Minutes
of the Risborough Area Business Group
Held
at
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Attendees |
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Chairman G.Wiles :IFC |
A.Smith :J Smith &
Sons |
T.Long
:RACA |
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Vice-chairman
M.Pitcher :P.A.M. |
J.Hughes :Corporate
Comms |
C.Cole
:Boltons Bikes |
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Hon Sec P.Pitcher
:P.A.M. |
D.Kent: Special Days |
N.Beile
:Treats II |
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H.Brown :Pickles
Delicatessen |
M.Adlam :Adlam
Reprographics |
B.Clark :J.H.Clark
& Sons |
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B.Bendyshe-Brown :B3CS |
C.Etholen :WDC/CAE |
L.Brooks :Fullers
Flowers |
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P.Keen :Hypnos |
B.Aldridge
:Alternative Tools |
C.Hewitt :WDC |
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S.Marriott :PR School |
T.Brooks :Three Crowns |
A.King :Bucks Herald |
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A.Festa :BCC |
B.Bennifer :PRTC |
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Item |
Topic |
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1 |
Chairman’s Welcome The Chairman welcomed everyone and wished them a Happy New Year. He introduced Cheryl Hewitt (WDC), Amy Festa (BCC), Ben Bennifer (PRTC) and Tony Long (RACA) |
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2 |
Apologies for Absence
received from:
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3 |
Minutes of the meeting
held on The
Minutes were agreed as a true record. |
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4 |
Matters arising from
Minutes not already covered by the Agenda The Chairman gave a short summary of
the Christmas social and congratulated the The Chairman also summarised progress
(or lack of) with local issues of particular interest to RABG: ·
CCTV - still hasn’t
gone before WDC cabinet but negotiations between PRTC & WDC are
continuing ·
High Street Study -
no response from Babtie after their meeting with RABG. However, a draft report is expected in a
week’s time. ·
Market Town Forum -
not a lot of progress being made, and no minutes have been produced so
far. One issue under discussion is
whether RACA money should be spent on improving stalls? ·
Car parking -
meeting of RABG, PRTC and RACA with Lesley Clark, Leader of WDC and other
members of WDC hadn’t come to any agreement concerning the request for a
period of free parking in Risborough |
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5 |
Presentation:
Risborough Rewards Mike Pitcher, scheme co-ordinator gave
an up-to-date account of progress with Risborough Rewards: ·
launched on December 1st in time for Christmas
trade. There has been a positive
response from shoppers, 155 members (103 women) have signed up so far. Retailers are showing enthusiasm with 12
members and others currently being recruited ·
a limited company has been created and a bank account
opened. Cards and POS material have
been sourced. The website is up and
being used to enrol members. Several
bulk emails have been sent out detailing special offers for card holders ·
it is important to maintain interest through publicity. So far emails have been sent to Rotary
groups and Residents Associations.
There have been several radio interviews and articles in local
press. However, with no budget for
marketing, as much help as possible is needed to ‘spread the word’ via local
magazines, CrossTalk, notice boards etc.
·
more retailers are needed to join the scheme and the suggestion
is to try and involve businesses around Risborough. Should non-retailers also be included and a
voucher scheme set up to get them involved? ·
several bulk emails
were sent out advertising special pre-Christmas deals which were well
received: o
Pickles gave a free
glass of mull if shopper spent more than £5. o
Special Days offered
3 jigsaws for the price of 2 and free local delivery on orders over £25 o
David Shuttles gave
15% off handbags up to Christmas o
several shops advertised their Christmas Eve opening hours and
gave special deals. ·
Risborough Rewards
now has a valuable marketing tool with demographic information on local
shoppers. It will be made available
for business use at a charge. ·
more help is needed with the running of Risborough Rewards o
Financial controller, accounts and raising
sponsorship o
Princes Voucher co-ordinator, scheduled
for the Spring o
Shopper membership co-ordinator to
manage issue of cards o
Business membership co-ordinator
based in the High Street o
Mail shot co-ordinator liaising with retailers
etc o
PR co-ordinator to handle press
releases etc. ·
future plans: o
Princes Vouchers o
Princes Risborough
Gift Vouchers o
non-Internet
enrolment of Shopper Members Anyone willing and able to help with any of the
above should contact Mike Pitcher at mike@pamuk.demon.co.uk Cheryl Hewitt offered to investigate the possibility
of a small grant if details could be sent.
