The 10 to watch - who will lead Buckinghamshire Council? The first Bucks unitary elections are over and the results are in – the Conservatives have come out on top, taking 113 seats and the overall majority at Buckinghamshire Council. The next step is for the controlling party to name a man or woman to lead the council for the next four years. Former leader Martin Tett, who was elected in the Little Chalfont and Amersham Common ward, confirmed at the Chiltern count on Saturday he would be putting himself forward for the position again. Our sources also told us challengers are expected to vie for his position as the group will decide who it could be – but there has been confirmation on rumoured names.
Calls to finish Beaconsfield relief road in 12 months – as Wilton Park designs revealed CALLS for Beaconsfield’s long-awaited relief road to be finished ‘within 12 months’ have sounded – and property designs proposed under the first two phases of related construction have been published. New designs of the first and second phase of property development at the Wilton Park site have been made public – just as Buckinghamshire councillors agreed to recommend the scheme for planning officer approval. A series of digital designs were shown during a South Buckinghamshire Area Planning Committee, illustrating what the ‘layout, scale, appearance, landscaping and access’ of 147 homes proposed under the initial stages would look like.
Of those properties, 40 would be affordable (11 affordable rent; 29 shared ownership). However, some 79 affordable homes are proposed overall, as is a financial contribution of more than £3 million to health, education and transport services. As part of phase one and two, Inland Homes will demolish 40 houses on land adjacent to Maude Road to make way for the relief road; create walking and cycle routes via Minerva Way; and use land near Dupre Crescent and south of Gorrell Road for the 147 properties. The new homes will consist of one, two, three, four and five-bedroom houses and apartments. Council documents mention a majority of two-story properties in detached, semi-detached and terraced forms, but that six ‘three and four-storey apartments would act as a gateway to the site’.