So what, you may wonder, is happening to the proposed Gomm Valley development? It is over six months since the outline planning application to build over 1,000 homes between Cock Lane and Hammersley Lane was put aside while the developers had further talks with council planners and various public utilities to try and resolve several difficulties. Since then, not a dickie bird.
The hurdles are high and the solutions expensive. You’ll recall that Thames Water were far from happy about sufficient water supply to the development while, ironically perhaps, the flooding authority didn’t feel there were adequate precautions against potential future flooding. Then the highway authority said it had not been supplied with the traffic modelling figures it needs to enable it to assess the traffic impact on local roads.
Of course the pandemic hasn’t helped…and indeed may have a decisive role to play. Many new objectors, who have become familiar with the beauty of the valley while walking it in lockdown, point out that green valleys like Gomm Valley – the last untouched dry valley in the Wycombe district – should be left undeveloped for future generations to enjoy. And anyway, they say, future housing should be concentrated even more in town centres which may, post-pandemic, be left with permanently fewer shops than pre-pandemic.
The biggest potential game-changer however is the Government’s U-turn on the rules of where and how many new homes the local authorities should provide.
Now, the Government also wants to see greater housing concentrations in town centres, plus greater protection for the Green Belt (unfortunately for the objectors, the Gomm Valley is not in Green Belt but contains protected wildlife sites).
The new, unitary Buckinghamshire Council meanwhile has carte-blanche to build new houses anywhere it wants in the entire county without being restricted to the old district council boundaries and specific housing targets within those areas.
So little wonder perhaps the Gomm Valley situation is a bit like my garden in January – nothing happening on the surface, but plenty going on behind the scenes. Word is that a revised outline planning application may emerge in the spring. Watch this space.
A school report no-one ever expected
THOSE of us whose children have grown up or don’t have children find it impossible to imagine what school life is like these days.
So I’m grateful to Andrew Sierant, the head of Manor Farm Community Junior School in Rose Avenue who published the school newsletter to parents on Friday online. It’s an eye-opener for those of us no longer intimately involved with schools. Here’s what he says:
I hope you are all managing at home during this difficult time. I am very aware that you are all facing challenges during this lockdown and the battle with the virus.
The Government has instructed schools that we have a legal duty to provide remote learning, and for children at Manor Farm Junior this should be four hours per day. A big ask for pupils who are not used to learning individually and with no recognisable structure; a big ask for parents in supporting and managing this learning, with possibly their own work or other siblings; a big ask for teachers to provide learning and maintain contact with their classes. Well done to everyone for all your hard work.
We are providing Maths, English and another subject everyday. We also expect every child to undertake a physical activity daily – Joe Wicks links for YouTube have been given in Google Classroom as an option for this. With these activities, TTRS (the maths programme Times Table Rock Stars), reading and spellings, there is certainly an adequate amount of activity for each child to be engaged for four hours per day. I do realise there may be circumstances and times when that may not be possible. If there are difficulties, please let us know as we may be able to help.
This week the directive to staff has been to focus on remote learning activity: to ensure it is appropriate for the range of ability in their class; provide clear instructions; response to concerns pupils post in Google Classroom. There has been good engagement in all classes with pupils going online for the registration session with their teacher every morning. If your child has not engaged online at this time, would you please support us by having them do so. There is an expectation of schools to maintain contact with pupils and ensure we adhere to our child protection policy. If a child does not join the morning session and then does not engage in learning during the day, we will be contacting you to find out if there are problems.
At present we are just about managing to provide home learning and learning in school for children of critical workers. Thank you to those parents who have helped us maintain this provision by keeping your child(ren) at home where this is possible.
The picture on the previous page shows an activity that some of the children who are in school did earlier this week. They made ‘virtual hugs’ to send to someone whom they haven’t seen for some time due to lockdown or to say thanks to someone who has made them feel loved and special. Very worthwhile during these times.
‘Choose to be happy in lockdown. It is your choice. Think positively and good things will happen’. STAY SAFE. Mr Sierant.
A year ago no-one would have imagined a head teacher sending out a note like that just 12 months later. Yet in schools, colleges, universities, workplaces and homes people of all ages have adapted to a truly extraordinary situation with an extraordinary determination. Our health workers are being simply awe-inspiring. Amid the incredible sadness there is incredible kindness. It is all very reassuring.
Head in the clouds
Am I the only one who thinks the Honourable Member for Wycombe should stop playing politics and find something useful to do?
Here we are in the middle of the biggest national emergency for 80 years and all we seem to get from Steve Baker, perched in his eyrie in the Westminster village, are headlines about his political wingeing, moaning and backbiting. Even the official Leader of the Opposition realises there’s a time and a place for political point-scoring, and now is neither the time nor the place. For goodness sake Steve, get out more (without breaking the lockdown rules, obviously).
Will common sense prevail?
THIS summer the Boundary Commission will be publishing its proposals for changing the parliamentary boundaries because of changing populations and it will be surprising – and disappointing – if Penn and Tylers Green are not included in the changes.
The main aim is to level up the number of electors in each constituency but the commissioners have also been given a brief to better align constituency boundaries with local government boundaries.
The Penn and Tylers Green communities have been plagued with a daft boundary between them for years – the current parliamentary boundary between Wycombe constituency (Tylers Green) and Chesham and Amersham constituency (Penn) runs right through the middle of Widmer Pond on the common. Fortunately that boundary was blurred when the new unitary authority, Buckinghamshire Council, put both Penn and Tylers Green in its local Community Board last year, recognising that although we have two names we are one community. Now the boundary commissioners have an opportunity to finish the boundary line off altogether.
The electorates of Wycombe and Beaconsfield constituencies are around 77,000 each, whereas Chesham and Amersham is about 71,000. Both Wycombe and Beaconsfield will have a few extra thousand people added over the next ten to 15 years because of new housing developments, so my money will be on Tylers Green moving into the Chesham and Amersham constituency. But who knows.
Once the proposals are published there will be time for everyone to have their say. The final decision is expected to be made late next year in time for any elections in 2025.
Pugwash alert
Thanks for this one to members of the Penn and Tylers Green Wobblie Club, who are somehow keeping their spirits up despite the prolonged closure of pubs…
They are having to introduce even stricter lockdown measures in Cornwall after hundreds of pirates returned to Penzance. The ‘Arrgh’ rate has increased dramatically.