BUCKINGHAMSHIRE Council’s own highways department has objected to plans to send HGVs through Tylers Green to serve the Gomm Valley building site at the bottom of Hammersley Lane (see last blog).
But the views of members of the public who are also concerned are not being published because the council thinks they could fall foul of data protection laws.
At the last count over 100 people had commented on the plan, all of them objecting.
Developers Taylor Wimpey want to send construction lorries through the village and along the whole length of the narrow Hammersey Lane before they turn right into the building site which has an entrance on a steep slope and near a sharp bend.
However, senior Buckinghamshire highways officer Lucy Molloy has told her own planning department that all construction vehicles should enter and leave the site via the A40 junction with Hammersley Lane.
In addition, she says that a banksman – a trained traffic marshal responsible for directing the movement of large vehicles where there is construction activity or limited visibility – should be available at all times to oversee the arrival and departure of construction traffic.
Ms Molloy told the planners, who have to approve or reject Taylor Wimpey’s suggestions, that to allow construction lorries to approach via Tylers Green and travel the whole length of Hammersley Lane was “not appropriate due to the use of local roads and the absence of an existing right-turn lane into the site.”
She also wants a written condition that site visitors and employees should not be allowed to park on Hammersley Lane or any other nearby roads but only park within the building site. If needs be the council should enforce parking restrictions in the area.
Ms Molloy is also seeking clarification of working hours on the site as Taylor Wimpey say in one part of its application that work will begin at 7am but in another part state that working hours will be from 8am.
Penn and Tylers Green’s two parish councils and its residents’ society have also bitterly complained about the plans but the views of members of public also deeply concerned are not being published by Buckinghamshire Council because of its planning censorship policy – a policy that is causing increasing aggravation (see story below).
Pressure mounts on Buckinghamshire to reverse its planning censorship policy
SCORES of people in the village who have complained about Taylor Wimpey’s plan to run HGVs through the centre of the Penn and Tylers Green conservation area – reported in this blog last month – are shocked that their views will never be seen.
Now Conservative-led Buckinghamshire Council is coming under increasing pressure to drop its censorship of public views on planning applications.
Even one of the county’s Tory MPs, Greg Smith, has told the council the ban is infuriating. He told the Bucks Free Press: “I want everyone to be able to see the strength of feeling against… inappropriate proposals and have made it clear to the council my frustration.”
The council remains one of a handful of local authorities in the UK to refuse to publish comments on planning applications sent to them by members of the public, claiming if they did so they would contravene data privacy laws known as General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
Its stubborn stance comes as:
- Wakefield Council in Yorkshire, which introduced the censorship at the same time as Bucks, reversed its decision after a public outcry. Its council leader said: “People have made representations and transparency is everything.”
- Buckinghamshire Council made its decision without consultation and purely on legal advice from its own law officers based on a single case involving a local authority in Essex nine years ago when GDPR issues were in their infancy.
- The Information Commissioner’s Office told the Local Government Chronicle that GDPR “does not prevent a planning authority from publishing names where it is necessary and justified to do so” although “they must always be mindful of data protection obligations”.
- Penn’s MP Sarah Green (Lib Dem Chesham and Amersham) told a constituent: “This is not open government and is weakening powers of local councillors and parish councils to assist their residents.”
- Penn and Tylers Green councillor Jonathan Waters told the Bucks Free Press: “This is totally unacceptable. If comments cannot be seen the public don’t know if the very valid points they may wish to make have been made already or not.”
- The Free Press has published letters from the public objecting to the secrecy. One local resident, Mary Scott, wrote: “To hide public comments from view is deeply wrong. It removes transparency, discourages public participation, and creates suspicion that decisions are being made without proper scrutiny. If residents cannot see what others are saying, how can communities organise, debate or even feel that objections are being taken seriously?”
- A public petition calling on the council to change its position has been launched. You can sign it on https://buckinghamshire.moderngov.co.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?
