Mercury Report
Olney Town Council Meeting of Monday 7 December 2009
Phonebox Magazine 19
the air quality on High Street South was to
be improved: divert HGVs away from the
town, build a bypass to the East or a bypass
to the West.
This provoked a good deal of discussion, of
which just the main points are reported here.
Debbie Brock felt that, while MKC had
refreshed its bid for the Olney bypass, there
was currently no funding for it so the whole
debate was hypothetical. Tony Evans felt
that the bypass had originally faltered due to
the inability to decide on a single preferred
route. Steve Clark confirmed this noting that,
while the consultation some time ago in
Olney and Weston Underwood had preferred
the Western route followed by the outer
Eastern route, the Olney Bypass Sub-
Committee set up by the then
Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC),
could not choose one route above the other.
This effectively led to the bypass being
stalled, as BCC would not fund
archaeological studies on both routes. John
Sharp appeared to summarise the feelings
of some round the table, saying that the
discussion was just `hot air' and the bypass
would `not happen, in our time anyway'.
Debbie Brock asked David if he had bought
up the topic of the bypass at the previous
meeting or whether it had arisen in some
other way. David replied that he'd raised the
air quality management issue and also ways
in which it could be addressed.
Wind farm
As you're no doubt aware, work on the
Petsoe End wind farm has started. Tony
Evans noted that, while the intended route
for building materials to be bought to the
site is via the M1 junction 14 and the A509, it
appeared contractors were bringing
hardcore via Yardley Road and the High
Street. This latter route involves their lorries
passing under the old railway bridge on
Yardley Road, and he reported that they
were doing so too fast and in the middle of
the road. Other Councillors had also noticed
this, many felt it was unsafe and the Council
will contact the authorities involved.
Confidential Items
The next agenda item was `to consider
exclusion of Public and Press
Representatives pursuant to the Public
Bodies (admission to meetings) Act 1960 on
the basis that publicity would be prejudicial
to the public interest by reason of the
confidential nature of the business to be
transacted.' This is the penultimate item in
many Council meetings and is not in itself
worthy of note, the decision invariably going
through `on the nod' and the final,
confidential, item then being discussed
behind closed doors.
Debbie Brock asked for a recorded vote on
whether the third confidential item should be
discussed in private or, instead, in public.
After a very brief discussion, Debbie feeling
that the item could be discussed in public
and Michael Hughes disagreeing, the vote
was taken.
The vote was counted a draw leaving
Michael Hughes, as Mayor, with the casting
vote. He voted again to keep the item
confidential so the public part of the meeting
ended and Mercury, along with the other
members of the public, left the building.
For information, a recorded vote means that
the way in which each Councillor voted is
noted and, presumably, included in the
publicly available minutes of the meeting.
Postscript
A few days after the meeting, the Council
emailed Mercury the following information
regarding the recorded vote, printed here
unmodified: `It was later found that a clerical
error had occurred and the vote was
recorded incorrectly. The item was
concerning, collating councillor's personal
information within the public domain'.
The next meeting will be held at 7.30pm on
Monday 4nd January in the Council
Chamber in the Olney Centre. Members of
the public are always welcome to attend
and, if they wish, speak at the start of the
meeting, or at any point that the mayor
decides is appropriate.
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