If December’s meeting of Olney Town Council had been a tad light on personnel, the same could not be said for January’s gathering. The Olney Centre’s council chambers were positively buzzing with activity and renewed 2023-inspired vigour as councillors got back into the swing of things with the dawn of a new year.
In fact, when Ron Hall arrived with just seconds to spare before the 7pm start time, fellow councillors on his side of the table had to shuffle up reluctantly to let him in – like passengers making room for someone who has just managed to jump on a train as it pulls out of the station.

There were two members of the public present but neither expressed a wish to speak, so the meeting quickly moved on to:

Apologies were received from Naomi Brock, Ian Stokes and Trevor Aldred. There were no declarations of interest and no comments made on the minutes of last month’s meeting.

David Hosking gave the report on behalf of the Milton Keynes City Council (MKCC) ward councillors. The first item concerned the litter on the A509 between Newport Pagnell Cazoo roundabout, (previously known as Land Rover roundabout but actually called Tickford Roundabout) and Chicheley. He reported that this stretch has now been ‘cleansed’, a term used by the MKCC officer responsible he explained. There are plans to do further stretches of the road which will necessitate traffic management. The ward councillors are leading on an initiative to clean up parts of Olney and will be organising community litter picks on the first Saturday of every month, starting on 4th March and meeting at 10am in the Market Place. Tea and coffee will be provided free of charge by The Cherry Tree for all volunteers, he said. He thanked Judy Spencer, who already organises a group of regular litter pickers, and said there was an opportunity to work together.
Regarding the much discussed Aldi application, he said Historic England had requested a report from Oxford Archaeology, as evidence of a Roman building had be found on the site. Until that report is published the planning application will be held in abeyance by the planning officers. They will then make a recommendation to MKCC planning committee whether to grant or refuse the application. He stressed that the decision will be made purely on policy and not public opinion. The fact that the application conflicts with the Olney Town Council (OTC) Neighbourhood Plan (NP) and MKCC’s own policies means that it will have to go to the committee. Regarding the NP, he reminded councillors that it designated the site of ‘the Old Youth Club’ in East Street as a new health centre. Contrary to what has been said in the press and elsewhere it has NOT been confirmed that it will not be built. It was disappointing that after 12-18 months of work put in by the ward councillors to ensure an option for the land purchase from MKCC that things had stalled. They were continuing to work with the practice, the Integrated Care Board (which replaced the Clinical Commissioning Group) and the member of Parliament to ensure that the scheme moves forward.
He then moved on to the much discussed issue of changes to the bus service. He said the ward councillors had been speaking with the Britannia bus company who had now submitted their plans to MKCC, West Northants Council and Bedford Borough Council to run a two hourly service starting in early April using two single decker buses, to include diversion through Olney and Lavendon. With two other attempts having fallen by the wayside, this would seem to be the best chance or reinstating the service, he said. It would be incumbent on the travelling public to use the service to ensure its long-term sustainability, since Stagecoach already operate on part of the route. The ward councillors would continue working with Britannia to ensure that the service starts as planned and to support the long-term viability.
Next on David’s list was a meeting that the ward councillors had attended with MKCC regarding the new waste and recycling service which is due to start in September. An announcement had been made that sacks would be provided to those properties deemed unsuitable for the multi-wheelie bin proposal. A postcode check will shortly be available on the MKCC website where residents will be able to identify the proposals for their property, with an option to appeal if they do not agree.
Next David spoke about an incident on the ‘One Stop’ zebra crossing where a pedestrian had been injured. Improvements had been made some years ago to improve visibility and lighting, but the ward councillors felt that it could be made safer still and have arranged a site visit with the MKCC Head of Highways and await the police report before deciding on the next steps. Deirdre Bethune thought that the lit posts were more of a hindrance than a help. The brightness of the lights actually made it difficult to see pedestrians waiting to cross. Colin Rodden said he thought there were too many bollards. Several other members then related their own experiences of near misses on the crossing.
Finally, David reported that MKCC would be making £50,000 available to be distributed amongst parishes for the King’s Coronation. There would also be funding available from the National Lottery, he said.
Regarding litter, Colin Rodden asked what was happening to tackle those causing the problem, noting that there was a particular problem around the benches by the war memorial. It was great that the community was being urged to clean up but he felt that education was equally important. At this point Deputy Mayor Debbie Whitworth left the meeting in some obvious distress. David continued, saying that 80% of litter in MK was takeaway food packaging and waste discarded from vehicles. He said a trial of technology already in use elsewhere in the country is due to take place later in the year in MK using number plate recognition technology. Debbie Hall then returned to the subject of the number 41 bus and speaking with barely concealed anger she said she would like it to be put on record the amount of work that Debbie Whitworth has put into resolving the situation and suggested that was the reason she had left the meeting. She had arranged meetings with all parties involved, including MKCC, and David had made no mention of this in his report, said Debbie H. David said he was more than happy to acknowledge the work she had done and apologised if that had not come across. Returning to the litter issue Dan Rowland agreed it was good for the public to be involved but questioned if MKCC’s cleaning contractors Serco could do more. Peter Geary said that councils were being asked to take on extra responsibilities with less money and the budget is therefore severely stretched already. Chris Tennant returned to the subject of the new health centre, saying that as landowners MKCC had the ability to ‘unstick’ the project which was currently stuck due to a funding issue and asked if MKCC had any capital funding which could be used for this. Peter Geary responded saying there is, but it wouldn’t get the funding over the line as there were lots of things that have happened, lots of things that currently aren’t happening and some of the things that Chris had mentioned were part of it but there were other things as well and we will just have to wait and see what happens, but he was confident that Olney would get its new medical centre! The Elephant In the Room was probably in grave danger of disappearing up its own backside after that very clear and concise summary of the situation, thought Mercury. Although nobody appeared to want to acknowledge it, it was clear that the funding the practice had expected to get from the CCG and subsequently the Integrated Care Board has not been forthcoming and therefore the project has stalled. Peter continued by saying he thought the funding would come from a range of sources, but it was difficult to talk about it in public when agreements first needed to be reached in private. Colin Rodden said he was disappointed with progress since it had been known for a long time that Cobbs Garden would not have the capacity to meet the forecasted demand. The Neighbourhood Plan had been in place for some time, he said. Peter said that Chris Tennant was working with the surgery and the right people to get things moving but MKCC had no control over the Integrated Care Board. Previously, Milton Keynes had its own Clinical Commissioning Group, but the new Integrated Care Board was now responsible for Milton Keynes, Luton and Bedfordshire so suddenly there were many more GP practices and things were being dragged in numerous ways.

There was no PCSO present and no report this month.

Mayor Ben Brown presented the report saying that there was nothing unexpected this month and the council was on course for a small surplus at the end of the Financial Year.

Town Clerk Jane Brushwood reported that she, Ron Hall and Debbie Whitworth had attended the waste and recycling meeting mentioned earlier by David Hosking. She had noted some interesting statistics: MKCC currently processes 38,000 tonnes of recycled waste and 36,000 tonnes of black sack waste each year. They have purchased 300,000 new wheelie bins of which 100,000 are already in use and the electric vehicles that will be used in the future for collecting bins will be powered by the waste that they collect. The recycling plant is currently powered by generating electricity from the collected waste and in the future this will be used to charge the electric vehicles. She reported that she’d also been to the Emberton Park Liaison User Group where the proposals to make part of the circular roadway pedestrian only had been discussed. The Adventure Cycles that were trialled last year are due to be reinstated on a permanent basis from Easter. Ben Brown reported that Debbie Whitworth had attended the reopening of the Oxfam Bookshop following refurbishment and he had officially opened the Community Fridge (he confirmed that the light did indeed come on). It was something that the community could be proud of, he said, and is available to anyone who wants to use it to reduce food waste.

