.
Also, he was parliamentary candidate
in the Buckingham Ward back in 1997.
But he never forgot what he needed to do,
which was to represent his constituents.
He changed that thing I said about the parks.
He also had the vision to work with the Buckingham Society
at the time on a town design guide.
The reason the town design guide was needed was because Buckingham being a very
historic town with buildings and architecture were needed to be preserved.
Took that through. Coincidentally that he's now been revised and within the
out of veil plan and will be revised in the Buckinghamshire plan. So his footprint
of doing the right thing will carry on till today. He was a good friend to many.
He was an ardent family man and has got five sons and I will miss him dearly and
his time in public life was far too short for my liking but he gave it up
for the business community commitments. But whoever we are and whoever we
represent and whatever we do the important thing is it's about the
residents, the constituents and the people we do it for and Rob never forgot
that he would always step the extra mile to help the families, would always do the
extra things. He knew that he was privileged, he knew he had a privileged
role and we are all privileged here today and that brings with it great
responsibility and Rob carried that very very well indeed. It also corrects me on
numerous occasions which I'm immensely grateful for but he was my friend, he was
a Councillor of Buckingham, he was a man who worked for Buckingham,
and incidentally he was born in Owsbury,
but he chose Buckingham as his home
and he represented it extremely well.
And I thank you, Condi, for the opportunity
to speak briefly about him.
As I say, I knew him dearly and I will miss him
and I think people like that need to be in public life.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:04:58
You're welcome, Councillor.
I must also report on the very sad passing of Vera Head,
MBA. Vera was a former Children's District Councillor from 1999 to 2011,
representing Amersham on the Hill Ward. I wish to send my condolences
to Vera's family and friends. I would like to invite Councillor
Isabel Darby to say a few words. Thank you very much Chairman and although Vera
Cllr Isobel Darby - 0:05:31
and I didn't share the same politics.
I think we shared the same passion for making a difference.
And she was, I would count her as a dear friend.
And although our time at Chiltern wasn't long,
whenever we saw each other, we always had a hug.
We were always good friends.
And I think one of the things that I remember about Vera
was the fact that she was very, very keen
to encourage women in politics,
because obviously she started a long, long time ago
and there weren't many of us here.
I can see there are a lot more of us now and that is because of people like Vera who encouraged
people with women to go forward in their political career.
I would say she was a dear, dear person, dear friend and she did the right thing for people.
She always sort of carried the baton for those that couldn't do it themselves and she will
be missed terribly.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:06:34
Please can I ask members to be upstanding whilst we observe a minute silence in their memory.
.
Please be seated.
We will follow the arrangements for speaking as laid out in the Constitution.
Please remain respectful throughout the meeting.
all members are reminded to uphold the Nolan principles when speaking to one
another during the meeting. At the start of each debate I will ask members to
raise their hands if they would like to speak. I plan to allow a brief comfort
break following the cabinet members report. Another note, the last meeting I
was asked by councillors when addressing councillors, can you use their surnames or full names and
councillors please because some councillors are offended if you just use their first names
so please can you use the first and second with councillor please. Thank you. Moving

1 Apologies

on to item 1, apologies. Mr Watson, do we have any apologies for absence?
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 0:09:02
Thank you Chairman, yes we do. We have apologies from Councillors Gryphon and Kelly. We have
also received apologies from Lady Howe, His Majesty's Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire
and Nicky Ross, the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire.

2 Minutes

Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:09:18
Thank you. Item 2 minutes. Are members content with the notes? Our members content to note
the minutes of Council 25. Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman. At the last meeting, I made a slightly untoward comment about
Councillor Robert Carrington for not replying to an email, and I would like to correct this,
Cllr Julia Wassell - 0:09:44
that in fact I sent the email to somebody else, and subsequently he has assisted me. Thank you.

3 Declarations of Interest

Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:09:57
Thank you, Councillor Wessel. Item 3 is Declarations of Interest. Thank you. Do members have any

4 Presentation from the Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire and Rescue Service

from the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire and Rescue Service.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome Ms Louise Harrison, Chief Fire Officer, Buckinghamshire
and Milton Keynes Fire and Rescue Service to this meeting.
In a moment, I will invite Ms Harrison to speak to us.
There will be an opportunity to ask her questions from members.
Firstly, can I ask Councillor Llewmonger, as Chairman of the Fire Authority, would you
like to make any introductory remarks?
Thank you, Chair.
It is my pleasure today as Chair of the Fire Authority to introduce Louise Harrison as
Chief Fire Officer and CEO of Pottinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire and Rescue Service.
Louise joined the service in December 23 after serving 33 years in policing. This was immediately
following a review by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of the Fire and Rescue Services, which had
Cllr Llew Monger - 0:11:30
placed the service in special measures. In just 14 months, she had led the service out
of this monitoring, and at the latest inspection, just concluded, the lead examiner said to
me that it was like visiting a different service altogether.
Louise is the National Co -lead for the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion portfolio within the
National Fire Chiefs Council and a member of the People, Leadership and Culture National
Committee.
She is also a member of the Task and Finish Group working with government to deliver the
College of Fire.
The authority was delighted to hear that Louise had been selected by the Cabinet Office to
on the 2026 cohort to attend the National Public Leaders Programme. This programme brings
together senior leaders from the civil service, local authorities, NHS and other public bodies
to share and develop their skills and experience.
Louise leads and is supported by a senior leadership team with a vast range of experience
in firefighting, financial accounting, and people development.
The Fire Authority is made up of 17 members, 11 from Bucks Council and six from Milton Keynes City Council,
and is responsible for policy, finance, and resources.
We are not involved in operational matters, but there to provide oversight on behalf of the community served,
through being a critical friend and guardian of the public purse.
So now over to chief fire officer to present her annual report on the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes fire and rescue service.
Thank you chairman.
Louise Harrison - Chief Fire Officer, BFRS - 0:13:11
Mr Chair, good afternoon council.
I'm invited back again today. Can you hear me okay?
Great stuff, thank you.
So a brief presentation, hopefully not too long for you.
I'm going to take a little bit of a backward glance in terms of what we've achieved over the last 12 months,
touch upon performers and then just to look forward in terms of our priorities for the future.
So I'm obviously going to start by trying to charm you all and showing you a picture of our cutest and fairest recruit.
This is Milo, sorry Milo joined us last year, 2025.
He's been trained as our USAR dog.
You'll see he's got his protective goggles on
or doggles on as they're referred to in social media.
And he's very much a welcome addition to the service
working alongside our other USAR dog, Hugh.
So 2025 has been a really significant year for us,
lots to talk about, some highlighted achievements there.
So we launched our 25 to 35 year strategy last year.
We celebrated 10 years of apprenticeships
coming into the service.
And I have to mention the kindness
of some of the transfer levy arrangements
that we get from Santander and Milton Keynes Council,
as well as we get quite a significant amount of co -funding
from the Department of Education.
And this really helps, it enables us to bring in apprentices
at all levels from firefighters
to our valuable support staff as well.
We've even had the opportunity to win two awards
within the National Apprenticeship Conference last year.
In the calendar year of 25,
we also welcomed two whole time cohorts.
So cohorts 12 and 13 joined us,
and we've also welcomed two on -call cohorts over 2025,
as well as obviously, as I've said, Milo.
I need to mention that, I mean,
we've put the picture up of Milo there,
and that gained huge traction from social media,
but I also have to mention and highlight
the fantastic work that our social media
and comms team have done.
They've increased our social media
and engagement and outreach to over 350 % last year.
That's a phenomenal amount.
But actually what it does mean is it means
that we are able to get into people's homes,
deliver safety messages, critical messages
around keeping people and places safe.
And obviously it also assists us in terms of accessibility,
recruitment, retention, and all the other bits
and pieces that goes with it.
I wanted to just touch upon the representation and recognition at National Awards from our staff.
So a number of our staff have been, had the pleasure and the honour of being invited
to the Royal Garden Parties, nominated and recognised at numerous events
such as apprenticeship awards, as I've said.
We had two winners in the Women in Fire National Awards.
We represented the service at the National Outcrow, which is the extraction challenge.
and also we had two winners at the MK Inspirational Leaders Award.
So again, we are really blessed with fantastic staff.
We've managed to retain our White Ribbon Accreditation,
our Disability Confident Award, and our Gold Armed Forces Covenant.
And as well as introducing the value standards and behaviour that we did last year,
we've capitalised on that and launched our Thrive Programme,
which is targeted at managers to address core development issues
in line with our leadership behaviours
and we've had over 40 people on that place now
with a further 70 planned for this year.
And finally, we've also invested in our staff.
So we've done a full and complete pay and reward review
to ensure that Buckinghamshire Milton Keynes
Fire and Rescue Service remains an employer of choice.
I wanted to touch upon some of the work we did last year
with the communities.
a really great event that took part at West Ashland
fire service training station with our TVP,
our Thames Valley Police counterparts,
as well as the South Central Ambulance Service.
We ran a send open day.
So we run a lot of open days in our stations,
but this was primarily based at people
with accessibility challenges.
So we had our crews build a ramp for them.
And really the day was about celebrating accessibility and inclusion, and it was really well received.
So we're hoping to do more of those.
We've had and run Have a Go Days, run by some of our women in the service to try and recruit
and attract further women into the service, as well as numerous other community events
such as the community mosaic that we've delivered in West Ashland.
A really exciting initiative that we relaunched last year was our schools initiative.
I have brought some of the booklets around.
Not everyone's got them, but they are on some of the desks.
And if you need any more, please let me know.
But we're really excited to be able to be going back out to key stage two.
We've got a programme of works to deliver to over 6 ,000 children who will receive those
safety messages as well as have an interactive experience climbing over the appliances and
speaking to our fire crews.
But they're really key in terms of
delivering those safety messages.
And as I said, we've got over 148 additional school visits
booked out, certainly 105 in Buckinghamshire
this year already.
So again, a really real positive for us
being able to allow us to get back into the communities.
We've continued to invest in the safety centre,
which is Hazzard Alley, many of you will know.
And again, thanks to the partnership work,
again, over 2 ,000 children from Buckinghamshire as well as Milton Keynes have had the opportunity
to learn about risks and hazards in a safe, controlled environment and that partnership
arrangement will continue.
Business engagement, again, really positive.
Our protection and business engagement framework now drives a huge amount of business engagement
with large organisations and has strengthened and improved our ability to share information
with partners such as health, social care, CQC, police, etc. They also assist with early
interventions, particularly targeting and focusing on our communities who are vulnerable.
And so far our community safety advisors have conducted over 1200 visits. So again,
a really significant achievement for last year. Finally, and aptly I think having seen the
the stands outside, we are having a real focus
on our rural communities.
So you'll probably be aware that we purchased
two new rural firefighting vehicles,
that means three in the service.
And these vehicles mean that not only can they be used
during summer peak periods, but also they can improve
and provide resilience for state conditions
such as deploying crews into wide flooding areas
during extreme snowfall.
they allow crews to basically get to areas in the county that are more
difficult in traditional fire engines. So again a great capability that we've
introduced but we're also doing work with the National Cadre of Wildfire, the
National Cadre team that look in at wildfires to see what we can do to
improve and advise in our community. At the end of this presentation we have got
QR code there which you can link in which links directly to the NFCC's wildfire advice.
But if you want to go onto our website we have got a huge range of fire safety advice
particularly around wildfires, farming communities and enjoying the outdoors safely.
So again a really positive response.
So performance for 2025, this is just a snapshot.
we have a huge amount of key performance indicators
on our website that go through the fire authority
and into our papers.
But just a snapshot really, 150 accidental dwelling fires.
This is Buckinghamshire only,
so we've managed to separate out Buckinghamshire
and Milton Keynes.
Over a 10 -year average, that's seen a reduction.
We have had a slight increase in our response
to accidental dwelling fire attendance times.
So an increase again over 10 year average,
we're up from 8 .41 seconds to nine.
Over 2025, we've had 261 building fires,
that's all buildings, it doesn't include prison fires.
But again, we can see a reduction.
And again, we've had a reduction
in terms of road traffic collisions.
Again, this is Buckinghamshire only.
And we're down again by 10 .3%,
but that is over a 10 year average.
And including this, and this is Buckinghamshire
and Milton Keynes, we've responded to 46 incidents
requiring a water rescue unit.
A couple of points to pick out there, I think, really.
In terms of road traffic collisions,
a quarter of the road traffic collisions that occur
are within the Gerald's Cross Station ground area.
And that's because we've got the motorway running through.
And we know that 80 % of those people involved
in road traffic collisions are transient travellers,
they don't live in our county, they're travelling through.
And that percentage actually accounts
for many of our over the border responses,
so when Berkshire deployed from Slough into us.
So onto performance going forward really,
and focusing on prevention and protection in particular.
Our prevention team delivered FireSense,
which is a free structured training programme
for professionals and volunteers working with residents
to identify and reduce fire risk in the home.
And it strengthens partner referrals,
it helps us identify and recognise vulnerability,
it improves our safeguarding practises
and it supports effective multi -agency working.
Evidence has already shown
that this is working really, really well.
We're getting some great feedback back.
We're looking at reducing key risk factors
around mobility, cognitive impairment, smoking, et cetera,
and the evaluation feedback we've already had
from over 200 respondents has been incredibly positive
and really well received.
Another aspect of the work we do, as I said,
following on from prevention is protection,
and our protection strategy is now embedded
with a risk -based inspection programme,
which ensures that we are visiting high -risk premises
and that they're prioritised.
In addition to that, our audit activity remains at sustained high levels.
We did over 707 audits that were completed last year, and that's more than double from
where we were in 2023.
Importantly as well, of those 707 audits, 80 % were unsatisfactory in terms of us finding
challenges with it, which means effectively we're targeting the right area.
So that again is really good.
We focus a lot on our home fire safety visits.
We completed 5 ,054 visits last year.
We do have stretching targets,
but actually we are determined and focused
to make sure we are getting into as many homes as we can
to deliver safety and personal advice.
Remediation following Grenfell Towers
has clearly been in the spotlight,
and we have been really fortunate that we applied for
and received New Burdens funding.
So we received just over 110 ,000 pounds from MHCLG last year.
And what we're looking to do is invest that
in having more business by safety advisors
in upskilling our staff, our protection teams
through specialist by safety courses
and level five qualifications.
And I can report that we have developed
really, really good working relationships
with both councils around remediation,
delivering MHCLG's expectations.
and we now have a really good tactical
and strategic level meeting underpinned
by a recently signed partnership working agreement.
So again, demonstration that sort of collaboratively
and with councils were working really well together
to keep people safe.
So the focus then for 2026, 27,
we were in special measures in enhanced monitoring
last year as the Chairman alluded to. We're out of that now and we've just
completed round four of our full inspection with HMIC. I'm really pleased
to report that in the HMIC State of Fire report in 25 the HMIC actually
recognised Buckinghamshire as having had innovative and creative work that had
enhanced our ability to revisit our vision values and behaviours and had
really put effort into changing the culture.
So fantastic that we got that nod from HMIC.
As I said, round four has just been completed.
We get a hot debrief from the HMIC next week.
We then get the draught report in May and June,
which we will cheque for factual accuracy.
And our final report with gradings will be published summer,
so probably late July, early August.
In addition to our focus for 26, 27, it would be miss of me not to highlight the emerging
risk that we are very much mindful of and aware of.
Climate still creates real challenges for us as a service.
We have been really active in terms of lobbying MPs around the need for additional funding
for water safety and that's been really well received.
We've also, as I said, invested in rural firefighting vehicles, but we still know we need to do a significant amount to manage the risk that climate potentially creates.
As I said, the new rural firefighting units will help us tackle wildfires quickly, but we also have invested in other specialist equipment to make sure that we are match fit and ready to respond.
Cyber and tech security is also a challenge, not just for us, I know, but for other organisations.
And in terms of cyber, we've invested a significant amount of money in training and also mandatory
courses to make sure that we are keeping ourselves and our partners safe.
In terms of LGR and evolution, again, this for us at the moment is really a watching
brief but we are in you know permanent dialogue with partners with MHCLG and
are tracking and monitoring some of the complexities and nuances of not just
what's happening in our County but what's happening in and around us as
well. We are aware and linked in quite closely with the planning team
here so we have a number of conversations around the plans in terms
of housing expansion. We've had continued to have positive dialogue with Bucks Council,
we've responded to the Bucks Reg 18 consultation as well as Milton Keynes 19 and as I said
it's a watching brief and features heavily within our five -year plan in terms of watching
and monitoring housing expansion and the impact it could have on the service as we go along.
And then our annual plan that's been submitted to the Fire Authority and been improved and
And just to touch on some of the things that we're looking at in the year going forward,
we will continue to work and invest in availability, particularly for our on -call staff.
We are carrying out a review of our water rescue capacity and capability to understand
the longer -term requirements and investments that might be required.
And we're completing a review of our working at high provision.
In terms of protection work, I've already talked about the great work we're doing in
collaboration with partners around management,
enforcement, and the ongoing implementation of
fire safety remediation plans, particularly for
multi -occupied residential properties.
We're also continuing to invest in our fire
investigation team, which we share with Thames Valley.
In terms of prevention, we have plans to ensure that
we continue to deliver local and national road and
water safety initiatives and campaigns.
We intend to strengthen the youth inclusion programme
that we've already got going which is working really successfully and also to continue with
prevention community engagement plans in our service delivery areas.
In terms of our people, we are looking to restructure our HR team.
It's something that we've needed to do internally for quite a while now and make sure we're
embedding leadership change and a continued use of more sophisticated analytics and dashboards
to ensure we have improved workforce insights.
And then community engagement, as I've already discussed, will continue to strengthen the
community engagement frameworks we have, and we're looking to create a community insight
board so we can ensure that the voice of our communities from across the county is being
heard and taken into account.
And then in terms of – I'm going to skip over those last two points – in terms of
Investment finally.
As I said before, we have been incredibly lucky
with a great team to have been able to manage our funding
and to ensure that we had the funds to invest in our service
despite the current financial climate.
So we have got two plans in place currently,
both of which are incredibly important
and really exciting for us as a service.
Firstly High Wycombe Station is old and in need of much much love and TLC so we
currently have plans to develop High Wycombe. We are hoping to put a paper in
front of the Fire Authority in June for approval for us to spend that money to
go ahead and refurbish completely High Wycombe Station and then importantly as
we have plans currently ongoing to develop a training centre for our staff
at Westcott. This is a significant investment for us as well, offers
brilliant opportunities for us to collaborate with other services but it
really does improve accessibility and availability for not only our whole time
staff but also for our on -call staff, our USAR and as I said colleagues around
the county. So again, one to watch but we are in the process at the moment of
moving badge or trying to do something with badger sets and waiting for
ecology reports but it's definitely something in the future that we're
incredibly excited about. And then the other investments that we are making is
looking to tidy up these current states that we have. We know that we've got an
ageing estate with stations that are some of them are in ill repair and certainly
we want to invest in those to make sure
that we have got our decontamination
and our EDI properties in place
so we can create the best working environment for our staff.
And then finally, health and wellbeing.
We're working closely with the FBU.
The FBU's improvement agenda should be coming
to the fire authority in June.
And again, we're working really closely with them
to make sure we are providing the best welfare offer
for our staff and the best environment for them.
So that's it from me.
I'm happy to take any questions.
Thank you.
If members would like to ask a question,
can you raise your hand?
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:33:36
Councillor Peter Martin, please.
Thank you, Chairman.
Interesting comments from you, Chief, our officer,
about investing in the older stations.
Cllr Peter Martin - 0:33:51
In that context, my Lord, this great mystery,
and my residents have been expressing some concerns
about the rumours in terms of reduced facilities
and reduced equipment within the fire service.
In particular, they're asking about the future
of the great missing fire station.
We understand it hasn't been staffed for a while,
it hasn't had equipment there,
that there are rumours again that you can't close it.
So what is the future for that site?
And just finally, I understand that one of the underlying
issues you've had is a shortage of fire officers.
So can you tell the council what steps you've taken
to recruit more officers to fill those gaps?
Yes, of course.
Particularly in view of the extra housing
that we're looking at with our local plan
that you again referred to earlier.
Thank you.
Yes, of course.
Thank you.
So Councillor Martin, thank you for your question.
In terms of Great Missenden Fire Station,
we have sought approval to decommission that
as a use of a fire station,
because as you quite rightly say,
we have struggled for a number of years now
to have on -call staff crew it.
And as a viable fire station,
it needs a significant amount of money invested.
It does have a covenant on it.
I think you're aware of that.
And that's something legally that we need to have a look at.
At this stage, the plan would be to decommission it
as a fire station, but there are no plans
to dispose of it as a building yet.
So that's where we are currently with it.
In terms of staffing, you're absolutely right.
We have successfully managed to get our whole time numbers
up to a really good level.
And we've had the investment to do that.
But we understand now that what we need to continue to do
is invest in our on -call staff.
So those are the staff that don't work a whole time shift.
we rely on them to come in when they're called in.
There are a lot of caveats with on -call staff.
They need to live within a certain area of the station.
There are areas certainly within the south of Buckinghamshire
that are affluent areas and it makes it very difficult
in terms of people to live there and be close enough
to respond to the station.
But we are committed to investing in bringing up the numbers
for our on -call availability.
So we have a number of have a go and open days planned.
I can't give you the dates now.
I can tell you one of them is coming up in Broughton
very soon, but we have other open day events planned
in the south end of the county.
And we are looking to go out to recruitment
for on -call staff again in September this year.
If we can do it early, we would like to,
but I think what we recognise we need to do is to ensure that our recruitment, our advertisement,
the process itself, the application is right and proper to attract the people that we need
and also important to keep them. Thank you, Councillor Parvizas,
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:37:34
but you can speak from your chair because of your operation on your knee. That's very kind of you,
Thank you, Chairman.
First and foremost, I just want to congratulate the work that you do.
Thank you.
It goes without saying that not only what you do, you have done and you will continue to do.
We see that in our community and it's fantastic.
Cllr Parveiz Aslam MBE - 0:37:51
I'd also like to congratulate you on your, the Key Stage 2 book, to be quite honest,
which I have to borrow from someone else and I'll perhaps steal it for my grandchildren,
but I hope that it's not limited only to Key Stage 2 because the importance of that,
I'm not, it's not a criticism.
It's what you have done.
I think it should be expanded to key stage three, four,
and five, and especially when you're looking
at career prospects and that is, that's fantastic.
Thank you.
My question to you is that reorganisations
such as those proposed by you
and agreed by the Fire Authority
will have caused concern among employees, of course.
How have staff reacted to the changes
and will there be any redundancies planned as a result of those changes?
Thank you for your question, Councillor Aslam. No, so I was really clear that we were not looking
to reduce headcount, so there are no redundancies in the offing. What it has enabled us to do is
really focus on on -call, which is an area of the business which we hadn't previously. We'd focused
on getting our whole time numbers up,
which I think was the right thing to do.
But we know how important our on -call staff are
to the resilience and to the communities themselves.
So we really need to have a focus on that.
We have spent a considerable amount of time,
both prior to going out to consultation,
during the consultation and after,
speaking to our staff and offering them reassurance
about what potential proposals might mean to them
and what they can expect to see after.
And I certainly know that my assistant chief
was on the phone all day speaking to the staff
that were affected personally last week.
So the overwhelming sense that we're getting
from our on -call staff is that they are really positive
about it, they're excited about it,
they can see what the service is trying to do,
and they're on board.
So it's positive.
That's very encouraging, thank you.
Councillor West.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:40:00
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Michael West - 0:40:17
You made reference to the development of a purpose -built training facility at Westcote
Venture Park.
Westcott is a flagship project with full council support.
Are you being given the full support by the council in bringing this forward?
And what more, if anything, can be done to help you to deliver this new training facility?
Thank you for your question.
Yes, we have a really positive relationship with council planning.
My director of finance and assets has fairly regular meetings with the planning team and
I know they are incredibly supportive of us trying to move this forward as quickly as
we can.
As I said, it is a really, really important investment for us as a service.
It will make a significant difference to all our staff.
There are obviously opportunities for us to expand
and invite other services to come and use the facility
as well, the possibilities are endless,
but we really need to get this moving now.
We're currently in the process of undergoing
a number of ecology surveys,
which I understand are necessary.
I think the Badger has scuppered us a little bit
in terms of putting some delays in,
but obviously as soon as we can get those ecology
reports done, you know, I would make a plea to Butts Council
to just try and help us to move this forward
as quickly as we can.
But thank you for your question.
Councillor Schiffer.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:41:59
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you very much for your presentation.
Cllr Anja Schaefer - 0:42:04
That's been really useful.
I am very interested in the smaller, more mobile
fire engines or units I think that you are purchasing.
Could you explain to us what the main,
in a tiny little bit more detail,
what the main advantage of these is
over a traditional big fire engine?
Sorry, excuse my late.
No, no, I understand.
No, that's fine, that's fine.
Thank you for your question.
Yes, the rural fight line vehicles,
we've recognised having gone through a number of iterations
of trying to trial out vehicles
that have a four by four capability,
that some of the vehicles we had trialled out
were simply just not agile enough
to get us into things,
or through things like farmer's fields or through gates.
The traditional engines, whilst they're big
and they carry a lot of equipment,
we recognised that what we needed as well
was something more agile and flexible
so we could respond to things like wildfires,
you know, in the middle of our rural countryside
in farmer's fields, et cetera,
where engines, the big engines,
were just creating a real challenge for us.
So we've got two rural firefighting units now.
And they are a four by four capability.
They're like a big transit van, I think,
for on layman's terms, if you like.
But they carry a huge amount of kit and equipment.
As I said, they provide the resilience for us to respond,
not just to wildfires, but at times the flooding,
to tow our boats, to respond to, you know,
to get us crews around the Carry 5,
so we can still get a crew on there
and get them to where they need to be
in a much quicker period of time as well.
Important to just highlight that they are not
an initial response vehicle,
so we wouldn't send them out of the door first,
but what they do enable us to do
is support a traditional fire engine,
which we can then stand down once we know
we've got control of the situation.
And again, it potentially frees up our capability
and availability of our other engines when we use them.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:44:20
Councillor Jackson -Ling.
Thank you, Chairman.
I speak as the ward member for Beckonsfield.
Cllr Jackson Ng - 0:44:27
Last month, the fire authority approved
its Encore Improvement Programme,
which removes Beckonsfield's Encore fire engine,
cuts the station from two appliances to one,
and replaces one fire engine with a crew welfare unit.
Now this council objected to those proposals in February.
Beckonsfield town council then raised detailed concerns
in their consultations that remained unaddressed.
The fire authority's own data shows that nearly a third
of the cross -border fire engine attendances
across the county relate to Beckonsfield,
the highest of any station.
The town council's conclusion was that the fire authority should be investing in engines in Beaconsfield, not reducing them.
Now across the fire authority, 158 ,000 homes are being required, a 47 % increase in numbers.
A major data centre and power station is being proposed between Beaconsfield and Gerads Cross.
The risks are growing, not shrinking.
What commitment would a fire authority give to reviewing Beaconsfield's fire cover as these developments come forward?
Thank you Chairman.
Thank you, I didn't, I apologise, I didn't catch all the figures that you gave me, but I think I got a general sense of the question.
So when I put forward the proposals to the authority to review
the on -call
engines that we had in around the county, of course
we looked at the data and we looked at the availability and we looked at the usage and
and Beckons Field was one of the lowest,
I think it was 0. something percent.
We don't have a permanent on -call crew there.
And so it made sense that it was one of the stations
that we would consider.
We absolutely, during the consultation phase,
looked at the data, looked at the information,
looked at the demand, looked at the risk.
and ultimately the decision was taken,
we put forward the decision that actually
Beckonsfield could, we could remove the on -call
fire engine there and it would have no significant
impact on safety or response times.
Councillor Robin Stuxbury.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:46:45
Yeah, firstly, thank you for a fantastic explanation
of the great work the fire authority does.
Cllr Robin Stuchbury - 0:46:50
Please could you give a bit more update on the firefighters improvement plan and
the service, it's something that interests me, it's about the health and safety of the team
because in all your, what you had to get through today, it's a very big part of
what firefighter does which is looking after the well -being of its employees in
health and safety. If you could give a bit more update on how that works please.
Thank you. Just for clarification, do you mean the FBU improvement agenda you're
referring to? Correct. Yeah, okay. I can give you a limited amount. So we
provided an update just for information and for context at our last
Fire Authority meeting on the improvements, the FBU and our
the union's agenda, we gave updates on the progress
we've made against the recommendations they've set out.
They are due to come back to us in June with a full update
and then obviously they will provide their,
this year's improvement agenda.
What I can tell you is we've worked really hard
with our staff, so we've introduced 52 weeks
maternity leave which is significant. I don't think all fire services do that
and it was definitely our commitment to make sure we supported families and
operational families getting back to work. The decontamination work that we've
Louise Harrison - Chief Fire Officer, BFRS - 0:48:31
committed to do is still ongoing it's not a quick piece of work unfortunately
and as I said with an ageing estate there are significant things that we need to
to make sure that we provide clean and dirty zones
in the fire station so our staff can come in
and get themselves clean and get redressed
and back out in a safe environment.
But we've remained committed to working with the FBU.
We are incredibly lucky.
We have a really good relationship with them.
We have talked to them already
about how we can potentially consider providing
some kind of private health care for our staff because we recognise how important that is,
particularly with the risk that our firefighters take on a day -to -day basis. So there is a
significant amount of work going. I haven't seen their updated agenda yet, but it will be presented
to us in due course and it will come through the fire authority. Thank you. Thank you and the final
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:49:34
person is Councillor Alex Collingwood. Thank you Chairman, thank you for your
presentation. You've talked about investment and I represent Marlowe which is one of
Cllr Alex Collingwood - 0:49:46
the on -call fire stations that's now going to take the brunt of closure of
Stokely Church, removing the engine from Beckett'sville, removing the engine from
Wickham and it's an on -call station. Interestingly it's actually one of your best assets in
the whole of the county, it's purpose -built, it's built relatively recently and
actually built for a full -time fire crew. It's also ideally located for the M40 and
the M4 and your rural issues you've got with it as well including all the
flooding piece as well. So my question to you is based on all that how soon will
you actually upgrade the fire station in Marlowe to be a full -time crew with the
additional ranges it requires because actually with the 95 ,000 additional
homes in the south of the area particularly because when you see all
the applications come through my committee and street sites there are
and the thousands of homes all coming to the south of the county.
So please confirm when that will take place. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for your question.
You're right, Marlow is a great station.
Louise Harrison - Chief Fire Officer, BFRS - 0:50:35
And unfortunately, we know that the air ambulance crews are going to be leaving there shortly,
so we've got additional space there.
Certainly Marlow will feature heavily in our Wickham decant.
So I can't, with my hand on my heart, give an honest answer to that yet.
but other than to say that we will be using Marlowe
because we'll need to use Marlowe
when we decant High Rickham.
Again, it's another station which we would love to bring up
in terms of numbers and availability.
We've got brilliant staff there.
It's a great station.
And as you said, it's logistically in a brilliant place.
So short term, I can't give you an honest answer to that
because it will feature in our plans for High Rickham,
but let's see what happens when we look at our plans for High Wycombe because
there may be options there.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:51:33
Thank you to the Fire Service for your continued hard work and for your
attendance to this meeting. Miss Harrison you're welcome to stay for the
remainder of the meeting, however you are also welcome to leave at this point.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Moving on to item 8, Street Trading Controls, sorry, item 5, Street Trading Controls, adoption

