Your Conservative team in Chineham and Sheffield Park 

Thank you to everyone who voted for us in the May 2021 elections.  Borough Cllrs Jenny Vaux, Paul Miller and Laura Edwards were elected, as was County Councillor Elaine Still (l-r in photo above). 

Whether you voted for us or not, we’re here to work for and represent you, the residents of Chineham Village, Sherfield Park, Aurum Green and part of Vyne Park.  If you have any issues or concerns you’d like us to look into, please get in touch.

You will find more details about us on the Borough website.

As your Conservative team we bring together parish, borough, county and, with Maria Miller MP, parliamentary experience and resources to make things happen locally. 

 

LOCAL ELECTIONS 5TH MAY 2022

Jenny Vaux, is delighted to have been selected by local Conservatives to stand for re-election for the Chineham Ward in the May 2022 elections.  She moved to Sherfield Park in 2012, and was an elected Sherfield Park Parish Councillor from 2016 to 2021, holding a number of different positions including the Chair.   Jenny retired from a career in the NHS in 2019, and has a long history of voluntary work, primarily in social housing, mental health services and preventing homelessness.

Since her election as a Chineham Borough Councillor in 2021 Jenny has been very busy both in the council and in the community.  She is pleased that so many residents have contacted her over the last year for support with a wide range of issues across the ward, from complex planning applications, overgrown trees and bushes, to drainage, road safety and anti-social behaviour.

Jenny has kept in touch with residents’ views and concerns since the 2021 election by regularly knocking on doors, being available at various community meetings (including Chineham and Sherfield Park parish council meetings), and responding to contacts via phone, email and Facebook/Messenger. 

She has spoken frequently at council meetings, raising issues that reflect your views, including local housing pressures, stronger environmental policies, ensuring developers are held to account, 20mph zones, and improving grass cutting and winter estate maintenance services.   Jenny has volunteered at our local vaccination centres at the Fire Station, Hampshire Court and Jameson House, helping with recording data and as a marshall.  She is a member of the Chineham Medical Practice Patient Participation Group, and has supported the practice with increasing the capacity of their current building and their application to the local Clinical Commissioning Group to move to bigger premises.

Jenny is campaigning in this local election for:

• Planning and delivering community facilities and infrastructure before building new housing developments

• Protecting and enhancing our natural environment

• Improving our local facilities, and supporting and investing in our community groups 

 

SUSTAINABLE HOUSING

 

 

 

Residents tell us that a major concern for them is the pace of development close to the Chineham ward, and that our local services and infrastructure are struggling with the extra demand.

In response Jenny has worked through the year in borough committees and with the wider Conservative group, to reject the number of houses we are expected to build in the next Local Plan, and to ensure future developments are infrastructure-led.  

Jenny has also objected in writing and by speaking at the planning committee against recent applications including near Minden Close and additional 57 houses next to Redlands off the A33.  Both were refused.  Jenny, together with Chineham Cllrs Paul Miller and Laura Edwards, has led objections to the proposed Dixon Road 101 affordable houses. As Conservative councillors, we are working together across ward boundaries with Bramley borough councillors to ensure developments are appropriate for local communities.

To resist building on green field sites, Conservatives have been driving a ‘brownfield first’ approach for many years with the council proactively seeking site submissions to the ‘brownfield land register’. At present, this shows there is land for 4,237 new homes on brownfield sites.  As part of our proactive approach, over half (2,209) of these homes already have planning permission granted by the Conservative led council and are waiting to be built out. Of the remaining sites, these include areas such as the Winklebury Regeneration Project where a planning application is expected shortly and town centre car parks together with areas on Basing View which will be considered first and foremost as part of the local plan review.

Our local Chineham GP practice has outgrown its current premises on Reading Road.  Jenny’s understanding of primary care through her NHS background, and longstanding membership of the practice’s Patient Participation Group, means she is able to actively support plans for a new Health and Wellbeing Centre nearby. 

Building at Sherfield Park finished some years ago, however roads, green spaces and community facilities are still being transferred (adopted) by the borough council, and other organisations.  Many areas have not been maintained by Croudace as they should have been, particularly the path through Pettys Copse connecting Sherfield Park to Chineham Village.  Jenny proposed a motion to the February Full Council meeting to require the borough to put in place legal or policy measures to ensure developers create community facilities in a timely way when building new housing developments, and that they are required to maintain those facilities to a good standard until they are adopted, not just brought up to standard at the last minute in order to be adopted.  This motion was unanimously adopted by the council, and will be reflected in the Updated Local Plan.