Town Clerk Jane Brushwood reported that she had shown the MKCC ‘Section 106 lady’ around the refurbished Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) on the recreation ground who was impressed with the work and the fact that it is regularly used by a range of different groups and S106 funding will be made available for resurfacing of other areas, including the driveway to the allotments.

Ben Brown said that the now fully functioning council CCTV was working well in conjunction with the CCTV operated by some of the sports clubs. He expected to shortly start forward planning for the expected influx of summer visitors. Ben thanked the volunteers who had helped last year and asked the members to encourage anyone they knew who might be interested in helping this year to come forward.

The Clerk said she and Mary Prosser had attended a series of presentations by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) and had been particularly impressed with the session on Community Enrichment. Woughton Community Council do some fabulous work, she said, and felt that the Olney Centre could be used as a facility for residents to come and talk to the council, but also to run things like a youth club, adult social care tea and chat and similar. She asked for permission to further investigate the possibilities. Jane Varley said in principle it was a brilliant idea and in the past OTC had held a weekly surgery but there was very low take up. Consultations on specific issues, such as Johnsons Field development and Yardley Manor Community Centre were well attended though. Peter Geary said the ward councillors currently hold a monthly surgery and attendance is variable. The OTC office is open during the day and residents can contact the clerk or councillors via the phone or email, so the council is already pretty open, he thought. Debbie Hall said it was a shame that the youth club had closed in East Street but understood that it had been run largely by volunteers. Peter Geary said he had been a trustee for a few years and past councillors Steve Clark and Jeremy Rawlings had sat on the management committee for some 30 to 40 years. While there had been paid full and part time youth workers there with volunteers it had been fine, but the full time employee had then been spread across several other clubs but eventually there were not enough volunteers or trustees to carry on, so it had ‘fizzled out’. A similar situation had occurred at Lavendon, he said. The Clerk asked if it would be possible for OTC to pay for a part time youth worker. Peter said there were youth teams at MKCC that could advise. It was agreed that Jane would investigate and report back at a future meeting.

Ben Brown presented a 10 page document produced by NALC which gives guidance on how councillors and officers of the council manage their working relationship. The Clerk said that it had been discussed at one of the NALC presentations and she felt that OTC should adopt it. Peter Geary said it fitted with the Nolan Principles (of public life) which all councillors had signed up to anyway and added flesh to the bones of what the council should be doing. There had been some recent changes to standards rules and members’ register of interests which could be included in training when the opportunity arises, he said. Ben proposed that it was adopted, David Tyler seconded and it was passed unanimously.

Ben Brown said that since the last meeting Buckingham Palace had released details of the guidelines for events over the bank holiday weekend. Monday had been proposed as a ‘volunteers day’ he said and invited suggestions as to what could be done in Olney. He noted that other organisations and businesses in the town were looking to put on events. Colin Rodden asked if the council needed to make a budget allowance and Ben said there is a grant available from MKCC but members needed to bear in mind what had happened with the application process for last year’s jubilee celebrations! The Clerk suggested using social media to find out what residents want and Peter Geary agreed, saying if people wanted to close their cul-de-sac for a street party, for example, then OTC could advise on how to do it. Debbie Hall suggested that residents could clean their street signs or perhaps weed the areas outside their properties. Dan Rowlands asked if the council would be organising events or facilitating events for others. Playing devil’s advocate, Ben wondered whether the council could justify a ‘big money event’ in the middle of a cost of living crisis. Dan suggested forming a sub-committee to collate feedback from the community which he would steer, and that was agreed. Colin Rodden wondered whether the Market Place should be pedestrianised for the day for the retailers to ‘put something together’ but it was pointed out that closing the Market Place was very unpopular with the traders. Peter Geary suggested buying some new flags as the existing ones were dirty when they’d been put away in the shed and hadn’t got any cleaner when they were pulled out 10 years later!

The Clerk reported that she had received an email from Emberton Parish Council to consider using Section 106 funding to improve the footpath and cycleway connectivity between Olney, Emberton and Sherington. Emberton P.C. does not have any S106 funding available and wished to use some of that allocated to Olney, she explained, but she didn’t think it would be possible to use S106 for such a project, particularly as footpaths and cycleways were the responsibility of Highways. Peter Geary was of the opinion that Olney already had good links with Emberton via the existing cycle path and Emberton Park. The cycle path continued to Alban Hill and then shared the road to Sherington Village, which he admitted was not ideal. There is an existing path to Weston Underwood and a right of way to Clifton Reynes, which only left Lavendon with no connectivity and unless they could find £1M would not happen. He suggested working with Emberton P.C. to see what ideas they might have and how much it was likely to cost. He agreed to speak to the chair of Emberton P.C. Chris Tennant noted that in and around Cambridge the council had reached agreement with farmers to segregate vehicular and pedestrian/cycle traffic by ‘jumping’ hedgerows and locating cycleways on the edge of fields.

The Cherry Fair committee have requested permission to use the Glebe Field between 23rd to 26th June although it wasn’t stated what date the event would take place. The Lions have requested use of the Market Place on Sunday 11th June for Motorama. The Olney Group (TOG) have requested use of the recreation ground for Riverfest, including the raft race, on 1st and 2nd July, with parking on the Nursery field. All requests were granted.

The next meeting will be held on Monday 6th March, at 7.00pm in the Olney Centre. If you would like to contribute to the Public Participation section at the start of the meeting, or any time the mayor deems appropriate, please contact the Town Clerk, townclerk@olneytowncouncil.gov.uk.

What’s a fiver worth these days? A pint of beer, according to Councillor Chris Tennant. That’s what he wants to charge people to park their car on the recreation ground’s Nursery Pitch on East Street. It’s small change to most people you’d have thought, and hardly worth any consideration. Not a bit of it at Olney Town Council’s monthly meeting – that fiver took up more discussion time than any other topic on the night’s agenda.

The public attendance at the June meeting of Olney Town Council (OTC) was the highest that Mercury could remember, with people standing crammed against the walls and tumbling out of the doors! Town Clerk Jane Brushwood announced that the council chamber was only insured for 25 people so the majority would have to leave, which they did, although there were still well in excess of 25 people present, including the council members. Mayor Debbie Whitworth opened the meeting, reminding attendees that members of the public could address the council for a maximum of 3 minutes each, but the total could not exceed 15 minutes. If any group wished to speak on the same subject, she said they should select an individual to speak on their behalf. From the ‘public gallery’ ex-councillor Paul Collins raised a point of order that it could be extended beyond 15 minutes at the mayor’s discretion, but Debbie said on this occasion she would stick to 15 minutes.

Local resident Mr Cooper spoke on the subject of the Roman Mosaic on the proposed Aldi site, which he felt was of national importance. The proposal to rebury it would be stupidity, he said, and was like ‘putting a box over the Tower of London’. For the loss of two parking spaces the developers could install a Perspex viewing window so that it could be appreciated. As far as he was aware nobody had invited the local schools and residents to visit the site. He asked who present had seen it? (nobody raised their hands). How many people knew about it? (nearly everyone raised their hands). He asked for a public meeting to discuss the options. This was an agenda item later in the meeting. Next to speak was Mr Mason, regarding the ‘One Stop’ pedestrian crossing. There had been a recent low speed accident where a lady had been knocked over on the crossing. The driver had not seen her crossing, he said.
He was reluctant to let his own children use the crossing and there was general confusion when traffic in one direction stopped but the other did not. And only that day a pedestrian had been clipped by the wing mirror of a car that did not stop. Milton Keynes City Council (MKCC) Highways Dept claimed that the public had objected to the installation of an audible pelican crossing, but the pelican crossing by Midland Road was near flats and elderly residents’ accommodation and there didn’t appear to have been any complaints. Does it need a death before action is taken, he asked? Next to speak was Paul Collins expressing his surprise and dismay that OTC had served Caveman Conditioning with a 28-day notice to quit the former Olney Town Football Club building on the recreation ground. When he had been on the council there had been a ‘tsunami’ of emails in support of Caveman when its future had previously been under threat, he said. He presented what he believed to be a timeline of events:
 

• November 2022: Recs & Services committee agrees to appoint an Agent to negotiate a new rent and recommend that £50,000 be allocated to carry out repairs to the building during fiscal year 23/24.
• January and March 2023 – no mention of this item on the Recs and Services agenda.
• April 2023 Finance Committee agrees to appoint property solicitors.
• May 2023 Olney Town Council agrees to serve a 28 day notice on Caveman to quit its premises.