5 Street Trading Controls - Adoption of Schedule 4 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 - designation of all street as consent streets

of schedule 4 of the Local Government Act.
At this item five report on street trading controls,
adoption of schedule four of the local government
miscellaneous provisions act 1982,
designates of all street as consent streets.
Councillor Mark Quinn, as the relevant cabinet member,
I understand you will propose and introduce this report.
Thank you, Chairman.
I will just say a few words at the start.
Cllr Mark Winn - 0:52:45
This report asked full council to take the final step in introducing one single county -wide approach to controlling street trading across B
under schedule four of the local government miscellaneous provisions act 1982.
By way of reminder, in November 2025, council agreed that schedule four would apply across the B council area from the 1st of October 26
and also agreed the intention to designate all streets as consent streets
supported by the new street trading policy approved in principle by the
Licencing Public Protection Committee on the 17th of July 2025. Since that
decision the council's completed the required statutory process public
notices were published in the local press and on the council's website and
offices, notices were served on the police
and highway authority, and the highway authority
has provided the necessary consent.
The statutory notice period has now ended
with no objections or representations received.
What members are being asked to decide today
is very straightforward.
First, to revoke all previous street trading designations
by the former district councils, and second,
to designate all streets in Buckinghamshire
as consent streets, with both changes taking effect
on the 1st of October, 2026.
If council agrees, officers will publish
the third statutory notices confirming the resolutions
have been passed, two consecutive weeks
in the local newspaper, so the new designations
will come into force on the 1st of October, 26.
We also communicate the change to affected stakeholders
and prepare the organisation for implementation.
In terms of implications, this creates a clear and consistent framework that supports public
safety, helps prevent crime and disorder, and supports the character of our area.
Fees will be set on a cost recovery basis to keep the regime cost neutral, and a separate
report will come to the Licencing Public Protection Committee to agree a new schedule of fees
ahead of implementation.
The new policy approved in principle by that committee on the 17th of July will also apply
from the 1st of October. In accordance with the policy, controls were only applied to
commercial traders operating on Buffonshire Council maintained highways and community
events will be exempt from control.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:55:34
Thank you, you've caught me out. Is there a seconder for this?
Cllr Alex Collingwood - 0:55:48
Councillor Collingwood, do you wish to speak now or reserve your right?
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:55:56
Any questions, comments from members?
You have two minutes.
Three questions allowed.
Councillor Ahmed?
Can you keep your hands up so we can make a report please?
Cllr Khalil Ahmed - 0:56:09
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Can I ask this policy, I know that you've done all the due diligence that you're
required to do in order to fulfil, to go through and whatnot.
I know of a few cases where there are street traders who have been operating for decades.
Do you think that this is fair and proportionate in terms of what you're bringing about now
that they can't always trade there anymore?
Do you think that, you know, I understand the lawful elements of it, but, you know,
aside from that, there's the fair proportionate and discriminatory aspect.
Has that been considered, right, especially those that have been trading there
and what provisions have been made in order to obviously safeguard their livelihoods
because they've been operating there for decades?
Yes, please.
In going through, as we said, the things that go forward are public safety, the highway,
Cllr Mark Winn - 0:57:15
et cetera.
So all those things have been considered when this has come forward.
So obviously they're able to apply for different licences in different areas, and that will
looked at as it goes forward.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:57:32
Thank you. It was going really fine that I've been called chairman and now I've been called chair again.
Moving on to Councillor Nick Nambacy.
Cllr Niknam Hussain - 0:57:47
Thank you, Chairman. My question to the Council Member is similar to my colleagues, but in a bit different context in that
yes, there are lots of legacy people who have been training in a certain area for a long, long time.
But a few of them were caught unawares by the new policy and didn't apply in time.
So two points to that.
One is, were those people made aware that they had to apply for places that previously
they didn't need to apply for?
And secondly, were they given any help in those applications, in making applications
to the new policy?
When I've spoken to them, they fully support the policy of having street trading licences
for the areas that they're trading in.
The only thing they're complaining about is they've been there 20 years, 15 years, 10 years,
and suddenly they're usurped by someone who saw it on the website and put themselves up,
and then their business and their livelihood is gone.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:58:43
Thank you for that question, Councillor Sane.
Cllr Mark Winn - 0:58:47
And yeah, it was widely publicised.
Obviously we added a long debate in this council.
There were long debates in the press about it
and there were certain changes that were made.
So I think the sort of thing that they didn't know about it
is definitely was coming forward.
And the licencing team would have helped them
to make their application.
But obviously some people didn't do that
and seemed to have missed it.
I don't quite know why.
But obviously it was unfair on certain people that were on designated streets under the old regime
That were paying and up the road people would not pay and that was also very much unfair
Thank you moving on to the final speaker Phil come councillor Phil gone
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 0:59:32
Thank you very much chairman
Cllr Phil Gomm - 0:59:36
Today and I'd like to say I'm proud to sit on the licencing committee that dealt with that
That was one of the most intense, intense scrutinies that we've done to bring that together.
But I was extremely proud of every single colleague from all parties that helped bring
that project together where it is.
It was about time that we made it a blanket, sort of rental all over the whole area.
It will get rid of crime and that was going on.
It will get rid of bad traders that was going on.
So I strongly would ask that all of our colleagues in the chamber today support that because
it will help every single resident here of Buckinghamshire to be safe on our
streets when purchasing products whether it's food, clothing, whatever in our
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:00:26
county so please do. Thank you Councillor Gaughan for those comments which
obviously I endorse obviously the licencing committee is really
Cllr Mark Winn - 1:00:31
apolitical and it went there it was approved by everyone that was there.
so that was put to the end.
Council Collingwood, would you like to?
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:00:43
Just to say on my part, having seen that in action,
we've had some rather interesting road applicants,
Cllr Alex Collingwood - 1:00:48
some rather interesting road people turn up
on random roads all over the time.
I think for me this was giving clear transparency
and making sure that we had consistency
across the whole county that supported our existing traders,
but they didn't get some random guys just turning up,
which we do get both in Wickham, Marlowe,
and the rest, but actually there's clear, concise situation
to make sure that we can support our existing traders
and make sure that the residents and the communities
are all set and secure as well.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Councillor Collingwood for those comments.
Yes, of course, as you point out,
Cllr Mark Winn - 1:01:23
it's fair on a lot of existing traders
in terms of people just turning up and not paying anything
and taking away their business.
So you're exactly right in that.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:01:40
Thank you. By a show of hands, are members content to approve the two recommendations

6 Code of Conduct - Potential Amendment

as set out on page 13? Carried. Thank you. Item 6 is Code of Conduct. We now move to
Committee have sent us a recommendation.
Councillor Jackson -Ning, as Chairman of the Committee,
I understand you will be presenting this report
on behalf of the Committee.
You have five minutes.
Chairman, thank you.
I rise to introduce this report to Council in my capacity
as Chairman of the Standards and General Purposes Committee.
Cllr Jackson Ng - 1:02:28
Before I address the substance of the recommendation,
I wish to place on my record my thanks to my Vice Chairman,
members and staff of the committee for the diligent and rigorous work throughout
this council year. The Stenitz brief does not always command the attention it
deserves but the committee has discharged its responsibilities with
seriousness and purpose. As we approach the end of the council year that
contribution ought to be acknowledged. I turn to the matter before council. The
procedural history here can be stated briefly. At the full council meeting on
On the 9th of July, 2025,
a motion concerning transparency of members' fees
and allowances from outside bodies was referred
without discussion to the committee.
It falls squarely within the committee's remit,
which includes keeping the code of conduct under review
and issuing guidance on ethical standards.
The committee gave the matter careful consideration
on the 16th of October, 2025.
We examined the alternatives open to us,
which was leaving the code unchanged,
issuing non -binding guidance to councillors,
making the information available by other means
on council's website, and deferring the question
until the government introduces a mandatory national code.
Each of these options was weighed.
Following debate, the committee voted
to recommend the amendment now set
in the report before you.
The amendment itself is narrow in scope
and proportionate in its effect.
It will require members to declare within the register of interest any allowances or fees received from outside bodies
To which they've been appointed by the virtual of membership of this council
members already
Register their membership of those bodies and that is not new
What is currently not required is any indication whether of ready remuneration is received or indeed whether it's not
the amendment would bring that information into a single publicly
accessible location on the council's website. Chairman, I want to address what
I consider to be the real significance of this proposal because I believe it
has been somewhat overlooked. Members already list the outside body
appointments in the register of interest. What they cannot presently do is to show
the public what those appointments actually involved in financial terms.
Under this amendment, a Councillor who serves on an outside body for no remuneration whatsoever,
and there are many who do, will for the first time be able to place a figure of zero against
that appointment. Now that matters. It means the public can see in one place the full extent
of the work that the elected members undertake beyond this chamber. Much of it unpaid, much of it
unrecognised. And where allowances are paid, I would observe that a review of outside bodies
has established that only a small number of these organisations issue any remuneration at all. And
where they do, the sums tend to be modest. In many cases, they are frankly minor. Far from suggesting
any cause for concern, this reinforces what I believe most members of this council already know,
that councillors serve on these bodies out of sense of public duty, not financial reward.
This amendment allows that to be demonstrated transparently.
I should inform this council for the sake of completeness that the government has committed
to introducing a mandatory national code of conduct for councillors, replacing the current
local choice arrangement.
Now, legislation is anticipated within this parliamentary term,
although no fixed time has been published.
The eventual mandatory code may incorporate requirements similar
to what we proposed today, or you may go further.
At present, the proposition remains uncertain.
The committee considered whether to defer
and took the view rightly
that acting now was the proper course.
If the mandatory code overtakes us, so be it.
Now, Chairman, this is a straightforward and
proportionate recommendation by the committee.
The committee has balanced the modest imposition on
members against the simplicity of making this
information accessible in one place on the register
that the public already have access to.
And perhaps the most important point is that it
gives members of this council the ability to show
the people they represent the full measure of their public service this
matter was referred to the standards and general purposes committee precisely so
it could be examined debated and determined by the body charged with the
oversight of the code of conduct the committee has proudly done that work the
debate has been held the recommendation now before you Jackson and I commend it
to the council and ask that we now proceed to a vote Thank You chairman
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:07:29
Chairman, I would second that motion to move directly to a vote.
Can you give me one minute to consider?
Mr. Glenn Watson to say a few words on this, please.
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 1:08:17
What your colleague councillors have suggested is that a motion
without notice that the question be now put,
which means you move straight to a vote.
Two considerations there are,
if the chairman considers there's been sufficient debate
and transparency about the issue,
then the chairman can ask yourselves as the council
because your consent is required whether you wish to move straight to a vote.
So the first consideration is whether you wish the Chairman to allow any further debate
at all on this matter.
If you consider that is the case, then you can make that happen in the room.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:08:58
I have no objection to moving straight to a vote, but what I have an objection to is
Cllr Susan Morgan - 1:09:03
that my colleague didn't refer to the Constitution as making the point, as we would have been
here on this side of the room.
Thank you, your points mate, thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:09:16
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 1:09:24
In which case, if you consider that there may be the will of the meeting to move to a vote,
you need to ask the meeting whether it wishes to move to a vote.
Now, carefully on this one, you're voting whether to go to a vote.
This is not the vote.
I hope you're clear on that one.
So, you might say, Chairman, by show of hands, does the members wish to go straight to a vote?
Would you like to go straight to a vote? Show of hands, please.
Those against?
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:09:47
And those against?
Any abstentions?
Any abstentions?
In which case, Chairman, that decision of the Council is to move straight to a vote on the substantive item as to whether to accept the recommendation put forward.
by the committee as voiced by Councillor Allen.
So those in favour please raise your hands.
Those against?
Abstentions?
It's carried, thank you.
Now item seven, we now move to item seven
which asked for members to note and endorse members allowance scheme for 2026 to 27 as
set out in appendix 1. This is annual approval for technical requirement. Last year, members
debated and approved the direction for the scheme. This report follows that direction.

