Page 25 - Phonebox Magazine July 2014

Olney Councillor Corner
Cllr David Hosking
The election period is now over and things are settling down after a couple of months without a Councillors Corner. The elections have now happened, the Olney Ward is now bigger and 3 councillors now share this column. The last few months have been very busy with many things happening.
Elections
Firstly, thank you from all of us to those of you who voted in the elections this year. No matter who you voted for your vote is important to support the democratic process. The Olney Ward was once again one of the highest turnout areas in Milton Keynes with 3,970 people voting, a turnout of 41.29% topped only by Stony Stratford with a turnout of 42.38%. The table of the eventual results in the Olney Ward is provided below. This was an unusual election with 3 candidates up for election and the election cycle of elections now resumes which means David Hosking will be seeking re-election on the same day as the general election on the 7th of May 2015 having narrowly received the smallest number of votes of the successful candidates. Keith McLean received the next highest amount of votes and will serve a 2 year term seeking re-election in 2016 and Peter Geary has a 4 year term lasting until 2018.
The new Olney Ward covers a larger area and now represents 9,615 electors. This means there are now 3 councillors to deal with your issues, so if one of us either has a conflict of interest or is away there is a wider team to help.
Olney election results:
Candidate Number of votes
Bethune 693
Cowell 381 Davenport 638
Geary 2115 elected Green 769 Greenfield 518
Hosking 1800 elected Jones 505
Mclean 1856 elected Menzies 477
Toothill 264 Trend 509
On a larger scale, in Milton Keynes the results changed. The Labour group became the largest party on Milton Keynes Council so will now form the administration after 3 years of the Conservatives running the Council. The Council is now made up of 57 councillors. The party representations are as follows: Labour 25, Conservative 18, Liberal Democrats 13, UKIP 1.
Keith McLean becomes Deputy
Mayor of Milton Keynes
Keith McLean has been elected as the Deputy Mayor of Milton Keynes with his wife Vicki becoming the Deputy Mayoress for the coming council year, supporting the Mayor Subhan Shafiq. Following the agreed criteria, this means that Keith should become the Mayor for the 2015/16 year. During this time we will all be available as ward councillors to ensure that the ward is well supported.
Lavendon Flooding
A public exhibition was held at Lavendon Village hall on the 9th of June, organised by Milton Keynes Council and attended by other partners including the Environment Agency and the Council’s consultant, who has undertaken much of the flooding response work. The main point of the exhibition was to allow people to see the proposals for the work which will help to prevent flooding in the village in the future. The replacement of the Olney Road culvert has already made a great difference, however more is needed and proposals were seen for balancing lakes to be placed outside the village on the water courses that feed into the Olney Road stream. Proposals were also shown for the flooding issue that occurs in one location with surface runoff. The issue with surface runoff will be the first issue to be dealt with, with works happening in the next 12 months. The other schemes further outside the village will now proceed to detailed design before seeking planning permission and Environment Agency consent for them to be constructed. At the same time Milton Keynes Council will be negotiating with the landowners about allowing access for the schemes to be constructed. We will update further in articles in the future.
Weston Underwood Fete
The fete in Weston Underwood alternates every other year with Ravenstone with the last Weston Fete being in 2012 at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. This was amazingly successful both from people attending and in funds raised. The 2012 fete was always going to be difficult to match, however with the sun shining many people turned up on the afternoon of the 8th June to an event which surpassed even the last fete. The sun shone and a great time was had by all. Over £17,000 was raised which will be put to good use and we congratulate all involved in what was a true village effort.
New Parking Restrictions
Milton Keynes Council is proposing some changes to parking restrictions across Olney with some small additions of double
Cllr David Hosking
yellow lines in a few places. We have written individually to the properties closest to where the new restrictions are proposed and look for comments on these. The proposals came from issues raised by local people over the last few years and any issues reported will fall into future rounds of proposals, so if you have areas that need some attention then please do get in touch.
Minerals Extraction
Just before going to print, a cabinet report of the draft Minerals Local Plan was released. This was first raised as an issue late in 2013 when a new plan was started. This showed a number of controversial sites where minerals extraction could happen in Milton Keynes including a site for stone extraction just behind Langlands in Lavendon and also sites for gravel extraction in Lathbury. The draft plan has not recommended the site for stone extraction in Lavendon, however a number of new sites were proposed, including another at Lathbury and also a site at Lavendon for gravel extraction. The plan is due to be put out to consultation at a cabinet meeting on the 25th June for a period of 8 weeks. We will do our best to make sure residents views are included and will update further next month on developments.
Surgeries
We will all continue with the surgeries that the old Olney Ward used to run on the first Friday of each month in the Olney Centre between 7:30 and 8:30pm. If you have any issues between these times then please do not hesitate to contact us on the contact details below:
David Hosking - 01234 241010 david.hosking@milton-keynes.gov.uk
Keith McLean - 07983 456081 keith.mclean@milton-keynes.gov.uk
Peter Geary - 01234 714260 peter.geary@milton-keynes.gov.uk
Phonebox Magazine 25