WYCOMBE (and Tylers Green) MP Steve Baker was one of 36 MPs to vote against new Covid rules that enforce the wearing of face masks in shops and on public transport for at least the next three weeks while scientists assess the seriousness of the new Covid variant Omicron.
Mr Baker, who did not wear a mask in the House of Commons debate on the issue yesterday (30 November), told MPs the right to choose was more important.
“The public are not fools,” he said. “We are not here to govern idiots.”
” I have faith in the British public that they can choose for themselves to do the right thing: to wear a mask when it is sensible, to pay attention to the level of cases; to choose for themselves whether they go to a restaurant and, indeed, to choose whether they visit vulnerable relations.”
But Mr Baker’s views were very much in the minority: 431 voted in favour of the temporary tightening of restrictions, including Penn MP Sarah Green and Beaconsfield MP Joy Morrissey. They agreed with the view that the public need clear guidelines that everyone can follow, based on the latest medical advice.
Meanwhile, the number of Covid infections in our immediate area continues to grow. Last week there 177 new Covid infections recorded in the Penn, Tylers Green and Hazlemere area. This compares with 114 two weeks earlier.
A final farewell to Dame Cheryl
HUNDREDS of friends and colleagues of Penn’s former MP, Dame Cheryl Gillan, attended a thanksgiving service in her memory at the MPs church of St Margaret’s, next to Westminster Abbey on Monday. The congregation included Prime Minister Boris Johnson as well as former prime ministers Sir John Major and Lady Theresa May, who read the poem She Is Gone.
Many friends from her Chesham and Amersham constituency as well as representatives of the charities she campaigned for were also there, including Earl Howe, the deputy leader of the House of Lords, who lives at Penn House.
Dame Cheryl, who died in April aged 68 after a long battle against cancer, was the local MP for 29 years. She is buried in Derbyshire.
The stark beauty of winter
A chilly dawn at Widmer Pond on Tylers Green common. It’s the first time for four years snow has settled in the village pre-Christmas. Pictures taken on 29 November, 2021 by Natalie Wood and published on the Penn and Tylers Green/Hazlemere Community Page on Facebook.
Elsewhere the early dawn of winter brought some spectacular views on the Chiltern Hills. This picture by Tora of the BBC’s Weatherwatch team.
Hundreds of homes planned on former Green Belt site
BELLWAY Homes has applied to build 290 houses on the former Inkerman Farm site off the Amersham Road in Hazlemere, virtually opposite the junction with Gravelly Way to Penn Street.
Previous applications to build a smaller number of homes on the site have been refused because development was considered “inappropriate” in Green Belt.
However, the site and its immediate area were taken out of Green Belt a few years ago and since then developers have competed to buy up what land they can.
An application by Inland Homes to build 103 homes on the adjacent Tralee Farm site is still under consideration, while Nicholas King Homes is appealing against a council decision to refuse it permission to build eight detached homes on a much smaller site next to Inkerman Farm, opposite Gravelly Way.
Shanly Homes, meanwhile, has bought two adjoining properties on nearby Inkerman Drive and has applied to build 12 homes on the site.
Residents in the area are largely objecting to the plans on the basis of extra traffic congestion, particularly at Hazlemere Crossroads, and complaining that local services, like schools and doctors’ surgeries, will not be able to cope with the additional population.
Land owners can’t see the wood for the trees
MEANWHILE, residents in Hammersley Lane, Tylers Green, thought they had won a handsome victory earlier this year when they persuaded the council to impose instant tree preservation orders (TPOs) on all the trees behind Hilltop and neighbouring homes, stopping contractors in their tracks from destroying further woodland.
Now, it seems, they may have won a battle, but not necessarily the war.
Back in February contractors suddenly appeared with bulldozers to clear hedges, shrubs and small trees, assuring anxious neighbours it was merely “woodland management”.
But that didn’t wash with neighbours and local councillors who feared the land had been acquired by housing developers who were consequently clearing the land in preparation for a future planning application.
Then, in September, agents acting for the unknown owner of the land applied for permission to resume the woodland clearance, in spite of the TPOs, claiming they were obliged to do so because it was their responsibility to clear vegetation under electricity power lines above. The council said no it wasn’t; the electricity supply company had not requested any such clearance and consequently refused permission.
Now, much to everyone’s irritation/bemusement the agents have submitted the same application again.
Biting her lip, local councillor Katrina Wood said, diplomatically: “There is no real need for this application. If the utility company want to do any work they are perfectly able to so themselves.”
