Consultation

Welcome to our consultation pages

Within this section you can:

• find out what consultation is happening in the district
• take part in current consultations and surveys
• view feedback and reports from past consultations
• see what is coming up in the future
• contact us about any consultation issues you have. 

A new approach to gaining planning permission - 12 June to 8 August 2013 

Householders who currently need planning permission may in the future apply under a Householder Extension Local Development Order, if their extension is straight forward and of low impact. This could speed up the time involved in gaining consent from 8-12 to 2 weeks. Under the ‘Householder Extension LDO’, the homeowner would be responsible for ensuring the necessary guidelines are met. They would also have to inform neighbours of their plans before coming to the council.

The new approach will speed up the process for applicants, slashing the time take for a decision from eight weeks to two, and as long as the guidelines are followed will guarantee a ‘yes’ to homeowner plans. Click on the title above to read more and take part.

Vale of Aylesbury Plan publicity period - 8 May - 19 June 2013

A new planning document, the Vale of Aylesbury Plan (VAP) Strategy, has begun a publicity period where comments can be made on the legal compliance and soundness of the plan. This is the final stage before the plan is submitted to government for an independent examination.

The Vale of Aylesbury Plan (VAP) Strategy, a key planning document which sets out how towns and villages throughout the district can develop up to the year 2031, has already been approved by councillors.

There is now a six week publication period that allows local people and businesses to comment on whether they think there is a fundamental problem that would make it “unsound” or not “legally compliant”.

The VAP Strategy sets out the vision, strategic objectives and overall jobs and housing figures for the district, along with apportionment of jobs and homes across the Vale, and the principles of how development should take place in terms of delivering infrastructure, economic growth, housing, environmental protection and the localism agenda. The plan does not allocate sites for growth.

Since the development of the strategy began, there has been widespread consultation with residents across the Vale. The feedback and comments from these previous stages of consultation have helped to shape our final version of the plan.

People can comment on the soundness and legal compliance of the plan, and on the accompanying Sustainability Appraisal, from 8 May until 5pm on 19 June. Once this process is completed, we will collate all the comments received and give these to a government appointed planning inspector who will review any issues raised alongside the proposed strategy.

Bucks Home Choice housing review - April 22 - June 2 2013 - fieldwork now closed

We are consulting residents, tenants and local organisations, such as parish councils and other stakeholder groups, to hear what people think of the proposed changes to hear your how Bucks Home Choice allocates social housing in Buckinghamshire.

We’re reviewing our allocations policy because the housing waiting list is very oversubscribed and we need to think carefully about who can join the register and how applicants are prioritised. Following the Localism Act, we also have more flexibility about how we allocate social housing.

The consultation period has now closed. We're now analysing feedback and will publish the results later in the summer.

Local Crime Issues - February 2013 - survey report below

Whilst Aylesbury Vale is one of the safest places to live, visit and work in the Thames Valley, the Aylesbury Vale Community Safety Partnership (a statutory body including the police and fire service and local councils), continues to work to prevent crime.

The Local Crime Issues Survey was conducted by the Aylesbury Vale Community Safety Partnership in Bedgrove, Buckingham North, Elmhurst and Watermead, and Pitstone. These were selected following an Aylesbury Vale wide crime survey conducted in 2012, where home burglary, distraction burglary, anti-social behaviour and theft from sheds and outbuildings were identified as of ‘most concern’.

The survey was conducted in defined areas to enable findings to be compared between communities with differing levels of crime and anti-social behaviour and with divergent geographies (and to enable preventative activities to be targeted most effectively). Buckingham North and Elmhurst/Watermead wards fell in to a higher crime category and Bedgrove and Pitstone a lower.  

An executive summary report including a table of recommendations for implementation is listed below. Further recommendations maybe added by partners in the next few. Any queries please email Alan Garside.

AVDC Corporate Residents Survey 2011- 2012 -  report below

This programme of consultation was conducted to find out what residents think about living in Aylesbury Vale and test measures in the new Corporate Plan.

Throughout 2012 we conducted three surveys where 400 residents were randomly selected and contacted by phone, inviting them to take part in the 10 minute telephone survey. To ensure the results are representative of the district, they were asked a few questions about themselves, such as postcode, age and gender. These are asked for the purposes of ensuring representativeness only and all responses are treated confidentially in accordance with the Market Research Society guidelines.

The questions covered:
• What important to them about living in Aylesbury Vale and what most needs improving
• How well informed they feel and what they want to find out about
• Contact with us/how well we listen to them/take their views into account
• If they feel they can influence decisions/ get more involved in making decisions
• Who and what their district councillor does, and
• If we provide value for money.

Thank you very much if you have been involved in any of the four surveys, your views and contributions are much appreciated. To read the full report of the findings, comparing 2011 and 2012, please click on the report below.

Proposed council tax support scheme
From 1 April 2013 the Government will stop the national Council Tax Benefit scheme and asks councils to replace it with a local Council Tax support scheme.

The council has developed proposals for a new scheme and has conducted consultation to hear what residents think. This is now complete.

Activities for the new Berryfields Community Centre - survey ended 14 June 2012

A new community centre isnow open on the Berryfields estate. Our survey asked the small, but growing, number of residents at this new development, what activities they would like to see and participate in at this temporary new centre.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. The results are being analysed and will  give us some good ideas on what people would like to see happening at the new centre. 

Other consultations

Working in partnership with the other public service providers in Aylesbury Vale, you can now access all consultations from AVDC, Bucks County Council, Bucks Fire & Rescue, Bucks NHS and Thames Valley Police Authority on the link below.

When viewing current consultations, the list starts with the most recently posted first.

When searching consultation feedback from previous surveys, the page scrolls through findings from the most recently posted first from all the partnership authorities in the district. Feedback from consultations we have undertaken independently are listed below.