7 Members Allowances Scheme 2026-27

no changes have been made. There are a couple of typos in the appendix but the
Monitoring Officer has delegated authority to correct this before
publication. By a show of hands, I'm not proposing to open this to debate, but by a
show of hands our members content to note and endorse the scheme for 2026
and 27. Sorry Chairman, can I just be clear on something before we ask the
council to know? I apologise for putting you out on the left side of the
Cllr Susan Morgan - 1:11:31
room but I just want to be very clear those technical errors can they be made
before this report is noted please? Because I think it's wrong to ask us to
note a report that's got correct incorrect information.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:11:50
Yes, let's be clear what I'm saying yes to.
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 1:12:00
The meeting can determine the values as indicated in the appendix and the scheme as is, insofar
as there are any clerical errors.
you should take it as if they are not there.
So I'm going to the vote.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:12:17
So by a show of hands, are members content to note
and endorse this scheme for 2026 -27?
Those against?
Any abstentions?
Carried. Thank you.
Now we move on to the cabinet member report.
I will ask the leader and then each of the cabinet members in turn if they have any other further things, further information to add to their reports, then open to questions for members.
Due to the number of motions we have today on the agenda, I am planning to take three
questions for the Leader on his report and two for each other Cabinet member.
Please raise your hands if you would like to ask any questions at the relevant time
on the agenda today. You have one minute to put your questions, so please bear this in
mind when speaking. Can I ask the leader of the Council's Steven Board for do you have
anything to add to your report?
Cllr Steven Broadbent - 1:13:31
Yes, Mr Chairman, thank you. I do and I have a thank you and an update. The thank you first
is to those fantastic farmers in the NFU who we had here today outside of the gateway.
So, quite right.
There was a fantastic range of things for us to see on offer.
Buckinghamshire remains a rural and farming county
with something that we all cherish.
And after the recent motion that we passed to support them
through procurement, it was good today to see them here
showing the absolute plethora of products
that you can get from Buckinghamshire.
And importantly, as referred to in my report, our programme of Sunday markets should see through
our good engagement with the new, vibrant, periodic farmers markets coming back particularly
to High Wycombe and Aylesbury.
And so members of the public, please look out for those because going to support our
Buckinghamshire farmers and back bucks farming is something you can do simply by just buying
some great produce when it's available to you. So thank you to them and thank you to all the members
from across the room who came and chatted at length with the farmers today and you know really took a
great understanding and expressed their value for the work that they do and the impact they have on
our county. The update I wanted to give you and the announcement is we will know we're here in
One of the long -standing elements of infrastructure development that we continue to look forward
to in the future is through woodlands.
This is the development that will bring 1 ,100 quality homes, sports and community facilities,
massive new employment site for the county along with 344 acres still of green space.
It's been long coming on a very complex set up both from funding and the site itself
But we're announcing today that Buckinghamshire advantage, which is the wholly owned subsidiary of this council
Have now signed an agreement to progress that scheme with
Barrett David Wilson homes and that announcement will be out into the press later today
This is very exciting not only for all the parts. I've just mentioned but
This is the thing that will unlock the eastern link road
so that again our focus on infrastructure getting developed
is there to do the right thing to make sure that our link roads around Aylesbury
will be done. It won't happen overnight and of course it will need
to be built but that's very good news at this milestone
to say that that has been signed and we look forward and I'll give further
progress updates when it's a bit less straight off the press.
Thanks.
Can you raise your hands if you want to ask the leader a question?
Councillor Kathy Gibb, would you like to ask a question?
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:16:33
Keep your hands raised, councillors.
Thank you, Chairman.
As a former physics teacher, I'm very interested in Lord Balancy's visit, focusing on innovation
in high performance engineering.
How will this improve skills across the county and drive future developments?
Cllr Kathy Gibbon - 1:16:54
Thank you for the question, yes.
Cllr Steven Broadbent - 1:17:01
He came along because of the work we've been doing through something called the Silverstone
Board and this is Buckinghamshire proving its way of working in partnership with other
local authorities, education providers including Cranwell University, our university, University
of Northampton and as we've heard about today, some of the great businesses around Westcott
as well as Silverstone to try and attract in through that nationally defined growth
corridor some inward investment to drive great work in high -tech manufacturing to be at the
forefront of innovation. And I'm pleased to say since my report we've heard back from
the joint bid that we put in that Buckinghamshire took a lead on of the local innovation partnership
fund which should unlock up to 20 million pounds worth of investment into
Silverstone. This is amazing news. This thing means it's good for business, it's
good for our enterprise zone which is a huge part of one of the jewels of bucks
and the key to that is there's a technical college up there but all those
businesses will be looking out for skilling up young people, delivering an
apprenticeships and that was a big part of our bid with that link into higher
education and of course that's a full pulling from across the county so there
should be a direct impact and I really welcome the success we've had through
that bid to make sure that our businesses will succeed and the skills
will be there and the jobs in the future for our young people so keep a watching
brief on that because that's a great bit of confidence into Silverstone and
Westcott key to our future economic prosperity.
Chancellor Lübmungen.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:18:46
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Llew Monger - 1:18:51
Sorry, I just made reference to one minute,
so I'll have to edit this with the leader's permission.
I was delighted to see in your report, Leader,
that a reference to the Retail Revival event in which Lucy
Ellis from Winslow won the overall customer service award for her outlet Lulu's Pet Pantry.
Lucy's an active member of the Winslow Association of Business and Community which seeks to support
and promote local businesses and with community involvement. They want to hang hanging baskets
throughout the High Street and Market Square. Books Council is insisting that a licence
required, booking, Bucks Council, regrettably, don't have a licence and despite two years
of discussion, we're no clearer about getting there. Should we wait for that or go ahead
in the same way as Aylesbury, Shashem and Begginsfield have done and carry on with Hanging
Baskets without a licence from Bucks Council or will you intervene to help us bring this
forward quickly? Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:19:55
Cllr Steven Broadbent - 1:19:59
Well that retail revival event not only for Lulu's Pet Shop obviously who were the winner is fantastic.
That was the culmination of many months of work working with very small businesses on who are really important to our high streets.
From across the county Winslow, Risborough for example Jump to Mind that have been really helped on some small interventions
to overcome some barriers and challenges in their own business and that's the
entire point of it. We have our Buckinghamshire economic plan, we have the great work
that our economic development team do to make sure we support businesses and our
economy across the county. I'm unaware of the issue with hanging baskets, maybe
they want to consider forming a bid go and considering doing that which might
help unlock some things. I'm certainly not going to stand here and say if we've
said you require a licence to carry on without it. If you want to write to me on the detail
of the relevant cabinet paper, then I'll make sure we've got an up -to -date picture for you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:21:04
Thank you, Leader. And finally, Councillor Caroline Cornell.
Cllr Caroline Cornell - 1:21:12
Thank you, Chair. Thank you very much, Councillor Paul Behan. With the National Infrastructure
Development, how aware are the public about the plan to send water down to Great Brick
and Stoke Hammond for treatment there?
What are we going to do about it?
Thank you. I'm not sure I can give you
absolute clarity on how aware the public are,
Cllr Steven Broadbent - 1:21:29
but it does open up a whole question
about the changes in the DCO process
that the government have done,
which gives far less engagement requirement
on national infrastructure projects into the community.
We have seen this recently with the late announced
imposition of the train maintenance depot
near Newton Longville by East West Rail,
which is something I've written into
both the planning inspector about,
as well as East West Rail themselves,
because of the lack of community engagement.
The project you refer to is the expansion in particular,
they say the south, but as I understand it,
of Luton requires bringing water down from the Midlands,
from the canals up there,
and bring that through into the north of our county
where there'll be a water holding position
and then the pipe work will carry on.
The original DCO did not mention
the need for a water treatment plant
with bunds as high as eight or nine metres in height
which will have a significant impact.
We as a council obviously are aware
and we'll do our level best to make sure
we give a full response into the DCO
And in fact, we have just done that in the PEIR stage.
I have challenged, in fact, just yesterday at the local
government association with the Secretary of State in
attendance from Ministry of MHCLG to say these
situations should not wait until everyone is finding
out about it at the end.
They must get further up front to brief communities
properly so the infrastructure that is coming we are known about. At the moment
the risk is we have politicians in Westminster seeing parts of Buckingham
Shore and just drawing a red ring saying stick something there that's not fair
and it's something that will stand up for every time. Take from this then go
back to the communities to ensure they're fully aware of the plans it is
available on a public website.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:23:43
I did say approximately three questions but Councillor Phil Gumm is jumping up and down
in his chair.
I have one thing to ask and then I will be asking another question from that side as
well.
So, Council Phil's gone. I hope it's a good question.
Cllr Phil Gomm - 1:24:09
The only time, Chairman, when I jump up and down is on the back of one of my horses, sir.
Or on a bareback bullock, but there that's a different day.
What I would like to say to the Leader and to the Council,
thank you so much for today for accepting some of our Buckinghamshire farmers here,
and for all of our colleagues over this side to appreciate and value
what was able to turn up. I need to make a personal apology on behalf of some of
the farmers that were going to come today that sadly couldn't come with
their machinery. We tried to get some, this is a serious storey, we tried to
order some red diesel for them to be able to attend today. Sadly we couldn't
get it yesterday so they were unable to attend. So on their behalf I'd like to
I apologise for that.
So, Joe, thank you.
Not quite at the question,
Cllr Steven Broadbent - 1:25:04
but I appreciate you saying that to give the clarity.
One of the things we learned today
by talking directly to farming colleagues
is the near doubling of red diesel prices
and the fact that if they want to place an order now,
you can say, yeah, okay, you might have 10 ,000 litres.
The price, you'll only get told what it is in the morning.
You can't, you will, you're placing an order
without knowing what that cost is going to be.
So it is a real problem into our community.
It's driven out of international events.
So again, I come down to let's do all we can to
support our farmers so they continue to give us the
great food and products we have and the security
that we want.
And finally on this one is cancer structurally.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:25:46
Firstly, thank you Chairman and leader for your report.