Apologies were received from Debbie Hall and Ron Hall. Nobody declared an interest in an item of this month’s agenda. Chris Tennant said that he had declared an interest on an item at last month’s meeting, but the minutes had not recorded this correctly. For information, the published minutes now record that during the Confidential Items part of the meeting (when public and press are excluded) the Caveman Conditioning eviction was proposed and agreed and ‘Cllr Tennant declared an interest on this agenda item, as a paying member of Caveman Conditioning, therefore abstained from voting’. Colin Rodden asked that the minutes be amended to state that the reason for the eviction notice was on Health and Safety grounds, which was agreed.

Keith McLean gave a brief report, saying that very little happens in May in terms of MKCC June meetings, due to the changes in the council. The much-discussed reinstatement of the 41 bus has started and, although it does not directly affect Olney residents, from July the 21 bus will go through Emberton again. There was good news regarding the rejection by Ousedale School of the applications for 25 students from the surrounding villages. The school had that day issued a statement saying that they would be offering places to all students on the waiting list as they were able to put on an extra class. A group of travellers had been moved on from Sherington using an interim injunction, he said, and MKCC were seeking an injunction to ban that group of travellers from the city forever. Ward Councillors Debbie Whitworth and Peter Geary would be meeting with the MKCC Head of Highways to discuss the safety of the One-Stop crossing but the recent audit had found ‘nothing significant’. Naomi Brock asked if it would be possible to see the results of the audit and questioned the findings since she lives on the High Street and sees the problems every day. Keith replied that he hadn’t seen it either but thought that the contents would be revealed at the meeting with ward councillors later in the week. Colin Rodden expressed the opinion that a major contributor to the issue was speeding, since he had personally clocked speeds of 50mph when participating in Speedwatch.  

Tony Williams from Angle Properties had been invited to speak at the meeting. There had been a lot of misinformation, both online and in print so he wanted to set the record straight with the facts, he said. He started by explaining the timeline of events, starting with the granting of outline planning permission for the whole of the site in December 2018.
It was granted subject to eight conditions, but archaeological investigation wasn’t one of them, which he considered to be an error by MKCC. Tony said he then proactively
contacted the MKCC Archaeological Officer and along with his archaeological consultant agreed a way forward outside of the planning condition discharge, since there wasn’t one to discharge. A way forward was agreed by all parties in December 2020 and in June 2021 Angle put forward a ‘watching brief’ scope as part of the infrastructure phase which included the access road, drainage, and other aspects. Oxford Archaeology undertook the work, and some very minor artefacts were found and donated to MK Museum. In October 2021 Angle submitted a written scheme of investigation to MKCC for the area which had been identified as archaeologically sensitive, which was approved, and it was under that investigation that the mosaic was discovered in February/March this year. From that it could be seen that Angle had done things entirely properly and the accusations that had been flying around, including an article in The Phonebox, about not following policy were entirely incorrect. All documentation is publicly available on the MKCC Planning Portal, he said.
Following the discovery of the mosaic Oxford Archaeology prepared a report and several site meetings were held with interested parties, including Heritage England, to discuss the way forward. It was then that the ‘preservation in situ’ option arose as that is the established policy in this country under the government’s National Planning Policy Framework and also locally under Plan MK and the adopted Olney Neighbourhood Plan (NP). The drainage and landscaping design has been changed to avoid potential damage. Full recording and documentation of the mosaic is taking place and a detailed display provided on site, the details to be decided if the outline planning permission is approved. The current plan is for the mosaic to be re-exposed for public viewing, probably in the late summer, and then immediately covered up for preservation.
Ian Stokes asked why couldn’t plate glass be put over the mosaic and left on public display? Tony said only a small part had been displayed and further excavation risked causing damage. It is not in very good condition, lacking the ‘wow’ factor, he said, and there was a strong risk of damage from the water table. The expert advice was that only in exceptional circumstance was preservation with display achievable. Colin Rodden remarked that Angle had ‘done really well’ out of Olney by building Sainsburys and also over-riding the NP by building 40 additional residential units on land that had been earmarked for retail use. Was he hinting that there was an element of Karma to the predicament that they now found themselves in, wondered Mercury? Tony said there had been considerable misinformation on that issue since it was well known that Aldi had a desire for a presence in Olney for some time, but they had made it clear that they didn’t want to be located behind Sainsburys on a country lane. When the Planning Inspector granted planning permission for the McCarthy Stone residences, he particularly acknowledged the fact that no mainstream retailer would be interested in that location. Dan Rowland asked if the forthcoming outline planning application would include public consultation on the future plans for the mosaic or would it be behind closed doors? Again, Tony said all of the information was live on the Planning Portal and OTC would be consulted as part of that process. Chris Tennant said that OTC had received notification of the amended plans but suggested a more proactive Public Relations approach from Angle.

Ian Stokes announced that Olney Town Colts FC had received a grant of £73,000 over the next six years from The Football Foundation for incremental maintenance of the Nursery Field pitch and improvements to the turf and soil, but it comes with conditions on usage, six monthly inspections and groundsmen’s qualifications.
All of the money will come back into the town to pay for work that the groundsmen are already doing, he said.
Town Clerk Jane Brushwood said that more volunteers were needed for the summer patrols as the 16 current volunteers were mainly councillors or members of council staff. Spartan will be returning for regular security patrols.
Naomi Brock wished to raise the issue of the Caveman Conditioning eviction notice under this agenda item, but Debbie Whitworth replied that it was not on the agenda and could not be discussed, particularly as the Caveman members had left the meeting. Chris Tennant asked when would the council be discussing it? Debbie Whitworth said it could be on the agenda for the July meeting or Chris could call an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) if two other councillors supported the proposal. Jane Brushwood said the council could not revisit the decision to evict for six months and the matter was now in the hands of solicitors. She emphasised that the building is falling down, is unsafe and is a liability. The future of the building should be discussed at the Recs and Services meeting, she said, and it would not be fair to carry on discussing it without the interested parties being present. Chris thanked Jane for the timeline of events that had been sent to the new councillors to bring them up to speed and said that it was such an important matter it warranted an EGM. Dan Rowland agreed, saying the reason that the council had got into the current situation was down to a lack of communication, albeit unintentional.
Deirdre Bethune noted that subsequent to the eviction notice the owner of Caveman had been invited to meet with the clerk and mayor but had not responded and she suggested that the EGM should not take place until after that meeting. Although Chris had put forward the proposal it was not voted on and it was agreed that he would put forward the proposal with the support of two other councillors ‘through the right channels’.
The next meeting will be held on Monday 3rd July at 7.00pm in the Olney Centre. If you would like to contribute to the Public Participation section at the start of the meeting, or any time the mayor deems appropriate, please contact the Town Clerk, townclerk@olneytowncouncil.gov.uk.     

Olney Town Council’s monthly meeting in July coincided with the first day of the Wimbledon tennis championship. It was a lovely evening and, as play continued in South London, councillors dragged themselves away from their tellies and made their way to the Olney Centre. When they arrived they found Mayor Debbie Whitworth holding (centre) court and in the mood for a Grand Slam. There was a full quota of councillors present, notwithstanding the recent resignations, and the public seating area was as packed as Roland-Garros in mid-June. You could sense that the evening was going to be a busy one.