Peter Strachan, the cabinet member responsible for planning at Buckinghamshire Council, told the Free Press: “Although comments are not publicly visible the planning assessment process has not changed and decision makers…have full access to all comments. All views are fully considered when determining an application.”
However, critics say that virtually every other planning authority in the country has found a way of accommodating GDPR requirements without resorting to censorship.
This usually involves a planning officer checking letters in the rare likelihood of GDPR contraventions before publishing them, or redacting the names and addresses of those commenting.
They suspect the council has resorted to censorship as an easy way to cut costs at the expense of open democracy – a charge the council denies.
*Many people who live in the Hammersley Lane area told the council about the traffic delays and accidents they already witness when they objected to the Gomm Valley planning application for hundreds of homes. But the council didn’t publish their letters and emails and seemingly chose to ignore their warnings.
In fact, residents views only became known when this blog received them following a Freedom of Information request and by then approval had already been given.
Local news
Well, well, well – The Oh Shala wellness and community festival returns to the Big Park on the Penn Estate in Penn Street next month offering what the organisers call “three days to explore and immerse yourself in a range of holistic workshops and well-being practices that nourishes your body, mind and soul.” Details on this link: https://www.ohshalafestival.com
Chronic delays – Meanwhile, organisers of the Penn Country Show at the Big Park have vowed to make improvements to traffic arrangements for next year’s show after some visitors queued for over an hour to get in. They apologised for the chaos, saying more people than they envisaged visited the show during the early May bank holiday weekend.
Root and branch change – Hazlemere independent councillor Ed Gemmell, who is so concerned about climate change he has formed his own Climate Party, has persuaded Buckinghamshire Council that, where suitable, trees should be uprooted and replanted rather than chopped down when they stand in the way of new developments. He is also standing this this month’s Makerfield by-election in Wigan as a Climate Party candidate.
History probe – An archeological survey is to take place at April Cottage, the 400 year old listed cottage next door but one to the Red Lion in Penn, before work on a new extension to replace the existing extension, outbuildings and conservatory begins.
Birthday greetings – Pupils at Tylers Green Middle School sent a birthday card to Sir David Attenborough as he celebrated his 100th birthday last month. On his actual birthday – 8 May – they had a David Attenborough mufti-day, dressing up as animals, explorers and even plants!
Fun run crowdfunder – The organisers of this month’s Penn 7, Fun Runs and Party by the Pond have launched a crowdfunding page so you can contribute to their designated charity, the Thomas Ball Fund which helps local children with cancer and their families. You can contribute on this link https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/penn-7-super-fun-run-party-by-the-pond-2026?
Power plant – Scottish and Southern Electricity has informed the council it intends to build a sub-station in Hammersley Lane near the proposed entrance to the Gomm Valley development. The sub-station will be in a 4.5 metre square plot.
Pond setback – Earl Howe has been refused permission to convert an allotment site on his land at Penn Street into a wildlife pond and must apply for planning permission. His land agent applied to create a 24 metre wildlife pond behind cottages opposite the war memorial on Penn Street Common using a device known as a certificate of lawfulness. But council planning officers said the scheme lacked detail and would need a planning application.
Residents responsible – The Hill Group, the builders given permission to build 95 houses in Ashwells Field, off Cock Lane, Tylers Green, has confirmed its intention to create a management company run by the new residents once the development is complete and occupied. The management company will have responsibility for maintaining open spaces and play areas.
Ready for action – Starting this month, students in years 7,8 and 9 can wear PE kit throughout the day at Sir William Ramsay School in Rose Avenue on the days they have a PE or dancing lesson – provided it is the school’s newly branded kit. It’s part of a plan to maximise learning time.
Charity jumpers – Penn and Tylers Green Football Club members Wayne Booth and Matt Lance, together with a team of local scaffolders, raised over £7,000 for Cancer Research UK in a charity parachute jump last month.
Trees shaped – Tylers Green Village Hall has applied for permission to prune and shape the two ash trees and maple tree surrounding its car park.