The neighbours are less diplomatic… “The applicant is wasting public resources,” says one. “Is someone trying to pull the wool over our eyes?” asks another.
Back to the drawing board
THE owner of The Crown pub has received a blow to its plans to expand Penn’s oldest pub.
Council officers responsible for maintaining the heritage of Buckinghamshire’s old buildings say Greene King’s plan needs a “complete revision of its design, scale and form” before being acceptable in heritage terms.
Bucks councillors have yet to say yea or nay to the planning application (see previous blogs) but are unlikely to over-rule their own heritage advisors. Greene King, for its part, say the 400 year old pub will no longer be viable unless it expands and will therefore inevitably close.
For sale. One careless owner.
Auto week magazine tells us that a sports car last seen roaring round the lanes of Penn more than 70 years ago was the fifth most expensive car in the world to be sold at auction this year.
Earl Howe’s Bugatti Type 57S Atalante was one of only 42 ever built between 1936 and 1938 and was wrecked when the Earl crashed it in 1945. But it was painstakingly restored to its former glory and was sold at a London auction for a mere £7.8 million, give or take a few quid. Buyer, for now, anonymous.
Briefly…
Christmas bin collections – Revised dates for bin collections in the village over the Christmas period can be found here https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/bin-collection-recycling-and-waste/changes-to-recycling-and-waste-services-this-christmas/
The food waste collection service, which has been merged with the general bin collection for several weeks because of staff shortages, will be resumed as a separate collection from 13 December. Garden waste collection services are suspended from 3 January and resume on 18 January.
Scout Christmas post – Penn and Tylers Green Scout group are again delivering Christmas cards locally free of charge.
There are collection boxes at King’s Ride Supermarket, John’s barbers, Joe Gleeson’s butchers, JJ’s delicatessen, Tylers Green Village Hall and the Village Shop on the Green.
Collections will be made on the 11 and 18 December for delivery of cards in Penn, Tylers Green and the Manor Farm estate, Hazlemere.
The scouts are raising money for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance this year and hope people will make a donation via their Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/penn-and-tylers-green-scout-group
Last year their Christmas charity appeal raised over £500 for Shelter.
Costa arrives – The former Pinks florist at Cosy Corner shopping precinct in Hazlemere is to become a Costa coffee outlet.
Burglaries drop – John Campbell, chief constable of Thames Valley Police, said the Covid lockdown was largely responsible for the near halving of burglaries this year, mainly because more people were working from home.
There had also been a reduction of night time crime because fewer people were on the streets. There were 750 prosecutions of people breaking Covid lockdown rules in the county, mainly involving those attending large gatherings.
Mr Campbell told Buckinghamshire councillors last week that half of the new police officers recruited this year were women, while the number of recruits with a black, Asian or ethnic minority heritage had doubled compared to the previous year.
Rail line conversion – Buckinghamshire Council is taking another look at converting the former railway line between High Wycombe and Bourne End, via Loudwater, into a pathway for walkers and cyclists.
Afghan refugees – Buckinghamshire has committed to resettling up to 30 Afghan refugee families in the county, council leader Martin Tett said last week. So far the charity Heart of Bucks has raised £65,000 for its Afghan Helping Hand fund. Penn’s MP Sarah Green is supporting a motion calling on the Government to expand and speed up the Afghan resettlement scheme.
Winning tree
Little Oaks Forty Green nursery won the prize for the best decorated Christmas Tree at the Tree Festival in Penn’s Holy Trinity Church. The event raised £564 for Wycombe Homeless Connection.
What’s on this month
1 to 12 December – Winter Wonderland at Bekonscot. Tickets must be booked online.
4 December – Alpine Christmas at the Old Queen’s Head, Penn with live music. 4pm to 6pm
5 December – Manor Farm Schools Christmas Fayre
9 December – Christmas comedy night at Potter’s Arms, Winchmore Hill
9 December – Performing Arts students present Sir William Ramsay Christmas concert, Starry Starry Night
10 December – Tylers Green First School Christmas Bazaar, 3pm to 5pm
11 December – The Laughing Ants play live at the Horse and Jockey, Tylers Green, 5pm to 7pm
16 December – Christmas comedy night at Potter’s Arms, Winchmore Hill
20 December – Carols on the Common, Front Common,Tylers Green by the Christmas Tree. 7.45pm
21 December, Jack and the Beanstalk at Tylers Green Village Hall. 3pm. Tickets from the hall.
31 December – Karaoke at the Potter’s Arms, Winchmore Hill
You can contact this blog by email: peter@pennandtylersgreen.com