OUR LOCAL Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG), formed to help the police tackle crime, anti-social behaviour and traffic speeding issues, has disbanded, saying the police no longer seem interested.
The chairman of the Chepping Wycombe and Hazlemere group, Councillor David Johncock, has written to Thames Valley Police to complain after police representatives failed to appear at recent NAG meetings.
The minutes of the final meeting, held in Tylers Green Village Hall, say: “The chairman advised that he intended to write to Supt Emma Burroughs to express the concern of the group about the fact that the current (police) neighbourhood team seemed not to appreciate what the NAG had to offer and were not very proactive in the way that previous (police) neighbourhood teams had been.”
When it became clear no-one wanted to take on the role of chair, vice-chair or secretary, the group agreed to implement a clause in its constitution and immediately dissolved itself. The NAG membership includes representatives from local councils, neighbourhood watch and residents’ groups.
Its members have produced drug awareness leaflets and help run community speed watch activities, although the community speed watch system will continue without NAG assistance with volunteers manning mobile speed monitors to pass on data to the police.
Thames Valley Police has acknowledged a request by this blog to put its side of the story but has so far not responded.
*There were 259 reported crimes in the Chepping Wye police area, which includes Tylers Green, Hazlemere, Loudwater and Flackwell Heath in June, July and August according to police figures. This compares to 242 in the previous three months.
In the Chalfonts police area, which includes Penn, 271 crimes were reported in June, July and August compared to 256 in the previous three months.
These figures are lower than reported crimes for most other areas in the Thames Valley Police region.
Sports and Social club has its licence curtailed after neighbours noise complaints
THE LICENCE permitting outdoor music at Penn and Tylers Green Sports and Social Club has been restricted following a hearing at which some people living nearby said late night events constituted a public nuisance because they were too noisy.
Buckinghamshire Licensing Sub-Committee ruled last month that from now on live or recorded music cannot be played outdoors after nine o’clock at night.
The ruling does not affect events in the clubhouse itself and the committee made an exception for Party on the Pitch, an annual fund-raising event organised by the football club. The club can appeal the ruling if it desires.
A group of neighbours in Elm Road, Penn told the hearing that problems occur when the club erects a marquee in the summer months and rents it to other groups and individuals. They said that on some occasions – but not all – loud music continues after 11pm and they cannot find anyone responsible to take action.
After a three hour hearing the sub-committee also ruled that in future a contact number should be provided to residents so they know who to get in touch with in the event of complaint and that any complaints should be logged by the club.
It also said all staff and volunteers dealing with the sale of alcohol would benefit from additional training, including issues involving the prevention of public nuisance.
Club chairman Nigel Miller said he recognised that on a small number of evenings this summer music from events in the marquee “carried further and later than some of our neighbours found reasonable.”
He added: “We are sorry for the disturbance this caused. When residents raised concerns after an event on 9 May I replied the same day and met residents in person within a week. We apologised and changed our practice straight away.”
He outlined a number of commitments the club will now follow:
- The marquee will in future be erected for no more than 28 days in any one year
- It will only be used by club members for internal club events and by local schools, community groups and charities
- The marquee will only be erected in the area outlined in the licence
- Elm Road neighbours will receive advance notice of marquee events, including date and finishing time
- The name and mobile number of the duty manager on site will be shared with neighbours
- The terms of use in the marquee will be given to DJs and entertainers as well as those holding the event
He went on: “It is the club’s intention to work in tandem with our neighbours, Penn Parish Council and Buckinghamshire Council so we can maintain and grow the sporting and social opportunities we offer to our community.”
Public’s views censored again as Royal Standard expansion plans refused
ONCE AGAIN the views of members of the public have been censored with regard to a significant local planning application, this time involving the Royal Standard of England pub in Forty Green, Penn.
The number of people who supported or opposed the pub’s proposed expansion plans, together with their emails and letters, have not been revealed by Buckinghamshire Council’s planning department because the council is one of a handful in the country that believes publishing them would contravene data protection laws (see September, June and earlier blogs).
