P&TG Together are proud to support @OneCanTrust in Wycombe who are supplying food to support local families who are struggling.
Since lockdown, the residents of Penn & Tylers Green have given generously with P&TG Together arranging several collections and delivering the goods to One Can in High Wycombe.
You can continue to donate at any time at various houses around the village and at the Village Shop on the Green and the Co-op at Rose Avenue.
Thank you!
I anticipate that most articles in this edition of VV will commence with “what a strange time its been”. This article is no exception but in a strange way it’s been for the better. Due to the obvious C19 I was forced to forgo several sets of eyes for this year’s watch as “flocks of humans” were not permitted to meet. The extreme quiet experienced from little traffic, almost no aircraft and zero human chattering heightened my sense of hearing to the beautiful cacophony of morning song. What a sheer delight ?
One extra shift was added this year to the usual 3 with an extra outing in March. This slotted in just before lockdown when 5 of us patrolled the Common in order to catch those early spring arrivals. A solitary “Chiff” from a Chiff Chaff was the first clue that things were stirring but early Whitethroat and Blackcap were not spotted.
In April I was forced to go out alone but managed stay a distance from keen birder Ray who tagged along behind. Full vocals were heard from our resident Blackbirds, Song Thrush and Dunnock, a complete joy including Wren and yes, the Blackcap.
Three House Martins were spotted later in the month starting to nest under the eaves at the First school. Opposite, in the soffit of the Cottages,resident House Sparrows were busying away preparing their nests too. By May all migrating arrivals should be around but alas like previous years no Swifts or Swallows although some were back at Puttenham Farm. The count on the Common was similar to last year but Greenfinch had not as yet been seen.
On my final stroll In June we were aware that the long tailed tits and Goldfinch, so plentiful during April were absent and not a solitary Coal tit had been seen at all. On the plus side however we enjoyed several glorious of sightings whilst singing (Beak I.D’s) of the Wren, Blackcap and Song Thrush. The Icing on the cake was a seeming return of the Greenfinch following a recent decline with a group of fledglings spotted near to the Village Hall. At the Pond Mallards still reign supreme with Moorhen and the occasional Coot. Many broods of ducklings were hatched but sadly I hear, a lot fell fowl to a resident Heron !
Please see enclosed list of all birds seen or heard during each of my four, 2 hour wanders. I am by no means an expert but bird songs can be very distinctive and is a most useful way to identify a type. I was unaware of any “unusual” chirps or cheeps on our walks and the list shows numbers very similar to last year with an average of 23 different species identified. Add to this a further14 identified during the Spring making 37 different species locally spotted. Following an earlier Facebook post I would love to take Ale with other local interested parties to chew over this “Covid Count.” and listen to all your experiences. Let’s hope The Red Lion garden will be up and running again for August Bank holiday weekend … Put it in your Diary !
Bill Sadler 81 5798
| Covid | SPRING | BIRD | WATCH | 2020 | ||
| (Tony Mary Ray) | BS/RS | BS/RS | BS/RS | |||
| Likely Species | March 8th | April 5th | May 3rd | June 7th | Notes | |
| Blackbird | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Blackcap | 1 | 1 | 1 | First hearing 15/3 | ||
| Blue Tit | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Bullfinch | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Buzzard | ||||||
| Canada Goose | ||||||
| Chaffinch | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Chiff Chaff | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | First Hearing 19/3 | |
| Coal Tit | ||||||
| Carrion Crow | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Collared Dove | 1 | |||||
| Coot | ||||||
| Cuckoo | ||||||
| Dunnock | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Firecrest | ||||||
| Flycatcher | ||||||
| Goldcrest | ||||||
| Goldfinch | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Great Tit | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Greenfinch | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Common Gull | ||||||
| Herring Gull | ||||||
| Heron | 1 | |||||
| House Martin | 1 | 3 x First School 21/4 | ||||
| Jay | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Jackdaw | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Kestrel | ||||||
| Red Kite | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Skylark | ||||||
| Long Tailed Tit | 1 | |||||
| Mallard | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | April 6 ducklings (ate by heron) | |
| Magpie | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Moorhen | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Nuthatch | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Owl | ||||||
| Feral Pigeon | 1 | |||||
| Wood Pigeon | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Robin | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Rook | 1 | |||||
| House Sparrow | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Sparrowhawk | ||||||
| Starling | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Swallow | ||||||
| Swift | ||||||
| Song Thrush | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Mistle Thrush | ||||||
| Pied Wagtail | ||||||
| Willow Warbler | Heard 26/4 | |||||
| Green Woodpecker | ||||||
| Spotted Woodpecker | 1 | 1 | 1 | Drumming 28/3 | ||
| Wren | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Seen elsewhere (GV) | Gomme Valley | Willow Warbler, Whitethroat,Yellow Hammer, CoaL Tit, Goldcrest, Skylark, Kestrel, Buzzard, Tawny, Swallow , Green Wood, Mistle Thrush | ||||
| Totals | 22 | 23 | 23 | 21 | Kestrel, Buzzard, Tawny, Swallow , Green Wood, Mistle Thrush, (14) |
Proposals for double yellow lines on Elm Road.
