A successful meeting of Hughenden Parish Council was held on 19th November.
Items covered included risk assessments that are being carried out on our four
ponds. The first, Cockpit Hole, was found to be “low risk” with some
recommendations regarding signs and short fence extensions. A plan to address
these was agreed.
An update was given on the renovations to the Templewood and Great Kingshill
playgrounds. The former is under construction, with completion within the next
two weeks and the latter should be ready in spring 2025.
The appointment of a full time Chief Officer (Clerk) is imminent. The handover
from our present locum clerk is being arranged.
The re-mapping of the graves at the Garden of Rest was approved as there is a
legal requirement to keep it updated.
The present contractors for our open spaces, hedges and verges will run out at the
end of the financial year. A consultant has drawn up a tender procurement
document that was approved by council and will be sent to a number of potential
suppliers.
The election of members of the council will be held next spring and it is vital that
residents put themselves forward so that we have a full complement of councillors
in the future.
Stan Jones (Chair)

Download the Notice of Parish Meeting – 25th April 2023

The Parish Council has been active in a number of practical areas that we hope will be of benefit to our residents. 

After many years of uncertainty regarding the ownership and ongoing responsibilities for streetlights in Widmer End, the Council voted to adopt the streetlights and has subsequently started on repair work where needed. The Council would like to thank those residents who have served on the Working Group that has got to grips with these long-standing issues.

The Parish owns about 20 plots of land; meadows, woodland, sports fields, allotments etc and we wish to manage these in a more environmentally sensitive way. As a first step we have awarded a one-year Grounds Maintenance contract to Spruced Up, a local company well-known to many residents. We will use this year to develop longer term management plans for each of our locations, in consultation with local residents, ready for the next round of contracting.

The local environment is the central topic for our Annual Parish Meeting 7.30pm on 25th April at Great Kingshill Village Hall . Parishioners invited to join us for some presentations and discussions about roads, traffic and the local ecology.

In collaboration with local residents, the Council has started an experiment with mini-allotments at Primrose Hill in Widmer End. We wish to make allotments more attractive to those who struggle to maintain a full-sized plot, especially schoolchildren. We are making the mini-allotments available for just £15 a year, and we hope this will bring joy, colour and fresh, home-grown food to more of our parishioners.

There remain a few issues that are hangovers from the lockdowns and the disruption in the Council’s operation a year or so ago. One of these issues was the paperwork we undertake in support of burials at our Garden of Rest. Although burials themselves were carried out as they should, the Council had fallen behind on some of its record-keeping. We know that on a few occasions this caused relatives of the deceased some upset, and we are very sorry for that. With the help of a very experienced burials clerk, Emma Marsden, we have now brought our records up to date, and we’d like to thank Emma for her assistance.

The Parish Council has responded to Buckinghamshire Council’s first steps towards a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan for the North-West Chilterns.  In principle, Hughenden Parish Council is in favour of encouraging people to take more exercise by walking, horse riding and cycling. We have emphasised that proposed infrastructure development must balance the benefit of new cycleways with the use of the footpaths and bridleways by other users and with the impact it has on the environment. Our main reservation is the suggested “Greenway” which cuts through the AONB on National Trust land around Hughenden Manor. The Greenway runs alongside the rare chalk stream and could cause it long term damage. There will also be safety considerations around grazing and lambing sheep and dog walkers.

We welcome a new Councillor for Widmer End Ward, Sam Thomas, who joined the Council in March. We do have one vacancy for Councillors in each Ward. 

Currently, we have an experienced temporary Assistant Clerk, Liz Howard, in the office 5 days a week, and very experienced part-time Clerk, Louise Steele, 2 days a week. Louise and Liz are holding the fort until our new permanent Clerk, Alice Fisher, takes over in May. For those parishioners who sometimes join us at Council Meetings, please bear in mind that from May 16th, Council Meetings will be taking place on the third Tuesday of each month.

Gareth Cadwallader – Chair Hughenden Parish Council

Our new full-time Clerk, Emily Ranahan, started work at the end of June and, after a series of acting and interim Clerks, we can now look forward to a more stable and productive period. We are very happy to have Emily on board. Emily, who lives just outside the Parish in High Wycombe, is the Parish’s first American Clerk – I wonder what Coningsby Disraeli, our founding Chair, would have made of that.  Nina Villa, our current Locum Clerk, will be staying with us until the end of August to support Emily.

Come September, Emily will have her feet firmly under the desk, and the Council will be turning to our goals for the rest of 2022 and 2023. For residents who aren’t aware of our scope of services, the Parish Council maintains the Burial Ground on Four Ashes Road, playgrounds at Templewood and Great Kingshill, provides allotments on eight sites across the parish, responds to Bucks Council on planning applications, looks after certain verges and hedges on behalf of Bucks Council and makes grants to various associations, clubs and projects. We are welcoming grant applications, and if you feel you have a good case, please ask Emily for an application form.

There remains a backlog of issues from previous years that we are committed to dealing with in the coming weeks.  These include our relationship with Hughenden Community Support Trust, the maintenance  of a number of streetlights in Widmer End, our future lease arrangements with the Great Kingshill Cricket Club and the re-establishment of vandalised traffic calming equipment.

During the Autumn and Winter, we anticipate that we will be able to start to address some important issues for the future. One of these will be to communicate the results of last autumn’s residents’ survey,  which will influence our future priorities. It will be no surprise to you that traffic calming and road safety were the issues of greatest concern. We will be considering the next phase in our efforts to discourage high speed driving through our lanes. We have a number of initiatives to consider around playgrounds. We wish to promote tree-planting as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy scheme. And we are considering the pros and cons of a possible Neighbourhood Plan for the parish, including consultations with Residents associations and other groups to get a sense of residents’ appetite for such a plan.

We have room for an additional Councillor for Naphill and Walters Ash. A full Council will help keep up the momentum we’ve been building. If you have the appetite to contribute to the local area as a Parish Councillor, now is a great time to join the Council, as we’re in a good place to welcome new forward-looking energy and ideas.