Instead, the planning officer making the decision to reject the scheme has published only a general summary of the points allegedly made for and against the plan.
Because the correspondence is being kept secret there is no way of verifying whether the summarisation is accurate or comprehensive. A Freedom of Information request could be submitted, but even then the council could refuse to grant it.
In its application to build a rear extension which would provide additional kitchen and toilet space in addition to extra dining space the pub’s owners said the pub’s viability would be at risk without expansion.
But planning officer Melanie Beech agreed with local councillors and ruled that, if allowed, the extension would cause harm to the character of the area which is in the Chilterns National Landscape. However she agreed it did not amount to inappropriate development in the Green Belt.
The pub can appeal the decision.
The public’s opinion has been censored on several major planning issues in this area, including the Gomm Valley housing development and a scheme to convert Dame Barbara Windsor’s old pub in Winchmore Hill into a mansion. Opposition councillors and MPs have urged the Conservative-led council to change its stance, but it refuses to budge.
Local news
Padel courts – Plans have been submitted to provide two padel courts at Penn and Tylers Green Football Club. If approved they would be built on what’s currently a stretch of grass between the existing tennis courts and the main football pitch.
Tyre centre – Four years after the British Legion closed its community hall at Hazlemere Crossroads and sold it to the tyre company next door plans have been submitted by MeritTyres to convert the whole site into a tyre care centre with new workshops, storage facilities and customer reception.
Parking views – Residents in Pimms Grove are being asked if they are prepared to pay for residents’ parking permits to help prevent non-residents from parking their vehicles in the street long-term. The council is also seeking their views on placing double yellow lines on Cock Lane, near its junction with Pimms Grove.
Planning test – A test of the Government’s more relaxed planning laws is being made in Hammersley Lane with an application to demolish existing farm stables and build a three bedroom house. The land is on the east side of the lane in Green Belt and the Chilterns National Landscape (formerly called the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), opposite Beeches. Views of members of the public will not be published because of Buckinghamshire Council’s planning censorship policy.
Best practice – James Perrin, pictured above, of the Simpson Centre and Penn Surgery, won the practice business manager of the year award for the second year running at last month’s Practice Management Association awards.
Winter visitors – A herd of Sussex cattle has arrived at Penn Jubilee Woods off Beacon Hill for the winter where their grazing and pooing will help maintain the grassland and provide habitats for wildlife.
Pub change – A new management team has taken over the Potters Arms in Winchmore Hill but will continue to include Nepalese dishes on its menu and its monthly comedy nights.
Pub refurb – Heineken owned Star Pubs says it is spending £300,000 refurbishing the Beech Tree pub in Amersham Road, Terriers this month. When it reopens early next month its menu will include traditional English fare plus Italian and Punjabi dishes.
Festival bookings – Organisers of next year’s Meadow Fest in the grounds of Penn House in Penn Street have so far signed up 23 artists and tribute bands to appear over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend next May. Details on https://www.meadow-fest.com
Agreement breached – There was traffic chaos in Hammersley Lane on 19 October when several contractor lorries arrived at the Taylor Wimpey building site at the same time and parked up on the blind bend awaiting entrance to the site. They also contravened the agreement reached between the council and the developer not to travel south down the lane, through the centre of Tylers Green.
Woodland pruning – Four trees – two beech, an oak and an ash – in woodland behind Tylers Green First School are to be pruned this winter to lower the risk of branches breaking off. The woodland is used in the summer as a forest school.
Naughty but nice – Children at Penn Street’s Curzon School had a “break the rules” day for charity last month. For £1 they could wear their own clothes and not school uniform, and for an extra 50p (each) they could attend with gelled hair; wear bright hair accessories; have painted nails, wear tattoos or make up and add a packet of crisps or a fizzy drink to their lunchbox.
Birthday party – Tylers Green Village Hall celebrated its 90th anniversary last month with a tea party attended by around 100 residents.