This coming Friday 17 July is the closing date for comments on the final consultation for putting double yellow lines along various sections of Elm Road to prevent dangerous or unwelcome parking. There are, inevitably, differences of opinion and P&TGRS has been asked for our recommendations.
It would appear that the proposals for Coppice Farm Road, for outside the Penn Surgery and for outside Victoria Cottages, would achieve their aim and are largely accepted. We agree.
However, the idea of putting double yellow lines along the edge of the open common and the pond has met with some dismay because whilst they could be seen as an added deterrence, road-side parking on that side is very rare and parking on the common itself is a separate matter. We are against adding these lines.
The proposals for the pavement side of the section of Elm Road between the Sports Club entrance and the Red Lion are designed to prevent parked vehicles blocking driveways or limiting vision on exiting, complaints of which have been frequent over the years. Yellow lines are to be put across each entrance, but with sufficient width to ensure a reasonable vision splay whist still leaving some spaces for visitors parking. We support this proposal.
The lines will be thin and use the less obtrusive primrose yellow as designed for a conservation area. Limiting parking restrictions to weekends has been suggested, but this would require obtrusive signage.
July 2020
Our conclusion.
Human Nature declare their intention of creating ‘the greenest and most elegant new place in England…. ‘ a place of national significance’. We feel that they are making every possible effort to achieve this and so give our strong support to this revised application for all the reasons outlined below.
We have come to this supportive view despite having spent some 30 years opposing development of any kind in the Gomm Valley. A Planning Inspector has ruled that houses must be built in the valley and so the question now is not whether or where homes are to be built, it is what type of development do we wish to see?
After many discussions with Human Nature and the Local Authorities, we see this complex proposal as a remarkably ambitious plan that seeks to bring together:
50% of the housing (981 in total) will be 1 or 2-bedroom dwellings to improve choice and with the more sensitively planned layout the actual footprint is not much greater than a poorly planned 400-unit scheme and will use only a fifth of the valley area (see Plan). The large majority of the land currently farmed will be regenerated to species-rich grassland which, in combination with the protected woodland and SSSI, will represent 79% of the valley area (Ashwells is not included) with community gardens, small parks and play areas in addition. More than 4,000 new trees will be planted. The unbuilt green areas will be gifted to a Gomm Valley charitable trust in perpetuity and with an endowment. The public will have legal access along all-weather paths to most of the valley, whereas there is almost none at present.
Human+Nature’s ambition is to create a community rather than just another housing estate on the edge of town, with its own village centre, shop, restaurant, bakery, café, school, community centre and a swimming pond. This ambition is unlike any new housing scheme in the UK. ‘Living with Beauty’, the final report of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission begun by the late Sir Roger Scruton (who spent his childhood on Hammersley Lane), sets new benchmarks for sustainable housing using local materials, emphasising the importance of building with a centre where people can meet, not just ‘dropping little boxes into an empty field’.
The buildings will be as ‘green’ as they can make them, aiming for a minimum 35% reduction in carbon emissions against regulations. A frequent shuttle bus from the top of the site to Wycombe, sustained financially by a development trust, and designs to enable cycling and walking for many local journeys are integral to the proposal. The spine road through the new development will be a bespoke, sinuous lane that will be highly unattractive for through traffic. This will result in two-way flows at the AM peak hour past Tylers Green Middle School on Cock Lane staying at current levels of about 400 vehicles/hr compared with an earlier estimate for a through route of up to 1,500 v/hr.
Forecast traffic
Government trip generation ratios indicate that the 981 dwellings will generate only 419 outward vehicle movements/hr at the AM peak, mostly heading down Gomm Rd, then east & west along London Rd, with only a small number (1.5 v/minute) heading north up Hammersley Lane.
The likely alternative
The likely alternative to this development by Human+Nature is run-of-the-mill, unrelated groups of houses built by a volume housebuilder, concerned only with profit, and not prepared to incur the extra expense of creating a community or a road which will deter through traffic.
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Gomm Valley development plans, feedback to Human + Nature outline planning application, click here,Comments on the amendments to Human+Nature’s Outline Planning application for Gomm Valley, 19/05281/OUTEA, by the Ashwells Forum Working Party for Tylers Green. The Working Party includes representatives from Chepping Wycombe Parish Council, the Penn & Tylers Green Residents Society and neighbouring residents
Our comments on the original application (copy attached, dated 28 Feb 19, sent on 12 March 19), included a summary of the lengthy and complex Design & Access Statement. We urged all parties to support the application because after a long and careful review we had concluded that Human Nature do have the ability to succeed in their aspiration of creating a benchmark project, a place of national significance.
