Dear Little Marlow Resident,
It seems only yesterday that the Parish Council decided to produce a newsletter and 
yet here lam introducing the 16th edition to you.
As always the following pages give a little insight into the varied activities of the 
council and also the many voluntary groups which exist in our area. We are indeed 
fortunate to have so many people who are prepared to give up some of their time to 
the benefit of the community at large. There are a couple of opportunities for you to 
get involved either as a school governor or BAD volunteer. Do think about it 
carefully as such work as well as being much needed can be particularly rewarding to 
those involved.
Do please respond to the question put in the article on the Fern Lane cemetery. The 
maintenance of untended graves needs to be tackled sensitively and we do want your 
views on this and also on improving the chapel. It would he good to bring it into 
greater use by installing electricity but there is a cost. The cost would be met by 
all council tax payers and we therefore need to know what you think.
Some of the concerns seem to be ever present; flooding and pongs to name just two of 
them. The article describing the innovative travel plan introduced by Claytons County 
Primary School demonstrates a simple and practical way of tackling the problem of 
over reliance on car use.
The sections on the fete and Best Kept Village Competition remind us of the 
commitment most of us feel to this lovely area in which we live and the community 
spirit that this engenders. Despite the lack of a proper summer and the current doom 
and gloom of the economic situation I can’t think of a better place to he!
The article on policing demonstrates their commitment to not only dealing with day to 
day policing but also keeping up to date with our need and concerns.
I was particularly saddened by the death of PC Sarah Underhill. Sarah gave a talk at 
this year’s annual Parish Meeting and demonstrated her enthusiasm and commitment to 
the work she did. We were all left with admiration for her and confidence in her 
ability to succeed.
Thank you for taking the time to read this far and I hope you will continue a little 
further.
Regards,
Dallas Banfield

FLOODING
We have a number of Flooding leaflets in the office published by the
Environment Agency. These are:
Preparing for a Flood, Practical Advice on what to do to protect you
and your property.
During a Flood; Practical Advice on what to do to stay safe in a flood
After a Flood; Practical advice on recovering from a flood.
If you would like a copy of any of these leaflets, please contact the Parish Council 
office 01628 890301 or
clerklittlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk



Planning Report
Planning Applications in Little Marlow Parish have followed their usual pattern since 
the last newsletter: mostly
Conservation Area tree work and small extensions. There is still nothing to report on 
the Marlow Football Club’s plans to move to Westhorpe. We have been told that talks
between the developer and the Wycombe planning officers are continuing and that 
amended plans may be submitted. We have been assured that we will have more than the 
usual 2 weeks to respond, but please look out for them and let Wycomhe have your 
comments yet again.
Wycombe District Council is continuing to make progress on the Local Development
Framework, which will replace the Local Plan. The Core Strategy has been approved by 
the Secretary of State following last year’s examination in public. This means that
Wycombe can progress to deciding their Site Specific Allocations document. This 
highlights their thoughts about future development for
individual sites in the district; whether they should be used for housing, 
employment, leisure
or a mix of different uses. It also highlights which areas they think should be 
protected from development. There has already been extensive consultation on this.The 
Secretary of State has made it clear that there should be no development of a bus 
interchange to the south of Handy Cross, which is a relief to our parish. lien ea 
rest major development close to us may be at Abbey Barn South & Daws II ill U SAF 
base. If that goes ahead it could have implications for traffic in our area although 
it is all to the north of the M40.
The Consultation on the next stage of the South East Plan ends on 24° October. It is 
clear that more houses are proposed and Green Belt land may be used, but as far as we 
can see this will mostly be round Aylesbury and Oxford. The Secretary of State has 
recently issued amendments to the ‘General Permitted Development Order’.This sets out 
what people can build without having to have planning permission. I am trying to 
interpret it and hopefully will have more information soon. If all goes

