THE SCHEME to build a £93m luxury hotel called Rayners, Penn has passed its final hurdle with an agreement on financial arrangements.
A spokesman for Rayners said: “This is good news for the future of Rayners and the village. We are focussed on looking at pre-commencement conditions at the moment which we must fulfil before we commence works.”
The pre-conditions in the Section 106 agreement includes a detailed travel plan with the aim of reducing car journeys to and from the hotel.
That involves providing e-bikes and pool bikes and the provision of a bus shuttle service from Wycombe and Beaconsfield stations for both staff and guests. The shuttle buses could also be used for specific events at the hotel, including weddings.
There will be 38 electric vehicle charging points in the hotel’s main car park. Guests will enter by the existing entrance to the former Penn School in Church Road. Service vehicles and staff will access from Hammersley Lane.
Details of the scheme can be found in the September blog.
Local news
Inspiring visit – Triple Olympic gold medal winner – and Strictly Come Dancing contestant – Tom Dean attended assembly at Sir William Ramsay School in Rose Avenue to give an inspirational talk to pupils – and be part of scores of selfies! He told them one of the reasons for his success was a regular good night’s sleep! One of the school’s houses has now been named Dean House.
Fingers crossed! – Engineers are to strengthen the sub-surface around the sinkhole at the junction of Curzon Avenue and Penn Road early next month by adding layers of material to support the road. Initial tests have shown the problem is not as bad as expected so, fingers crossed, the road should be back to normal by mid-December.
TV filming – Scenes for the new series of the ITV drama Grantchester have been filmed in the grounds of Rayners in Church Road, Penn.
Ash trees hit – Chepping Wycombe Parish Council is having to dip into its reserves to pay foresters to deal with a fresh and extensive outbreak of Ash Dieback disease in King’s Wood, Tylers Green.
Cup breakthrough – Penn and Tylers Green Football Club’s women’s team have succeeded in the qualifying stages of the Women’s FA Cup and will play QPR women in the 1st round of the cup at Penn’s French School Meadow. The picture above shows the squad and coaches. UPDATE 3 NOV: Result: P&TG 0 QPR 3. Ah well, Wembley next year.
Girl trapped – The fire brigade smashed a car window after a two year old girl was locked inside the vehicle in Manor Road. She was freed uninjured.
Public footpath – A footpath which runs behind houses in Carter Walk and Sandpits Lane, Tylers Green, and surrounds the proposed Ashwells new housing development, has been deemed a public footpath by Buckinghamshire Council. It follows a long campaign by residents in the area to have the footpath, which has been widely used as an “unofficial” footpath for many years, added to the definitive map of the area as a public path.
Back to school – Nathan Thomas, the 21-year-old mayor of High Wycombe who lives on the Manor Farm estate, visited his old school, Manor Farm Community School in Rose Avenue, above, where he met children from the school’s recently appointed pupil parliament.
Pub book – A book on the history of pubs in the area has been written by local historian Miles Green and pub researcher Andrew Mullis. ‘A History of pubs in Penn and Tylers Green’ is available via the Penn and Tylers Green Residents’ Society website.
Litter problem – Hazlemere Parish Council is requesting better litter bin arrangements at Hazlemere Crossroads following an increase in litter outside Dominos pizza bar and Wenzel’s bakers.
Christmas dates – There’s a Christmas Tree Festival at Holy Trinity, Penn on 7 and 8 December; Carols on the Common on Thursday 19 December starting at 7.45pm (with a children’s version involving first school children at 5.30pm); and a travelling panto, Cinderella visits Tylers Green Village Hall on 20 December. Penn and Tylers Green scouts will be offering their Christmas post service in the immediate area in return for a donation.