The beauty of beech – The majestic beech of Brook Wood, off Common Wood Lane, Penn showing their true splendour in the late autumn sunshine. Picture: Tina Brown
Ruth Ellis headstone unveiled on what would have been her 100th birthday but is not, as she wished, located in Penn
RUTH ELLIS, the last woman to be hanged in Britain and who was pardoned this summer 71 years after she was executed for murder, now has a headstone and a marked grave.
It was unveiled on what would have been her 100th birthday in the graveyard by St Mary’s Church in Amersham last month.
Ruth had desired to be buried in Penn. Before her execution in 1955 she told her family she wished to be buried in Penn churchyard near the grave of David Blakely, the man she had shot in a fit of passion and rage.
But the vicar at the time, Oscar Muspratt, turned down the request out of respect for the Blakely family who lived in Hammersley Lane, Tylers Green.
So her family buried her in the nearest place they could find to Penn in Amersham. The original headstone however was vandalised and even desecrated by Ruth’s mentally deranged son. For many years her grave lay unmarked and anonymous under over-hanging trees.
In July, after years of campaigning by four of her grandchildren, the King granted her a conditional pardon following a recommendation from the Government. It was, said a Government statement, “an act of mercy recognising the historic injustice of the death penalty in this exceptional case.”
The official review of her case recognised that Ruth was a victim of domestic abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour and that the outcome of any trial would have been different had it occurred today.
There was speculation after the pardon her family may request her remains to be re-interred in Penn. But instead the family asked Amersham Town Council, who are responsible for maintaining the graveyard at St Mary’s, if a headstone could be placed on her existing resting place. The council agreed and also cleaned up and renovated the area around it.
The stone’s inscription reads : Ruth Ellis. 9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955. Only justice in the afterlife.
Christmas is coming…
HERE’S some festive events in the area next month (to be updated throughout November)…
2 December – Festival of Lights in Beaconsfield (pictured above). 5.45 to 9pm
4/5/6 December – Christmas weekend at Bekonscot model village
4 December – Manor Farm Schools Christmas Fayre, Rose Avenue,
4 December – Last day for leaving shoeboxes with gifts for women and children selected by Wycombe Women’s Aid. Tylers Green Village Hall.
5 to 19 December – Scout post in Penn, Tylers Green and Manor Farm estate. Free local delivery of Christmas cards in return for a donation to the scouts chosen charity. Post boxes and details in local shops and businesses.
5/6 December – Dickensian Christmas weekend at Chiltern Open Air Museum
5 December – Christmas Tree festival at Holy Trinity Church, Penn 2pm to 5pm
6 December – Christmas Tree Festival at Holy Trinity Church, Penn 2pm to 4.15pm
6 December – Christmas Jumper Service, Holy Trinity, Penn
10 December – Carols for a Winter’s Day by Cantlos and James McCafferty. Penn & Tylers Green WI. Tylers Green Village Hall.
11 December – Tylers Green Middle School Christmas Fair, 3.30 to 6pm
12 December – Tylers Green First School Christmas Fayre
13 December – A travelling theatre company present Cinderella at Tylers Green Village Hall. Book in advance on 01494 819990.
14 December – Community Christmas lunch at Tylers Green Village Hall. Book in advance on 01494 819990.
17 December – Children’s Carols on the Common around the Christmas Tree, late afternoon.
17 December – Carols on the Common around the Christmas Tree on Tylers Green front common from 7.45pm
25 December – Dog walkers and their dogs meet for a chat, a drink and a good sniff (dogs only) on Tylers Green back common, mid morning.
Listed properties set for changes
THERE ARE plans to alter two of Penn’s most historic properties – Town Farm and Troutwells – so they are more 21st century friendly.
They are set to be approved after the county’s heritage officer said they would not dramatically affect the buildings’ Grade 2 listed building statuses.
Parts of Town Farm, at the end of Beacon Hill, date back 500 years and there have been settlements on the site going back even further.
New owner Tom Absalom wants to reconfigure the kitchen, bathroom and first floor bedrooms but Buckinghamshire Heritage Officer Hazel Curtis said the alternations have been “sensitively designed to have minimal impact on the building and no historic fabric will be lost.”