Riley Road, Site M4
It is with some satisfaction that I can now report that the steering group set up by 
Wycombe District Council to produce a Planning Brief for this important central area 
of Marlow is well into its task. The press release that was put out by the group’s 
chairman, Tony Fooks of the Civic Trust, advised that the steering group includes the 
Town Council, the town’s key stakeholders and local community groups. Young people 
from the town’s secondary schools are also taking part. It is the intended objective 
to put a Draft Planning Brief out to local consultation in December 2008. When 
adopted the Brief will provide guidelines for any proposed development on the site. 
Developers will have to have regard to the agreed overall design concept for the area.
The Football Ground — Housing and Stadium
There is still no hard news as to how the negotiations that are clearly going on 
between the District Council and North West Estates, are progressing. It seems clear 
by the length of time being taken to determine these applications (now over a year) 
that there are considerable difficulties with both the football ground housing and 
the green belt stadium proposals. The Society cannot understand why both applications 
have not been refused outright. It seems that extensive changes have to be made 
before Local Plan policies applicable to both sites can be met. That the applicant 
has not appealed against non determination would appear to indicate ongoing problems. 
The Council has, however, assured us of further public consultation if significant 
changes are proposed.
Harleyford Marina/Lagoon
It is with some dismay that, in spite of Local Council and many other local 
objections, the County Council has approved this application by Harleyford Estates to 
develop a lagoon marina at Harleyford with permission to truck thousands of tons of 
excavated spoil through the centre of Marlow. Derek Done has reported more fully on 
this on Page 7 of this Newsletter. The Society’s effort will now be concentrated on 
monitoring and minimising any nuisance and damage that these huge trucks might cause 
in the town and doing our best to ensure compliance with any protective conditions 
included in the permission.


Parish Council News November 2008
I find it very difficult to believe that it is 2 months since preparing my last piece 
but the computer does not lie and it can only be my rusting memory. Little new seems 
to have happened however and I am reduced to updating you on various existing projects.
As always the pong is with us. I
will see nothing more in this family magazine other than to remind you of the contact 
details for Wycombe District Council and the Environment Agency contained in the 
recently delivered Parish Council News. The reason for two contacts is that the 
former deals with sewage smells and the latter composting aromas. I am sure your well 
practised noses will ensure the correct agency is approached.
Do please make sure you are aware of the discussions going on regarding the proposed 
development at Abbey Barn Lane and Dawes Hill. Whilst the view of the parties 
involved has been that it is not in our parish and therefore doesn’t concern us this 
is far from true. The proposals include various road proposals most of which go 
through the parish and affect the beautiful countryside between the A4155 and the 
M40. The plans are available on the Wycombe District Council website and are worth 
studying. Wycombe and their consultants are going through what they deem to be a 
consultation process but most others consider being a whitewash. If implemented the 
road proposals will have a major affect on traffic levels in our area and you need to 
stay informed.
At long last the improvement works to Abbotsbrook Hal l’s kitchen and loos have been 
largely completed. They now meet the disabled access standards and looking at them I 
wonder how we put up with their predecessors for quite so long. My thanks to Geoff 
Fitchew who had control of the project which I am pleased to say was on time and on 
budget. All we have to do now is pay off the loan
lam sure you will have seen the new speed warning signs either side of the village. I 
am told they are working well as Gloria can hear the application of brakes from her 
desk in the pavilion.
It looks as though the stadium application may be on the move once again as members 
of the council have been invited by Wycombe planners to view a presentation on the 
latest situation. I can only say that there would have to be extremely radical 
alterations to make it any more attractive to me but I suppose I shouldn’t pre judge.
As always I look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on 16th December.
Dallas Ban field 13th November 2008
 

LITTLE MARLOW PARISH COUNCIL COMMITTEES  

 Contact Details :-
Dallas Banfield, Chairman    01628 526851     dallas_banfield  littlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk
Geoff Fitchew, Vice-Chairman    01628 523107     geoff_fitchew  littlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk
Phillip Emmett     07939142480     phillip_emmett  littlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk
Clive Innocent     01629 484687     clive_innocent  littlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk
Richard Mash     01628 485552     richard_mash  littlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk
Vivien Morton     01628 486680     vivien_morton  littlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk
Ruby Taylor     01628 476498     ruby_taylor  littlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk
Barbara Wallis     01628 523444     barbara_wallis  littlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk
Patrick Walmsley 07831272015    patrick_walmsley  littlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk

Little Marlow Sewage Treatment Works
With the on-going odour problems, you may be interested to know more about the history of the Little Marlow Sewage Treatment Works.
mid 60s upgraded servicing Little Marlow and adjacent properties

70s + 80s gradually expanded to take effluent from local towns when other works were closed and sites sold for development

1994 Thames decide to make compost from S pressed cake (well received at the time when the greens wanted us to stop
digging up peat bogs)