Christmas fetes – Tylers Green Middle School Christmas fair is on Friday 6 December after school; Tylers Green First School festive fayre is on Saturday 7 December between 1pm and 3pm; and Manor Farm Schools Christmas Fair is on 23 November. Beaconsfield’s Festival of Light is on 4 December from 6pm
Hello, hello, hello – Guy Robinson, above, is the new police community support officer for the Chepping Wye area, which includes Tylers Green and Hazlemere.
More houses off Cock Lane planned despite Gomm Valley rejection
AFTER a long delay final details of the proposed housing development in the area of Ashwells off Cock Lane have been produced and are open for public comment.
Outline planning permission for the development was given early last year. Now, the developers, the Hill Group, says it wants to build 106 homes even though the outline permission was for 109.
There’ll be two roads leading into the estate – the existing Ashwells road and a new access near the beginning of the narrow section of Cock Lane. Part of the current narrow section will be widened to accommodate the new access.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, some neighbours objecting to the development have referred to the Government planning inspector’s rejection of Taylor Wimpey’s Gomm Valley housing plans. If it had been agreed the first of its houses would have been just a couple of hundred metres from the proposed Ashwells scheme. The inspector said the Gomm Valley scheme would have generated too much traffic onto the A40 (see October and September blogs).
You can look at the latest Ashwells plans and comment on them on this link: https://publicaccess.wycombe.gov.uk/idoxpa-web/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=SK0LEOSCKYQ00
Meanwhile, at the other end of the Cock Lane narrow section, a company called Surrey Quays Limited has submitted plans to build nine four-bedroom houses. The open woodland area is the site of a former water pumping station and is next to 166 Cock Lane.
The company is urging the council to ignore the Gomm Valley decision because, it argues, a mere nine houses is neither here nor there so far as adding to local traffic is concerned.
Elsewhere, significant housing developments continue to advance within a few minutes drive of the village. Last month:
- Bellway Homes submitted final designs for approval of its plans to build 259 houses on former farmland off Amersham Road, Hazlemere near Inkerman Drive.
- Final details of Berkeley Homes’ scheme to build 246 houses in Abbey Barn Road, Wycombe Marsh have been approved.
- Bewley Homes submitted final designs for the third phase of the 350 home estate it is building at Wilton Park, the former military base in Beaconsfield.
- The body representing GPs said surgeries in the area, including Hazlemere’s Highfield Surgery, will need to physically expand to deal with an expected 925 new patients if a planned development in Terriers goes ahead. Persimmon Homes and Redrow Homes plan to construct a 370 home estate on the former Terriers Farm land, off Kingshill Road and the A404 Amersham Road.
Respite centre facing the axe
SEELEY’S House, our local council-run respite centre for adults with disabilities, is earmarked for closure as Buckinghamshire Council seeks to find ways to save money.
The council says if the closure goes ahead people who use the centre in Campbell Drive, Beaconsfield will be offered alternative respite care in the private sector.
The council is also looking to close day centres in High Wycombe, Burnham and Buckingham, saying it needs to save £14million by April 2026 in adult social care costs.
There’s a public consultation running on the plans until 7 January. You can find out more and take part on this link https://yourvoicebucks.citizenspace.com/adult-social-care/better-lives-in-our-communities
A class apart
THIS MONTH’S remembrance events in the village pay tribute to those who died in active service in both Penn and Tylers Green.
Yet our single community has two war memorials.
It’s an indication of how Penn’s hierarchy considered itself a class apart when the First World War ended in 1918.
The war had been a great leveller, killing thousands from upper, middle and working classes. Consequently the Government and the Imperial War Graves Commission (later the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) requested that war memorials should list the dead in alphabetical order, regardless of rank.
Here, community leaders in Tylers Green approached their counterparts in Penn suggesting there be a single war memorial for Penn and Tylers Green with the fallen listed alphabetically. Penn’s luminaries though were having none of it.
Subsequently, in August 1920, the Tylers Green war memorial in St Margaret’s churchyard was unveiled by the Marquess of Lincolnshire, who lived at Wycombe Abbey, with the names of the fallen listed alphabetically.