This was the time set aside for people to have their say. Resident Ian Barnes got things underway. A volunteer marshal at the recreation ground (the Rec) he had recently posted on the Olney Noticeboard Facebook page a catalogue of issues concerning the recreation area in the hope that the public would get engaged too. He said that regrettably, there were very few comments about potential improvements that they had not already seen. The few ideas they did receive were not considered ‘satisfactory’, he added. He said he visited the East Street car park daily and feels that usage is ‘pretty light’. Shoppers leave their cars at the top of the car park he said, whereas sports people tend to go further in. He said he thought the whole issue of the car park and the Rec had become a ‘bit of a monster’ with too few marshals, a lack of police presence and people with no respect for authority. He called for temporary fencing near the river to at least be trialled for a few months.
James Cooper stood up next to address the council about the Roman mosaic find at the new Aldi site. He said that in his more than 30 years as an Olney resident, he had rarely come across a subject that has ‘disturbed’ people as much as this. We have had lots of questions he said, but not many answers and those that we have received have only come from the developers. He said Olney residents have not had the opportunity to ask their own questions directly to the developers (Angle Property). He called for a public meeting to be arranged including the developers and Oxford Archaeology (the heritage experts). He said local people wanted answers they could trust rather than hearing ‘just what people want to feed them’.

With no apologies for absence and nobody declaring an interest in any agenda items, the meeting could move on to the business in hand. There was a problem already though – the Ward Councillor’s report was next on the list but the Ward Councillor wasn’t there to speak. OK, next on the agenda should have been the PCSO’s report but – guess what – there was no PCSO available either.
The Mayor, though, had already headed that little problem off at the pass, and she elected to move item 10 ‘Updates on Cobbs Garden’ up the list so that invited experts could give a presentation on the latest news. The other items could come later. Present were Maria Wogan, Janine Welham and David Picking of the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMKICB) who were there to give the Council an update on the current situation and future prospects for the much-loved Olney Health Centre. A briefing document that councillors had been sent earlier talked specifically about the challenges with the premises, said David Picking, and where the Care Board are in relation to it. They will answer questions, said David, but if they can’t they will take them away.
Colin Rodden wondered if the land behind the town’s fire station that had been earmarked as a possible site for a new surgery (with add-ons such as a dentist), was available indefinitely. He also noted that there was £700,000 of S106 funding (money for community projects) available and wondered if that could be used to improve the current surgery where it is sited now or put towards the proposed move to the new site. It’s our neighbourhood plan, he said so it’s important we get involved. How do we work with you, he asked.
David Picking agreed that it would be good to have a date to work towards concerning the proposed new site. Nothing has been set in stone yet though, he said. There’s no intention of losing the S106 money, he confirmed. We know we can work towards using the S106 money to create more space and facilities at the current site, he said. How would you do that, asked Deirdre Bethune. There is space that isn’t used all the time in that building, said David, particularly the front right-hand space where there’s an opportunity to create two more clinical rooms. But very much at the moment, he added, the ball is in the court of the partners at the practice. He had clearly been watching the tennis before coming to the meeting.
Ian Stokes couldn’t resist a tennis pun of his own. You said previously you had an allocated amount in your baseline budget, he said to David. That was a good one. David agreed that was the case, mainly to reimburse rent and rates. So can we actually recruit doctors, asked Ian, because they have vacancies.
Naomi Brock said she was confused on how far the current practice can go seeing as it is no longer able to meet the needs of people in the town. As it can’t take any more patients she wanted to know who was making decisions on where the practice was going next. It was proposed that a meeting should be set up between the BLMKICB, OTC councillors and the Cobbs Garden surgery partners. David agreed but said he would let OTC know when that’s appropriate as he didn’t want to arrive without having more details to bring to the table.

I’m just going to rejig the agenda again, said the Mayor, and I’d like to invite Megan Harrison to talk about air quality. Megan, an Environmental Health officer at Milton Keynes City Council (MKCC), was visiting Olney to explain to OTC the results of the town’s recent air quality tests. She described how a test has been made at Bridge Street going into High Street South for nitrogen dioxide levels. It’s a very busy road there and articulated vehicles use it, she said, as if nobody knew that. Councillors nodded politely though. The Government has an ‘objective level’ of 14 micrograms per cubic metre for NO2 but on the High Street, the figure is 42 micrograms. This is considered to be ‘only slightly above’ the objective, said Megan. Further monitoring is going on, she added. Over the years with improvements to vehicles, national levels have come down. In Olney these levels have been at this point for nine years so testing can cease, she said.
The environment department wanted to continue monitoring but the equipment is on an unmetered power supply which means they pay a set fee to National Grid. Being metered would mean a lower electricity bill, however, a channel would have to be dug where the monitoring box is on the Church Hall’s car park on High Street South. An ‘inconvenience’ fee of £100 was offered to the church but this had been refused – the church group had asked for £1000 so it’s unlikely to go ahead now. The plan is to apply for DEFRA funding to help provide further monitoring systems in the future. So the narrow bit at Olney High Street is OK is it, Debbie Hall wanted to confirm. Yes it is, said Megan.
Chris Tennant said the data was interesting and wondered if there were any corresponding studies into childhood health and related illnesses. Yes, very much so, said Megan. Whenever I feel slightly worried about Milton Keynes’ levels I look at London where it’s much worse with really elevated levels, she added cheerfully. We are monitoring here without any action aren’t we, said Debbie H. Yes, was Megan’s short answer. Debbie hadn’t finished: no matter how high levels go there’s no solution is there, because that’s a national problem. We do send our figures to the Highways department said Megan, and I know that over the years there have been a number of changes. But she didn’t elaborate on what those changes were.

I have yet another rejig here now said the Mayor, as the agenda was metaphorically thrown out of the window for good. Ian Stokes was tasked with presenting an update on the Rec. He said that management of the ground was ‘still not working’ and said there were ‘still problems’ in terms of controlling crowds and the influx of visitors to the Rec and the river. Ian’s fed up with the anti-social behaviour at the recreational ground, such as visitors walking across the cricket pitch during a match or forcing their way into the pavilion to use the toilets. Now is the time to take some action, he thundered, or we are going to miss this summer.
Proposals have been put forward such as fencing, charges for car parking, parking permits and double yellow lines. But certain things were out of the council’s control such as charging for East Street parking. We haven’t got a magic wand here, Ian added, but we need to make some decisions quickly and not pontificate again. ANPR (number plate recognition) is another option that has been mentioned and Ian added that ‘we could put two people on the entrance gate, charging for car parking’ almost immediately on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday and that would be ‘cost neutral’, He agreed that it would then have to be backed up by parking enforcement in other areas of the town as drivers go looking elsewhere to park.
Burying our heads in the sand and sitting back doing nothing, yet again, is not the right thing to do, he boomed. There’s a mixture of things we could do here – let’s try something he said, because doing nothing is no longer an option. Naomi Brock agreed that something should be done as a deterrent and said let’s try some HERAS (temporary) fencing down near the river. That won’t work, said Deirdre, it is easily taken down by hooligans. But we can’t just sit here having these conversations without trying things, countered Naomi. Deirdre said she thought it would be ‘horrendous’ to have fencing across the Rec and was more in favour of the security personnel idea.
Colin Rodden said that introducing paid-for parking would encourage drivers, not discourage them, because ‘we would be providing a facility to people’. Security volunteers can’t enforce anything and the public know that, said Naomi. We don’t want to discourage people coming to the town so maybe we commercialise it and have ‘official’ people and ‘proper eyes’ down at the Rec, she added. Fencing was again discussed but not everyone liked the idea – security would be needed in addition, said Deirdre. Ian proposed that a special meeting of the JUG (Joint User Group) be held, followed by a public meeting of OTC, where local people can have their say, to decide the future actions to be taken on the Rec. That was agreed.