1995 BCC grant composting licence with conditions including smell constraints (21 May)

1996 composting started together with smells and complaints and for 6 years Thames Water attend meetings with promises of new improved smell prevention
techniques but no actual improvement

2000 primary composting moved into building to control smells (with some improvement)

2002 Thames Water apply for planning permission to upgrade site again saying that this will control the smell issue (but not saying that they were currently breaching the discharge licence on a weekly basis and were threatened it closure by the Environment Agency) (31 Dee)

2003 — 2005 site rebuilt with smells continuing

2003 planning permission obtained for pipeline through hill to bring effluent from High Wycombe (23 May)

2005 pipeline commissioned with huge increase in smells

July 2006 start collating and forwarding complaints because so far everybody has been complaining ONLY to Thames Water who have just been filing them !!!

02/11/06 liaison committee meeting (first attended by PE) set deadline of 15 Feb for smells to cease (next committee meeting) no change!

15/02/07 liaison committee meeting (PE not invited) chairman concerned about odour issue still not resolved

27/03/07 WDC EHO Stephen Starsmore emailed ops manager Sarah Aris that odour was still an issue and that enforcement action may be considered, also requesting past and future compost turning dates (still not received)

18/05/07 following multiple complaints, our MP Dominic Grieve visits site for tour and all is well but later the smells continue

21/06/07 liaison committee meeting Sarah Aris of Thames Water offers to forward the complaints received by Thames Water(not seen)

03/09/07 Stephen Starsmore produces report proving the site is breaching the conditions

If you detect odour from the site, please report it on 0800 80 70 60. Also, please inform me:
phillip_emmettlittlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk so that I can keep a record of the complaints.

Phillip Emmett

NO DOORSTEP SELLING AREA
You may have had people ringing your door bell wanting to sell you something at the door. For some people, this can be a nuisance. It is possible to set up ‘No Doorstep Selling Areas’ which are registered with the police at Amersham. Signs are placed in the selected area and you can put stickers on your front door. This should deter the sellers, but if not, you can report them to a given contact number.
We would like to know if you would consider this a good idea. If so, please can you let any councillor or the Clerk know your views and we can discuss the matter further with a view to introducing these zones.
We already have ‘We do not buy or sell at the door’ stickers in the office. If you would like one, please contact the Clerk.

Chapman Lane Allotments
Earlier this year some of the Allotment Holders at Chapman Lane gathered for a working party to create ‘Chris’s Corner’. The patch had originally been -cleared by our much missed Allotment Manager Chris Wallis for a large greenhouse that he had brought to the site. Sadly the greenhouse plans did not come to fruition due to the theft of the frame; however, we decided the cleared area should be put to use and named in Chris’s memory. It has already been used for communal events such as ‘Strimmer Saturday’ when we cut the paths and for our regular allotment holders meetings. The picture shows some of the working party who created ‘Chris’s Corner’, Fiona Beckley, Ellen Scott, Barbara Wallis, David Langford and Julie Tricker. That it is also a sun trap is a happy coincidence and one enjoyed by a few since!

Looking to the future the Allotments are enjoying a bit of revival and new plot holders are able to benefit from the life long experience of some of the more established Allotmenteers. We also hope to take advantage of the national Allotment Regeneration scheme ( fannarden.org.uk) to benefit our site and anyone wishing to assist me with this please get in touch! If your appetite for home grown vegetables or cut flowers has been wetted by this article and you think you might like to take on a plot you should contact the Parish Council via email to clerk@littlemarlowparishcouncil.org.uk or phone 01628 890301 Plots are typically l3ft wide and 26feet long (approx 4 x 8 metres) but half that length can be taken on if you want to begin with a smaller size.

Jane Vincent, Allotments Warden

Little Marlow History

This year saw the first ever dog show event. This was extremely well supported and with many rosettes being awarded.
The Fire Brigade attended with a big red fire engine, which was much admired by the many youngsters there.
A big problem for the parking management was due to the very large part of the football pitch being “ground under repair” and not available for car parking this year. However by extending the parking nearly up to the cricket square it was well managed by a very hard working crew.
With the calypso steel band, the children’s sports , the Rotary train, birds of prey display, ice cream sale , beef burgers , children’s fun fair , teas , bric a brac , bottle stall , home made cakes, books and videos , church stall , tombola, Royal coach models , and the attendance of the LMPC councillors there was something for all ages. The Little Marlow Cricket Club ran the Coconut Shy, crockery smashing and the Shuffle Board stalls. The RNLI also attended to raise awareness of their worthy work. You can see why the fete so depends on volunteers to help on the day.
Many of the raffle and programme draw prizes went to Little Marlow residents this year.