8 Reports from Cabinet Members

Cllr Robin Stuchbury - 1:25:52
I'm grateful for the report on agriculture and the
further details but what I would ask you this year it's very important year it's
David Attenborough is going to be 100 this year I know that in Buckingham the two
societies are working on something to mark this and and I know the town
councillor could could you within the fact that it's an environmental issue
and the council pro -us and the fact that farming is a big part of our environment
see what we can do to make sure that this council recognises David Attenborough
because I think he's the only person in the country presently that everyone
really wants to talk to and it is a question linked to the fact that you've
had the farmers here today and most farmers will know and the importance of
the environment that they work in and how David Attenborough has changed that
environment for the better through his lifetime work in promoting environmental
schemes. Thank you Councillor. Yeah I'm aware of David Attenborough's 100th and in fact I'm aware
Cllr Steven Broadbent - 1:26:57
of the some of the events in and around Buckingham and indeed of an accepted
invitation to attend one of them and that would give full recognition I think
to David Attenborough and some of the work that he's done. Clearly some of the
great work we do as custodians of the environment alongside our farmers
probably stands testament greatly to the current work
is the fact we just passed the local nature recovery
plan that I know farmers were praising Buckinghamshire
having done even in farmers weekly.
So I think we've got both bases covered for now,
but there's always more work to do.
Thank you.
Moving on to cabinet member for culture and leisure,
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:27:41
Peter Braser, do you have anything to add to your report?
Cllr Peter Brazier - 1:27:50
Thank you Chairman, yes I do if I may. I just want to talk about the Wickham Rye Lido.
It's a much loved facility and a report wasn't able to get into my report in time.
There's a lot being said on social media and in the press about the Lido.
A lot of it's misleading, some of it's just plain inaccurate.
So I just want to tell you all now what's happening.
I think most will be aware that on the 1st of April,
our leaseholder, the Fusion lifestyle,
went into administration.
It was done in a controlled way so we could keep it open,
so the facility could remain open.
It is business as usual.
No difference to the members.
Some I know in this chamber tonight
are members, including my deputy.
So we are very close to it.
We went out of our way to work with the administrators,
S &W partners and seven other councils
where Fusion were operating multiple facilities.
In a space of nearly two months we were able to go through a really complex mix
of operating agreements and leases and I'm really proud of the Parks and Leisure team
for getting this right
and keeping the Lido open. Since the first of April the Parks and Leisure team have been on site
and they're in close dialogue with the team
and the Lido to provide support.
So the current position, it's business as normal
with the council supporting where we can.
And we continue to seek confirmation from the administrator
as to whether the business will be acquired
by another party or not.
And also, our sports and leisure team are fully engaged
with our three current leisure centre operators in Butts
to work out how they could step in
and operate the facility in the event
the administrators are unable to find someone. So with that, I'm happy to take questions,
Chairman.
Can you show of hands, please? Councillor Ed Gellman.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:29:50
Cllr Ed Gemmell - 1:29:55
Thank you very much, Chair. Thank you for that explanation. Could I just ask...
Councillor Gellman is Chairman, please. Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman. So thank you for that explanation. I'd just like to ask, do we know,
is the Lido actually making a profit at the moment?
So is it a profitable enterprise in itself
in the just in Wickham?
And the second question is on behalf
of the High Wycombe Town Committee,
can we be involved in the discussions with you?
Can you liaise with us as things are going on?
Thank you.
So the first question, I don't know.
Cllr Peter Brazier - 1:30:28
It's obvious they weren't doing that well
because they're in administration.
So probably the answer is no.
As far as town town committee involvement,
we can keep you informed for sure.
There's gonna be a lot of comms coming out about it
over the period, but I'll take that board.
Thank you.
Councillor Leslie Clark OB.
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:30:57
And thank you very much indeed,
Cllr Lesley Clarke OBE - 1:30:59
Councillor Grazia for your update on the Ry Lido.
I know a lot of people are really concerned about that,
so thank you.
What I would like to ask you is about the footpath
that goes across the Ry.
As you know, we're not allowed to walk on the grass
or breathe on it because it's special,
but we would like to know and have an update.
And also, could you please give us some assurance
that people are worried about the lights
that are now going on because the bats won't be able
to fly across the Ry.
So could you just give us some assurance and thank your team for doing a wonderful job with the RAI Lido. Thank you.
Thank you, and yeah, thank you for thanking the team. They're doing a really good job there
Cllr Peter Brazier - 1:31:41
in quite difficult circumstances.
As far as the work that's going on in the RAI itself, we've got this huge programme that's going on, about
370 ,000 pounds, to improve the footpaths around the RAI.
So, the work started this week, I think, yeah.
And it's gonna be rolled out in phases
so we don't rip the whole place up at once.
As I said, this has been in the plans for a long time,
and it also includes, as you said,
there's a footpath going in from the Lido
to the Bassett -Brelay, because currently,
if you're coming to the Lido on foot,
you have to walk up the road.
There's no footpath either side.
So that's part, that's just one phase
of the six phases of the thing,
and that path is going to be lit, as you said,
but they're incredibly low bollards.
They're low bollard lights.
It's not that we're lighting the whole street.
And just while I'm on that subject,
there's been an article in the press
that's suggesting that a campaign
was run in February by them,
and that's what's prompted this work.
I can assure you this work has been in the planning for a long, long time.
In fact, I signed off on the section 106 as long ago as August last year,
and obviously a project like this takes months to plan.
So the fact that this campaign kicked this off is just simply not true.
So I'm looking forward to these works going on. Thank you.
Thank you. Moving on to the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, Councillor Isabella Darby.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:33:26
Do you have anything to add to your report?
Nothing to add, Chairman.
Show of hands, please.
Thank you.
Councillor Adali.
Thank you, Chairman.
I'll wait for the mute.
Cllr Christine Adali - 1:33:55
Don't worry.
Just so it's polite to look at Councillor Darby at least
while I ask the question.
As the minimum income guarantee has increased by 7 %
for people below pension credit age,
what was the percentage increase that you expected,
i .e. budgeted for, for people falling into that bracket?
and what will the financial impact of this increase be for this financial year?
Thank you very much for your question Councillor Charlie and I'm afraid off the
top of my head I don't know but I will get back to you with a written reply.
Cllr Isobel Darby - 1:34:30
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:34:37
Councillor David Carroll. Thank you Chairman. I read recently about the
Cllr David Carroll - 1:34:44
groundbreaking meet event at Wickham Hospital and the acquisition of the old
Queen Victoria Road site by VHT. Do you think this would be a positive
opportunity for our residents?
Thank you very much, Councillor Carroll, and I think
Cllr Isobel Darby - 1:35:01
we will probably all agree that the refurb of Wickham Hospital is long
overdue and will give Buckinghamshire residents
the state -of -the -art facilities which they
really deserve, and I was really encouraged on a recent visit with my
deputy to understand that because of the modular
construction they will actually be having parts of it available in 2027
which really isn't a long way away now. I mean that is amazing. The purchase of
Queen Victoria Road provides a tremendous opportunity to bring some
services out of the Wickham Hospital site and into the heart of Wickham which
I think has got to be good for everybody. The council and the trust together with
partners are committed to delivering neighbourhood health for the people of
Buckinghamshire, bringing more coordinated and proactive care into people's homes and
shaping services. There's a lot of things changing and I think the fact that we have
got all this happening in the heart of Wickham has got to be a really good idea and fantastic
for our residents. Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:36:06
Thank you. Moving on to cabinet member for hands -in regulatory services, Councillor Mark
Do you have anything to add to your report?
Thank you, Chairman.
Just one small one, if you don't mind.
Last week, I was with great pleasure that I opened a very small housing development
Cllr Mark Winn - 1:36:20
in the South Court area of Owlsbury.
It was 24 social housing tenancies, four of which were part rent, part buy, and 20 which
were social rented.
and social rented is the truly affordable level which is 50 % of market
rent and 14 people I'm pleased to know will be moving in there from temporary
accommodation or in temporary accommodation or 14 households I should
say which is really sort of a really good thing. So really it illustrates how
we can work together with registered providers such as Fairhive on this one
but it also shows illustrates what's in our housing needs assessment which
recommended that over 40 % of homes within the local plan
should be affordable, and of that total,
something I personally championed,
that that should also be split down into social rented.
And 59 % of that total in the housing aid assessment
would be social rented level.
Happy to take any questions.
You raise your hands, please.
Councillor Nguyen, I've never done this,
and I've asked Mr. Watson regarding this,
but because I've had so many emails regarding the Hackney trade in Buckinghamshire and worried
members of the trade, is there any chance you can give us an update on that please?
And thank you Chairman, yes I can and I knew this question was going to come up and sort of
thank you for highlighting that as well but I thought members may ask this.
The revised Hackney carriage and private hire licencing policy was approved by the
Licencing Committee on the 19th of March. It delivers a robust consistent
framework across Buckinghamshire which is in line with current law and best
practise. It follows over two years of consultation with the taxi working group,
two public consultations in 24 and 25, direct engagement with Hackney carriage
drivers and trade representatives and input from disability groups, wheelchair users,
emergency services and others. It's worth highlighting that 57 % supported continuing
requirement that all new Hackney carriages are wheelchair accessible. A majority rival
against or unsure about keeping grandfather rights for existing saloon Hackney carriage
vehicles indefinitely and that was the grandfather rights were to give exemption from Hamilton
wheelchair accessible. To support effective drivers vehicle limits, vehicle
age limits were extended from 10 to 12 years and 15 years for wheelchair
accessible vehicle and there will be no limit for the enhanced wheelchair
accessible vehicles. We believe this fairly balances the interests of drivers
against the legal requirement and equality legislation that provide
accessible public transport. In terms of replacement vehicles we're not mandating
what wheelchair accessible vehicles drivers would need to use. The cheque on
Google is showing a number of vehicles available at different specs and price
ranges. Hackney carriages are different to private hire vehicles because they can
be held from the street or rank, be pre -booked, can operate anywhere in the
country and do not need the operator. The new revised policy strengthens
expectations around public safety, safeguard and accessibility including
in clearer duties towards disabled passengers,
wheelchair accessible vehicles,
reasonable assistance to the protection
of assisted dog users.
And does we believe do so in a way
that balances the need for accessibility
against the interests of drivers.
Ensuring everyone in Buckinghamshire
can access safe, reliable, inclusive transport
is one of our core responsibilities
and that's the heart of the policy changes we're making.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Kelly Thornton.
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:40:20
The Council's own report shows that only 245 affordable homes were made available by registered
Cllr Kelly Thornton - 1:40:30
providers in the 2024 -2025 period, yet there are nearly 5 ,000 live applications on the
Bucks Home Choice Register.
In my ward of Amersham and Cheshire Boys, our young people and essential workers are
being priced out.
When will the cabinet move beyond strategic use of section 106 contributions and actually deliver the affordable housing numbers that our residents
desperately need
Cllr Mark Winn - 1:40:55
Thank You council for that question, I would name the councillor but didn't catch the name so I apologise for that and
Yes
You say about the very 200 245 affordable homes that were built
But there were a lot of let's that happened in that year. There were over a thousand
made it within that year.
So things are moving forward,
but we're also looking at section 106 funding
for building affordable homes.
And within the report,
it mentions that there were 112 homes that were built,
that will be built through section 106.
So that's really good news.
But I also mentioned just now
about the housing needs assessment within the local plan.
And within that, 40 % of the homes coming forward
will need to be affordable,
and 59 % as I said would have to be at the social rented level which is the really affordable level.
So that is something we are closely looking at and working towards.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:41:53
Thank you. I've got your name down.
Councillor Rouse, did you have your hand up?
Yes Mr Chairman, it was for Councillor Darby.
Okay, no problem.
Am I allowed to ask it?
No, no, no, no.
We've moved on because I've got your name down here.
Councillor Armandallam.
Thank you Chairman and thank you for the update,
Cllr Arman Alam - 1:42:19
Cabinet Member, Councillor Mark Wynne, on the issue of the Hackney carriage drivers.
Drivers in Wickham are very concerned about the impact upon the withdrawal of the grandfather rights,
upon their trade, and many are concerned that the impact of this policy will be
that some of the experienced, very senior drivers will leave
the trade and it will also mean that many will be reluctant to
come into the trade.
So my question is, was an assessment carried out in
respect of the economic and social impact that this policy
would have on existing drivers, and what was done to mitigate in
in terms of mitigation of such impact?
Thank you, Councillor, for that question.
Cllr Mark Winn - 1:43:10
I mean, one of the main mitigations, really,
were the fact that the grandfather rights
were extended from 10 to 12 years,
and for wheelchair accessible vehicles to 15 years.
And for the enhancement requirement,
when that comes forward,
there won't be any time limit on those at all
in terms of vehicles.
But as I said, if you sort of,
This was a thing that was in consultation for a very long time.
Grandfather rights are not in there for perpetuity.
They are to work to transition towards what we needed to do.
We needed to balance the driver's needs
and the driver's futures against accessibility.
And I feel that we've really done that in what we've done here.
I mean, as I said, in terms of replacement vehicles,
a search of Google shows that there are many different specs of vehicles.
I think probably some of them are looking for ones in London
and thinking how much they cost.
But you don't need to do that.
We're not mandating what vehicles they use.
So hopefully they can find an affordable option that they can go forward with.
And we can keep those drivers running and doing the great job that they do
on behalf of the public.
Thank you.
Moving on to Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Planning, Councillor Peter Strachan.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:44:27
Do you have anything to add to your report?
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Peter Strachan - 1:44:34
Yes, if I may just add one brief item.
The Planning Advisory Service, PINS, provides a free consultancy to authorities on the progress through local plan production.
and I'm pleased to say that we had a very recent meeting with the PINS team
who concluded that our progress towards our local plan through Reg 19 in July
are well on track. So that's a very comforting thought that we're actually
making progress in a difficult time scale.
Can you raise your hands if you would like to ask a question?
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:45:18
Cllr Mark Roberts - 1:45:31
Councillor Mark Robbins. Thank you Chairman. The recently published housing and employment
position statement refers to 15 ,000 additional homes from increased density in towns and
that necessarily means higher rise developments in those town centres. But in the site survey
there were no sites identified at this stage.
At the GIH committee, we were told that this figure
aligns with the council's ambitious plans
for town centre regeneration.
But we haven't seen those plans at this stage.
I know residents in my ward and probably many other towns
around the Buckinghamshire would want to know
what that means in practise in their areas.
And I'm sure that we'd like to know more about that
before the section 19 draught local plan is published
at that stage.
So can you tell us when we might be able to learn
about those ambitious regeneration plans
that were referred to?
Cllr Peter Strachan - 1:46:32
Yeah, my understanding is that until we get to reg 19
at the back end of July, then,
which is when we will be presented with the draught plan,
we will know more.
But what I would encourage you to do
are to attend the regular briefings
where questions can be asked.
So as the plan does unfold,
you can be kept up to speed with how it's developing.
But your question at this stage is a bit premature
because we're not at the stage of announcing that.
Councillor David Moore.
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:47:08
The Labour government decided to impose 95 ,000 homes
without any mass funding for infrastructure,
Cllr David Moore - 1:47:16
no funding for any major roads, for GPs, for schools.
There is not that adequate support.
And it's good to see Laura Kirk -Smith, MP for Elsbury,
say that infrastructure is needed for this target.
So will her government go and support
that infrastructure funding despite defunding us
by over 40 million?
Of course, with the fire service cuts,
infrastructure matters.
So will the cabinet member lobby hard central government
and make a clear message that you've got to fund
the infrastructure?
because we alone can't do it and this housing target is unsustainable. Thank you.
Cllr Peter Strachan - 1:47:49
Yes, thank you. You can be assured that we will be lobbying central government
for that kind of support. Traditionally, colleagues will know that government
provides additional funding in addition to section 106 and still funding which
of course is the developers contribution and past governments have made available
to authorities additional funding to top that up, to provide exactly the kind of infrastructure
that we know we need to make any form of development successful. So thank you for your question.
We are aware of it. We will be lobbying government and we are very hopeful that the current government
puts in place the kind of funding mechanisms which past governments have done to make development
successful.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:48:39
Thank you. Moving on to Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transport, Councillor Thomas
Broome. Do you have anything to add to your report?
Cllr Thomas Broom - 1:48:45
Thank you, Chairman. Just to say that as the weather improves, our residents will start
to see us moving into deployment of the capital programme that we approved at our recent budget
meeting that will deliver 120 million pound investment into capital projects
across the county. It will significantly increase the amount of capital work that
we do. I would just caution of course that as we are doing more work on the
roads as the weather improves it does mean that there is some additional
disruption as we do have to close sections of roads to work on it but we
We are cognizant of that, we are doing what we can
to get utility companies to work around
the important resurfacing works that we are doing.
But obviously if any residents have issues
with that disruption, you can make a report
to the Street Works team through the FixMyStreet app.
If you'd like to ask Councillor Broome a question,
please raise your hand.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:49:47
Councillor Sheeran -Bakeman. Thank you, Chairman. Once the extension of the voice e -scooter
trial for Elsbury and High Wycombe is noted, several significant operational concerns remain
Cllr Sherrilyn Bateman - 1:50:12
unaddressed. Please clarify the key performance indicators established for the extension of
trial and identify who is responsible for holding Voi accountable for the
performance failures. Residents and myself have reported persistence issues
including abandoned scooters left for up to four weeks and a consistent lack of
response to complaints submitted to Voi using their online system by email and
for BC Transport Strategy team. Can you also confirm the date when the
repainting of the pavement markings for approved parking spaces will be worked
upon. Can you put on record when residents can expect full responses and
corrective actions regarding these matters? The final email I received
yesterday stated there are no KPIs and no target dates. I thank you for your
Cllr Thomas Broom - 1:51:12
time. Thank you very much Councillor. Yes so this is obviously the trial that
We've been running for some time in terms of e -scooters
in certain places around the county.
That provider for that had to change rather suddenly,
I think a year or so ago.
And so, Voi has taken over.
And as you say, there are some issues
that we're working through on that.