U3A has a computer group who may be willing to help. Maureen Judd is the co-ordinator. The Chairman thanked Mike for his presentation and
Peter Keen of Hypnos for his sponsorship of Risborough Rewards. Everyone needs to keep the momentum
going. Perhaps Marks and Spencer might
get involved when they take over Budgens. |
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6 |
Presentation:
Bill Bendyshe-Brown (councillor WDC) Bill apologised on
behalf of Charles Brocklehurst (WDC) who was unable to give his planned
Google-Earth presentation through illness.
Topics covered included: ·
Change in constituency boundaries: Parts of David Lidington’s Aylesbury constituency were moved to
Buckingham (John Bercow) on 1st January this year due to an
imbalance in size (Aylesbury 80K, Buckingham 60K). David will continue to look after
Risborough, Kimble etc until the next election. ·
Government White Paper on Local Government:
In an attempt to make local councils more efficient, the government had
come up with three options forcouncils to chose from: 1.
become a unitary
authority in which the county council would absorb local councils at a saving
of £10.3 million. The number of
representatives in our area would be reduced from 260 down to a suggested
114. 2. county councils and
district councils to stay as are but
cut costs through integrating services and removing duplication. 3. do nothing in which
the BCC grant from government, currently set at £260 million, would be cut by
£10.3 million. This could affect
social services and education budgets. Each council must make an application by 24th January,
followed by a consultation period with government and a decision before the
end of March. The view of WDC is that
they wanted to stay a two-tier structure as the cost of going unitary was too
high and too risky. Although unitary
may result in towns & parishes getting some additional money, more work
would have to be done by volunteers at the local level as many county &
district professionals will have been lost. WDC had already saved approx £10 million by slimming resources. It is worrying that central government had given councils very little
notice of this change and was trying
to rail-road the unitary decision that could result in more Labour-oriented
regional assemblies. BCC was holding consultation meetings in
the next week, but they had the authority to make a decision irrespective of
the wishes of the district councils. The suggestion was made from the floor that Conservative MPs should be
complaining vigorously to government about the lack of time and the way this
fundamental change is being handled. ·
Risborough
2035: A project planning meeting to be held on 15th February. RACA, PRTC, WDC and BCC will form a
steering group to implement recommendations and get them into the WDC
Development Framework. RABG may get
involved at a later stage. Following
the success of the 2035 Study, other towns e.g. Marlow and Henley were planning similar studies. ·
Housing: For many years an average of only nine houses per annum has been built
in Risborough. SE Regional Assembly
wasdeciding the number that should be built in the future,
could be between 30 & 60. Suitable
locations for development were: o
Aston & Full - Croudace Homes are planning 40
- 60 houses o
o
o
Pictsmede - going to public consultation to decide
the type of development. A mixed
development is favoured with some business units to keep the housing costs
down. o
Park Mill Farm - some 570 homes could be built if
the application was accepted by the Appeal
Inspector. The hope was that it would be rejected. The Wycombe Development Framework does not
include the Park Mill Farm development. ·
CCTV: PRTC would be meeting shortly to decide its response to WDC’s latest
financial offer. If the go-ahead was given it could be installed in May or
June. ·
NAG: The Risborough Neighbourhood Action Group had been set up and was meeting monthly. NAGs were the
result of a government initiative to reduce crime but no funding had been allocated The
police were finding it difficult to get
secretarial support. ·
Car
Parking: WDC will not agree to any period of free parking even though Risborough
is surrounded by areas that offer at least one hour. Our parking rates were allegedly
the lowest in the Wycombe area, and are set only once per elected session. ·
Risborough
Projects: o
Risborough
& Chinnor Railway: when up and running, the Thomas the Tank Engine
days should bring a welcome increase in footfall to Risborough o
Phoenix
Trail: a big attraction that will include the Princes Estate o
Marks
and Spencer: a great opportunity for Risborough that will need careful managing
particularly with respect to car parking capacity. Concern was raised from the floor that the High Street already had
parking problems that were not being addressed by WDC. In fact, in a recent radio interview Cllr
Peter Cartwright (WDC) stated “there were no car parking problems in
Princes Risborough”! o
High
Street Study: Jacobs Babtie were months
behind schedule on delivering this report but were promising
it ‘next week’ ·
Economic
Development Strategy Document: This document would be
published soon, to be followed by a two week consultation period. Feedback would be
needed as soon as possible. A copy of
the document would be sent to RABG so it could be posted on the website. Bill assured the
meeting that he and Cllr Carl Etholen do their best to raise Risborough
concerns in WDC. The chairman thanked
Bill for his presentation and for standing in at the last moment for
Charles. It is hoped that Charles
would be able to give his Google Earth
talk at a later meeting. Graham expressed his
worry that in spite of efforts, WDC appeared not to listen to our concerns: o
CCTV: will it actually happen? o
o
Parking: difficult to get WDC to even acknowledge
there was a problem that needed urgent help o
Local economy: Molins & Chevertons are closing
with loss of jobs. The High Street
must be helped to keep the local economy going. |
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7 |
eBucks Broadband
Initiative Amy Festa, BCC 40
grants of £200 each have already been awarded to businesses to get on to broadband,
and there are still a few left. Free
IT advice from BusinessLink is available along with £200 matched funding for
further development of broadband facilities.