Ward Councillor Keith McLean wasn’t at the meeting but he sent his report to be read out by the Clerk, Jane Brushwood. A group of travellers had recently pitched up in Sherington, North Crawley and Little Crawley. Each time they pitch the council has to obtain an injunction to move them on, lasting only three months. Keith asked for a wider-ranging injunction which was granted for the whole of Milton Keynes district for two years. There is a power of arrest attached if they return – it’s a first for MK, he added. An update was given on the pedestrian crossing near the One Stop shop in Olney. Keith said a safety audit report had found that there were ‘no safety concerns’ with the road layout there.
Keith and the Mayor met with Graham Cox, the Head of Highways at MKCC, who said he could alter the approach to the crossing by removing some of the parking bays to improve driver visibility.
The Mayor was clearly disappointed by this latest decision. I would like to add that the residents I have spoken to are obviously not happy at all, she said. Just as they were last year with the CCTV exercise. With the near misses we have had on that crossing, how can Highways deem it safe? Where we go from here, I don’t know, she added sadly. She implored residents to continue sending concerns directly to MKCC. Colin Rodden said there were £10,000 worth of SIDS (speed indicator devices) available and asked if some of those could be sited near the crossing.

Dan Rowland picked up on the SIDS just mentioned by Colin. Are we making use of them, he asked. The Clerk said they had used SIDS before and will use them again – 50% of the cost of the devices had been covered by a Community Infrastructure Fund. Dan also asked about the electricity bill for May from the football club building currently being used by the fitness company Caveman Conditioning. It appeared to be only partly paid, he thought.
The Clerk reported that Caveman Conditioning had paid £121 for May and ‘yet it is costing us (the council) £166’. So the town is subsidising a commercial business, stated Dan. Effectively yes, agreed the Clerk. Back to the SIDS again – Colin asked when they would be put up. We only got them a few days ago, countered the Clerk, her body language saying ‘Give us a chance mate’. Is there any help needed putting them up, asked Colin. No, said the Clerk. And where are they going, asked Colin, not letting this one go. In the areas where there are Speedwatch signs, said the Clerk.
Ian Stokes had a bright idea. Can we check out the calendar for Santa Pod events and have SIDS on the High Street on those days, he asked. It’s not just noise that’s a problem with visitors to the racetrack, he warned, it’s drivers accelerating from 20mph to 50mph up the High Street. Colin clearly hadn’t been watching the tennis that evening – he had been poring over the town’s accounts. What is this £8000 payment to the National grid, he demanded. That is to do with the upcoming refurbishment to the Olney Centre, said the Clerk. It included solar panelling and air source heat pump work.

Mary Prosser said she had been to a 25th anniversary celebration at the Almshouses where most of the trustees and residents attended. Debbie H went to the AGM of the Olney Newton Link. Debbie and Ron Hall, Colin and Debbie Whitworth went to the Armed Forces Tea at the Olney Centre. Letters of thanks had been received by the Mayor. Mary and Colin also attended the AG250 celebration event when a school from Liverpool came down to Olney as guests. Deirdre and Debbie W attended a Folk Afternoon at the Museum. And Ian Stokes logged onto a national forum on council action over anti-social behaviour.

James Cooper, who had spoken earlier about the Roman mosaic, now stood again to ask if he would be considered as a new councillor. He spoke with great feeling about his time in Olney and his enthusiasm for joining the council. I have been in Olney for 37 years, he said, so I am ‘nearly accepted’ as a local. Deirdre slapped that one down. You’ve got to be born here for that mate, she said. James continued undaunted. I feel I need to protect Olney, he said, and I hope my experience will help the town. I have a great love for Olney and we’re lucky to live here. That impassioned speech seemed to do the trick: James was voted unanimously on to the council and asked to take his place at the hallowed table.

A Landscape Agreement was approved. A grant application from the Growing Minds charity in Olney was also nodded through. And ANPR came up again – with discussions planned for its installation at the Rec access road and car park. The Clerk was given permission to look for a new buggy for groundworks staff, considering electric vehicles if appropriate. Colin Rodden wanted to know if depreciation meant that the old buggy, which had been ‘well used’ according to the Clerk, would be written off. There’s no such thing as depreciation in council, said the Clerk, it’s either on or off the books. Colin hadn’t finished though. We need some financial planning in place for that, he demanded. We have it, countered the Clerk. We have planning for it and we have S106 money too, she said. This was shaping up like a tennis match. 15-love to the Clerk. If I can get this paid for, for free, she added, why would we use our own budget? When you say ‘free’, returned Colin, what do you mean? I mean the Section 106 money, countered the Clerk. Left and right went councillors’ heads as they followed this exciting rally. That’s not free money, responded Colin, clearly in the mood for battle now. No, but it’s there to be used, the Clerk returned again, this time with a backhand. Colin went for the lob. It’s not free money Jane, he boomed. It’s there for the whole community, and we’ve got to make sure we’re getting the best use from it. From a financial point of view – and I sit on the Finance Committee – we do need to make sure we’ve got the funds.
The crowd held its breath waiting for the ball to land. Well, if you sit on the Finance Committee you’ll know that it’s on there then, accounted for within the budgeting process, said the Clerk. It was a volley of the highest quality and the winning point.
I’m just putting it out there that we need to watch our finances, murmured Colin, realising that now was the time to back down from this particular contest. New balls, please…

The next meeting will be on Monday 7th August at 7pm in the Olney Centre. If you would like to contribute to the Public Participation section at the start of the meeting, or at any time the Mayor deems appropriate, please contact the Town Clerk: townclerk@olneytowncouncil.gov.uk.

All ok for this meeting.

A resident who overlooks Johnsons Field spoke about the residents’ concerns over the revised plans produced by MKCC (Milton Keynes City Council) for improvements to the play area. Although they support the plans to improve the play facilities for younger children, they are concerned about the potential for antisocial behaviour. The park will create a focal meeting point where there will be potential for misuse. It is a sad state of affairs that the freedom of many is limited by the behaviour of a few, but it is this minority that will make the lives of the nearby residents a misery, he said. The greatest concern is the proposed skate park which for some residents will only be 30 metres away. He said he had provided the council with a document describing exactly how much noise skating actually creates and it is surprisingly loud. The document contains details of legal noise limits for both day and night which he believed would be exceeded. The document also contains case studies where proposed and existing skate parks between 100 and 200 metres away are causing serious design and environmental impact problems. He quoted an example of a local council being served notice by its County Council to close a similar skate park because the legal noise limit had been broken. Finally, he proposed that OTC (Olney Town Council) re-visit the issue of the provision of a skate park in Olney after the failed plan at the Recreation Ground.
Martin Mayes later spoke in favour of the plans for Johnsons Field. He said his sons and their friends were keen skateboarders and regularly visited larger, out of town skate parks. The proposals for Johnsons Field are much smaller and would not generate footfall from large numbers of out-of-town visitors. It would also be used by scooters and BMX bikes and combined with the fact it would be made from concrete and not steel would limit the noise generated, he thought. The health and confidence-building benefits to people with neuro-diverse needs that do not fit in with team sports are considerable, he said. He understood the previous speaker’s concerns but said he had spoken to a number of residents in the area with young children and overall they were positive about the plan.
On the same subject, a resident had emailed to ask what plans were in place to maintain the new equipment, particularly as the existing equipment has been allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. They also asked that the additional traffic and parking be considered.
Another resident had written to complain about dog poo (seven on the football pitch that Saturday morning) and dogs not being kept on leads on the recreation ground. There appear to be no signs for ‘stupid, inconsiderate owners’ stating that dogs must be on a lead on council land, they said, and not everyone likes dogs bounding up to them when they are playing or watching sports.
Martyn Wilkinson spoke about a petition he is producing to introduce a 20mph limit on Weston Road. Vehicles accelerate up to Bay House and then have to stop due to cars parked on the blind bend but once past there they accelerate up the hill and 80% are breaking the speed limit, he thought. It would not be long before someone was seriously injured or killed. An awareness of 20mph might concentrate the mind, he thought. Surrounding counties all have 20mph zones but MKCC did not appear to want to know.

