PENN, Tylers Green and Hazlemere are now part of the Beaconsfield and Chepping Wye community board, part of the new Bucks Council, and an organisation that will have an increasing say in local decision-making.
The statisticians have been spending their lockdown preparing a profile of the 41,000 people who live in this area so the local politicians will know the areas to work on in the future. As we’re in a better-off area of one of the country’s better-off counties there are few surprises.
We are older than the average (22 per cent over 65 compared to the Bucks average of 18 per cent), less ethnically diverse (8 per cent from black, Asian or minority ethnic background compared to the average 14 per cent) and have a higher than average life expectancy.
Our children tend to be healthier than the average, although a quarter of Year 6 children are overweight, and there are fewer obese adults than the norm (although at 27 per cent it’s not really worth shouting about). Fewer of us smoke but we have a higher proportion of physically inactive adults. We have higher than average cancer rates and high blood pressure but fewer diabetes sufferers. Employment rates are higher than the average (or they were pre-Covid) but the risk of loneliness for the elderly is among the highest in Bucks.
Quite what the politicos are going to do with all this information remains to be seen… but no doubt they will soon be telling us.