I think the team here at Bucks has been responsive to that.
I am consistently briefed on where we are
in terms of getting Voi to make the improvements
that we want them to make.
And we will obviously continue with that process.
I think in terms of specific dates for,
for example, remarking, I doubt that we would be seeing
all of that happen at the same time.
So that will almost certainly be happening
as a phased set of works.
So I'm very happy to look at the detail of that.
but fundamentally it's about, I think, the team from Bucks
making sure that we are taking concerns
that are raised with us by residents
and making sure that VOY is responding to those.
I think that's what we have been doing
and I'm absolutely happy to give the commitment
that we will continue to make sure
that they are responding to concerns from residents.
Moving on to Councillor Mazumon -Losei.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:52:33
Thank you Mr Chairman. I think cabinet member must be a hard job.
With regard to the winter, we've got a lot of potholes. What are you doing to try to cover these potholes?
Cllr Maz Hussain - 1:52:47
And my second question is with regard to temporary traffic lights.
How can we only go four main roads and most of the weeks we will have two main road traffic lights
almost every other weekend, like 8 .40.
and it just traffic blocked up whole town.
Can we work on it?
How can we manage this traffic lights better way?
Maybe nighttime because sometimes they're there
for whole weekend when no one is working.
It's something going, not working very well
with the temporary traffic lights,
so we need to look into it.
No, thank you.
Look, two really, really important questions there.
So first of all, in terms of potholes,
Cllr Thomas Broom - 1:53:29
I can't remember which of them,
but one of our local papers has just run a storey
about quite how significant the spike was
in defects emerging at the beginning of the year.
This was caused by basically a two week period
where we had sub -zero temperatures every single night,
and then some of the heaviest rainfall we've ever seen
in that part of the year.
As we've worked through that,
we've been consistently increasing the amount of resource
that we have out on the network.
We, since I last spoke at one of these meetings,
we've actually crossed the threshold
where we have now more than doubled the resource
that we would normally have on the network.
In March, we repaired over 2 ,000 defects,
and we are powering on with a number
of different treatment types so that we can get
these potholes filled as quickly as we possibly can.
We are still working through that backlog
because it was such an extraordinary number
that came through in such a short period of time.
But I think we have deployed a fantastic set of resources.
I think it shows the strength of our overall arrangements
on highways because we've been able to bring in teams
from all over the country who are now working
in Buckinghamshire alongside local providers,
doing specialist treatments like MASTEC,
like heat treatment and the like,
which is allowing us to cover more ground
than a lot of other local authorities
in the time that we have.
Critically though, as I mentioned before,
what we did as a council, well, most of us as a council,
a few weeks ago, was to endorse
the 120 million pound road programme.
That is how we fix potholes in the long run,
by making sure that they don't emerge in the first place
because we have more and more
of our network properly resurfaced.
Now, I have to say this wasn't universally endorsed by this council.
Anyone who's out and about and sees our crews doing resurfacing works over the summer should
note that the Liberal Democrat group voted against the programme and therefore against
those resurfacing works.
To move on to your point about disruption caused by, predominantly by utility companies,
although as I say a little bit more from the resurfacing work that we are doing as well,
We've got a big change coming very soon,
which is the introduction of the lane rental scheme,
which will massively increase the cost
for utility companies who book out road space
for weeks at a time and then only work on it for two days.
The problem we have under the current arrangements
is that somewhat ridiculously,
because the level of the fine was set
about 30 or 40 years ago and has never been uprated,
we can basically only fine them a couple of hundred quid
when they're behaving in this way.
The lane rental scheme will allow us to charge
2 ,500 pounds a day for them to use the road,
for them to work on the road surface,
which will mean that they have a direct financial incentive
to minimise the amount of time they are clogging up
the roads with their temporary traffic lights.
And when they step outside of the permits,
instead of that paltry amount that we're currently
allowed to fine, we can levy fines up to £10 ,000. So that I hope will make a
really big difference. I completely understand that there are certain places
like Wickham and Aylesbury where the sort of the physical number of roads
mean that disruption from utility companies has an outsized effect and of
course I do get residents writing to me and local members such as yourself but I
I really think that the lane rental scheme
will allow us to make a big difference on this.
And we are hoping that we will be able
to make an announcement on that going live very shortly.
Thank you, moving on to cabinet member for community,
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:57:25
yeah, sorry, cabinet member for environment
and climate change and waste, Councillor Adeyozhi -Bogan.
Any questions?
Thank you very much, Chairman.
Cllr Adekunle Osibogun - 1:57:40
If I could just give a quick update in addition to my report.
The reuse at our HRC since Florence Nightingale's
withdrawal from the contract has resulted in us
having FCC take over the HRC in Aston Clinton.
But the reuse at High Wycombe,
which we haven't got a charity covering at the moment,
we're currently looking to get off takers to carry that on.
and residents can continue to bring their items
forward to the reuse centre,
which will then be processed accordingly.
The intention is to have, this is an interim solution,
the intention is to have a charity taken over that service
on a permanent basis, and hopefully continue to encourage
our residents to bring their items over for reuse.
Thank you.
Happy to take questions.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:58:32
Councillor Anna Crabtree.
Thank you, Chairman.
The draught local plan documents show that
due to forecast house building,
Cllr Anna Crabtree - 1:58:47
Buckinghamshire's population is now expected to increase
by over 130 ,000 by 2045.
Can Councillor Osiboggan confirm that this population
increase is factored into the climate change
and air quality strategy,
and is planned to be fully mitigated before 2050
to allow the Council's net zero targets to be met?
If adjustments to the strategy are likely to be necessary,
when will this be reviewed and when will the required
actions be taken?
Thank you.
Well, thank you very much for your question.
Cllr Adekunle Osibogun - 1:59:16
The draught local plan is currently in my,
currently under consultation.
On the climate change and strategy net zero target,
I'm happy to come back to you with a written response on that.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 1:59:34
Councillor Patrick Freely. Thank you, Chairman. Members will be aware
Cllr Patrick Fealey - 1:59:44
that fly tipping remains persistent and a damaging issue, particularly in our rural
communities, affecting both the environment and the quality of life for our residents.
Can a cabinet member outline how it's strengthening its reinforcement approach to prevent and
tackle fly tip in and explain the key factors
that are contributing towards this continuing occurrence
and environmental crime.
Thank you very much, I'm Councillor Feeley.
Cllr Adekunle Osibogun - 2:00:13
I must re -emphasise that the council continues
to maintain a zero tolerance policy to fly tip in.
And if anybody within the county has caught fly tip in,
we will not hesitate to prosecute.
The main sources of our evidence, we do have cameras,
sensitive cameras dotted in certain areas.
These cameras are movable, so we can deploy them as at where
and when necessary.
We also do engage in what we call back diving.
That's whereby we go to the scene and go and investigate
the material and find out what evidence we can find from that.
We also do rely on witness testimonies from residents
and observers who may have seen the event happen.
We do continue to encourage our residents to please
report any flight -tipping incident they have
in their local area on Fix My Street.
If we are able to get sufficient evidence to prosecute,
I can assure you that whoever is convicted
will not only face a possibility of repaying
the costs of clearing that waste,
but will also be saddled with a heavy fine
of which the list amount, or the maximum amount
we can have for our FPNs is 1 ,000 pounds,
which we do not hesitate to levy on them.
Going forward, what we are hoping to do
to improve enforcement of flight tipping
is to continue to strengthen our works
with the other partner agencies, such as the police,
to tackle the crime criminal syndicates
that engage in this illicit crime.
Would also continue to improve our reporting systems
so that residents can report to us faster and better.
We're increasing the number of cameras we would have
and be able to deploy that.
We would also be increasing our investigation
in targeted areas which we know are notorious
for fly tipping amongst other measures we're taking.
Thank you very much for that question.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:02:19
Thank you. Moving on to cabinet member for communities, Councillor Stephen Ball. Do you have anything to add to your report?
Cllr Steve Bowles - 2:02:32
Yes, if I could just add a couple of things, Chairman. You'll see from my report that I attended the Buckinghamshire Faith Forum event to mark the Holocaust Memorial Day.
but I did also attend the staff Iftar here and also the community Iftar in High Wycombe.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:03:00
Councillor Jonathan Walters. Thank you Chairman. With the new parking
Cllr Jonathan Waters - 2:03:14
enforcement service starting on the 1st of June with areas outside of town
centres start to have their yellow line parking restrictions enforced. I like
many council of all parties have issues around schools with double yellow lines
being ignored by drivers systematically as there is no evidence that
restrictions will be enforced. The restrictions are there for a reason for
the safety of children outside of schools. Can you confirm that the new
team will give this issue significant focus before a serious accident happens.
Thank you.
Yep.
Cllr Steve Bowles - 2:03:51
Thank you for that question.
Councillor Walters.
Yep.
As you know that following the decision by cabinet, I'm pleased to report that progress has been made with that.
and I can assure you that the new parking enforcement
by ACPOA, they will be used,
they have got a comprehensive approach
to parking enforcement.
We'll be full recruitment of civil enforcement officers,
use of electric vehicles, camera cars,
electric mopeds to go round,
and schools will be one of the focus points.
Because I know from my own experience near where I live,
There's parking on corners of the roads, on the double yellow lines, making it difficult for cars to come out.
It's just an accident waiting to happen.
So I can assure you that the level of enforcement will increase under the new contract.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:04:54
Thank you. Moving on to Councillor Andrew Huxley.
Thank you.
Thank you Chairman.
I have got several issues with this one but my main concern is that is it right that the
Cllr Andy Huxley - 2:05:10
new crisis and resilience fund which replaces the household support fund has reduced funding
from government?
and if that is the case, how can we mitigate that?
Yeah, thank you, Councillor Huxley.
Cllr Steve Bowles - 2:05:31
The government is reducing the funding to us, which supports those experiencing financial hardship.
It's combined the Household Support Fund and the Discretionary Housing Fund,
but it's the same value as we had with the Household Support Fund.
The funding has reduced by 600 ,000 over the past two years,
and that, as I say, it reduces the funding
to those experiencing financial hardship
which this government purports to support.
The new reduced grant comes with more specific conditions
and expectations, and it's targeted towards support
for those experiencing a sudden financial shock.
However, despite the reduced funding, we're committed
to support our residents and communities
that are suffering financial hardship.
And to that end, we are introducing a new financial
resilience fund in year one
to help our communities manage the cost of living.
And this will be delivered in collaboration with the heart
of bucks and will continue to support those who need it through alternative provision
also, including the holiday activities and food programme, our helping hand service and
providing access for those that need it, need debt and money advice and point them towards
citizens advice. So those, that is what we are doing to sort of mitigate the reduction
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:07:15
in funding. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to cabinet member for resources
Councillor Robert Carrington. Do you have anything to add? Thank you very much Mr.
Cllr Robert Carington - 2:07:23
Chairman and yes I have one item. I also would sort of dialling back the clock
several hours like to add my thanks to our farmers. I mean it would be
particularly odd if I didn't comment on this. I have a slight passion for this
area. But this links to the last motion in November. One of the recommendations there
was that the Council's procurement team look into exploring within the procurement act,
within the grounds of the procurement act 2023, of how we can have local suppliers drawn
from our farming community.
And just a quick update on that,
the Strategic Procurement Team have now developed
a supplier list for selecting food suppliers
to cater at council organised events,
as demonstrated earlier today and two weeks ago.
And I highly recommend it,
I think the quality has definitely improved.
All of these suppliers are obviously
from suppliers within Buckinghamshire,
and they all must meet our key standards,
such as FSA food hygiene rating of four or five,
responsible food handling,
and a clear business legitimacy and proven capability.
This is now a council -wide approach
within our procurement team,
and is one which will be
in more future events and make certain that public money
is spent locally supporting local businesses.
and I would just want to end with a quick thank you to our procurement team
and the officers who did a fantastic job in organising the event today along with
certain councillors, Councillor Grom on that front, so quick thank you there.
Please can you raise your hands if you'd like to ask a question?
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:09:19
I have a question regarding efficiency of planning searches.
Cllr Dominic Pinkney - 2:09:33
The Council has successfully migrated Wycombe area data to the uniform system with the Elsbury
data following in the summer of this year.
However, residents in my ward of Amersham and Cheshire are still reporting that delays
in the planning and land charges department
are stalling property sales.
How specifically will this be,
will this consolidated system reduce the processing times
for residents and when will they see
the streamlined workflows promised in your report?
Thank you very much for the question,
Cllr Robert Carington - 2:10:05
which obviously is very technical in nature,
so I'm obviously not going to be able
to give you a full amount.
I have many items under my head,
but unfortunately the full data
of that particular, it's not one of them.
But what I would recommend is tuning in
to the Finance and Resources Committee,
where the IT strategy is being discussed tomorrow.
And this is one of the things which is sort of covered
within the umbrella.
So there will be, some more information
will be covered there.
But please also do email me that as well, please.
Moving on to Councillor Dean Field.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:10:39
Thank you, Chair.
The former Bucks Sports and Social Club site has been a long -standing issue.
I think when it started I had dark hair.
But anyway, so Councillor Peter Strachan and I are committed to bring this matter
to a satisfactory conclusion for the best interests of Stoke Mannerville community
and the wider Buckinghamshire Council area, which still doesn't include Olney, by the way.
Regrettably, some members of the Liberal Democrat have chosen to second -guess our approach and
Cllr Kathy Gibbon - 2:11:18
circulate inaccurate information on social media. In contrast, Minor Peter's focus is
firmly remaining on the priorities of Stoke Mandeville residents, rather than engaging
in last -minute interventions and alarmist commentary. I therefore seek an assurance
from the cabinet member that the bid submitted by Stoke Manifield Parish
Council along with the community values it represents is given the highest
priority. Thank you very much for that question
Cllr Robert Carington - 2:11:50
Councillor Field and no I fully share your sentiments there I think it's I
have to say I think you and your ward colleague Councillor Strachan have
behaved incredibly amorably in this. I think this highlights the diligence.
People on the other side laughing, I think it's actually quite disgraceful.
You've got two ward councillors who are working diligently for their community,
they are working with the parish council and you laugh at that.
I'm sorry, that's really pretty, pretty poor form.
Apologies, Councillor Carrington. We were laughing at the fact that you couldn't pronounce your colleague, Helen, correctly.
Councillor Morgan, can you behave yourself?
I don't like people just butting in.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:12:32
If you would like to speak, you raise your hand
and I'll come to you.
And if there's a point of order, you raise it.
Thank you.
I'm actually very glad on that.
So instead of laughing at that,
Cllr Robert Carington - 2:12:44
you're laughing at a speech impediment from the matter.
So, okay, you're just making that a lot better.
So thank you for showing how lovely you all are.
But now focusing on the actual matter.
So the work you have done has been fantastic.
And it was, I think, indicated in the meeting we had in March,
which was attended by the parish council and by two ward
councillors, I think it was incredibly productive.
And we heard your assurances, and those have been considered.
And there will be further news in the summer.
But this really does highlight the fact that diligent work
behind the scenes by councillors of all sides,
even though some people find that amusing.
But I think that is why we are all here.
And I really would highlight that it is the quiet work
behind the scenes which gets things done like QVR, like this.
So thank you very much for that question.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:13:37
I'm moving on to Cabinet Member for Education and Children's Services, Councillor Carl Jackson.
Do you have anything to add to your report?
Nothing further to add.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you.
Can you raise your hands if you'd like to ask a question?
Thank you, Chairman. I would like to ask about the situation regarding recruitment and retention
Cllr Julia Wassell - 2:14:06
of social workers in service. I know that a lot of effort has gone into this through
various means, but it is a very important part of the Ofsted improvement plan to
ensure that there is consistency for children going through our children's
services pathway and not to have their service punctuated by high turnover of
staff. So please can you update us on this and whether you will be involved
with any of the current inquiries into social work education such as the independent inquiry
and the social work England inquiry. Thank you. Thank you Councillor Wassell. I'll come
Cllr Carl Jackson - 2:14:58
back to your exact involvement with the inquiries. In terms of social work recruitment, this
actually came up during budget scrutiny quite a bit as well in terms of the progress being
made of reducing the number of agency staff we're relying on and having more permanent
staff. There are a lot of efforts going into that. I'll be happy to share with you the
figures we had from budget scrutiny and any update we can provide. But the point you make
is right, because obviously there's a lot of focus on making the service financially
sustainable in terms of reducing reliance on agency staff. But this is also about a
continuity point for the children we look after. If we're trying to provide stability,
if we're trying to do for the children in our care what we want to do for our own children,
is providing that consistency and having a different social worker every week is not going to help that.
So it is an ongoing effort. I will very happily provide you with the figures from budget scrutiny and any updated figures I can provide you with.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:15:55
Moving on to Councillor Simon Raas.
Cllr Simon Rouse - 2:16:04
Thank you Mr Chairman. Earlier in the meeting an extraordinary moment happened where a Liberal Democrat Councillor referred to the explosion in our population due to our housing targets,
expressing concern about the climate.
Now I'm worried about the climate,
but I'm more concerned about the fact
we won't have enough GPs, schools, or roads.
And given this government has reneged on its commitment
to our special educational needs school,
can you tell me as lead member how confident you are
the government will fund the schools we're gonna need
to support the 95 ,000 homes, plus the additional homes
that if the Lib Dems got their way,
they'd impose on Buckinghamshire?
Thank you, Councillor Rous.
Cllr Carl Jackson - 2:16:34
Well, we're seeing areas of the county
where we think a significant increase in population already and that's before we
start having the impact of obviously 95 ,000 homes over that period. As has
been pointed out the local plan comes with a demand for sites and for numbers
but little support in the accompanying infrastructure. As has been referred to
to already including by Councillor Strachan, I don't think we can say we are
confident on that at the moment but we are going to need this infrastructure
particularly for those areas of the county, which are going to see their population increase quite significantly.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:17:15
Our members can tend to note the cabinet members' report.
Thank you.
We will now take a brief comfort break for ten minutes and then we're better.
Twenty -five to. We should be back. Thank you.