Penn’s war memorial was built on land owned by the Earl Howe opposite The Crown pub. It was unveiled eight months after Tylers Green’s by the former head of the British Army, Field Marshall Sir William Robertson, and was, and remains, one of a handful of war memorials in the country where the fallen are listed by rank.
The field marshall was an appropriate choice, for he himself, like Penn, wasn’t afraid to go against the flow.
He was, and remains, the only soldier to enter the British Army at the lowest rank – a trooper – and rise to the highest rank of field marshall. His “want of breeding”, as some fellow officers scoffed, brought him many enemies and there were gasps when, on being knighted, he shook the King’s hand instead of kissing it. However, the King – George V – was highly amused and the two became friends.
(Thanks to Ron Saunders, Peter Strutt and Amy Lim for additional information.)
When our village tennis players appeared with the world’s best…
THE DECISION by Wimbledon last month to withdraw human line judges and replace them with machines shows that sport is ever changing. What happened yesteryear would simply not happen today.
I’m grateful to Ken Allen for unearthing the programme above for a 1949 tennis tournament organised by High Wycombe Lawn Tennis Club.
Top of the bill was the legendary Fred Perry verses the best young British player of the day, Dan Maskell, who was to become equally legendary as Wimbledon’s long standing BBC commentator.
It’s like Novak Djokovic playing Jack Draper down at Bassetsbury Lane today.
Note that also on the same bill were David Short and Margaret Ives – two of the top tennis players in the village at the time. David and his brother Peter ran Short Bros garage in Penn for years and Margaret (I think) was linked to Ives bike shop in Penn Road (would be grateful for confirmation from any oldies in the village).
It was a different world.
* Incidentally, you’ll notice Fred Perry, the Englishman who won Wimbledon three years on the bounce, is listed as from the USA. This is because he took US citizenship in 1939 after turning professional and in the second world war served with the US Army Air Force.
The perils of performing
AS REHEARSALS for Christmas school plays get underway in earnest it’s to be hoped Tylers Green First School doesn’t make the same mistake it made 100 years ago.
The first of two performances took place on 12 November, 1924 but for reasons not recorded they didn’t finish until 10 o’clock at night. The next morning so few children turned up for school they didn’t bother marking the class register.
“As the entertainment did not finish until 10pm, the parents kept them in bed,” noted head teacher Stephen Long in the school diary.
Still, all’s well that ends well. The concerts were such a success the school raised enough money to buy a piano.
(Thanks to Liz Tebbutt’s book A History of Tylers Green First School.)
Government likely to overrule Buckinghamshire Council and say yes to Marlow Film Studios
THE GOVERNMENT is set to overrule Buckinghamshire Council and allow the construction of a major film studio complex near Marlow.
The council issued a nine-point rejection of the £750million plan earlier this year, mainly over concerns that the site was in Green Belt, alongside the Marlow by-pass, and fears of increased traffic.
The company behind the plan, Dido Property Ltd, appealed against the refusal, but in a rare move Angela Rayner, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, has stepped in and intends to make the decision herself.
It means that although there will still be a public planning inquiry, beginning on 21 January, the Government planning inspector will not make the decision. Instead he or she will make recommendations to Ms Rayner who will consult with Cabinet colleagues before saying yea or nay.
The decision is almost certain to be yes. The Government considers the development of national importance and more than a local issue. Leading movie figures say that with Marlow and other sites in the can south Buckinghamshire will become second only to Hollywood in the movie-making world.
Announcing the intervention Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the Government had huge ambition for the film industry and intended putting “rocket boosters” under it to unlock its potential.
“We want the UK to be the best place in the world to make films,” she told MPs. Marlow Film Studios says the complex will create at least 4,000 jobs and says it will invest in roads and public transport to reduce the impact on the local environment.
But the Conservative MP for the area, Joy Morrissey, told the House of Commons: “If the Government do try to bring it back, I and the residents will fight it every inch of the way.”