eBucks is also keen to increase the number of
hotspots and have boxes available on request. For more information or to apply for
grants: email info@businesslinksolutions.co.uk
or phone 01844 210430 email e-bucks@buckscc.gov.uk or visit www.e-bucks.org.uk Derek Kent of Special Days said he had
applied but nothing materialised. Amy
promised to look into it. |
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8 |
RACA Action Group
Reports: Community
& Housing. ·
Volunteers have come forward to help with the
older persons’ project. ·
The Youth Strategy is nearly ready and Dave
Furze WDC has given a £4K grant towards it. ·
There is a meeting on 5th February
with local youth to discuss needs and get feedback. A report will be presented to RABG at a
later stage. Economic
& Environment. John Hughes reported
that their next meeting was in February.
Current projects include: ·
Chinnor railway: liaising with them to help
find mutual support and benefit potential ·
Car parking: the
Economy group (with PRTC, RABG, RARA) continues to
look for ways to provide more space and reduce the cost. ·
Visitor project: the £40K funding that has
been applied for cannot go directly to RACA.
Of the £40K matched funding, £31K has already been identified. The
SEEDA funding has
to be spent by the end of March. Transport. Tony Long (chairman)
reported: ·
New cycling routes are being mapped including
the Phoenix Trail and a route from Aylesbury to Meadle. A leaflet has been produced ·
A survey is being carried out to see whether
there is a demand for a local hop-on, hop-off bus. Getting drivers for the service if demanded
will be a problem ·
The new speed limits are being discussed at a
meeting at Longwick town hall on 17th January and the outcome will
be reported back to RABG at the next meeting Lance Adlam said he
had contacts who might be able help Chinnor railway. |
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9 |
Any Other Business ·
Marks &
Spencer:
suggested they should be invited to a meeting as soon as possible to see if
they are willing to get involved in or help support local projects. John Hughes knows the person to contact. ·
Risborough
Rotary
is organising an evening at the ·
NAG: Graham
Wiles reported on his evening out with the police in their AMPR car which was
scary! 750 car recognitions were
carried out; those without tax, MOT etc were pulled over and warned. Several cars were stopped for bad
driving. If a driver has already been
warned, the car is impounded immediately and must then be reclaimed at a cost
of £120 plus £20 per day for storage.
If the car is not claimed within 21 days it is crushed. Graham was impressed with how the police
handled anti-social behaviour incidents.
Heather Brown said the Risborough NAG was much better focussed and
getting feedback from the police. It
is important that ALL anti-social behaviour incidents are reported to the police,
including problems with noise. The
police are getting training on how to handle noise issues. There are schemes currently to help kids
with cars be more responsible and it is hoped to extend them further. A summary of the NAG’s achievements in its
first 6 months will be made public ·
WDC: a meeting
to be held on 21st February in the Community Centre. Ben Bennifer commented that with all these
local groups etc, it is difficult co-ordinating meetings and getting notice
of them to the relevant people. NOTE: RABG has since heard that |
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10 |
Date of Next Meeting The next meeting is The
meeting closed at |
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Hon.Sec Pam Pitcher |
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