Prior to the start of the meeting Mayor Debbie Whitworth acknowledged the passing of Pat Brock, a past member of OTC.

Apologies were received from Ian Stokes. Chris Tennant declared an interest on an agenda item dealing with the former football club building, as a member of Caveman Conditioning.

Dr Katie Herman, GP Partner at Cobbs Garden Surgery introduced a number of reps from the practice and Patient Participation Group, including her father Chris Herman, who had previously been a GP in Newport Pagnell and had now come out of retirement to take on the role of Managing Partner, and a new GP, Dr Brady. She also introduced David Picking who is the Integrated Care Board (ICB) Primary Care Development Lead. Katie said there had been lots of changes at the surgery over the last six months which had been tough for everyone, but they now had a plan which had recently been communicated out via Facebook and the surgery website. Chris’ role is to assist Katie and Dr Brady in stabilising the practice by implementing changes to ensure the viability and strength of the surgery going forward.
There has been discussion with two larger practices in MK to either merge or be taken over but neither of those would have worked in Olney’s favour so they will remain independent to meet the needs of their patients. The patient list will be opened again at the beginning of next year, she said.
David Picking said his role was to support the practice in whatever path they decided to go down. It was good news but there is still a lot of work to be done and things put in place, but there is now a clear vision and path to be enacted. Chris said one of the criticisms levelled at the practice was that they didn’t keep people informed but with constant change that wasn’t always possible. Difficulties in staff recruitment had led to the merger discussions but David’s success in recruitment meant that was no longer necessary. Although there are currently locum GPs at the practice the preference is for long-term partners or salaried doctors who are committed to the surgery. Chris said he has brought in an HR/Business specialist who he has worked with before and who will work with the partners to review all staff contracts, processes and procedures and also appoint a member of staff to be responsible for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) aspects and staff training for CQC registration and what represents good practice. They would be undertaking a ‘Deep Dive’ into how the surgery works and what is the best way of servicing patients. There will also be regular reports back to OTC. Dr Brady said that as a traditional GP she was looking forward to working at the surgery and that she and Katie have very similar ideas about taking things forward.
Deirdre Bethune asked about the progress of the proposed new building In East Street. Chris said they now had an agreement with MKCC to buy the land, but it had not progressed because nationally there is very little additional funding for capital projects. Chris said he felt strongly that would change and he was looking to use a small portion of the allocated S106 money to get planning permission so that building can start quickly when the funding is made available. It would only take around 15 months for the building to be operational once started, he thought. The long-term aim would then be to open up the list to surrounding villages and provide consultant led community based clinics.

Ward Councillor Keith McLean apologised for sounding very nasal as he had just returned from a visit to the National Arboretum and was suffering from hay fever! Leading on from the Cobbs Garden presentation he said he and fellow Ward Councillor Peter Geary and previous councillor David Hosking had worked with the surgery on the plans for the new surgery and it was good to hear that they were moving forward with applying for planning permission after three years of stop-start.
He had expected the Market Place traffic lights to be fixed two weeks ago but they hadn’t. He’d then been told that they’d be working that very day, but they weren’t.
A positive email had been received that day from an MKCC officer saying that they would be looking into the 20mph zone suggestion. Colin Rodden asked if the police would monitor compliance, but Keith replied that the Chief Constable had confirmed that they wouldn’t. Naomi Brock asked if there were any proposals for average speed cameras such as those in Turvey and elsewhere in Bedfordshire. Keith said there wasn’t and expressed the opinion that there may have been political motivation involved in Bedfordshire, for what good it had done. At a cost of £100,000 he didn’t think they would be suitable for Olney High Street, anyway. Keith said he had received several compliments about the work carried out during last month’s overnight closure of the A509 between Emberton and Chicheley roundabout, which had included sign repair and cut back of vegetation. Some repairs to Olney High Street had also taken place at the same time, he said.
The number 21 bus had been reinstated but had not been reliable and there were reports of passengers being missed. Keith said he had requested a report from the operator regarding failure and also passenger numbers. It was a case of ‘use it or lose it’ he said.
The delayed 53-week closure of the A509 to Junction 14 had come as a surprise to the ward councillors but as the project had now moved from the plan to the build stage there was little that could be done, he said.

Prior to presenting the crime stats Debbie Whitworth reported that PCSO James Andrews had recently progressed his career by stepping up to Police Constable in Thames Valley Police and she thanked him for his enthusiasm, hard work and commitment to the community and said he would be missed.

MKCC has provided OTC with revised plans after considering feedback from OTC and residents. The main change is the removal of the Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA). Chris Tennant suggested that the revised plans be presented to the community, but Jane Brushwood was of the opinion that OTC had already done that and fed back the comments to MKCC who had revised the plans accordingly. It could take ‘years’ to progress if they kept going back to MKCC with every revision, she said. The correct course of action would be for MKCC to now formally seek planning permission and residents could raise comments and objections as part of the planning process. Deirdre Bethune said OTC had spent so many years debating the skate park that it would now be the children of those who originally requested it who would be using it. We now need to get on and do it, she said.
Debbie Hall said she’d listened to arguments for and against and on balance she was in favour. Members had been elected to make decisions and in her opinion they had consulted, listened to feedback and now was the time to make a decision. Chris Tennant said that OTC must make clear to MKCC that its approval is conditional on provision for future long-term maintenance. Debbie proposed that the plans be accepted, subject to a few ‘tweaks’, and the motion was unanimously approved. Minor improvements to Dagnall Road play area were also approved unanimously.

Jane Brushwood reported that OTC had given Caveman Conditioning notice to quit the building but at the EGM in June both parties had agreed to extend the notice period by six months to 20th December. There had already been considerable council expense in terms of solicitor’s fees and there were more to come, as well as the cost of historic electrical inspections and structural inspections and reports. She said fi ve years ago it had been agreed that the tenant should only pay one-third of the commercial rate rental and pay a capped rate for electricity on condition that they completed the necessary building work, but they had not done so. They had continued to pay the reduced rental as well as only paying the electricity at the capped rate of five years ago. Also, they had only just started paying their rates bill. OTC now needed to progress the renovations themselves but the only way they could do that was to apply for community ownership funding, which can only be used for community buildings and not ‘personal businesses’. The council should start that process now and not wait until they took possession of the building on 21st December, she said. The lease for the extended six-month period had finally been written up by OTC’s solicitors, she said, but thought it unlikely that the tenant would sign it. OTC had the choice of sending it direct to the tenant or to the tenant’s solicitor via their solicitor. Colin Rodden asked if OTC still intended to go out to public consultation as to what should happen to the building i.e., renovation or demolition and rebuild? Jane said yes but thought it best to offer some realistic suggestions rather than a blank sheet, and Naomi Brock agreed.
A long discussion took place on the matter but eventually it was decided that Jane would draft some proposals for comment, based on plans produced five years ago. Naomi and Chris Tenant both recalled that at the EGM OTC had stated that it would charge the full commercial rate for the duration of the six-month new lease. Jane said it had been impossible to find a surveyor prepared to quote a level for the current commercial rent. It was therefore agreed the full commercial rent set five years ago would be charged for the duration of the revised lease. David Tyler proposed that the lease be sent via solicitors which was agreed upon.

