Page 18 - Phonebox Magazine February 2010

Mercury Report
Olney Town Council Meeting of Monday 4 January 2010
Public participation
Once again, Jim Middleton spoke on the subject of a bypass for Olney. He felt that any bid for funding at this stage would be “frivolous and misleading” since there is no preferred scheme and the project is nowhere near ready for a serious bid. Olney has probably the best case for a bypass anywhere in England, he said, due to the pollution and impact on a conservation area. Since Milton Keynes Council has been in existence it has not yet taken any bypass through to construction, he said. It is essential that the scheme progresses and MKC should fund all work to determine the preferred route, as happens elsewhere in the country. In summary, it is not the funding that is an issue but the will of MKC to start the process and Olney Town Council should press MKC to “get stuck in” he said.
Although it is not protocol for the council to reply to issues raised in this part of the meeting, Mayor Mike Hughes agreed that the primary issue wasn’t one of funding but it wasn’t even clear if the people of Olney even wanted a bypass, he said.
Confidential items
As reported last month, there was an issue discussed at the December meeting under the regular agenda item ‘to consider exclusion of Public and Press Representatives pursuant to the Public Bodies (admission to meetings) Act 1960 on the basis that publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted.’ A vote was taken which was deemed to have resulted in equal votes and the Mayor, Mike Hughes, had used his casting vote to keep the item confidential. It subsequently transpired that subject of the debate was how councillors’ contact detail should be published and that a clerical error had resulted in a miscount of the original vote. In fact the council had actually voted in favour of holding the discussion in public. As a consequence, Debbie Brock had asked for the item to be placed on the agenda of the January meeting to be re run in public.
Debbie invited Mike Hughes to restate his views expressed in private at last month’s meeting, but he declined to do so. Instead he said that he expected Debbie to lead the
debate, as it was she that had asked for the item to be re run this month. This led to something of a standoff, with Debbie once again asking Mike to restate his views and Mike once again declining. Eventually Debbie explained that each councillor would be required to complete a form declaring any contact details which they were prepared to be made available to the public. Steve Clark said he had no issue with providing details such as his email address and phone number to be freely available but not his mobile number, for example. The council were also investigating the purchase of an @olneytowncouncil type domain for all members, he said. Since no personal details were disclosed during the debate, Mercury was left wondering why the item should have been considered as being ‘prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature’ in the first place.
There was a separate item on the agenda ‘To discuss procedures for confidential items’. Debbie Brock said that she had asked for this item to be placed on the agenda to clear up any misunderstandings as what the council can and cannot vote to discuss in private. She was of the opinion that members needed training as to what constitutes suitable items as defined by the 1960 Public Bodies (admission to meetings) Act and suggested that Milton Keynes Council should be approached for guidance.
Prospective projects for funding schemes
At last month’s meeting David Rumens reported on the four grants that are available as part of the Community Liaison Funding Schemes and Mike Hughes asked members to consider future projects relating to Milton Keynes Council priorities. This month David Rumens had a number of suggestions for consideration. Suggested schemes were widening the footpath on Johnsons Field, the Outreach Citizen’s Advice Bureau, refurbishment of the all weather pitch and equipment for the Youth Club. The council considered each of these in order. Tony Evans said that the all weather pitch refurbishment is being dealt with by the sports clubs and it was likely that they would get full funding. Steve Clark said that he would support the footpath but Debbie
Brock said that the path is managed by MKC so they should fund it and Deidre Bethune agreed. Steve said he would support the CAB but Debbie thought that it would be unlikely to be approved because the grants are really for capital projects. In the end no suitable schemes could be found and it appeared unlikely that the deadline for applications could be met, anyway.
Milton Keynes Council Core Strategy
David Rumens reported that this document will replace the Local Plan. He said that the issues which Olney Town Council ought to be concerned about were the number of HGVs in driving through the town and the level of development which Olney could absorb. Considerable expansion of Olney, Woburn Sands and Newport Pagnell would be required to provide the proposed 2,400 new homes, he felt. This would require additional infrastructure such as schools, transport and health care facilities. Steve Clark agreed, saying the surgery is already ‘bursting at the seams’ and the Infant School was already finding it necessary to send children to Emberton. Deidre Bethune said she thought that Olney is regarded as a ‘key settlement’ so the die is effectively cast.
Odds ‘n’ sods
Tony Evans noted that there had been a disappointing attendance by Thursday market traders on New Year’s Day. There were only three stalls and he thought that the traders were letting themselves and the people of Olney down, since there were many people about the town that morning. It appears that the traders had cancelled the market, but the three decided to come anyway. Tony said it was sheer laziness on the part of the stallholders and if the market fails it will be down to them. If they did not intend to hold the market they should have informed the council, he said.
The removal of the roundabouts on Aspreys appears to have stalled for the moment. The average speed along the road has been estimated at 38 mph so other speed curbing measures are being considered before the roundabouts are removed (not the multiple speed bumps proposed originally, hopes Mercury).
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