*Plans for another film studio complex at Holyport, near Maidenhead – refused by Windsor and Maidenhead Council because it’s in Green Belt – are also to be considered at a Government planning inquiry – with the final decision resting with Ms Rayner.
**Part of the already expanding Pinewood Studios will be set aside to become a hub for independent film makers operating on a low budget. The announcement was made last month while Ms Nandy toured the studios to promote Government initiatives for the film industry
Meanwhile, in a galaxy not so far away…
IT ISN’T just an expanding film industry that supporters say will secure our local economic future. Plans are in the pipeline to turn this area into Europe’s biggest data centre.
Data centres look boring – nothing more than giant warehouses from the outside – but they are vital in today’s digital and AI (artificial intelligence) world. They contain all the gubbins needed to make our computers, smart phones, tablets and AI equipment work.
The Slough area is already Britain’s data centre capital, with 34 of them now established. And there are plans for really massive centres at Iver by the M25 and in Hertfordshire by the M25/ A1 junction and at the former Didcot power station in Oxfordshire.
There is a snag though. The centres are enormous consumers of electricity to power them up and water to keep their systems cool. Both Heathrow – this region’s biggest electricity user – and Thames Water are expressing concern the centres could overstretch the system.
Regional news
Cattle disease – The movement of livestock is being restricted across Buckinghamshire following an outbreak of bluetongue virus in cattle on farms near the border with Hertfordshire. Parts of east Berkshire are also restricted. The virus presents no risk to humans or food safety but the restrictions are an attempt to stop it spreading to other farms.
Motoring offences leap – Latest figures from Thames Valley Police show a dramatic increase in driving offences for 2023/24 compared to the previous 12 months. Drink/drugs driving increased 24 per cent (2,012 arrests); using mobile phones while driving up 51 per cent (1,456 incidents); speeding up 45 per cent (3,356 offences) and failing to wear a seatbelt up 65 per cent (2,187 cases).
Shopping improvements – Work begins this month on improving the area around the Eden Centre in High Wycombe. New paving, seating and trees will enhance White Hart Street and Red Lion Walk in a £3m scheme. The main Tesco store in the centre has shut for at least a year while the supermarket’s ground floor is revamped. The upper floor is to be converted to accommodate the Buckinghamshire Archives which will be relocated from Aylesbury.
Stepping down – Five times Olympic champion Sir Steve Redgrave, 62, is retiring as president of Marlow Rowing Club to be replaced by former world rowing champion Cath Bishop.
Work delayed – Vital repairs to Henley’s historic Thames Bridge have been put off until next year because river levels are too high. Contractors had hoped to repair the underside of the bridge in the summer but the spring and summer rains meant the water level never fell low enough.
Chequers scare – A man who smashed his VW into the sealed gates of Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country estate at Ellesborough, a week before the general election wasn’t making a political protest. Matthew Wootten, aged 44, of nearby Great Kimble, was nearly three times over the drink-drive limit and simply lost control on a bend a court heard last month. He was jailed for two years eight months and banned from driving for three years, four months.
Tree trail – A sensory trail has been officially unveiled at Burnham Beeches featuring tactile sculptures together with a QR code informing visitors about species living in the wood.
Bandstand gift – A 1950s bandstand which stood for years in London’s Finsbury Circus Gardens has been donated to the Chiltern Open Air Museum where, after restoration, it will stand on the green in front of their 1940s prefab.
Swinging back – Marlow golfer Tyrrell Hatton, 32, has returned to the top 20 of the world’s best golfers after winning the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship for a record third time at St Andrews.
The apple of my AI – Former Holmer Green Senior School pupil Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 34, above, has been named the most handsome man in the world by an AI device which uses mathematics and facial mapping to determine physical perfection. The actor has embarrassingly/modestly remained silent.
You can contact this blog at peter@pennandtylersgreen.com. It is updated as necessary but the next full update will be on 1 December.