Pub site home – Permission has been given for the demolition of Sportsman’s Cottage in Beacon Hill, Penn – on the site of the former Sportsman and Dog pub – to be replaced with a four bedroom house.
School fete – The Manor Farm Schools’ summer fete will be held in the school grounds in Rose Avenue on Saturday 11 July between noon and 3pm.
Summer gig – A summer concert by the Chiltern Ladies Afternoon Singers will be held at Penn Church on Tuesday 7 July from 2pm. It is free but please call 01494 7813372 to reserve a seat.
Fighting princesses – Penn is featured among the exhibits at a special exhibition in Kensington Palace. The Last Princesses of Punjab tells the story of Princesses Sophia and Catherine Duleep Singh, two pioneering suffragettes who lived in Hammersley Lane, Tylers Green in the 1940s, and their sister Bamba. The sisters, pictured below, fought tirelessly against Nazism and cared for Jewish refugees at Hilden Hall in Hammersley Lane (see last July blog). The exhibition ends on 8 November.
Penn inspired garden wins gold medal at Chelsea Flower Show
A GARDEN created around the story of Penn Wood won a gold medal at last month’s Chelsea Flower Show in addition to a special award for being the best garden that was “all about plants”.
The garden was commissioned by The Woodland Trust, who maintain Penn Wood, and designed by Ashleigh Aylett, pictured above in the garden with the award.
Called the Forgotten Forests Garden it reflected how the trust has transformed Penn Wood during its 20 year stewardship (see last blog).
The Royal Horticultural Society judges said: “The design features a striking transition zone where regimented conifers gradually give way to a more diverse, naturally regenerating woodland. This evolving landscape highlights that restoration is a process, not an instant result, a living story of renewal rather than a finished forest.”
My, how you’ve changed! How Tylers Green School looked when it first opened 150 years ago
THINGS have certainly changed at Tylers Green First School since it first opened its doors 150 years ago – not least how the school looks.
The image above is the one 29 year old architect Arthur Vernon submitted when he won the commission in 1875. On the right is the school itself, comprising basically three large rooms, and on the left the headmaster’s house, which is almost as big as the school.
Arthur was still a trainee architect at the time but he had the right connections. His father was the land agent for Benjamin Disraeli at Hughenden who himself was a close personal friend of Sir Philip Rose, the influential lawyer who lived at Rayners, Tylers Green and who was instrumental in getting the school built in the first place.
Arthur went on to become a significant figure in the High Wycombe area, becoming mayor five times and designing many buildings in the town, including the Royal Grammar School which opened its Amersham Road building in 1915.
Meanwhile celebrations are well in hand to commemorate the first school’s anniversary.
On Friday 3 July, the Parent Teachers’ Association is hold an anniversary party in a marquee at the Sports and Social Club – details on https://www.pta-events.com/tylersgreenfirstschool/index.cfm?event=event&eventId=116588
While on Saturday 4 July there’s a festival at the school between 1pm and 4.30pm to which everyone is invited. In addition to a fair and games there will be live music, arts and crafts, a history exhibition, tours of the school and an appearance by Mr Marvel, the magician. Details and an appeal for helpers on this link https://www.pta-events.com/tylersgreenfirstschool/index.cfm?event=event&eventId=116797
*If you have any photographs of school life that could be included in the exhibition, particularly in the 60s, 70s and 80s, please contact peter@pennandtylersgreen.com
Gomm Valley school to be raised to stop it being flooded
A NEW school to be built as part of the Gomm Valley development will be constructed on raised ground so that the school and its sports pitches are not flooded by water escaping from a nearby business park.
The primary school is part of the scheme by Taylor Wimpey to build 544 houses in the valley, between Cock Lane and Hammersley Lane, Tylers Green.
A detailed flooding and drainage report last month concluded that the chances of flooding in the deep sided valley were slim provided precautions to deal with surface water flow were taken.
Engineering consultants Abley Letchford said seven different types of flooding prevention measures will be needed in the built-up areas ranging from permeable paving to creating eco-friendly drains to divert water to other areas.