You may remember, that I have asked if anyone would be interested in forming a Local History Group in Little Marlow. Two or three people expressed an interest and the Parish Plan questionnaire results suggest that there are people who would like this. I initially asked Julian Hunt, a well-known local historian in Buckinghamshire if the would come & do some work with us and he was happy to do that, but my personal circumstances last year meant that I did not follow it up. He would need 10 people to make the class financially viable.
I am sure many people have been pursuing their own line of research e.g. their house history. I have been trying to find out about the farms. As you may know, in 2002 I looked at the threshing barns in this parish and others along the Thames and I was struck bi the survival ofthe farms and their buildings here since the 1 7 or 1 8th centuries. I then went to the record office at Aylesbury and found a wealth of information about the Little Marlow Estate at the end ofthe 18th century. This is one ‘snapshot’ of the parish that would be interesting to present to a wider audience.
Other dates that seem important are the Enclosure Award of  1821 and the sale of the estate in 1917. Enclosure was not such a big event in Little Marlow as in villages of the midlands to the north of the Chilterns. Fields, or closes, had been fenced off from medieval times in the hillier parts of the parish, but there were still common fields where strip farming was practised. As far as I have found out so far, these were mostly allocated to the farmers who rented the majority oftheir land from the Estates, (the Little Marlow estate and the Carrington estate), but there may have been humbler folk who were able to exercise their right to cultivate a piece of the common fields. The enclosure seems to have been a legalised land grab by the incumbent of Little Marlow Estate, Sir George Nugent!
I know several people have copies of the sale particulars for the Estate Sale of 1917. It is a fascinating document with descriptions and photographs and gives an insight into the way life was lived at that time. The Auctioneers obviously thought that the Emmett’ s farm land was ripe for development — not the affordable homes we would expect today, but a mansion with views all across the Thames Valley . An interesting thought indeed!
I belong to the Marlow Society History Group, where about 20 people get together and present their researches for comment and discussion. It is my turn to speak at the October meeting, when I will be presenting these three glimpses of our history. I am happy to circulate my notes for this to anyone who is interested and would like to discuss it further. There is also a possibility that we could present it at the Bucks Archaeological Society’s Local History Network meeting at High Wycombe on October 7th
Please let me know if you would like me to approach Julian Hunt again. If you have not been to the Records Office at Aylesbury would you like to come with me sometime and see the Enclosure Map etc? Do you have any ideas about how we could combine our efforts; it seems silly for us each to work in has own little bubble with out talking about our finds.
Please get in touch!

Barbara Wallis

FERN LANE CEMETERY

You may not be aware that the area of woodland and undergrowth between the current burial area and Sheepridge Lane is actually part of the cemetery.
It is maintained by Wycombe Urban Wildlife Group and has a small shallow pond, many interesting native trees, and wild flowers. The area beside the pond has simple wooden benches and can be a peaceful area to sit, listen to the bird song, watch the butterflies and dragonflies, and reflect. However, recently, this area has become overgrown by brambles and nettles. The newts, frogs and dragonflies are still there, but it is now not possible to sit and enjoy the tranquillity.
We are contacting the Wycombe Urban Wildlife Group with a ie to getting this area tidied up so that it can be used again We also need to consider what to do with the heap of soil and stones which is the spoil from the grave gigging. We hope to get this spread over the track that larger vehicles can use to enter the site from Sheepridge Lane . This area (adjacent to the fence of the current ashes area) can then be levelled ready for burials in future years, hopefully leaving some of the lovely trees that are there. Further down the track towards Sheepridge Lane , there is an area where the trees are planted more uniformly and this area has beehives tended by a local resident. It is this area that we are considering making into a Woodland Burial area. We have visited the new Woodland Burial ground at Chesham Bois and found it to be a very peaceful and pleasant place. However, at Chesham Bois, their site is a field in which they are planting trees. We have the advantage that our area is already established woodland. We would like to know if you would welcome the idea of a Woodland Burial area. This will not reduce the area for conventional burials, but would be an extra facility. Please let us have your views.
The Burial Ground Committee