8 Reports from Cabinet Members

9 Notices of Motion

Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:17:35
Thank you. We now proceed to the five motions we have before us. Please note I do not intend
I believe it is important to get these dealt with before the end of the Council year.
You will be also aware that there have been two amendments submitted.
Therefore please can comments be made in a brief and two points.
In the interest of fairness, I have used my discretion to alter the running order of the
motions to follow.
One, enhanced use of business rates hardship fund.
Number two is going to be rooftop solar and batteries.
Number three is going to be supporting a new special free school for Buckinghamshire.
Number four is going to be community land trust.
Number five is going to be tree protection.
question.
Tom or Chris, Councillor Cornell is having a problem with a microphone. Could you just
I second notice of motion, enhance use of business rate for hardship fund and to support Buckinghamshire
business following government changes to business rate. Can I ask the leader Stephen Broadwind
to confirm he formally moves the motion? Yes thank you chairman, formally moved. And can
I ask the seconder, Councillor Alex Collingwood to confirm he formally seconds the motion?
I've already seconded the motion, Chairman.
Cllr Alex Collingwood - 2:20:12
Councillor Steve Broadman, would you like to move the motion then?
You have an amendment at the time.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:20:22
Cllr Steven Broadbent - 2:20:26
Members, I bring this motion that's fairly self -explanatory given the fact that under
my administration this council will do all it can to boost the economic prosperity of
the county for the good of all of us, our people and our communities.
There was a real issue at the moment with the huge rise in costs that have
been imposed not only by global events but also by national decision -making.
Some of those are outlined at the last budget such as the impact of national
insurance costs for example. On top of that there have been changes nationally
to business rates. Business rates are collected by the council but importantly
not set by the council and yet the revaluation or the change to these rates has put an unexpected
significant hike in business operating costs out there for a lot of our businesses. The
latest books, data, economic observatory report, the latest business survey for our county
that says 65 % of our businesses are less confident
than they were before the budget about the year to come.
75 % net are saying they're seeing increased costs
and that their biggest fears are on the increase in costs
and their inability or their difficulties
in being able to find skilled staff.
That's why, and we've talked a lot today
about the various work we're doing,
from retail revival for smaller businesses on the high street, through to support in our
rural economy, hearing about the investment that we've worked so hard to get to boost our real
high -tech manufacturing elements around Silverstone. There's an awful lot of work
that we are doing in this council to help support our business community and here's the next one.
This is an opportunity for us to make it very clear out there that whilst the local taxpayer
cannot and should not bear the burden of the increase in the business rates that
is set by the Labour government, what we can do is use the proceeds and the
ability of our sound financial management and flexibility to ensure
that businesses when they faced points of hardship that might need some rate
relief, might need some flexibility in the payment so that they can continue to
deliver the service they do that has a direct impact on our places, they can
continue to employ people and pay the business rates they were already paying,
then we have an opportunity through our hardship fund to make sure they can
access that help. This is not a dependency, this is not handouts from the
local taxpayer, it is only as it says in the motion, the hardship from criteria
looks at each and every case individually, has to see evidence of the
efforts made by the business to overcome the hardship and must be clearly in the
benefits of the Buckinghamshire taxpayer, for example, keep that business open, keep
that employment happening before anything would any assistance would be
given. The government have moved on having made this choice for all
businesses, on some hospitality businesses, pubs, for example, after a national campaign.
That does leave, though, an inordinate amount of non -pub type hospitality businesses and
all businesses who are having to grapple with the difficulties of the financial shock of
having to deal with much higher business rates.
We can't pay for them and nor should we, but what we can do is seek to smooth that out
when hardship is genuine and do what we can to support those businesses because they're
so important to our long -term future.
So you'll see that I've put in here that with the will of this council, we'll make that
voice heard into government to say the assessment and the change you've done for pubs and other
elements of hospitality needs to be expanded further at a time when our businesses are
struggling due to other costs that are rising.
It says that we will use the hardship fund
and make sure businesses are aware
of the proportionate help that is available to them
as bills go out.
And of course, make sure that we continue
to review the effectiveness of this,
both in terms of the applicants and making sure
that the business community of Buckinghamshire stay strong.
It's a very simple measure.
Tax has gone up and risks over taxing out of business
the hard working men and women who run the businesses
in this county and who work in them.
This is my ask of you to support using our hardship fund
to support them to keep our economy strong.
So I recommend this to you.
Councillor Collingwood, do you reserve your right
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:25:42
to speak now or afterwards? I was having a right to speak at the end, Chairman. Thank you.
Cllr Alex Collingwood - 2:25:48
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:25:51
Thank you. Now open the debate. Two minutes per speaker. Those who want to speak, please
raise your hand and keep them raised. Thank you.
Councillor Jonathan Waters, would you like to start?
Thank you, Chairman, and also thank you to the Leader of the Council, because I think
Cllr Jonathan Waters - 2:26:14
across this council, we see disproportionate amounts of
tax going on businesses with physical premises.
And quite often they're the small businesses,
they're the lifeblood, they are the potential of
growing the national economy.
And for us, any way that we can help them,
that is very, very important.
And actually to call and to support the leader in terms
of writing to ministers and local MPs to try and get
support and changes within the assessments which have
been done is really, really important.
So I think from this side, from our group, we would be
very, very happy to support this motion and look after
our local businesses.
It is disproportionate to actually make, look at one
type of business and another and deal with it in a
way. How can you do that and actually feel that you're being fair just because
it seems a little bit higher coverage because it might be a pub rather than
some other business which is there. So I think what we need to do is move forward
support this be united as a council be very strong that businesses employment
are the things that we need too much battering from the fuel prices we're
getting now from business rates, from national insurance.
These keep adding up and shock after shock after shock is not
sustainable in a small business.
It cannot move.
We're offline and Internet businesses are not taking those
bills and that's really a disadvantage overall.
For us as well obviously as a council,
it's not like even the business rates which are coming in,
that we are actually keeping so that we could plough that into economic benefits for these businesses.
If we could that would be at least something that we can't. So we would support this. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Councillor Ennio -Sueffers.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:28:23
Cllr Anja Schaefer - 2:28:30
Thank you Mr Chairman. I also rise in support of this motion. Small business, small and medium -sized
businesses are the backbone of the economy.
And a lot of our residents rely on employment.
In fact, a lot of our residents run small and
medium -sized enterprises, but a lot of them work for
them as well.
They provide the services.
They provide the goods that a lot of residents rely on.
So obviously, we need to support them.
They are having it tougher than they used to.
The business rate system has been unfair to businesses with physical premises for quite some time.
We have had the national insurance contributions rise and currently businesses all over the country are really struggling with the increased price for fuel,
the increased cost of pretty much everything.
So I'm fully in support of doing what we can as a council
to support them where it is needed,
where there is hardship.
I'm also in support of lobbying with government
that the needs of small and medium -sized enterprises
need to be taken more seriously.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Moving on to Councillor Robin Stuxbury.
I'm frankly the leader of the motion.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:29:52
I think maybe this motion is too early really
Cllr Robin Stuchbury - 2:29:57
because we really don't know what the shocks are going to be
to the economy further down the line
as stated by members about what's going on
in the Middle East in fuel prices.
Not only will that be a shock to these businesses,
it'll be a shock to our residents.
So I know the constitution limits the leader
to come back within six months with something
which might we might need to be looking at how we do some additional I think
it's only right to ask for these matters to be looked at again because the
situation we got now is is somewhat more tardy than it was even when the
government passed their legislation not to take that all into account would be a
miss if we were to remove the politics from it entirely and why wouldn't we as
a local authority which to support our constituents.
That would be the right approach.
I do worry though, leader, that this is gonna be something
we're gonna have to return for in some way
because with the fuel prices,
we've had the farming community out here
and the price of diesel has gone up,
which means the price of food is going up.
It means the price of everything's going up.
We may need to have a special dispensation
for the leader to bring something further forward
because I really do worry
because people with no money can't buy anything,
and benefits be benefits.
Low wages and that are what they are.
So I think there's a whole question out there.
This is part of it.
In supporting this, it's only part of the question.
There's a really big question coming our way.
So I hope the leader can find some way
to bring that back at a later stage,
because we cannot change government budgets.
But I think even any member of parliament
would want to look at this,
because I think the hourglass is changing and it's not a criticism of anything.
So I hope that it's agreed and I also hope the leader can come back with some additional later in the year about fuel.
Thank you. Councillor Muhann.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:32:01
Thank you Mr Chairman. I also rise to support this motion.
Cllr Frank Mahon - 2:32:11
I think this increase in tax to me is a bully tax, purely because of the actions of my fellow
publicans who barred every Labour MP from their pubs up and down the country.
But I want to put in context, for example my pub. The average pint is £5 .50. The government
gets about £1 .40, £1 .45. We as a publican and business owner get 18p. 18p. In the winter
that is probably 10p because of the rise in interest rates.
You can see, and pubs are not just a place to drink, they're places that raises
money for charity, they're the hubs of many rural villages and towns.
The big killer in the pub is the 20 % VAT increase.
Every other country, including Ireland, that is at single figures.
So I stand again to support this motion. Thank you very much.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:33:37
Councillor Mahan, I just want clarification. Did you just declare an interest as well?
Thank you.
Moving on to Councillor Simon Reyes.
Thank you Mr Chairman.
And I feel incredibly proud to be part of a council that is taking this step because
Cllr Simon Rouse - 2:33:58
we need to be clear that this business rate impact is the crest of a tsunami of changes
that businesses have been dealing with ever since July 2024.
First, it was the National Insurance Employer Tax Rate.
And that tax rate damaged employers beyond belief.
Because what it did was it raised the threshold and
tackled the low -paid jobs in this country that needed
to be supported.
It was then swiftly followed by what can only be
described as an employment rights bill determined to
create unemployment by making it almost impossible
for businesses to absorb the risk of employing people.
Then it was followed by what can only be described as a
labour reaction, which is they celebrate spending everybody else's money.
Recently the chancellor celebrated everything that she'd done.
Every single part of it was money that taxpayers gave to her.
It wasn't anything they'd done to drive growth.
And the proof of that, I'm afraid, is the minimum wage increases.
We all want people to be paid more.
But it's businesses that pay that minimum wage, it's not government.
And it's those businesses that were already struggling with the employment,
with the national insurance rise, and
already struggling with the employment rights bill.
So the truth is, this is a tsunami of change
that is coming to businesses, and coming
because it's a government that does not understand business.
We have entrepreneurs are, that said,
we don't need any more restaurants in Britain.
That is what this government is doing.
And I have to say and congratulate Councillor Waters,
because that was a speech that was from somebody that's
been in business and understands the choice for businesses
in this existential threat is to increase prices or to cut
costs.
And that's going to lead to us being in the foothills of that we are in the foothills already of an employee employment crisis in
Buckinghamshire that could be catastrophic
So I asked the labour members in particular speak to your cabinet member a member of Parliament speak to those ambitious MPs
They need to get this government to act to support businesses now
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:35:57
Point of order mr. Chairman. Thank you councilman P in key
Mr Chairman, I didn't declare an interest at the beginning of the meeting because the motion
Cllr Frank Mahon - 2:36:10
states non -pub hospitality. Sorry if I made a mistake. No problem, thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:36:18
Councillor Collingwood, because you were the seconder of the motion, you have two minutes.
Thank you Chairman, I rise to support the motion and to point to Councillor Stutchbury. It is very
Cllr Alex Collingwood - 2:36:28
much directly needed now because the actual increases went through on the 6th of April,
so the businesses are paying the physical increases now. Hence why we are acting in
motion today because it's actually direct and relevant now. The motion actually highlights
that over 400 businesses will be impacted in the hospitality area in Bucks. But as you probably
worked out, two of the businesses, Oysters in Marlborough Bottom and Penguin Fish Bar,
as in two of the fish and chip shops, are directly excluded from the supposed little
stockpile Labour government have given to them. So, while others in the sectors don't get it either.
I'm actually obviously been raised this with Joy Morrissey to work in Parliament and then asking
her along with the leader to then work to get the Labour government to look at actually helping and
supporting the businesses, rather than having a devastating impact it already is.
Having spoken to the Chamber of Commerce in for Marlowe in the whole area, they represent
over a hundred businesses and what I actually found was it's not just hospitality, it is
all businesses that are affected.
To give you some context, one of my businesses in Marlowe is called 23 Living.
They employ 12 staff and they now play the same business rates as Starbucks, or again
the same business rates as Starbucks. Flow, one of my community gyms based on
the glow park industrial states and nowhere near high streets is now playing
almost 100 % extra in business rates. My local garage yesterday then pointed out
to me that they're not actually taking any more apprentices because actually
because they can't afford it because of the business rates. In Kenshin Farm today
theirs are actually now paying business rates going forward. We are going to try
and look to hold a series of events.
And I think the important bit for me is helping
and spoiling the information of how you access
the community fund and then working to actually
do that community fund.
I urge to all the other parties here,
including the Labour group, to actually support this.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:38:35
Councillor Stephen Brown, how big is your,
the mover of the motion, would you like to come back?
Yes, maybe if I just come back with a couple of,
Cllr Steven Broadbent - 2:38:46
a couple of points. I think the speakers have been very encouraging on the whole.
I agree with Councillor Collingwood. This is hurting now which is why I read
you those business survey results earlier. This matters.
Buckinghamshire economy we have been growing for a long time and that
support is not just because it's something we would like to do. It makes
such an impact on people, our communities and our families. We just before
Christmas through something called the scale up Institute have been recognised
as the economy second only to London for what they call who have the potential
for scale up businesses that's businesses that have achieved average
annualised growth of more than 20 % a year for three years we've got over 400
of them these same businesses are the ones Councillor Rouse referred to about
where the pain hits they're risking their future investment because
it's either put up prices or reduce costs and that our investment within our
businesses has fallen off a cliff. So I'm really pleased to hear that there's
broad support and I hope it'll be unanimous, including from all members,
including the Labour group, to say you need to think again, government. Those
decisions you've made, it's not passive. This is real. The choice to increase
costs and taxation have a consequence.
You do not want to risk,
given we are a net contributor to treasury in this county,
you do not want to risk that
for a short term gain by overtaxing.
We need our businesses to succeed.
I don't know if we'll go as far as to see
fish and chip shops doing bans of Labour MPs like pubs do,
but we don't want to get there.
But fish and chip shops, as the two you mentioned,
Councillor Conlon were really important. People think everywhere was helped that
was broadly hospitality, it wasn't and actually it comes back to Councillor
Waters point that I think it was you can't treat people so differently when
broadly they're doing the same. It's hard -working people who set up that,
who are employing people and often people who might be our youngsters trying to
get into work for the first time, it might be returners to the workforce who
will be affected and that's why you'll also see and is referencing another I think in
Councillor Jackson's report today the work we do on getting people back into work and skilling
people up for work is important. There's only work if there's a business for them to go and
get a job in so thank you for the comments and I look forward to the support and the motion.
Thank you we vote on the motion those all in favour please raise your hands
Those against?
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:41:34
Any abstentions?
Carried. Thank you.
Moving on to item two, rooftop solar and batteries chip.
Thank you.
Can I ask the proposer, Councillor Ed Gammill, to confirm he formally moves the motion?
Yes, Chairman, I formally move it.
Thank you.
And can I ask the seconder, Councillor Jonathan Walters, to confirm he formally seconds the
motion?
I confirm I second the motion.
Can I ask the proposer, Councillor Ed Gammill, to speak on the motion?
I'll give you about five minutes.
Thank you, Chairman.
If I just start, I think it was Councillor Rouse earlier on
that mentioned that he was worried about climate change,
Cllr Ed Gemmell - 2:42:30
which I think almost everybody in the room is.
And we should be getting more worried.
The latest reports coming out suggesting things
are actually getting worse.
A report only this week has said that we are now,
or scientists are now confirming amok is collapsing,
that's the Gulf Stream and the other streams
that make up amok.
and that that could cause us now to see the oceans start to emit more carbon dioxide,
heating the planet even quicker,
and that if the AMOC actually collapses, it in itself heats the planet by 0 .2 degrees C.
Now, that's all very worrying from the scientific point of view.
The point of the motion, though, is multifaceted.
What we're trying to do is simply encourage solar and batteries to be considered
when every single building is actually built.
We see arguments in the press about the use of agricultural land,
whether we should have solar panels or not on it.
We can see the costs of retrofit,
but it's a no -brainer to encourage all developers
to put the solar panels and the batteries in
as they actually do the work initially.
It's also been shown that when they're doing it,
the houses are, if it's a domestic setting,
the houses are more attractive.
And I've just heard and seen online in these last few days,
because of these issues in Iran,
there are people that aren't even looking at houses now to buy them
if they don't have solar panels on the top when they go to look at them.
And the cost when developers are doing it is low.
It could be as low as 1 % of the built cost,
probably going up to about 3 .5%,
but it makes their buildings more attractive.
It also helps those new residents,
and I think we should seriously be thinking about that today,
to have an easier life in the future.
Firstly, we can see what's happening with the prices
going up due to the war in Iran.
Now, that is affecting everything in life.
The cost of living pressures will be going up.
Bills will be going up later on in the year.
It could, if we're unlucky, already be putting up to
600 pounds onto the average bill.
But if every house has got its solar and batteries in
place, that could all be being defrayed.
And so we're helping people, A, avoid these...
Steve, you must share the joke with us.
I wasn't quite sure what was it.
Oh, sorry.
I thought you were making a laugh at what we were doing.
Anyway, so when those go in,
they avoid the problem there for all of those residents
in that they won't be worried about those cost -of -living costs
and those energy costs going up in the future.
The government has been moving on this but slowly,
and it gives us an opportunity to take the higher ground
to move first to show that we're more worried about our residents,
that we're committed in terms of our climate change
and air quality strategy, and that we want
to get this done even quicker.
So I would urge you to vote for the motion.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:45:33
Councillor Jonathan Walters, would you like to say a few words now or reserve your right?
I'll reserve my right.
Thank you.
I'm opening up the debate, two minutes per person.
Those who'd like to speak, please raise your hand.
Councillor Anna Crabtree, would you?
Thank you, Chairman.
I rise to support this bill because I think it is inherently sensible. As a
Cllr Anna Crabtree - 2:46:00
council and as representatives of our residents we know that climate change
impacts and fossil fuel market volatility are costing us money. Every
time we have to pay for a new flood defence or fill up with a tank of fuel...
Point of order Chairman. It is not a bill, it is a motion, we are not a parliament.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:46:28
Cllr Anna Crabtree - 2:46:31
Every time we have to pay for a new flood defence or fill up with a tank of fuel, we
can see the costs rising and both of these problems can be helped by moving towards greater
electrification of our economy.
Installing renewable energy sources such as solar panels or wind turbines and making the most efficient use of the electricity we have through use of more batteries to smooth usage will save money and help in the Council's ambition to become carbon neutral within the next two decades.
The Future Homes standard is set to make the installation of solar panels on new builds compulsory by 2028 anyway.
We know that putting solar panels on roofs at the time of construction is the cheapest time to do it,
and homeowners will benefit significantly from this technological advance.
We should therefore ensure that Buckinghamshire's local plan embraces and enthusiastically supports solar generation and efficient electricity use.
Placing panels on roofs also has the advantage of sparing our beautiful countryside from the eyesore of solar farms,
So it's no wonder that the campaign for the protection of rural England publicly supported the Lib Dem private members bill that previously encouraged this approach
When something is common sense and coming through the legislative framework anyway
I fail to see how this is a motion we would not want to support. Thank you
Councillor Bruin
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:47:52
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I think that as
with some other nations that we've seen come forward in the past I
Cllr Thomas Broom - 2:47:58
I don't necessarily have an issue with the principle
in the title, but once we get into the motion itself,
we encounter some real and genuine problems.
I think there is an established direction of travel
in terms of rooftop, solar, and we are expecting
some implementation of that to come through
in wider national policy in the months to come.
My concern, as the cabinet member who is looking
after the development consent order process
for the Rosefield Solar Farm,
a massive solar farm being built on agricultural land
with enormous battery storage attached to it,
is that this motion would commit the council
not just to supporting projects like that,
but to encouraging projects like that,
because unfortunately, while it talks about rooftop solar
in the title, in the substance of the motion,
It says that this council believes the council should encourage more renewable energy production and energy storage in the county now
I cannot sign up to a blanket support like that which would cover some of the
environmental vandalism that's being perpetrated by the Secretary of State for energy by forcing through and
proposals like Rosebank solar farm and so many others across the country and
They are incredibly damaging, both to the agricultural land that they effectively destroy,
but also in the long term in terms of the risk of those large -scale battery storage
sites for which we have grave concerns over the potential fire risk in particular, and
also what happens when there is damage and corrosion and the contents of those batteries
seep out and start to devastate the surrounding environment.
So the title is good, but I cannot support a blanket motion.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I'd like to move a motion under 3 .69
that we question now be put.
I second this.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:50:10
Can you give us one minute, please?
Chairman?
We need to resolve this.
I just wanted to correct something.
Am I allowed to correct something that was said?
No, no, we're just dealing with something, thank you.
Councillors, I'm gonna ask Councillor Glen Watson.
It's a bit of a lengthy explanation.
and it's easier for him to explain it to you.
Can I have Councillor's attention, please?
Thank you.
Happily for you and me, not a Councillor.
Sorry.
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 2:51:02
But I will try to explain this position.
What has been proposed and seconded is something you were familiar
with earlier in the meeting, is a motion to,
the motion Councillor Gemmellers raised being put,
I go straight to a vote.
That has been proposed and seconded.
As previously, the Chairman gets to consider whether this has been sufficiently debated
or not, allied to that, whether he considers it may be the will of the meeting to move
to a vote.
On that point, then, if the Chairman considers he is minded to move to consider the point
proposed and seconded, I need to go to a vote.
If that was passed, then you would be voting to have a vote.
Okay, so you get to determine whether you think the matter is insufficiently debated
or whether you want to put the matter to the meeting for their consent to go through.
I'm going to go to the speakers and we go to the vote to see if they would like to vote on it, please.
In which case, Chairman, that being your determination,
you can call upon the meeting to decide whether there is the consent to move to a vote on
the matter and curtail the debate.
Those in favour for the vote.
.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:52:24
Any abstentions?
That vote has been carried and we are going to go for that.
No, sorry.
Before that point, Chairman, I should have explained further,
you've determined that there should go straight to a vote.
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 2:53:19
However, the proposer of the motion gets two further minutes
before you then vote.
This is the last two minutes contribution
from Councillor Gemmel as the proposal of the motion.
That's all right, Chairman.
Councillor Gemmel, you have two minutes.
May I just ask, Chairman, before I get up,
does the seconder get to say anything at all?
No.
No, Chairman.
Cllr Ed Gemmell - 2:53:44
Okay, thank you very much.
We're much shorter debate than we might have thought.
So I think the best thing is to correct
Councillor Broome immediately that there is nothing
within the substantive part of the motion
that applies to general solar.
It very clearly talks about the opportunity
to instal solar panels on all new buildings.
And then it talks only about the universal use
of rooftop solar.
There is no application of it to fields
or to anything else whatsoever.
And the battery section of it talks
about the batteries being complementary
to that rooftop solar.
So there's no danger at all of the issue
that was being raised there.
And I understand the good intention
of it, Councillor Broome,
but there is no issue.
So I think let's look at it.
The reason I actually brought this forward is
there were many councillors on all sides of this room
who came to me to say,
if you put forward something on rooftop solar
on all new builds, I'll support it.
And that came from quite a number of people
all around the room.
And there were others who then said,
I'd be more enthusiastic
if it also included battery storage.
Because battery storage actually helps very much
in the financial side
for anybody that's installing these things.
And on the basis of that,
over the course of the last 12 to 18 months,
that is why I have brought it forward
because it seemed to be there was wide
cross -party support for it.
So I would ask you now,
particularly if you were somebody
who had actually suggested this
or suggested me doing it on both sides,
that you would now vote for something
that's gonna put Buckinghamshire residents ahead,
help them to avoid the problems and the ravages of the increases in cost coming from the Iran war
and help them as well to be more buffeted or more protected against the cost of living crisis
which is going to get worse and be ongoing.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:55:58
Do 14 people wish to have that happen?
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 2:56:39
I wanted some clarity on that.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:56:44
I think it's complementary, not complementary.