Similarly, heritage officers have raised no objection to a scheme to block one of the two accesses to the 17th century house Troutwells in Church Road, Penn to create a single access that is slightly wider that the existing one. Some of the cobbled stones in the driveway will be reused. The house itself will not be affected.
Early last century the house was lived in by Sir Courtenay Ilbert, the clerk to the House of Commons for 20 years.
*Heritage officers are also in favour of a scheme to alter White Rose Cottage in Church Road, Tylers Green, which will make it more distinct from the neighbouring White House Cottage as well as replace some original features. In Victorian times the cottages were the homes of the butler and the chauffeur of the Rose family who lived in The White House next door.
Jam, Jerusalem and a force in the community. Penn and Tylers Green WI celebrates its centenary
ONE HUNDRED years ago this month the village’s first branch meeting of the Women’s Institute was held.
Backed with grant of £1 from the Buckinghamshire WI, 24 ladies from the village converged on St Margaret’s parish room on 18 November, 1926 and by the end of the evening they had all enrolled.
At first it was called the Penn WI but within a few months it changed its name to the Penn and Tylers Green WI.
Speakers in those early days covered topics ranging from “making felt slippers” to the role of “women police”, and from “home dyeing” to the “curing of skins”.
Soon though, as with WIs across the country, they became a force to be reckoned with. By early 1928 they were complaining bitterly to the parish council about the poor state of the land around the Penn war memorial and within weeks the area was tidied up.
In the same year they were the first major group to agitate for a new village hall and began holding “entertainments” to help fund it. Eight years later a new village hall was opened.
In the great depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s they threw their considerable energies into helping the poor. They created special funds to help “distressed mining families in Gateshead” and to send “a poor woman and her family from Canning Town” on holiday. In 1930 they sent cash and “94lbs of groceries” to help “distressed miners and their families” in Wales.
In 1931 they donated 180 garments and toys to children in Dr. Barnado homes. A banner was displayed at their meetings declaring “Deeds not words”.
By the time of its 10th anniversary, with membership quadrupled and now firmly established in the new village hall, the group was fully committed to its purpose of “loyalty and helpfulness”.
A garden party was held to raise funds to pay for holidays for “the poor tired mothers in the Durham mining village of Byers Green”; flowers were provided for a member who every week visited those “in the poorer parts of London” and 11 members opened their homes to enable children from poor families to have a week’s holiday here.
One of their members, Dr Louisa Garrett-Anderson, the daughter of Britain’s first woman to qualify as a physician and surgeon, who lived by Paul’s Hill, Penn presented the Institute with “a strong, low stool to be used by the speakers.”
It was in the Second World War however that the village’s WI really came into its own. The women’s organisational skills and industry went up several gears.
They oversaw the arrangements for nearly 200 young evacuees suddenly thrust into the village, mainly from Marylebone and Ealing. They arranged their billeting and did their best to make them welcome, organising parties every Sunday in the village hall for the evacuees and their families.
They organised a Red Cross centre and a First Aid centre in the village to be ready for the real possibility of invasion and potential fighting in the streets.
The Red Cross centre, based in one member’s home, was a hive of activity with members making pyjamas for British prisoners of war and knitting socks and scarves for Indian troops fighting for the Allies and feeling the cold.
In the first few years of the war the Red Cross ladies made 6,700 garments.
The first aid centre ensured there were sufficient stocks of bandages and medical equipment readily available in the event of bombing casualties or real fighting if an invasion occurred.
The institute adopted a prisoner of war – Gunner Kerridge – sending him food, clothing and cigarettes. He survived the war and made a special visit to the village hall to thank them…and invite one of their members to his wedding.
In addition they organised collections of items that were needed in the Wycombe hospital and even collected bones from butchers and households that could be ground down to make glue, bonemeal and fertiliser.
But it was their jam making capacity which drew most attention, particularly when their efforts resulted in a visit to the parish room by Queen Elizabeth in 1940. The village was rich in orchards and had long been a centre for soft fruit production. The ladies transformed the parish room into a virtual jam factory in the weeks after the harvest, obtaining special rations of sugar to make Penn jam.
