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Chairman's Report - April 2022

Due to personal difficulties, I have to be briefer than usual.

Our President, Sir Keith and I had a fruitful meeting with our MP, Jo Morrissey, to discuss
protection of the green belt and the protection of our bridge. This led to a letter from
Cllr Broadbent [Cabinet Member Transport Bucks C] to Joy Morrissey MP on the subject of
overweight vehicles crossing the Marlow Bridge. The letter includes the phrase "the
council does not currently have an approved enforcement plan for the bridge…." Or to
put it another way – No ANPR cameras.

We know from Transport for Bucks measurements that the captured number plates by
weight analysis shows that on 27th November 2018 465 overweight vehicles crossed and
on 2nd July 2019 405 crossed during the sample period of 0700 to 1900. No doubt
overweight crossings continued into the night.

On 11th April 2022 the Guardian reported that Buckinghamshire Council plans to use
artificial intelligence at fly-tipping hotspots, such as rapid deployment cameras and
automatic number-plate recognition. These tools link the vehicles of fly-tipping suspects
to the disposed-of items in real time, allowing investigating officers to track down
culprits quickly. Maybe if they dump on the bridge….?

You now know the priority that our Council puts on the long-term preservation of our
Bridge. Your Society has called for effective measures to protect the Bridge for the last
six years and will continue so to do.

I am grateful to Richard Parker who has taken on board the ongoing mess that is the
Liston Court Garden. We started, a year ago, to put pressure on our local authorities to
find the resources to bring the garden up to an acceptable standard. In March I write to
the seven, yes seven, council employees and councillors who have role to play in
managing this tiny patch of land. I am grateful that Cllr Chris Funnell has accepted a
lead role.

I am waiting for the planning application to build film studios in the green belt from
Dido Property Ltd. When this is to hand I will ask you for your opinion.

Finally, I wish to pay tribute the Dr Keith Ray who died in March. Keith had been a
valued member of your executive for many years and he also chaired our Local History
Group. Good people are hard to come by. If you would like to step forward and carry on
with the good work that Keith contributed please get in touch.

Martin Blunkell