Considering fostering?

Click the logo for more info

This weeks News

 SDLT: Aylesbury Vale District Council will probably be discussing the wind turbine application towards the end of April, so if you haven’t yet sent your letters in to Mr Nicholson the address once again is Area Planning Office, Aylesbury Vale District Council, 66 High Street, Aylesbury HP20 1SD. The planning application number which should be quoted is 11/02798/APP. If you do not like writing letters, for any reason, you still have an opportunity to attend roads show where there is someone to assist. The one this coming weekend (Saturday February 11) is in Drayton Parslow and runs from 12.30pm until 5pm. It is hoped that our local MP, John Bercow will be in attendance during the morning. There are already many letters from the residents on the Aylesbury Vale website. The next (and last) road show will be in Stewkley Village Hall on Saturday February 18 at the same time. Everyone is welcome to attend these shows whatever your views are and SDLT committee members all wear a badge do approach them they are very friendly!

Met Mast: On a personal note I was horrified to see, when coming back from Milton Keynes recently, that on driving past the Met Mast it was totally shrouded in fog and the light on top was invisible, it doesn’t flash on and off as I write. This could be a flying accident waiting to happen and I do hope Force 9 Energy, or whoever erected it will sort the problem out quickly. A low flying aircraft could well have flown straight into it.

Community Association: A leaflet has been produced that will shortly be circulated to all villagers listing a variety of events which the committee and villagers could put on as long as sufficient people are going to be in the village over the Diamond Jubilee weekend. Would you all be kind enough to fill it in by February 25 and return it to either: the shop, Dolphin, community centre or to David Webber, so the results may be analysed and a decision taken on whether to put on anything other than Magic Dave on Monday June 4 for the children between 2-2.45pm. The next meeting of the Diamond Jubilee committee which involves the youth sections of the village as well as representatives of the organisations will take place on Tuesday February 28 and any villager/or representative is welcome to attend from 8.00pm in the Community Centre.

This week in the village: The church services are as normal: 9.30 Holy Communion in St Luke’s, Revd John Waller is in the Holy Land so the service will be led by Revd. Peter Green. The 11am service in the Methodist Church is to be led by Mrs Diane Thomas. The Parish Council meet at 7.30pm on Monday February 13. The precept will be finalised and the two major planning applications mentioned in this column last week will be discussed. The Traffic Calming subcommittee will present a report of their first meeting. Stoke Hammond electors only are welcome at this meeting. A Local Area Forum meeting is due to take place on Thursday February 16. Chairman Mrs Krystyna Brown and Councillor Mrs Turner will be attending a Buckinghamshire Funding meeting at Saunderton the same day.

Dorcas Lane Wind Turbines

As many of you will be aware, the application to erect a meteorological mast (a pre-cursor to the main turbine application) was approved by AVDC and the mast was indeed erected in mid-December. This is a 70m high construction built to take wind speed and weather readings on the site, albeit quite inexplicably such information is not required by Force 9 Energy prior to the submission of the full application for the wind turbines.

The met mast, if nothing else, helps to put into context the scale of the 125m high wind turbines. The mast has a red light on the top, making it particularly identifiable at night. So, when you look at the mast, try and envisage what much taller and wider structures looming out from the same location might look like.

Force 9 Energy has now also submitted the application for the industrial wind turbines, which have been changed from 5 to 4 in number. They did this 2 days before Christmas, giving AVDC no time to upload the extensive application prior to the Christmas holidays – a disgraceful tactic designed to ensure valuable time is lost in the consultation period. From the date of submission there is only a 16 week period in which AVDC must consider and ultimately approve or reject the application. Once again, if you oppose the wind turbines going up so close to our properties, you need to take action and write an objection letter (even if you previously wrote one in opposition to the met mast) – you can find out more by visiting the website www.stopdorcaslaneturbines.com. Via the website you can also enrol to receive the email newsletter that we send out with all the latest news, which is the best and easiest way of being kept informed.

In the New Year the Stop Dorcas Lane Turbines action group will be holding a series of road shows around all the local villages, the purpose of which will be to share as much information as we are able to give regarding the specific application and the issues around it. We will also have with us the 3D computer model produced by Force 9, with which one is able to view the turbines from any location in your village and beyond - we will do 1-1 sessions with any resident interested in seeing how the turbines will impact their views.

The schedule of road shows is as follows:

Village	Location	Time
Stoke Hammond	Community centre Bragenham Side, Stoke Hammond MK17 9DB	Saturday 14th January 12.30-5.00 pm
Great Brickhill	Cricket Club Horsepond, Great Brickhill MK17 9BA	Saturday 21st January 9.00 am-1.00 pm
Newton Longville	Village Hall 2, Paradise Newton Longville MK17 0AQ	Saturday 28th January 12.30-5.00 pm
Soulbury	Parish Hall High Road Soulbury LU7 0BT	Saturday 4th February 12.30-5.00 pm
Drayton Parslow	Sports and Social Club Main Road Drayton Parslow MK17 0JR	Saturday 11th February 12.30-5.00 pm
Stewkley	Village Hall High Street North Stewkley LU7 0EW	Saturday 18th February 12.30-5.00 pm

We would love to see you so please come along to any of the road shows. Again, more details are on the website.

For those of you who have recently received a revised copy of the 3D Computer model from Force 9, it pains us to say that this second version is again inaccurate. The turbines depicted upon the model are substantially lower in height than those that would be built at Dorcas Lane! This unforgivable “error” was communicated back to Force 9 by SDLT and they have advised that a 3^rd version of the disk has now been dispatched. Let’s hope this one is accurate.

Finally, we would like to say to all residents that we believe the wind turbines represent the biggest threat that has ever been faced by this community, both to the health and wealth of residents and to their rights to enjoy the beautiful local countryside. If you feel the same, please show your support – write an objection letter and come to a road show

This article has been written by Stop Dorcas Lane Turbines action group. For more information visit www.stopdorcaslaneturbines.com.