In just three sessions after one harvest they produced 3,065 pounds of jam (1,390 kg) and still had sugar left over.
The WI continued to play an important social and community role as Penn and Tylers Green grew in the latter half of the 20th century and the first quarter of the 21st century. It still meets in the village hall every month but also organises outings and holds specialist group meetings – knit and natter; a craft and repair group and a book club for instance – usually held in members’ homes.
You can learn more – and join them – on their website https://pennandtylersgreeneveningwi.weebly.com
Regional news
Pylons go – Work was completed last month to bury eight miles of power lines in the Chess Valley, part of the Chilterns National Landscape. UK Power Networks said burying the 11,000 volt lines – carried out to minimise disruption to wildlife – was part of its commitment to make visual improvements in nationally recognised landscapes. The work was completed between Chenies and Latimer where a project is now underway to restore the River Chess to reduce flooding and create new wildlife habitats.
Lego alert – There was an emergency evacuation of Legoland in Windsor on a Sunday lunchtime last month after a major water main nearby burst, denying water supplies to the theme park. All rides at the attraction were suddenly stopped and the park’s theme hotel closed. The park resumed operations the next day.
Studios revived – Bray Studios has received planning permission for a major expansion. Amazon, who acquired the former horror film studios two years ago, intend to build an additional six sound stages on the Thames-side plot.
Stadium’s plight – The company running Oxford Stadium – our nearest greyhound racing venue – has gone into liquidation. There’s been no greyhound racing at the venue since the spring when the company that broadcasts greyhound racing nationally pulled out. However, stadium owners Henlow Racing says it is working to revive the stadium with new investors. Our nearest greyhound racing venue is in Harlow, Essex or Towcester, Northamptonshire.
Ruff job – Milo, the latest recruit to the Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, completed his training last month and will begin his work hunting for missing people in collapsed buildings and other specialist situations. He replaces firedog Huw who retired after six years service.
Race tragedy – Flackwell Heath Moto Park in Heath End Road was closed following the death of 23 year old motocross rider Richie Anderson of Margate, Kent following a track accident on 19 September.The owners say they plan to reopen soon.
TV windfall – Beaconsfield Service Station, off the M40, says it will use the money it has received for being the location of two nights filming for the TV drama Slow Horses to fund the refurbishment of the grounds and facilities.
Oxford transformation – A £100million pound scheme to build a life sciences research centre in Oxford city centre got underway last month. The laboratory and office complex will provide 800 high skill jobs plus a public garden and cafe. It also includes the restoration of the Boatman’s Chapel, a unique floating chapel constructed nearly 200 years ago to serve canal boatmen and their families.
Drawn-out game – The 300 year old wall which plays a crucial role in the Eton Wall Game was renovated last month so it is ready for the annual match on St Andrew’s Day, 30 November. The game has been played every year for around 270 years, but the last time a “goal” was scored was 1909.
By the way
- Naturally everyone involved in the Sir William Ramsay School community in Rose Avenue was rooting for former head girl Leigh-Anne Pinnock in TV’s Celebrity Traitors last month. And there were congratulations all round when she made it through to the final. However, contemporaries of the Little Mix singer, who was apparently a chatter-box in her school days, are said to be even more amazed she managed to keep the result a secret in the six months between filming the show and its screening!
- Meanwhile it will be interesting to discover Wycombe Royal Grammar School’s reaction to its former sixth-former Jimmy Carr’s suggestion last month that comedy should be taught in schools. The last time he appeared at the Wycombe Swan he wrote on his social media: “I actually went to school here at the Royal Grammar and I’m very happy to say I’ve wasted a top flight education.”
- The planning consultants applying to provide padel courts between Penn and Tylers Green’s existing main football pitch and tennis courts say quite rightly that the risk of flooding on the site is very low because, of course, it’s on very high ground. Odd then that at one stage their application refers to the “proposed paddle courts”.
You can contact this blog on peter@pennandtylersgreen.com It will be updated as necessary during November, but the next full update will be on 1 December.