In addition they said the ground on which to school is to be built will need to be raised so it is higher than the existing Peregrine Business Park nearby. That’s to prevent water from the business park running onto the school and its pitches after a heavy rain storm.
The whole development will have its own pumping station at the bottom end of the valley.
Tylers Green fund-raisers to be featured in Songs of Praise
TYLERS GREEN prostate cancer campaigners Ron and Pat Hedley will be featured in the BBC’s Songs of Praise programme this summer as they continue a series of walks to raise money as part of the Bob Willis Fund.
They will be interviewed in Chelmsford this month as they take part in a fund raising walk with members of Essex Cricket Club’s over 60s/70s and supporters.
So far Ron, who is being treated for prostate cancer himself, has raised more than £88,000 for the fund with the support of county and local cricket clubs.
Last month there were walks at Edgbaston with the support of cricketers from Warwickshire and Shropshire, and a walk in London which culminated at Lord’s. This month, in addition to Essex, there’s a walk in Northampton, whilst over the next few weeks there are walks in Cornwall and Leicestershire.
You can find out more and donate to the cause on this link https://bobwillisfund.org/ronsmarch
A hard day’s night in Little Missenden
LITTLE MISSENDEN and, in particular, one of its pubs, the Red Lion, has had more than its fair share of fame on the small and big screen over the years.
It has featured in movies ranging from Disney’s Cruella to Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Last year Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Celia Imrie spent a couple of days filming in the Red Lion’s characterful bar for the movie Thursday Murder Club. Midsomer Murders is a regular visitor.
Last month though the pub closed for a week and much of the centre of the village became a film set for what is certain to be THE movie occasion of 2028…the Beatles biopics.
After years of preparation director Sam Mendes is filming four separate movies – all to be released simultaneously – on each of the Beatles lives. Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Harris Dickinson and Joseph Quinn are playing the Fab Four and the films are being put together at the Bovingdon Airfield Studios between Chesham and Hemel Hempstead.
Reading the runes
ARCHEOLOGISTS will descend on Cookham Abbey next month for a fourth year of exploration of an eighth century monastery site in the precincts of Cookham parish church.
In the meantime experts think they have translated some mysterious markings – or runes – found on a piece of lead discovered in the 2023 dig.
It’s known the monastery was a leading medical centre of its time – in addition to probably being the country’s first hospice – and Professor John Hines, Britain’s leading expert on runes, reckons the lead sheet was a notice nailed to the wall of the doctor’s waiting room of the time. It reads, he says, “Go Remedy”.
He reckons that attached to the notice would be another list outlining a particular medical condition and the suggested remedies.
A little like an eighth century Google really.
You can find out more about the dig, and join in if you wish, on this link: https://www.cookhamabbey.org.uc
A waste of time, money and countryside
MANY in the Chilterns who have been involved in what The Times called the “HS2 Shambles” since the scheme was first mooted back in 2009 will not be in the slightest bit surprised by the litany of incompetence, naivety and arrogance outlined last month in the Government’s latest update on the high speed railway.
The railway will eventually launch several years behind schedule and tens of billions over budget.
People in the Chilterns forced to sell their land and property to the railway only to discover it wasn’t needed are not likely to be appeased by the news they can now have first dibs on buying back their land and property, but only at today’s market prices.
One point however seems to have slipped by the Government, the local, now suddenly outraged MPs and the media.
We were told that the railway had to pass through the middle of the allegedly protected Chilterns Area of Outstanding Beauty because it needed to go in a straight line between Heathrow and Birmingham in order to obtain speeds of 244mph (360km per hour).
The Heathrow section was soon dropped and now the Government has lowered the top speed. When they do eventually operate, HS2 trains will travel at a maximum 199mph (320km per hour), obviating the need to go in a straight line through what is now the Chilterns National Landscape.
So, as it turns out, the high speed link between London and Birmingham could have actually followed the route suggested by many at the time – and haughtily dismissed – of running it alongside the existing London North Western Railway.
