It would appear from recent articles in the local papers that the Environment Agency (EA) are having some trouble explaining away the apparent failure of the Jubilee River in doing its job. The Advertiser claimed that the EA are in the process of redrafting the flood plain maps but without inclusion of the flood defence systems. The EA spokesman, Ian Tomes, said “It is not intended that flood defences will be shown on these maps as they aim to show an undefended flood plain” It is apparent that the Jubilee River river was never intended to stop flooding, merely to reduce the likelihood of it. This new flood plain policy of the EA may well result in difficulties in home insurance for those of us in Taplow living in this newly defined flood plain. That said, where is the logic in defining a flood plain that doesn’t include the means to protect it? Perhaps the EA feel guilty and hope the Jubilee will dry up like the York Stream in Maidenhead which the EA admit was their fault due to lowering of the water table.
In this issue we are signaling the need for public input to the emerging Village Plan which, we are hoping, will be incorporated into the District Council’s Local Development Document as a ‘Special Planning Guidance’ to assist remote planning officials make informed decisions about development in Taplow. This is vital to us all because of the way Regionalisation is creeping up on us with no justification offered as to why it is deemed necessary. A short time ago I attended the AGM of the Chiltern Society at which the Strategic Planning Manager of Bucks County Council outlined the future of planning in this new regionalised England. There is already a staff of about 20 people in the Regional Planning Office in Guildford, and one wonders who is actually paying for this. If what we are hearing about regionalisation is true both District and County Councils will disappear and be replaced with a two-tier system of regional government with, below them, a few Unitaries administering a much larger area than those covered by the present District Councils. Someone recently pointed out, that we are all sleepwalking our way into a Bureaucratic dictatorship, so little do most people know or seem to care about regionalisation. Meanwhile, our own planning Office is relocating from Slough to a new office in Copswood Office Park in Denham. I suppose it is logical enough that our planning office should be in its own district but for a number of us with developer problems the ability to drive a few miles into Slough to look at documentation was a useful asset.
Its nice to be able to report that the wonderful murals in our village hall are to be protected by an additional coat of varnish. the murals were in some danger of deterioration so your Society decided that it was worth funding the repair and protection of what is now a village treasure.