We came to this conclusion despite having spent some 30 years opposing development of any kind in the valley, including valiant attempts to get it included in the AONB and in the Green Belt. Indeed, only a few years ago, Wycombe District Council (WDC) supported us in this endeavour which we jointly presented to the Local Plan Inspector, but the Inspector, whilst agreeing that the landscape value of the valley merited AONB status, ruled decisively that the valley must remain as a land bank for future house-building. WDC then had no choice but to obey this ruling and draw up a Development Brief which would pass the critical scrutiny of the next Local Plan Inspector. It is the Development Brief which now decides the areas in which houses will be built, not the developer.
The question now is therefore not whether or where homes are to be built in the valley, it is what type of development do we wish to see? The likely alternative to Human+Nature is run-of-the-mill, unrelated groups of houses built by a volume housebuilder concerned only by profit, unwilling to make an expensive sinuous road, happy to widen parts of Cock Lane, unconcerned about more traffic past our Middle School, and with far fewer green, sustainable ambitions and enthusiasm for public access.
Our original comments included a list of reasons for our support of the application and we now review these reasons in the light of the modest amendments, all of which have already been discussed and agreed in principle with the relevant statutory consultees, and seem to us to represent an improvement on the original.
a) The spine road through the new development, from the London Road to join Cock Lane, was to be narrow, sinuous with hair-pin bends, designed to discourage through traffic. This remains the case and the proposed junction with Cock Lane has been moved north to near the phone mast on the southern boundary of the Ashwells site, with the spine road connecting as the minor road of a T-junction. This can be seen as an intrusion into the 200m separation between communities required by the Planning Inspector, but its beneficial effect is to limit the widening of Cock Lane to the 150m length alongside the Ashwells site leaving 650m unwidened, reduces the loss of hedgerow for visibility splays, and allows an improvement to the right of way crossing Cock Lane at that point.
b) The forecast increase of traffic on Cock Lane in the AM peak hour arising from the new houses was predicted to be very low. Our own detailed analysis of the revised traffic flow data confirms that this is still the case with a forecast for two-way flows at the AM peak hour past the Middle School reduced from an estimated 1,500 v/hr to around current levels at about 400 v/hr.
It appears that the BCC Highways modelling now reflects the Development Brief requirement:
The purpose of this Spine Road is to distribute traffic from the development. It is not intended to act as an unofficial ‘bypass’ as this would be detrimental to Penn and Tylers Green due to the increase in through traffic. The capacity of the spine road and the northern end of Cock Lane, must therefore be restricted through effective traffic calming to deter through traffic.
c) Three-quarters of the valley, some 109 acres, will remain in a natural state, converted to species-rich grassland with more than 4,000 new trees and the unbuilt green areas will be gifted to a Gomm Valley charitable trust in perpetuity, for the benefit of local inhabitants. The public will have access along all-weather paths to most of the valley, whereas there is almost none at present. This important component has been enhanced by enhanced by improvements in the provision of play and green spaces so that there are now larger localised park spaces for each of the four villages.
d) Human+Nature’s ambition is to create a community rather than just another housing estate on the edge of town and they have made great efforts to achieve this with all the measures described in our earlier Summary, including a school and a village centre with shops, a restaurant and a Post Office. This ambition is entirely in accord with the Government’s latest thinking. Sir Roger Scruton, the recently deceased chairman of a new public body, ‘Building Better, Building Beautiful’, called for beautiful and sustainable housing using local materials, emphasising the importance of building with a centre where people can meet, not just ‘dropping little boxes into an empty field’.
e) The buildings will be as ‘green’ as they can make them, aiming for a 35% reduction in carbon monoxide emissions, with ‘green’ roofs, or solar panels where possible. A shuttle bus to Wycombe and active encouragement for cycling and walking is enhanced by the new provision for a continuous 3m wide shared cycle/pedestrian route alongside the roads.
f) All these desirable measures are very expensive and the 400 plus houses originally envisaged by the Development Brief cannot possibly support a development of this quality. 981 dwellings are proposed, and this is indeed a very large increase, with implications including increased traffic and pollution, and does need to be fully justified. Human Nature point out that whereas the original Brief envisaged largely 3 & 4-bedroom houses, over 50% of their housing would be 1 or 2-bedroom dwellings resulting in a development of 981 dwellings occupying 8% of the valley compared with the original Council proposal of 400 dwellings requiring a development area of 5% to 6% of the land.
g) The application proposes that ‘reasonable provision’ will be made for affordable housing, at a level and mix to be established during the determination of the planning application. We see this as an important provision. The Planning Statement adds that the development will comprise ‘a high-quality mix of residential units, including self-build’, at a level to be agreed with the Council via a S106 Agreement.
Our conclusion
Human Nature declare their intention of creating ‘the greenest and most elegant new place in England…. ‘ a place of national significance’. We feel that they are making every possible effort to achieve this and so give our strong support to this revised application for all the reasons outlined above.
These views are supported by the P&TG Residents Society and by the Ashwells Forum, but are subject to a cast-iron assurance that the measures set out in this revised outline application will be carried out as promised and not passed to a less conscientious developer.
Miles Green
Chairman PTGRS & Ashwells Forum