 

PROTECTING NATURE  

 

Jenny supports the borough’s plans to be a carbon neutral borough by 2030, and as chair of the borough’s Communities, Environment and Partnership Committee has supported the development of detailed plans to address climate change and protect our natural environment.  Climate Emergency UK assessed the borough’s plans as above the national average and the 2nd best plans in the county. 

The borough has published a very popular interactive climate change toolkit to help local residents and communities understand what they can do to make a difference, and the council itself is already taking steps to reduce its own carbon footprint, including making our buildings more energy efficient.

The borough is working with the county council to bid for funding to trial over 75 street based electric vehicle charging points for residents with on-road parking, to further support and encourage environmentally friendly travel choices.  These are planned to be trialled at places across the borough.

As a member of the Economy, Planning and Housing Committee, Jenny has been actively involved in developing new policies for sustainable development as part of updating the Local Plan, and ensuring there will be high environmental standards on new housing in the future.

Jenny is also asking for Biodiversity Improvement Zones in the ward, and more action to protect the River Loddon from sewage discharge and environmental pollution. 

 

THRIVING COMMUNITIES

Our community facilities and community groups are the bedrock of what makes this such a wonderful place to live.  Access to well maintained sports, leisure and outside green natural spaces, and having places to meet in social groups, are vital for our physical and mental health and wellbeing.

We are blessed in Basingstoke with access to a wide range of sporting facilities, including an athletics track at Downs Grange, community tennis courts at Stratton Park, football fields, rugby and cricket pitches, swimming pools and gyms.  More locally to Chineham we have areas of lovely woodland and green spaces within Chineham, Sherfield Park and Vyne Park, and access nearby via public footpaths to green fields and the beautiful River Loddon and its flood plains. 

The borough has invested over £100k in recent years in Chineham to improve our community facilities using developer contributions, including:

• Installation of solar panels on the Chineham Village Hall roof, and improving car park lighting
• Replacement of community toilets at Four Lanes Junior School/Community Centre
• Improvements at the 1st Chineham Scouts hut and car park
• Installing LED lights at Christ Church in Chineham, upgrading the car park, and installing a hearing loop.

A further £40k is being spent by the borough, together with £8k from Chineham Parish Council, to replace two wooden bridges at the Moat Park in Chineham, re-lay the path through the Park area, and instal new seats.  This is a beautiful historic area which is frequently visited by local people, and is also a lovely footpath for people accessing the Village Hall and nearby shops.

Chineham and Sherfield Park have a Village Hall and a Community Centre respectively, hosting a wide range of community groups and activities.  Jenny was pleased to support some of these activities with her councillor grants over the last year with £2k split between the Chineham Village Hall and Sherfield Park Community Centre:

• Contributing towards play equipment for children who have disabilities being purchased by the Chineham Village Hall Committee for their excellent play area
• Purchasing an indoor basketball game for the Youth Hub at Sherfield Park Community Centre, to provide a popular active indoor game during the winter or wet evenings
• Purchasing 4 portable outside lights for the Sherfield Park Community Centre to enable activities outside on the football field in the autumn and winter, particularly useful for the Youth Hub
• Contributing towards the purchase and installation of an extractor fan for the cooker in the Sherfield Park Community Centre to support the various groups and organisations using the kitchen, including the Nursery, the community café and the Youth Hub.

Keeping our residential areas neat and well maintained are important as the places we live and spend our leisure time.  Over the last couple of years the borough’s estates teams have struggled to keep on top of the grass cutting and winter estates maintenance program.  Jenny asked for a report to come to the Community Environment and Partnership Committee to hear what was happening to improve this situation, and is pleased that the borough budget for 2022/23 is investing in an additional team to support these activities. 

Your three borough councillors, Jenny Paul and Laura, have worked together as a strong Conservative team to resolve residents’ concerns promptly and represent local opinion in the council.  PLEASE VOTE TO RE-ELECT JENNY ON 5TH MAY!

 

MAINTAIN THE SAFER HANDS LEADING THE RECOVERY

 

 

Communicating With You

Your Conservative team communicate regularly with residents through inTouch newsletters and in ‘normal’ times, would come out knocking on doors to hear residents' views. If you would like to raise any concerns or would like to get in touch for any reason, please contact any one of us (contact details above).  We would also love to hear from you If you would be able to deliver inTouch in your road. 

 

Get Social With Us

Pre-Covid, local Conservatives would also hold regular drinks, dinners and other events all year round, which we plan to re-start when we can safely do so. If you would like to come along to an event - even simply out of curiosity - do get in touch as described above.