Page 25 - Phonebox Magazine July 2006

the consultants from having an open display of their proposals, as was originally planned.
Steve Clark explained that he’d emailed Douglas McCall, MKC Cabinet member for Environment and Localities, to raise the issue and that he expected a response when Douglas returned from holiday. He noted that the Council wanted a proper consultation procedure and that, while the 20 speed cushions were a problem, much of the rest of the proposal was acceptable.
Dave Price, having earlier declared an interest in this item, said that, while the opening of the Ousedale annexe School is dependent on traffic calming measures being in place, he didn’t want to hear that Olney Town Council was holding up the opening of the school: it was not the case.
Finally, Steve Clark suggested that interested residents should write to MKC to make their opinions clear. Mercury believes that MKC’s Highways Department would be best placed to receive your views.
Olney Floral Fiesta
Tony Evans reported that he’d met with Sheila Bull, who’d been working hard organising this year’s events, and noted that if and when there was a new committee following September’s Fiesta AGM, they’d be very welcome to talk with OTC for advice etc. He explained that he was worried that Fiesta might fizzle out due to lack of support and really didn’t want that to happen.
Farmers’ Market
Tony Evans reported that the official opening times of the Farmers’ Market would be changed to 9am – 1pm, reflecting what has become the norm. The number of stalls will be increased as and when suitable people apply.
He also noted that, due to a MKC ruling on temporary signs – that such signs within three metres of a public highway must be removed – the Recreation and Services Committee had decided that the Farmers’ Market signs be taken down. Steve Clark, who had already emailed Douglas McCall (clearly a busy man) on the matter, explained that the ruling was probably aimed at ‘clutter’ on lampposts (e.g. night club adverts) and felt that, for local events, it should be possible to reach a situation where permission could be sought to erect such signs.
As reported in an earlier Mercury, the Council plans to incorporate the Thursday and Farmers’ Market signs within the town sign.
Bedford Railway and
Transport Association (BRTA)
The Council had been asked to renew its subscription to the BRTA. In a discussion almost identical to one this time last year, this was agreed by majority although John Sharp registered an objection, feeling it incredibly unlikely that the BRTA would achieve its aim of reinstating the railway past Olney. The vote was five for, four against with two abstentions.
Olney First School (OFS) –
planning gain
As described in earlier Mercury articles, new housing developments often generate planning gain – money paid by the developer to the Council – in order to benefit the area near the developments. This has been the case with the Shrove Meadows development on Aspreys and the associated planning gain, £110,000, has been earmarked for educational use in Olney. Jeremy Rawlings and Steve Clark are both OFS Governors and so had earlier declared an interest in this topic.
Jeremy noted only that, some years ago, a three phase plan had been created to improve the OFS buildings. Phase 1 had been completed and the School would like to work on the remaining phases, particularly the creation of a corridor round the school in order to allow movement through it without disturbing classes in the central hall, using planning gain money from the Shrove Meadows development.
Steve Clark noted that it seemed fair that some of this planning gain should go to the First School given that Olney Middle School (OMS) had received a lot of money recently. Mercury assumed this to be connected with the recent building works there. He explained that there were also other interested parties and that the decision on how the money would be split would be made by Milton Keynes Council. He also said that OFS did have £30,000 ready to spend on this scheme but, as it had an opportunity to replace its external doors and windows with matched funding from MKC, it was spent on that instead.
Councillors asked if other educational establishments, for example Olney Middle School, were aware of the planning gain money. The answer appeared to be that not all were.
During the discussion there were two brief interventions from the public seating area. First, Debbie Brock (Olney’s representative on Milton Keynes Council) pointed out that Steve Clark should not assume her support on this issue. Second, Rob Chaproniere said that he’d attended an OTC meeting 18 months ago, as Chair of Governors of OMS, and been told that the school would get informed of the opportunity to bid for future planning gain monies.
John Sharp pointed out that other educational establishments in Olney also
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Phonebox Magazine 25