It would have saved billions; taken much less time to build and avoided the permanent scar on the face of one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
Regional news
New surroundings – These Exmoor ponies are enjoying a change of scenery this summer. They were let loose last month in Burnham Beeches – together with a herd of British white cattle – to naturally graze the woodland, which helps the conservation efforts and is certainly more environmentally friendly. The only request to visitors is to keep a distance of at least five metres if you encounter them and don’t even think of feeding them.
Hot chocolate – Mars has announced an £80million investment in its Slough chocolate factory enabling it to upgrade its production lines and train staff to deal with the latest automation and AI techniques. The changes will enable the factory to produce up to five million chocolate bars a day – ranging from Mars Bars to Twix and from Bounty to Snickers. They will also be able to produce two million Malteser balls an hour!
Height of cool – Former High Wycombe schoolboy Kenton Cool broke a world record last month when he climbed the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, for the 20th time. That means the former John Hampden pupil, aged 51, has conquered Everest more than any other mountaineer, except for a few Neapalese sherpas.
Height of heat – Our area saw record breaking temperatures for May during the spring bank holiday week. According to Netweather, temperatures peaked at 34 degree Celsius but the “feel like” temperatures were 36 degrees – that’s 97 degrees Fahrenheit in old money.
Tout clampdown -Ticket touts who harass punters attending Royal Ascot this month will receive instant fines of £75 or £100 under a new by-law agreed by Windsor and Maidenhead Council.
Boxing champ – Thirteen year old Rory Russell, from Flackwell Heath became the schools national boxing champion in his weight group at the school championships in Newcastle last month.
Dog limit – The City of London Corporation, which owns Burnham Beeches, is following Windsor Great Park’s example, and continuing to restrict the number of dogs that can be exercised on its land by one person to four dogs.
Changing high street – Mega City, an entertainment complex featuring 10 bowling lanes, 130 arcade machines, batting cages, pool tables, reality darts and clay pigeon shooting opens in the former Wilko store in Slough High Street this month.
Howzat! – Nic Downes, aged 68, who has been bowling for Twyford and Ruscombe Cricket Club for 52 years, took his 1,000th wicket for his team last month.
A real hero – Eleven year old Kaiden Edwards, from Flackwell Heath, was the Everton mascot for the team’s game against Sunderland last month as both teams and fans supported the Children with Cancer charity. Kaiden has medulloblastoma – a brain cancer – which has spread to his spinal cord giving him a limited life span. But he is bravely supporting the charity’s campaign 2 Big, calling for more funding to provide specific treatments for children’s cancer.
Many children with cancer are being treated with drugs specifically designed for adults and which are not always suitable for youngsters. You can find out more on https://www.childrenwithcancer.org.uk
By the way…
- You can’t knock these engineering types for their lack of thoroughness. When asked to write a report on the risk of flooding in the Gomm Valley you’ll be relieved to know that the experts assessed that the chances of tidal flooding in the valley was nil. Quite a safe conclusion perhaps considering we’re 80 miles from the nearest seaside.
- Sad to say our local friendly billionaire is no more… a billionaire that is. According to the Sunday Times Rich List, computer whizz-kid Peter Kelly’s wealth fell to a mere £913 million this year sending him 29 places down the league table to 173rd. He’s still in good company though, just a couple of million poorer than the Duke of Devonshire, of Chatsworth House fame, who’s a place above him and eight million richer than the former shop-owning king Sir Philip Green, now taking it easy in Monaco, and a place below him.
- Make sure you read the small print! This month marks the 100th anniversary of the National Trust completing the purchase of the beautiful Ashridge Estate, just up the road near Berkhamsted. The trust raised today’s equivalent of £3 million to buy the estate but once the deal had been signed discovered to their horror that the purchase didn’t include the trees. They had to launch another national appeal to buy them and save them from timber companies.
You can contact this blog on peter@pennandtylersgreen.com. It will be updated as necessary in June but the next full update will be on 1 July.