I don't think we're proposing to give batteries to people,
are we?
Cllr Justine Fulford - 2:56:56
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 2:57:00
I apologise for the delay members.
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 2:57:17
As a recorded vote has been requested, I will call out each of your names in alphabetical order.
And please say when I do so whether you are for, against,
or whether you wish to abstain from the motion concerned.
Christine Adali.
For.
Sade Addo.
Against.
Khalil Ahmed.
For.
Arman Alam.
against Cameron Anderson against Hazel Arthur Hewitt for Kirsten Ashman
against Parvez Aslan for Muhammad Ayub against Alan Bacon
Cheryl in Bateman for Steve Bowles against Michael Bracken against Peter
against Stephen Broadbent against Thomas Broom against Cole Caesar against Robert
Carrington against David Carroll again Jaspel Chokar against Chris Chilton for
John Chilver again Chirag Chottai for Leslie Clark against Alex Collingwood
against Michael Collins again Caroline Cornell against Anna Crabtree for
Isabel Darby against Dev Dillon against Karen Dixon for Tim Dixon for Penny
Drayton or Mohammed fires for Patrick feel against against Justine
against.
Phil Gomm.
Against.
Gary Hall.
Against.
Clive Harris.
Against.
Carol Heap.
Against.
Matthew Hind.
For.
Thomas Hogg.
Against.
Imran Hussain.
For.
Mahboob Hussain.
Against.
Maz Hussain.
For.
for
Maajid Hussain
for
Niknam Hussain
for
Tufail Hussain
for
Andy Huxley
against
Carl Jackson
against
Jilly Jordan
against
Francis Nella
for
Frank Mahon
against
Peter Martin
against
Wendy Matthews
against
Nidhi Mehta
for
Liu Munga
for
David Moore
against
Susan Morgan
for Maru Mormina Jackson and Catherine Oliver against Ade Osibogan against
Dominic Pinckney Chris pole
so far as Khan Raja Waheed Raja Mark Roberts for Simon Rouse against Anya
Schaffer for Alan Sherwell Gregory Smith for Trevor
Snave Peter Strachan against Robin Stutchbury or Martin Tett for Larissa
for Mark Turner for Gurinder what were for Ashley wait against Heather Wallace
Matthew Walsh Julie Ward Julia was against for Jonathan waters for Michael
West for Stuart Wilson for Mark against.
So there's 41 for 48 against and one abstention. So it's lost.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:01:57
Thank you. We're moving on to item three, supporting a new special free school for Buckinghamshire.
Can I ask the proposal Councillor Carroll -Jackson to confirm he formally moves the motion?
Yes, I
formally move the motion, Chair.
Thank you. Can I ask councillors when I ask a question to stand up and reply please. Thank you.
Moving on to the seconder of the motion, Councillor Matthew Walsh. Do you formally second the motion?
I formally second the motion.
Thank you.
As Proposer of the motion, Councillor Carl Jackson, you have five minutes.
Cllr Carl Jackson - 3:03:06
Thank you, Chairman. In proposing this motion, I'm asking members to support Buckinghamshire Council's efforts to secure the new free special school that we were promised and that our county needs.
Members will be aware of the surging demand to send support. All of us will know residents who are affected by this issue.
What some members might not know is that for every four children who need an EHCP, one
of them will have needs so complex that they need special school place rather than engaging
with mainstream education.
That is why the Council is delivering a 10 -year plan to provide 900 extra special school places.
Many of those extra places we can deliver by expanding existing special schools.
But we are going to struggle to hit our target to meet needs without a new special preschool
on a new site.
In May 2024, the Department for Education approved this Council's application for
a 152 -place special school for children in Buckinghamshire with the most complex needs.
This has since formed a crucial part of our plans to meet those needs, and not just to
support those children, but to do so closer to their homes.
But without warning, in December last year, the DfE cancelled the new special school.
Since then we have seen a series of attempts to try and deflect the blame for that decision.
First, the DfE claimed that the school had been cancelled because no trust sponsor had
been appointed, while neglecting to mention it was their job to appoint one. We know there
was at least four interested trust contacted the DfE and they never heard anything back.
Next, the DfE said the school couldn't be delivered before 2030, perhaps if they had
to any of our correspondence in the 18 -month period after the initial approval, we could
have got it open rather earlier, we estimate, by 2028.
Next it was claimed there was no money for new special schools, but funding was found
for new special schools in other parts of the country, just not in Buckinghamshire.
Next, the three Labour MPs in Buckinghamshire announced that Buckinghamshire is getting
£8 million of extra funding for SEND provision. It sounds good, but it's been given instead
of the 18 to 20 million pound investment that would have come in the form of the
new special school. What is trying to be sold as an 8 million pound bonus for
Buckinghamshire is actually a 10 million pound cut. Finally in January this year
I'm afraid our Labour MPs deployed a new and ambitious tactic. Rather than joining
our efforts to overturn the decision they claimed no new school had ever
been promised and Buckinghamshire council risked misleading families by
same as Special School had been cancelled. It was apparently a figment of our imagination.
Interestingly, that claim came just months after the Member of Parliament for Wycombe had written
a letter to the Secretary of State for Education in which he concluded, and I quote, it is vital
that we move forward with the development of this school to address educational needs in Buckinghamshire.
And following representation from the council leader, the DfE has now agreed to review its
decision to cancel the Special School, something which can only be possible because they did
actually cancel it in the first place.
At this point, members can be forgiven for feeling
a little confused.
So far, according to the DFB and our county's Labour MPs,
we were promised a new special free school,
but also we weren't.
There is no money for new special schools,
but there is some, but not for bugs.
Fort Trust wanted to run our new school,
but no trust could be found to run the school.
Creating 152 special school places costs
at least £18 million, but £8 million should cover it. And it is misleading to say the
special school was cancelled, but we can appeal against the decision to cancel it. Feeling
confused, you're not alone. But there is still time to right this wrong. I know all
Buckinghamshire MPs of all parties understand the pressure on send services in this county.
I know all members can see from their own inboxes how demand is rising and how this
affecting their residents. And with the DfE now having promised to review its decision
to cancel our new special school, now is the time for us and all our local MPs to ramp up the
pressure. This is the moment when we need to speak up for the interests of local children with the
most complex educational needs and disabilities. With those children and young people in mind,
I urge members to support this motion.
Councillor Matthew Walsh, as a seconder of the motion you have the reserve, you can reserve
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:07:37
the right to speak afterwards or now. Thank you chair and I'll reserve my right to speak.
Cllr Matthew Walsh - 3:07:47
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:07:48
Thank you. We've had an amendment to this motion. Can I ask the proposer of the amendment
Councillor Chris Chilton to confirm he formally moves the amendment. Yes I can
confirm that. Thank you and can I ask the seconder Councillor Hazel Arthur Hewitt
to confirm she formally seconds the amendment. Yes I confirm I formally second it.
Thank you. Can I ask the proposer of the amendment Councillor Chris Chilton to
speak on it you have five minutes. Okay thank you Chairman. I'd like to speak in
in support of the amendments,
and I would encourage everyone please
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 3:08:21
to open them on their computer and to read them,
in the spirit of partnership,
because special needs is one area
Cllr Chris Chilton - 3:08:28
where this chamber should be united,
not as Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats,
or Independents, but as councillors responsible
for some of the most vulnerable children in Buckinghamshire.
Now I come to this not just as a councillor,
but as Deputy Chair of Governors
for a federation of three schools,
all rated outstanding by Ofsted, where 20 % of the pupils have special needs,
and as Councillor Jackson, who I think is doing an excellent job, knows well,
we're currently working on plans to take an additional 36 cent pupils each year
at a cost of half a million pounds.
So I've seen first -hand both what is possible and what is challenging.
I've seen early intervention work and I've seen inclusion in mainstream settings work.
But I've also seen how fragile the system can be when demand outstrips supply.
And that is why this motion needs to be balanced, evidence -based and, if I may say it, complete.
Because alongside the concerns raised in the motion, we also need to acknowledge that there has been significant recent increases in SEND funding from the Government.
and I've just received a notification within the last hour of an additional £4 .1 million for box
for the Expert at Hand programme to give our residents better access to speech therapists.
Now this doesn't remove the concerns about the approval for the proposed special school, but it does change the context.
So, looking at the amendments in detail.
First, I must emphasise that these amendments do not cover questions about what has happened in the past with the special school.
We are where we are and we need to think about how we move forward.
And all these amendments cover is what we need to do now.
So, looking at the amendment in detail, first on the issue of letters, point two and point three.
The original motion, quite rightly, calls for further letters to be written to the Secretary of State.
But, as the amendment highlights, letters have already been sent on the 19th of December, on the 27th of February, on the 24th of March.
Similarly, our MPs have already been engaged and, importantly, have offered to work constructively with the council across party lines.
So, let's get up to date and let's write the letters about the appeal that need to be written.
And the amendments to Clauses 2 and 3 are just about write a letter about the appeal.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the amendments broaden the scope of the impact assessment.
The original motion focuses narrowly on the potential calculation of the new special school.
But families don't experience and provision in silos, they experience it in a system.
So if we are to understand the real impact on children, on travel times, on outcomes, on costs,
we need to assess all the moving parts together.
capital funding, reserve funding, mainstream inclusion capacity, specialist
placements and how all of those things interact together. Otherwise we risk
making decisions based on partial information and doing that always leads
to poor outcomes. So the amendment simply proposes widening the scope of the
impact assessment which I believe to be the right thing to do. So Chairman in
conclusion these amendments don't seek to derail the motion, they don't weaken
it, they strengthen it by grounding it in evidence, by recognising the full funding
landscape and by encouraging collaboration rather than confrontation. Because ultimately
the children we are talking about don't care who writes a letter, they care whether
there is support in place for them in the right school at the right time. So let's
send a message to local families tonight that we are all serious and united in finding solutions
to the SEND crisis together. If we can do that we'll be making a meaningful step towards
delivering the provision our children and families deserve. Thank you.
Councillor Hazel, Arthur, you can speak now or reserve the right.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:12:29
I reserve the right, thank you. Can you stand up and say that please.
I reserve the right. Thank you.
I'm opening the debate up on the amendment. So whatever Councillor Chris Chilton has said
about the amendment is that we're debating on. So you have two minutes. Can you raise
your hands if you'd like to speak?
I had speech therapy for seven years.
Cllr Robin Stuchbury - 3:13:09
I am dyslexic.
I deal with many cases of people with special educational need.
The hourglass of the politics of all these things is lost on parents.
The principle I think of the amendment is to try and move together cooperatively.
Scoring points over this don't help one child to bring the 20 million pounds in it.
If we were really keen to do this, we would have found some way over a preceding year to budget for it.
If the period that I was educated, there was nothing which is offered by Carl Jackson and
his team to support people.
You were just put in a corner, given a box of bricks and told to get on with it and if
you caused any trouble you were sent to the head and if you spoke out of term you were
punished and caned.
So I think that we moved on somewhat with this and what we're doing here is arguing
amongst ourselves about something that I think we all agree that children who are
suffering, children who need help, need help. Schooling points over each other
doesn't really help parents who phone you up or write to you and as Carl
Jackson will know, Councillor Jackson will know, there's endless parents out there
who need help. It makes us all look very shallow, makes us all look like the
politics is far more important than the child's needs. We really, really need more
money but if we really really need more money successive councils before this
would have budgeted for it would have done what they needed to do and
governments before would have done it as well. Special education needs is rather
like mental health it's treated differently and it's only treated the
same when it's forced through a microcosm of a discussion. Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:15:10
Thank you Councillor. Moving on to Councillor Alex Collingwood. Thank you Chairman. I wasn't
intending to speak on this item but unfortunately Councillor Chiltern and it's
Cllr Alex Collingwood - 3:15:16
basic arithmetic doesn't work. As you heard from the Cabinet Member we were
due to have a school for at least eight, it's costing 18 million and that means
it's 152 spaces. I'm just very quick maths maths. We then got offered 8 million.
We now got an additional SOP for 4 million. We're still 6 million short. In
simple terms that means we'll have at least 50 children with special education
needs who will not be looked after and not be provided for thanks to this Labour
Government. Therefore unfortunately I'm sorry the amendment is not sufficient
it's too much of a too little too late I'm sorry we stick with the original
motion and go forward and make sure we get the full amount for all our
residents and particularly ones with the special education needs. Thank you.
Thank you.
Councillor.
Councillor Catherine Oliver.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:16:02
Could I please move under section 369 please
to put the question on this motion.
Cllr Catherine Oliver - 3:16:11
I second that motion.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:16:20
Thank you, Councillor Oliver. I've just spoken with Mr Watson. What I've decided is to take
two more speakers and then we'll go for it. And I need, because it needs, it's a serious,
you know, amendment that needs to be spoken about. So I want two more speakers and they
are going to be on this list.
One's going to be Councillor Simon Rouse,
and one is Stephen Broadbent,
and then we go back to the amendment,
seconder which is Councillor Heisenberg.
So, Councillor Rouse, would you like to say a few words?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm trying incredibly hard not to get angry
Cllr Simon Rouse - 3:17:46
about this amendment, and the reason for that
is that there was a choice, and that choice was
to unite behind the original motion
and not participate in the softening of what
might be inconvenient facts.
I speak as the father of a child that
navigated through the Buckinghamshire school system
with special educational needs.
And every parent that has to do that
understands that it is challenging.
And what lies at the heart of all of that
is the ability to have certainty about the provision
that your child can get.
And parents in Buckinghamshire were promised a special,
a free special school. That promise was broken. Now that might be inconvenient
for certain political parties and what this amendment has done is deal with
those inconvenient political facts and put soft words around the rest of it.
Whereas we just need to be clear to the government we were promised a school
that is an important provision for parents of these children and we should
speak with a single united voice. That was the choice that could have been made
tonight and I frankly I will not take lectures about uniting when an amendment
does exactly what this amendment does and I would urge Councillor Chilton to
seriously reflect on this amendment withdraw it because what we should be
doing speaking with a single voice behind the motion that Councillor
Jackson has put forward.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:19:08
Thank you Councillor, I must remind councillors that on this list there were
more conservatives, there weren't any opposition,
so I'm taking, hence, conservatives.
So I'm playing it fair and square.
So the last speaker on this is the leader,
Councillor Stephen Broadbent.
Thank you very much.
I think what the only good thing about this amendment is,
Cllr Steven Broadbent - 3:19:28
by listing everything in my mailbag,
it shows just how hard we have been working
to try and bring everyone along,
of all political parties to get this school,
a school that the department had promised,
had realised we needed, and a school that we know,
152 children, and Councillor Jackson outlined that,
you know, one in four might need
this level of special division.
We have kept our council, worked very hard
to try and make sure that this school comes to fruition.
to say therefore and selectively quote bits out of some of the letters about
working together when earlier in the very same letter by the three Labour MPs
criticises the previous Conservative government and at the time they sent me
this they decided to publish it on social media how is that working together
for the good of Buckinghamshire is putting party politics before the people
of this county I have not done that I did include in my budget speech the
recognition that they had cancelled the school.
And if anyone is in any doubt, I'm now going to read you
from the letter I received on the 24th of March,
well, rather the council received, from the department.
As you are aware, the department confirmed
to Buckinghamshire Council, the Secretary of State's
intention to cancel the planned special
free schools application round wave four.
And this letter carries on to formally acknowledge
we have received representation from you regarding this decision. The department
will now review your case and write to you with the outcome. You said you didn't
care about the previous letters. The one that matters is the hard detailed work
of the representations we made on behalf of the families into Buckinghamshire
that has now gone to the Department for Education and at least has had the
effect of forcing a review. That is not a common position in the department. I hope
today we reject this amendment but ultimately support the substantive
motion to give a clear voice the point of this is I can write back while they're
doing that consideration saying be in no doubt people in this chamber the elected
members of the nearly 600 ,000 people of Buckinghamshire want that school that's
why we're here the amendment does nothing to further that cause and sullies
the water. So frankly, I would not agree to the amendment.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:22:04
Councillor Hazel Arthur -Hewitt, you have two minutes. I second that.
Thank you, Chairman. I'm seconding the amendment because I believe the most important item
Cllr Hazel Arthur-Hewitt - 3:22:16
in the motion is further enhanced by it. This relates to the widening of the scope of the
impact assessment to make sure as much information
as possible is considered regarding STEM provision
in Buckinghamshire going forward
if the previous intention of a school is not pursued.
We all want to make sure all appropriate
and relevant budget changes are looked at
when reviewing what is a big change in policy and outlook,
and after all, that is a crucial duty of this council
when we would expect nothing less.
We lose nothing by approaching this
with an open mind in extending the impact assessment,
and we gain everything by digging deeper
and more thoroughly.
All we are losing from the motion
is an unnecessary absolute that declares nothing,
but one SEND school will suffice.
In fact, funding mainstream schools
to allow those with appropriate SEND needs
to study and socialise closer to home
and better integrate in their communities
could be a really great boost for them.
Many schools already have pupils in their settings
without adequate funding provided,
and one school isn't the only way to address this issue.
The new model may help decrease the numbers
waiting for places in specialist schools
and reduce the budget for transport,
which is getting higher each year.
There is no right and wrong on this
until we have all the facts on the table
specifically for how this impacts Buckinghamshire.
So let's do our job and ask to investigate fully and if the school is
essential you'll have more proof of being so and we would always support
what is right for Buckinghamshire whatever came out of that impact
assessment. We are not being political and standing against a school we are
asking for a wider impact assessment and an open mind and how best to provide
across the entirety of Bucks.
I urge council to vote.
Thank you, time's up council.
Through, thank you.
Before we go to the vote,
as the mover of the original motion,
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:24:22
Councillor Carl Jackson, you have 10 minutes.
Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you everyone for that comment.
I know from conversations with Councillor Chilton,
he has a genuine and longstanding interest in this issue,
Cllr Carl Jackson - 3:24:34
but this amendment is not an improvement
on the original motion.
This is a distraction from it.
Leaving aside the almost industrial scale deletion of a lot of important facts and comments,
the additions, to put it lightly, don't tell the full storey.
The additional £8 million will not come close to the investment that would come with the
school, and even if we were able to create the extra 152 places by expanding existing
settings, according to the DFE's own figures, that would cost £18 million, not £8 million.
into their own figures, they're selling a short by 10 million.
There was talk about expanding the impact assessment.
We don't need an impact assessment
that's any bigger to know that we need this school.
We have a plan to find 900 places, special places.
One in six of them are going to be provided,
have to be provided, by this new special free school.
It is going to be difficult to do it without it.
We know that now.
I hear the calls for unity.
I note in the amendments the reference to the letter from the three Buckinghamshire
Labour MPs offering to work constructively with the council and beyond party politics.
It is an offer with respect to the two councillors behind the amendment, I would have taken a
little more seriously if at the same time storeys hadn't suddenly appeared in the media
bearing the pictures of those MPs saying Buckinghamshire council had never been promised a special
school and we were misleading residents by saying that we had.
It is not the way to deal constructively and beyond party politics, I'm afraid.
But this motion is giving our members of parliament, all of them, another chance to get behind
the free school that we have been promised and that we need.
Let's back the original motion, get the leader to write again to the department, get the
leader to write to our members of parliament, get our members of parliament behind it, show
some unity behind this, show that Buckinghamshire backs our new free school that we were promised
and that we need. Thank you. We're taking a vote for the amendment.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:26:39
By show of hands, those in favour of the amendment.
No.
Those against.
Abstentions.
So the amendment has been lost.
So we debate on this substantive motion now.
And we have two minutes per speaker on that debate.
So I'm opening it up.
Please can you raise your hands?
Would you like to say?
Councillor Suzanne Morgan, would you like to open the debate?
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Susan Morgan - 3:27:46
I rise to speak on the motion not just as a Councillor, but as a mother of a child with
special educational needs.
I know personally what it feels like to have to fight for support, to navigate systems
that move too slowly and to worry constantly about whether your child's needs will ever
be met. That's not theory for me, that's lived experience. As councillors we all
receive challenging casework but some of the most distressing cases I deal with
come from parents of children with SEND needs. These families are at breaking
point, parents whose children have been excluded, placed on part -time timetables
or out of school altogether for months or even years. I hear from parents who
are desperate because mainstream schools, despite the best intentions and
incredible staff simply cannot keep their child or other pupils safe. And too
often there is nowhere appropriate for these children to go. We know SEND needs
have been rising rapidly, we know complexity is increasing and we know
mainstream settings cannot absorb this level of need without specialist
environments designed for specialist support, stability and recovery. A new
special needs school is essential infrastructure.
It means children learning close to home,
families supported instead of being broken,
and better outcomes for some of the most vulnerable
young people in Bucks.
I want to be really clear.
This must not become a political battle
between the Conservative -led council
and the Labour government.
What matters is that children are falling
through the gaps now, and families cannot wait.
So I urge colleagues on all sides of the chamber, let us speak with one voice, let us send a clear message that this same school is needed and it's needed now.
Councillor Jonathan Walters.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:29:45
Cllr Jonathan Waters - 3:29:51
Thank you Chairman. I stand to support this motion for many of the reasons that Councillor
Morgan has just talked about. As we know within all of our wards we have come across very
complex cases of special educational needs and the horrors that parents have had to go
through to actually fight for their children and the under provision within Buckinghamshire
is very real and it's now.
And we all know governments come and governments go
and they will keep doing that over the years.
But the assessments of the needs of these particular
children of the 152 places that we need,
they have not changed.
There is no change for them.
The need has not changed.
The financial need has not changed.
And so the case is still there and is clear and needs
to be made strongly to the government.
That they have at least accepted
there is a further assessment that's gonna take place.
I hope that is positive, I hope that is open,
and I hope they're gonna look clearly at it
because for Buckinghamshire,
we do need to be looking after our children.
The cost for us of sending children outside the county
to get this type of support is not good for families
and it's not good for the children.
We need to be providing this help and support in education
now and in the future.
And the sooner we get on with it, the better.
But I personally, Susan, and our side
of the Liberal Democrats, totally support
what we should be pushing as hard as we possibly can
in providing the evidence to support our case.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:31:39
Councillor Brouin. Thank you Chairman and I think in terms of the substance of this
Cllr Thomas Broom - 3:31:44
motion I think there is broad support across the Chamber about an appreciation
for the need this is there and the need for us to push the government to deliver
on what they promised us a number of years ago and I think that is reflected
across almost all of the Chamber and it sounds like almost all of the Chamber is
willing to set aside their political jerseys
in order to push in the same direction.
I am disappointed though that once again,
with the amendment that was attempted
to attach this motion, we have seen something
which is a bit of a repeating pattern,
which is that we have cuts to Buckinghamshire
from the government, which we are then told
are not happening.
It's a sort of county -wide gaslighting,
you know, oh yes, there's tonnes more money for the roads,
but by the way, we're cutting 44 and a half million pounds
from your budget.
Oh, don't be silly about that, Special School,
you're remembering it wrong.
You never got given it in the first place.
I do think it is genuinely disturbing.
I think in politics, what we need to do as elected officials
is to stand up, tell people what we think,
tell people how we deliver it,
and then when we get the opportunity to do so,
we take accountability for what we are doing.
And the fact that we are repeatedly seeing
the government make political decisions
which have real and significant impact
on the residents of Buckinghamshire,
and then descend into some kind of fantasy land
in order to try and avoid accountability
for the decisions they have made,
is extremely disappointing.
And it is even more disappointing
that that now appears to be leeching into this very chamber.
So I will be wholeheartedly supporting this motion.
This was promised, it was funded,
it has frankly been kicked somewhere else in the country
for political reasons.
That is not acceptable.
It must come back to Buckinghamshire.
Thank you.
Councillor Alan Shearwell.
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:33:53
Cllr Alan Sherwell - 3:34:00
I'm sad that so much of this debate has been taken up on history because I think the simple
question here is how do we get the best support for our children where we are now.
On that basis, this is really, really important that we support this school.
I've been a chair of governors for about 13 years.
I have seen the consequences of getting this wrong on both sides.
It's not just about special needs.
I hate the term special needs.
I much prefer personal needs because every child has personal needs.
Some of them are perhaps very much more important or urgent than others,
but they all have special needs.
It's about making sure that children that can thrive in mainstream education do, and
those that cannot have resource provided to enable them to thrive as best they can somewhere
else.
There will always be disagreements as to where exactly that boundary lies, because it's not
a precise science.
But the reality is if you have children that cannot thrive in mainstream schools, they
suffer, but also the other children in those schools suffer because of the pressure that
it puts on the staff that are trying to manage the situation, which sometimes they're not
even trained to manage.
So yes, let's all get behind actually delivering this school and say whatever it is that we
need to say, regardless of what we think about what may or may not have happened in the past,
to get it to happen.
Thank you, Councillor. Moving on to Councillor Chris Chiltern.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:35:50
Cllr Chris Chilton - 3:36:00
Thank you, Chairman. I really need to sort my notes out first before I stand up to speak.
So the first thing that I'd like to say is we put an amendment to this motion because we believe that the motion can be improved.
