News from Pitstone Parish Council, January 2026 PPP

Please find below the Parish Council news extracts from the latest PPP:

Last two public access defibrillators now live

We are pleased to advise that the last two public access defibrillators have now been installed and registered to The Circuit so the information is available to ambulance crews.  These units are located:

  • near the play area in Windsor Road (likely to be your nearest unit if you reside near the middle of Castlemead or by The Pightle) and
  • by the open space at the far right hand end of Crispin Field (likely to be your nearest unit if you live in Crispin Field, Chequers Close or that end of Cheddington Road)
  • The ambulance operator will direct you to your nearest unit if they feel a defibrillator is required, and provide you with the access code for the cabinet.   The bright yellow cabinets are mounted to lamp posts in these two locations so are easily visible.  Our grateful thanks to the Pitstone Town Lands Charity for their generous donation which facilitated the purchase and installation of these last two units.

24/7 Public Access Defibrillators are currently located at:

  • Pitstone Pavilion
  • Pitstone Memorial Hall
  • The Village Health Centre in Yardley Avenue
  • The Lounge in Yardley Avenue
  • Cooks Wharf Marina
  • Colbree Engineering Group, Beacon Court
  • Little Rothschild House surgery in Marsworth Road
  • 1 Meadow Lane
  • By the play area in Windsor Road
  • By the open space at the far right hand end of Crispin Field, near the alleyway through to Cheddington Road
  • There is also a defibrillator at Sapphire Gymnastics, during opening hours only

Please refer to our ‘defibrillator’ page for the full map of locations now available in Pitstone, and the training video to help familiarise yourself with how to use the equipment should the need arise.    https://pitstone.co.uk/ppcinfo/defibrillators/

Replacement Slide for Windsor Road

We are pleased to confirm that Buckinghamshire Council has now approved a release of £7k S106 developer contribution funding towards the cost of a replacement slide for the Windsor Road playground (the existing slide being beyond economic repair due to rusting legs).   They have also now approved the supplier (Creative Play) and design (Bespoke Jigsaw Tower), see the illustration below.

The site survey is taking place during January and Creative Play hope to commence work in February.   We will keep you posted via our website and social media channels. 

Improvements at the Pavilion

The Parish Council is working jointly with Pitstone & Ivinghoe United Football Club have install a pitch barrier around the senior pitch with mesh infill panels which will allow advertising signs to be erected, creating a new advertising opportunity and revenue stream to help fund the ongoing pitch care.   We will let you know via our website and social media channels as soon as the advertising opportunities go live. 

Planning

Although Buckinghamshire Council has produced a draft of its new, county-wide, Local Plan in which it acknowledges the challenge of meeting substantially increased housing targets, there is no direct indication in the draft of how Pitstone or surrounding villages might be affected.  The Parish Council is contacting Bucks to see if it is prepared to give us more detail and is doing some feasibility work to assess whether a review of our own current Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) would strengthen our say in any future local development proposals. 

Ivinghoe & Pitstone Safety Scheme

Buckinghamshire Council has advised that they have some highway maintenance issues to resolve before they can progress with any elements of the safety scheme along the section of Marsworth Road between Westfield Road and the roundabout.   We continue to explore options and timelines with them for these works.    

New website and email addresses

The Parish Council is moving to a dedicated .gov website platform, which should be live during the next couple of months, and will enable us to have greater control and flexibility over the presentation of the parish council material and services, which you will hopefully find easier to navigate.   The existing village website is likely to remain live, so you will still be able to use this to find local class and event information etc.

As part of the move, the council email addresses will be updated.   We’ll provide you with all the new details, and set up a forwarding service for a while.

Does your community group need financial assistance?

The parish council offers grants to local community groups and local charities that specifically benefit Pitstone residents.  Applications are considered quarterly.   Our most recent recipient was 1st Ivinghoe and Pitstone Scouts for replacement tents, which they are using for a camping trip this February.  Please see the grant policy on this web site (http://pitstone.co.uk/ppcinfo/grant-policy/ ) for further information or contact the parish clerk for an initial chat. 

Make a Change, Become a Councillor

There is one vacant seat remaining for the position of parish councillor to serve the 4-year term of office until the next election.  If you care about the village we live in, are passionate about our community, and have approximately 3-hours to volunteer each week, then please do get in touch: parishclerk@pitstone.co.uk.

Protecting and Improving the Whistlebrook – We need your help

We are all fortunate enough to live in a green and pleasant land.  We are on the fringes of chalk hills, surrounded by farmland and close to ancient woods.

The babbling brook is an integral part of this landscape.  Locally the most significant of these is the Whistle Brook, which in our immediate area is the boundary between the parishes of Pitstone and Ivinghoe. Further downstream it runs through Slapton Parish and ultimately into the River Ouse.  It lends its name to our local school, powers the Watermill, we walk beside it, cross it, play in it and many use it for trout fishing.

The Whistle Brook is particularly special as it is a Chalk Stream.  Chalk Streams are recognised internationally as being ecologically important habitats by organisations such as the WWF.  They are also rare, with only around 250 recognised globally. 80% of them are in England.  So the Whistle Brook is not just locally important, it is internationally important.

Unfortunately, we English have not been looking after our Chalk Streams well and they are generally in a poor state in this country.  Something that has often been highlighted nationally on programs like Countryfile.  A recent housing development plan submitted to Bucks Council indicated the ecology of the Whistle Brook would be reduced, but there are many other local threats. As such, we are not immune to the harm being caused to them.  Governmental and regional organisations have developed plans to improve them, such as DEFRA and the Chiltern Society, so there are plans to turn this around.

The first stage to managing, protecting and improving any habitat is to determine what its current condition is.  Something that we have discussed at Pitstone Parish Council and subsequentially I have attended meetings at Ivinghoe and Slapton Parish Councils to discuss this further with an idea as to how to do this.  The idea is to establish a group of volunteers to start regularly monitoring the streams water quality.  The simplest way to do this is to carry out regular kick sampling surveys down the length of the Whistle Brook.  The data will then be fed into a national data base so it can be monitored.  A model that has been followed successfully for many years elsewhere such as along the Ver in St.Albans.

This will require a group a us locals to do this and we estimate something between 8-12 across the three Parishes would be ideal.  We already have quite a few people interested, but yes, this is a shout out to anyone interested in getting involved.  We will need to work in pairs, with each pair covering two or three locations on a monthly basis.  We have identified an organisation that will provide training and equipment.  So if this is something you think you would be interested in getting involved with or know someone who would, please get in contact.  The next stage is for that group to meet to discuss the idea, convert it into a plan and then into action; it has been suggested by one of the Slapton Parish Councillors this is at the Rose and Crown if that helps to persuade you…

Cllr Dr. David Frearson

Email: parishclerk@pitstone.co.uk or dave.frearson@pitstonepc.org

Tel: 01296 767261

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