The present make-up of stalls means that the market no longer meets the strict criteria for the name Farmers Market. At the August market there were eight stalls which met the criteria and 22 that did not although efforts had been made to increase the number of ‘farmers’ attending.
A number of other names were suggested, including Sunday Market (Dan Rowland thought this sounded like a car boot sale), Monthly Sunday Market, Olney Town Market, Artisan Market or Arty-F*rty Market! Eventually, it was agreed to carry on calling it the Farmers Market, since it is not officially registered as such. So that’s all good then…

Colin Rodden asked what the £100,000 expenditure on the Olney Centre had been used for, noting that the doors into the council chamber were new. Just the doors! joked Jane Brushwood. In fact, a massive amount of work has been carried out in the Pre-School, she said, including the provision of a mezzanine floor which had enabled the kitchen, stores, and office to be relocated. This had freed up more space for children, which meant more toilets were required. All of this had been completed in six weeks ready for the start of the new term. Debbie Whitworth thanked office staff Jane, Rob, Laura and Caretaker Bruce for their exceedingly hard work through much disruption, mayhem and noise without complaint. This had involved some excessively early starts and late finishes, she said. Additionally, the Rugby Club floodlights are being updated to LED with S106 funding.

There is considerable silting up of the River at the north end of the Goosey which slows the flow and has resulted in excessive weed and algae growth. This in turn leads to more silting up. The Environment Agency had advised that the latter can be addressed with a non-invasive herbicide. OTC have agreed to pay for the work to be carried out by the fishing club.
The annual Firework Display organised by The Olney Group (TOG) will take place on Sunday 5th November. Mary Prosser reported that the care alarm system for the 12 residents of the Alms Houses was being updated but most of them now had mobile phones rather than the landlines required to support traditional life-line systems. Negotiations are underway with a company to provide a sim-card based system. There is currently a waiting list of 17 people, nine of which are Olney residents.

The next meeting will be held on Monday 2nd October at 7.00pm in the Olney Centre. If you would like to contribute to the Public Participation section at the start of the meeting, or any time the mayor deems appropriate, please contact the Town Clerk, townclerk@olneytowncouncil.gov.uk.

‘Please shut the gate’ is a sign we have all seen, and most of us will abide by that request. It’s part of the Countryside Code after all, and anyway, it’s good manners – if you use a gate, you shut it after you. So when representatives of an Olney street, which has been enjoying its own access gate, attended the regular Olney Town Council meeting to secure the opening’s existence, they probably weren’t expecting it to be shut up for good…

June Keating from Mobbs Close in Olney stood to give her case for the access gate. She was there on behalf of her entire street although, to be fair it was only her and her daughter present so, compared with some resident rebellions seen at the Olney Centre in 2023, this one wasn’t so much ‘mob-handed’ as ‘Mobbs-handed’. She said that an access gate between Mobbs Close and the recreation ground (the Rec), which has been there for five years, had recently been ‘rather crudely blocked off ’ so that residents could no longer use it.
The gate had been damaged too, and we have since found out that it was the Town Council which did this, said a forlorn Mrs Keating. She said the gate was the property of the residents of Mobbs Close – 23 people have a key to it which is used on a regular basis for people to get to the Rec, the bowls club, the tennis club and other facilities there. She said that by having the gate operated by residents, it would only enhance security down at the Rec by ‘sort of keeping an eye on things’.
There had been a matter raised, she added, concerning the privacy of the Rugby Club’s changing rooms near to the gateway and if this was the case, surely a screen could be erected on the railings there to solve that problem. Mrs Keating said that this was a ‘trivial’ issue that ‘concerns very few people’ and wondered why OTC’s time and resources were being used here when they were ‘surely needed elsewhere’.

Councillors Colin Rodden, David Tyler and Deirdre Bethune were unavailable. Deirdre was at another meeting – Town Clerk Jane Brushwood said Deirdre indicated that she would attend if that one finished in time. Ian Stokes declared an interest in a later item on the agenda concerning the town’s former football club building as he is chairman of Olney Town Colts, and Chris Tennant had a similar interest to declare concerning that building as he was a member of an organisation that uses it.
Just before the last meeting’s (November) minutes were approved, Ian Stokes had a question. Was it not agreed that the current tenant of the ex-football club (Caveman Conditioning) pay council legal fees? he asked. That was met with stunned silence around the table. Can you say that again, please, said Mayor Debbie Whitworth. Well, I know this was discussed because I raised it, said Ian. We were talking about incremental legal fees and whether they should be covered because they seem to be escalating, he added. The Clerk confirmed that the matter had been discussed but it wasn’t included in the resolution.

Councillor Keith McLean was in town to deliver the Milton Keynes ward report. He had a number of items to go through. We still have problems with MK Connect (the local transport service). The issues continue, and I’m not quite sure what the remedy is, he said. The number 21 bus service was another ‘problem’ item on Keith’s agenda. People have come to me on this, he said, and last week I had two reports: one where the bus driver decided that Emberton didn’t exist anymore and went straight up the bypass and on another occasion, apparently, people were invisible at the bus stop by The Forge. For the first one, Keith continued, the bus company said, ‘Ah that’s a new driver’. I went back and said – excuse the pun – do you not ‘on-board’ your drivers and familiarise them with the technology and routes? Keith said he was aware of an App that contains this information, but he didn’t have any more details.
The ward councillor continued with his next item: the roadworks at the bottom of the A509 from Chichelely Hill. If you go past the road that you can’t go down, you will notice that there is something missing there. It’s a white elephant known as a bridge. I can’t believe they went to the trouble of putting the bridge up to save closing the road and then finding that they didn’t need it and took it down, said Keith. I hate to think how much it cost.
Next on the list was the 20mph speed limits. Following a meeting back in September there has been gathering of speed data in a number of areas, he said. There were a couple of places that he was disappointed did not get checked, for example the stretch of Weston Road between the A509 and Lime Street, even though Keith asked twice for that. But the outcome is that they are going to go ahead with 20mph speed limits on Aspreys and on Yardley Road and the residential roads going off them. There is not the budget to do any more speed restricting, said Keith, this is just Phase 1 and will be starting early 2024 and finished by the middle of the year. Part of the speed limits will involve engineering works, putting in humps on both Yardley Road and Aspreys. Keith finished with one other subject that he had discussed at ‘a number of these meetings’. The question of safety of the crossing at the One Stop shop has been raised again, he said. He explained how he had been told recently by a Highways officer that there had been agreement to put in a ‘covert surveillance device’ at the crossing to record traffic movements over a week in that area. It had to go through procurement, but it had been agreed in principle.
Debbie Hall asked Keith about the 20mph limit, which seemed to be happening only on the west side of the town. What about East Street? She asked. Keith said he did ask for the whole of Olney to be included in the research, but it was felt that there was not enough budget to do everything. He added that he thought people would be surprised at the speed of cars along East Street – it’s self-policing, he said, and in a lot of places where it’s narrow cars don’t get over 30mph. It’s done using a matrix scoring system and unless a lot of cars exceed the limit no action is taken, he explained. It also needs a pavement down there, said Debbie H, not letting the subject go.
Keith said that’s an engineering issue. Ian Stokes asked if the High Street was part of the data gathering. The Mayor said that data gathering strips had been put along the High Street and that the information has to be sent to Thames Valley Police.
Chris Tennant said he thought there was still an issue with speeding from the industrial estate at the north end of the town coming down to the roundabout at the top of Drift Way. Keith noted that there were actually no houses alongside that stretch.