And if I read, for example, and notes to request the leader of the council to write to the secretary of state for education,
calling on her to honour the promise made by her department to provide funding for a new special school,
that the leader of the council has written to the secretary of state on the 18th of December to do that.
What the leader of the council actually should be doing is writing to the Secretary of State asking to expedite the appeal.
In point three, it says request the leader of the council to write to the MPs.
Well, the leader of the council wrote to the MPs on the 19th of December.
The motion should actually say that the request the leader of the council to write to them trying to expedite the appeal.
And then finally under point four, to ignore in the impact assessment the
124 million pounds high needs stability grant which Buckinghamshire have been
given, the 8 million high needs capital allocation and the 4 million expert at
hands allocation is just to make the impact assessment less good. So I don't
think this is a very well written motion and we'll be voting against it because
we don't think it's a very well written motion.
Thank you.
Councillor Robert Stucksbury.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:37:28
Yeah, I rise to speak both to the amendment and this
because anyone who's sat through
Cllr Robin Stuchbury - 3:37:35
listening to this debate,
who's got a child who needs help,
will be very unimpressed
because what we've managed to achieve
It's discussed more about bad politicians,
carpeting roads, doing that.
What a mother wants and a father wants
when they come to this council
is the ability to get help.
They don't really enjoy the political thrust of it.
They're not interested in Labour, Liberal Democrat, Tory.
They've got a child, for heaven's sake,
who cannot read, probably can't sit still,
probably got autism, probably got PDA,
probably can't cope, and they watch this
and they think, well our children,
with all them disabilities probably behave
quite a lot better than we are.
You know, because they will argue that,
and if a child behaved like we did as counsellors sometimes,
they would be excluded from the room
and probably get suspended by the headmistress
and sent home or put into a box.
So, I got no problem with the principle
what the leader council wants to achieve,
which is to get the 20 million pounds.
But how we get to that, the politics around it is ugly.
The route to it to proportion blame amongst the thousands
within this chamber is unnecessary.
I believe every member in here
cares about their constituents.
I believe that with a fervent.
But we should care a little bit more
about the way we are with each other because people watch this and see the
argument about the government the MPs and whatever and look in at us and then
think you know what what's that done to get my child the place they want its
future led if we get the 20 million pounds tomorrow let's be honest it will
take the council quite a while to deliver that. Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:39:39
Last speaker on this is Councillor Stephen Broadbent, the leader.
Thank you very much. I think Robin Stutchbury and I are in agreement on much of what he just said.
Cllr Steven Broadbent - 3:39:47
I'm a former school governor, I have family members too who rely on some of the services that we're talking about here.
You're right, everyone I think in this Chamber stood for election for the right reasons for their communities,
which is why it's really disappointing and right from the off we made sure we
tried to brief our MPs to not let the politics get ugly. So to hear now that
people won't support the motion because they don't quite agree with the
expression in that I might write a letter is awful because as I said when
we talked about the amendment the work I have been doing and with Karl and the
has been to say this is about the sufficiency
of provision in the county.
We need the school because of the level of complexity
that those 152 children will, that they have,
that they need.
So that he, Robin's right, Councillor Stotchby's right.
There's families at home saying,
just do everything you can to try and change that decision.
It's not about the 20 million quid ticket
versus the eight million pound ticket.
This is because we are already working incredibly hard to boost the mainstream provision in the county
We need the school place the special preschool because of the provision that it will give on top of
All the other work we are doing to boost the mainstream provision
only yesterday
through
almost good fortune with my involvement the local government
Association, I sat in a room directly opposite the Secretary of State to talk about these
matters and the funding.
A reference was made earlier, home to school transport.
I made that point to her, that by not giving the specialist provision here in Buckinghamshire
at this level of complexity of need, it means we are making those children spend hours in
taxes to go outside of the county.
A great cost to the taxpayer, yes,
but a great impact on their lives and the outcome.
This should have been a very simple motion to say,
Steve, please keep doing all you can with your officers
and with the Cabinet member, Carl Jackson,
to continue to persuade and fight the cause
for the people of Buckinghamshire to say,
please, please do what you said you're going to do
review that decision. There is no reason why that promise should be reneged on
because the data has not improved. If anything the demand and the need for
that school is increased. That's why we're here. That's a hundred and fifty two
Buckinghamshire kids who have a complex need. So I will strain every sinew and I
make no apologies for bringing this and saying I'll write yet another letter.
I'll make representations all over again and I'll lobby on behalf of everyone
because we need that in our sufficiency of provision. So please think about that
when you vote. The politics are largely irrelevant. It's about saying Buckinghamshire
has a need. The Department for Education have the solution. They've accepted that
previously and have now turned away from that.
But thankfully, that glimmer of hope is the fact
that the representations we have made means
that decision is being reviewed.
If I can write in today and say this unanimous verdict
of this council that we recognise not the politics
but the need for that school, then that would add
even more power to the content of that further lobbying.
And that's why I recommend with every fibre of my being
that this motion is supported.
Councillor Matthew Walsh,
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:43:48
as you were the second of the original motion,
would you like to have your two minutes?
I would, thank you, Chairman.
And I'm very pleased to second this motion.
The key point is simple.
Cllr Matthew Walsh - 3:43:59
Demand is not slowing, it's accelerating.
In 2018, there were 457 children in Buckinghamshire
with social, emotional, and mental health needs.
By 2022, that had risen to 759,
and by January 25, it reached 1 ,337.
That is almost 200 % growth overall.
So the case for a new special school is stronger than ever.
The new school would provide 152 places
and allow children to be educated closer to home,
reducing travel times and cutting transport costs.
Without it, we will continue to rely on expensive
out -of -county placements, increased risks of delay,
tribunal challenge and unmet need.
And with pressure across the system, even securing
independent provision is becoming more difficult.
We are told to expand existing schools instead.
We've already delivered 300 additional spaces
and we're running out of space.
We are told that eight million pound will deliver what the department's
education zone figures suggest would cost 18 million pound. That's a 10
million pound shortfall. It's simply not credible. Demand is rising, the pressure
is real and our most vulnerable children cannot afford delay. Please unanimously
support this motion. Thank you.
Thank you.
Councillor Colle, Jackson, as mover of the original motion, you have two minutes.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:45:32
Thank you, Chairman, I'll be quick.
On my way into the car park at the farmers event, I perhaps foolishly let slip that I
Cllr Carl Jackson - 3:45:40
was the cabinet member for education and children's services and immediately was given a storey
of one of the individuals there, of a friend who had a child with very significant educational
needs had been off school for several years waiting for an appropriate placement. One
has been found, I ask, is that in the county or out of the county? Oh, out of the county,
I was told. And this is the point. We don't have the provision to meet the needs of children
with complex educational needs in our county. That is going to get worse if we don't create
these new places. And we could reach a point where we're not only unable to provide places
in -county, we could get to a point where we're not really able to provide suitable placements
at all. I note the comments about re -running the history of this, well actually I don't apologise
for that, I think it's important for members and residents to know what we were promised,
what we've been offered instead and why it's inadequate. But this motion is about the future,
it's about how we go and secure what we've been promised. It's not about Labour or Conservative,
it's not about central government be local government it's about honouring a
promise and meeting a need I encourage members to support this motion thank you
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:47:03
before we go to vote it's a very important subject that we're dealing
with and one close to my heart as well because when I was mayor I raised a lot
of money for special needs children and some of the councillors that were here
are here present help me raise that money, a lot of money for those needy children and a smile from
them. They don't say much but they smile melts anybody's heart, even my heart as well and you
know it was a privilege to you know raise such a lot of money for them and having this and seeing
cross -party actually working together on something it's one of those things that I'll remember. So
We're voting on the motion now in front of us.
Those in favour, please raise your hands.
Those against?
Abstentions?
Can you raise your hands up a little bit so we can see abstention?
It's carried.
It's carried, thank you.
Item 4, Community Land Trust, Buckinghamshire. Can I ask the proposal, please, councillors.
Can I ask the proposal Councillor Gregory Smith to confirm he formally moves the motion?
Yes, I formally propose the motion. Can you stand up because I can't see you? Thank you.
I can ask the seconder, Councillor Frances Nella, to confirm. She formally seconds the
motion.
Thank you, Chairman. I confirm I formally second the motion.
Thank you. Councillor Gregory Smith, you have five minutes as proposed of the motion.
Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. And you'll be glad to know that this isn't a contentious
Cllr Gregory Smith - 3:49:04
motion it's not terribly complex complex either but it does call for a meaningful
shift in policy one that ensures that community land trusts are not just
acknowledged but are actively championed within Buckinghamshire's emerging local
plan across our County we're seeing significant housing development yet for
many local people those with deep roots in their communities they they can feel
that they're being priced out of their neighbourhoods. Even properties described
as affordable are often beyond their reach. So if we don't act, we
risk hollowing out our communities, losing the very people who sustain them.
Although section 2 .1 of the local plan makes a start in supporting small -scale
developments in rural areas, the rural exception sites, we have an opportunity
here to be far more ambitious and we should take it. Community land trusts
offer a proven practical solution.
They're a not -for -profit community -led organisation
that acquires and manages lands
to provide genuinely affordable homes,
whether at a discounted sale or as social rent,
but crucially locked in in perpetuity.
Locked in as affordable for generations to come.
So this isn't just a short -term fix.
this is a lasting commitment to fairness and community stability.
So we all here want to see Buckinghamshire where people
with strong local connexions, where our young people,
key workers, families, can afford to stay in the communities
where they grew up, where development strengthens
communities rather than displaces them,
where local people have a real stake in shaping the places
where they live.
So this motion allows for practical action to embed strong support for community land
trusts within the local plan. To encourage early and constructive engagement between
community land trusts and planners and to recognise that community land trusts have a role
in delivering part of the affordable housing requirement within those larger developments.
It's not just good policy, it also aligns with national direction, the Localism Act
of 2011 and the revised National Planning Policy Framework promotes community -led exception
sites.
Government policy is moving in this direction and we, Buckinghamshire Council, should be
leading, not lagging behind.
Ultimately, this is about fairness and ensuring that people who grow up in this community
get to stay living in their communities.
I urge you to support the motion.
Thank you.
As seconder of the motion, Councillor Frances Nella, would you like to reserve your right
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:52:01
to speak now or afterwards?
Thank you, Chairman.
I'd like to speak now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Chairman, fellow councillors,
Cllr Frances Kneller - 3:52:09
as Buckinghamshire Council prepares its local plan,
objections to some sites with housing development potential
are being raised by residents
because they know that the proposed new homes
won't be affordable or allow them or their families
to stay in their community.
One solution to Buckinghamshire's affordable housing shortage
that we believe should be actively supported
by Buckinghamshire Council
is the inclusion of community land trusts
as an affordable housing option in the local plan.
For those of you unfamiliar with community land trusts,
they're democratic, not -for -profit organisations
that own, develop, and manage land, homes,
and other assets for the benefit of their community.
They ensure that the homes are permanently
and genuinely affordable, acting as long -term stewards
of the land and the assets on it.
Community -led housing places power and responsibility into the hands of local people who will have
a greater say on the location, construction and ownership of new local affordable homes.
They can access land and receive planning permission where speculative developments
cannot. And through their governance and legal constitution, there is an asset law to legally
protect the community benefits in perpetuity. Government finance, public
sector funding, as well as local authority support through the release of
Section 106 funds should provide sufficient capital to build the high
quality social and affordable housing local communities want to buy and rent.
We are seeing the barriers to community -led housing delivery coming
down. More and more communities want to shape their own futures and we already
know that within our own communities they are the driving seat and great
things can happen. The successful community land trust developments across
the UK including in neighbouring Oxfordshire, Devon, York, Cambridgeshire.
Thank you time Councillor. Thank you. Can I ask that you agree? Thank you Councillor. Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:54:24
I'm opening up the debate. Two minutes per speaker. May I remind you it's court of
our state so it's up to you how long you want this debate to go. Thank you.
Councillor Mormina.
Thank you, Chair Bunn.
Cllr Maru Mormina - 3:54:58
This is really simple.
This motion speaks to something fundamental.
Who our housing system is ultimately for and who it serves.
Community land trusts offer a practical and principled way to keep housing rooted in local places
and the local stewardship and security for future generations, as we just heard.
They're not a marginal idea.
They're a proven model for ensuring that affordability is not a short -term goal,
but a lasting reality.
As we finalise the local plan, this is an opportunity to seek not only
about how many homes we build, but about who owns them, who benefits from them,
and whether those benefits endure beyond first sale.
This is why it is right that we fully consider how community land trust can be supported
through the local plan and enabled through section 106 and seal mechanisms where there
is clear local need and capable local governance.
If we are serious about affordability for local people, then we must also be serious
about ownership structures that prevent that affordability being lost to the market over
time. This motion is about moving from short -term provision to long -term stewardship. This motion
is pro -ownership, pro -aspiration and I urge you to support it.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:56:43
Councillor Slade. Thank you. I wasn't planning on speaking today because of my voice, but
Cllr Trevor Snaith - 3:56:53
when I heard this it was a breath of fresh air. We have lost so much since we lost all
our housing to the social housing landlords. This is a major, major thing. I've looked
that ruin exception policies and thought they were wonderful
and now something, seeing something here
that I think is exceptional.
Please support it and I must apologise for my voice.
Thank you.
Councillor Harris.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:57:17
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Clive Harriss - 3:57:24
I was concerned by this motion.
Our residents look to us to protect and maintain
the green and rural character of our county and expect developments to reflect their surroundings
despite the pressure of huge housing numbers imposed by central government policies which
often result in fractured communities. Where I live there are two affordable schemes, one
now fully occupied, the other in the early stages of construction. These are rural exception
schemes, an excellent policy fully supported by residents because it addresses the issues
directly that promotes this motion seek to satisfy. Affordable housing that form part
of a large for -profit development is hampered by the land costs, which must be reflected
in the onwards sale price if the development is to be financially viable. In many cases,
the result is that housing is no longer affordable, despite the discounting applied especially
in Buckinghamshire. This is a flaw in the policy.
The need for affordable homes, right, was proven by the villagers, following a local
need assessment carried out by the local parish council, and reflects the level of need, not
of volume of houses to be built in order to provide for people from outside the area.
In one case, land was volunteered by a benevolent party looking to help other villagers. The
nil cost of the land means these homes are truly affordable, the values not subject to
open market land values. The other site was subject to a sale receipt, but a reduced price,
as permission would not usually be granted in such a rural location, so the cost reflected
the exceptional circumstances. Rural exception provides inexpensive homes specifically for
those with a direct connexion to the local employment or residence where they are needed,
identified by local people on land by the local community, avoiding the objections often
raised against large developments resulting in earlier provision. For these reasons, I
believe this motion adds little other than large -scale housing that added to our historic
housing stock in numbers will not only change the visual character of the
Thank you, Councillor.
but also strain neighbourhoods.
Councillor David Moore.
Thank you, Chairman. As a young person who rents, I know the importance of
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 3:59:35
affordability and it's very difficult at the moment, especially for young people,
Cllr David Moore - 3:59:43
to be able to live in this country, let alone this county. So I know the
importance of living affordably.
But the reason why I am not supporting this motion is
because of the hypocrisy of this motion.
For the proposer of this motion called my residence
racist for wanting a perfectly good HMO to be for
social housing and for local vulnerable people.
Don't shake your head at me.
You submitted a press release to the Bunk's Free Press
calling my residence racist for not wanting illegal
migrants to take that HMO. So don't say you're for community housing, don't say
you're for community residents when that property was people of all backgrounds in
my area didn't want that to happen. So I will not support hypocrisy and I'll be
voting against this motion.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 4:00:34
Councillors can we keep it to the motion that we're discussing. Thank you.
Councillor Arthur Hewitt, would you like to say something?
No? So thank you.
Don't do that to me please, yeah?
Councillor Bracken.
Thank you very much.
Mr Chairman, I think like a lot of people in the country,
Cllr Michael Bracken - 4:01:00
we've all been wondering what exactly the Green Party stands for of late.
And I think this motion actually does epitomise their desire to create world socialist paradise
here in Buckinghamshire, and specifically these community land trusts.
And I'm going to be interested to see which other members on this council actually support
this sort of thing, because it's got a lot of features that people on the left of politics
do tend to like.
So let's look at, for example, in limb two
of the recommendation, that in order to achieve this world,
sorry, the Community Land Trust, what they need to do
is to set up an appropriate body to manage affordable homes
in perpetuity.
Well, we have democratic local bodies.
They're called councils, both at parish town
and here at Buckinghamshire level.
And that's the type of democracy that we like to see.
And I think the idea that you could just set up another body
which takes decisions away from the elected officials
is something we've seen quite often from the left.
The second part of this is to try and redirect
Section 106 and even Sillman,
although technically you can't redirect Sillman in this way,
but into another purpose.
Now, I don't know about you,
but I'm quite worried about this plan
to build 95 ,000 homes in Buckinghamshire.
And the most important thing for so many of us
is that the infrastructure is then put in place for that.
So if you're going to try and divert money away from that
to your socialist construct, I would suggest that that
is a far lesser priority.
So it's a no from me, and I urge all my colleagues
to vote against this motion.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 4:03:00
I'm going to move on to the seconder of this motion, Councillor Francis Nelly.
You have two minutes to respond.
So moving to the mover of the motion, you have the right to reply, Councillor Gregory Smith.
Thank you, thank you, Chair.
And I must say I am astonished with the responses from this side of the house.
Cllr Gregory Smith - 4:03:24
extraordinary statements coming from that side of the house.
This motion came from when a young person came to me.
She's been running a business locally for quite some time in Hadlam, in my area,
and she would dearly like to buy a place there, but has no chance, not within Hadlam.
And she can see all around her these new houses being built.
She wanted to know what can we do about it, and that's when I started looking into Community Land Trust
to see what can we do about it.
I have also had people coming to me who say,
my kids, growing up, they want to stay in this community.
I've lived in the community all my life.
The children want to live in this community.
What are you going to do about making it
so that we can afford to stay?
That's where this motion comes from.
And so to hark on about things that
are happening to do with developments elsewhere
is just an extraordinary diversion.
So the other issue from Councillor Harris is
that it's unacceptable and unaffordable.
Well, I have had discussions with developers
in my local area and land owners,
and all of them say, we would love to get behind this.
It's a really positive thing that we can do
to contribute to your community.
The problem is that if our policy,
Buckinghamshire Council policy,
prevents them from being able to have a community land trust
as part of the affordable housing offer.
If we were to free that up through a discussion at cabinet
to get this issue onto the local plan,
we have a real opportunity to be able to support
our local people, support our local residents,
and to build much more sustainable neighbourhoods.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Councillor.
Thank you, Chairman.
We're going to the vote on the motion.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 4:05:24
Those in favour of the motion, please raise your hands.
.
Any abstentions?
Thank you.
The motion has been lost for the motion.
There were 40 against 49, one abstention, so it's been lost.
Moving on to the true protection.
Can I ask the proposer, Councillor Ed Gemmill, to confirm he formally moves the motion?
Thank you, Chairman.
I just want to cheque if this is the moment I should do it,
so I'm looking at the monitoring officer.
So we'd like to accept the changes in the amendment
and move that into the substantive motion.
Cllr Ed Gemmell - 4:07:16
Is this the appropriate time to accept that?
Yes, that's fine.
Okay, thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 4:07:27
My advice, Chairman, on that is that there is a provision
Glenn Watson - Principal Governance Officer - 4:07:29
in the Constitution that allows a person to take
in an amendment, but it is with the consent of the meeting.
So, Chairman, you would need to ask the meeting if it consents to Councillor Gemmell doing that.
The consequence of that would mean that there would be no debate about the amendment.
It would automatically be incorporated into the substantive motion so that when Councillor Gemmell speaks, as you invite him to,
as proposer, he will be talking to the whole thing, including the amended points, which will now become part of his substantive motion.
So, Chairman, you can call up a meeting to ask if it wishes to consent to Councillor
Gemmell taking in the motion.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 4:08:12
Do Councillors consent to Councillor Gemmell taking in the motion?
Yes.
Show of hands all of you please.
Thank you.
Any against?
Abstentions?
No.
Over to you, Councillor Gemmell.
Point of order, do you need to ask the seconder whether...
Sorry, it's a long night.
Councillor Schell, do you want to speak now or reserve your right?
I think at this point I'm just confirming that I formally second the motion.
Thank you.
Councillor Gemmell, do you want to speak?
You've got five minutes.
Great, thank you, Chair.
Sorry, thank you, Chairman, before I got corrected.
Thank you to the audience.
Cllr Ed Gemmell - 4:08:59
Konnichiwa.
Nemawashi.
Now this is a motion that it would appear that all of us would be in agreement of.
We all want to protect our trees.
We all want greener countryside.
We all want to have oxygen.
We all want sequester carbon.
and we all want the beauty and everything else
that comes with gorgeous trees.
But the one thing that has been said to me
both in previous meetings and even today
by different counsellors is, oh, can you move trees?
So, and the reason I came up then
with the slightly unusual language at the beginning,
so, nimawashi, is that it comes from Japan,
where tree moving is completely normal.
And last year, if the research I've done is correct,
they moved thousands of trees in relation to developments,
and even one in Tokyo where they moved more than 600
mature trees just for that one development.
So it is completely normal, and it's actually interesting
that in Japan as well, that expression says,
being consultative, building consensus,
seeking cooperation for an introduced change.
So here we are, hopefully introducing a change
that, as the leader said on a previous one,
would be unanimous because I think we can all get behind it.
And thank you very much to the members that changed and amended the original motion
and improved it so that we could all get behind it.
Now we have had lots of tree moving happening here,
and for those that haven't seen the email I sent,
there was an email showing how simple it is to move some trees,
certainly of a medium size.
Bigger trees are more of an engineering issue,
but they can be moved if we take the time to do it.
In Oxfordshire, I think it's in the last couple of years,
40 trees were moved on a particular development there as well.
In Hazelmere at the moment, and that's why I've become passionate about this,
we have reached an agreement with a local group with Redrow and Persimmon
that in principle trees will be dug out and given to us as a community
and we will replant them locally.
And that group actually replanted 45 smaller trees than the one in the video
only two weeks ago, and now we're looking into whether we can get a tree spade
to then go forward and replant other trees later on.
And, bizarrely, and this isn't just an advert for business in Hazelmere,
the number one if you Google tree spades in Britain,
up comes the tree spade importer based in Hazelmere.
So, and I'm not actually advocating for them,
but they have a tree spade sitting there, which I went to look at very recently.
So, it is actually something that we can all get behind,
because we all like it. It is possible, everybody.
And what we're asking to do here
is simply to bring in the idea that the practise of moving trees is better
than chopping them down and destroying them.
I think something that we probably all can agree with.
So please do vote for the motion.
Thank you.
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 4:11:59
As Councillor Gemmell has, you know, accepted the amendment in his motion,
I'm going to open it up to debate, but it doesn't need to be that long
because I think the majority of you are in agreement.
So, Councillor Harris.
I think you need to give me the option to speak now or reserve.
No, we're coming back to you.
Thank you very much, Chairman.
I hope he's not just referring to bonsai trees, having introduced them before the fact.
But I do think we've got to be sensible about this.
Cllr Clive Harriss - 4:12:29
It's a wonderful idea, but it has to be species by species.
Because some are better suited than others.
and that's all I say.
It's time to go home, Chairman.
Chairman, constitutional point 3 .69,
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 4:12:46
can I move the motion to a vote, please?
Do you consider it to be properly debated?
Yes.
I'm thinking about this I'm not sure it's been debated properly but as you're a senior
member and a leader I take your point on board we can go to the vote.
I'd like to second that please Chairman.
Do we have a seconder?
We have to vote to go for a vote so those in favour of that please raise your hands.
Those against?
Any abstentions?
So I've been told by Mr. Watson that Councillor Sheffi, you don't have a chance to speak now.
It goes back to the original proposal, who is Councillor Ed Gemmell.
You have two minutes.
I just think thank you everybody for the sentiments in the room.
Let's go straight to a vote. Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Ed Gemmell - 4:14:17
Cllr Sarfaraz Khan Raja - 4:14:21
and those in favour? Those against? Any abstentions?
Councillors, the meeting is not finished yet.
Councillors, item 10 is questions or notice from members.

10 Questions on Notice from Members

That's a report for information for you to note.
Number 11 is item 11 is report for information, key decisions report.

11 Report for information - Key Decisions Report

That's a report for information and the next meeting is the annual general meeting where

12 Date of Next Meeting

you will be selecting a new chairman for the council and vice chairman.
Yep, I'm going to cry.
But it's been lovely working with you and hopefully see you then.
Take care, good night, God bless.