Olney still does not have a PCSO, but some crime figures had been sent to the Clerk by Arlene Ormston, who is being ‘run ragged’ as she tries to cover Olney as well as her own villages. The Clerk had figures that covered 6th November to 4th December and included 1 x Action Fraud (of a banking protocol), 3 x public disorder and 1 x antisocial behaviour between neighbours. Other incidents that are not crime-related include some road-related issues and a suspicious person on the Market Place.
The Mayor added that she had been told there will be two new PCSOs coming to Olney: one on board in December and one coming in early January. Both new officers will have several weeks of training.

Councillors had been sent a copy of the latest expenditure report by the Clerk. Did anyone have anything to say about it, asked the Mayor. The resounding silence meant there was no comment on what was a straightforward document this month.

There was also little to report from councillors who had represented OTC at external meetings. Debbie Hall said she had attended a meeting of the Olney Newton Link, where they are starting a project to build a new community centre rather like the one in Olney. The Clerk said that she and the Mayor had met with Barclays Bank to discuss the provision of a new financial facility in the town. It’s not a hub, said the Mayor. No, they don’t like that word, agreed the Clerk, because it suggests lots of different banks. They are putting a Barclays van on to the Market Place twice a month on the Thursday market. There won’t be cash banking there, but there will be other things – we’ll find out soon enough. It will be starting in January, she added.
We also have social prescribers coming in. Social prescribing is sort of like a citizens’ advice, explained the Clerk, which will include advice on things like physical and mental well-being, housing, finance and heating. The council will set up a ‘coffee morning type of thing’, she added, so that people from Olney and surrounding villages in a wider area can access the service. The Council is hoping to create some advertising material about both the Barclays banking service and the social prescribers scheme.

The cemetery path said the Clerk, from the road up to the lych gate, has been surfaced and from there the existing path is going to be resin bonded again. Surfacers will be coming back to do the edges and finish the job, she added. And the top surface will not be able to be done until the weather changes in the Spring next year, she said, but it is quite safe until then. Of course that’s all being done under Section 106 funding, the Clerk confirmed.

Dan Rowland told everyone that an action plan had been put forward to monitor water quality. However, he wasn’t sure what the timescale was for this research. The Mayor said that Mark Butterfield (from Olney’s fishing association) was carrying out research on behalf of OTC and had been working with Bedford Council and their scientists there. We have also asked the Clerk to reach out and work with Newport Pagnell Council, so it is like two councils working together, said the Mayor. Testing will also continue to be carried out at the bathing steps area. We will collect as much data as we can before we take the whole situation to the Environment Agency, the Mayor added. We’ll get as much groundwork in as we can. Then we will be in a better position to request full data on the river pollution and, if necessary, we can ask for an FOI (Freedom of Information) to find out exactly what the EA are testing.
Ian Stokes said this must remain an agenda item for the future and one to keep an eye on, especially with the heavy use of the Rec in the summer. This report can ‘dovetail’ into that, he added. The Council can get test kits for water quality monitoring, said the Mayor. What will they be testing for? asked Debbie Hall. E.coli, said Dan. OK, so what’s the action taken from that information we receive, returned Debbie H. We can share it with other fishing clubs in the area, answered the Mayor, to understand what they are doing too.

The Clerk said the present tenant’s solicitors have agreed on a lease which she has ‘yet to see signed’. It has not been signed as far as I’m aware, she added. That’s the only update I’ve had. I’ve had other small bits and pieces, and plans are being put in place for a meeting in January. We’ll have the results of the questionnaire on Neighbourhood Planning (which includes a specific question about the building), as you know, she said. The Olney questionnaire is still live, said Chris Tennant. Yes, but only until the 15th of this month (December), said the Clerk. We’ll get that all put together and the results of that will form part of the plan, she added.

This had already been brought up by a resident earlier, and now the issue was to be discussed as an agenda item. OK, well, you all know about this because it has been going round and round, said the Mayor. And we need to make a final decision this evening. Well, just like we’ve got the problem with the football club said the Clerk, this is a problem I feel that we are going to pass on to people in the future. And it’s not these residents, it’s not necessarily us councillors, the fact of the matter is that by allowing it (the gate), we are putting ourselves at risk of being sued when the path is slippery, when the gate doesn’t work or whatever. The gate should not have been there. It should be put back as a metal fence, and there’s hedging in there – that’s what should go back in. It should have been reinstated when the builders left, but they didn’t do that. We have had a letter from the managing agent of that estate, said the Mayor. In it, she said, the agent had offered to erect some signage saying that using the gate is done at ‘one’s own risk’. I’m sorry, added the Mayor, but that means absolutely zilch. The Clerk agreed.
We all know that if someone was to slip there and crack their head open, it would be the council’s fault as it’s on council land, she said. That’s the top and bottom of it. Whether it’s in my lifetime or your lifetime or sometime in the future, it‘s a responsibility that we need to remove. Ian Stokes said he thought the council could mitigate the problem by having an agreement that people use the gate at their own risk. We have passageways throughout Olney that are exactly like that, he said, alongside Costa, alongside Allens, up to the Co-op. But they don’t belong to us, said the Clerk. The onus is on mitigating the risk; that’s my point, said Ian. I take your point about liability, but I’m talking about if the residents are signing up to use the gate at their own risk, and there’s no cost to the council for producing the signage. The point about the changing rooms is a red herring because no architect would design changing rooms that you can look into, he added. I’m with Ian on this, said Naomi Brock.
People walk in a lot of places that are OTC land and that we wouldn’t take liability for, but we have allowed people to use this, so why has the risk changed? Because we didn’t know about it before, said the Clerk. But why did we allow people to use it then, asked Naomi. Because it was put there to allow builders who were parking in our car park to gain access to the building site and were allowed to put the gate in for that, and when they finished they should have taken the gate out. Chris Tennant wanted something cleared up. So the planning permission allowed for some new fencing there, he asked. Yes, but not for a gate, said the Clerk. OK, so the council allowed temporary access for the builders and temporary use. So now we are asking, do we as a council allow unfettered access to our land? Obviously, time has gone by – I worked on the town council five years ago, and I didn’t know about it then.
One option, said Debbie Hall, is to make good the passageway and get the planning permission. Well, to do that we have to make sure it is constructed to highway standards and properly done, said Chris. It would then have to be policed, properly lit, it would need correct surfacing, and made a size and shape for all residents’ use: residents of the town and not just residents of the estate. Jim Cooper couldn’t believe that the constructors had given people a key to the gate when they finally left the site. Why did they think it was in their power to give a key when it wasn’t theirs to give, he boomed. The gate should have been done away with, and the fence should have been reinstalled. It’s not a great deal of difference walking down Mobbs Close and back onto the Rec than using the gate, said the Clerk. I don’t see why we should put ourselves up for possible trouble in the future. It doesn’t benefit the town, said Chris. If it was a big open access gate for the whole town to use, would the residents of Mobbs Close still want it? The Mayor agreed. It’s got to be for the whole town, and it’s not. As it stands now it’s on our land and if anything happens we will be liable, in spite of any signage going up about risk, so sadly, on this occasion, I propose that we remove the gate. Hold on, said Debbie H. It’s a locked gate – that’s the issue here. Does Olney Town Council hold the keys to the gate, asked Dan Rowland. No, was the answer. Chris thought that allowing the gate to remain would set a precedent for the future. The Mayor said they could not defer any longer. Will the builders have to make this good, asked Debbie Hall. No, we would just go in and reinstate the fence, said the Clerk. The proposal was made by Chris Tennant and seconded by Jim Cooper to close the gate permanently and reinstate the council’s fence and hedge to secure its boundary. It was carried by a majority. Case closed – or should that be gate closed?

The next meeting will be held on Monday, 8th January at 7pm in the Olney Centre. If you would like to contribute to the Public Participation at the start of the meeting or at any time the Mayor deems appropriate please contact the Town Clerk, townclerk@ olneytowncouncil.gov.uk.