I know schools are coping with many competing demands and I’m very proud of the great work that goes on in our school communities, celebrated in our first ‘School Awards’ a couple of weeks ago that I wrote about in my last update.

I wish all students picking up exam results over the summer the very best of luck, and I hope everyone can enjoy a good break over the school holidays.

Supporting local families this summer

Having children at home can be both wonderful but also demanding. Buckinghamshire Council is there to support you in many ways. I wanted to remind everyone of the extra help the council is providing over the summer to local families and other households. Children who receive benefits-related free school meals in term time will get digital food vouchers to cover the summer holidays – and will have been notified directly about this through their school.

We are also running our fantastic Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme where eligible children can attend free sessions offered by clubs across the county. They can take part in a range of high-quality activities from day trips to sports, dance and much more and get a healthy hot meal during the day too.

You can find out more about the help available this summer to all households, including free and low-cost activities via the school summer holiday support pages on our website.

One final plea – if you’re going away and have excess food that will go off, before you throw it away, please see if you can donate it to one of our local community fridges, again the details of these are on our website.

Improvements to the road network

We have been working extremely hard since early spring to fix the winter damage to our road network with more than 14,000 defects now repaired since 1 April. These are both individual repairs and those done by our Jetpatcher on more rural roads.

As the school holidays get underway, we try to schedule some of the biggest and more disruptive schemes at this time of year, so as to lessen the impact on road users on our busier routes. We also work with utility companies to coordinate their most disruptive works during the holidays were possible.

It might mean you see more closures and disruption in some areas in the coming weeks; you can check what’s planned on the routes you use via the council’s website.

I do want to remind residents too that the Cadent Gas mains replacement works on the A404 that I wrote about last time are due to begin next week. I don’t usually highlight individual roadworks but I know this route, via Stanley Hill in Amersham, is a key road used by many people from outside the area so please do be aware there may be delays and plan ahead accordingly. We plan to resurface the road after the works are finished so watch out for this too.

Literacy courses for adults

It’s really important to us that all our residents can access work and other opportunities on an equal footing. We are investing in extra numeracy and literacy courses through our Adult Learning team to allow us to offer free courses to eligible people who might want to improve these core skills to better manage everyday tasks from banking to helping with a child’s homework. And of course, these skills are essential for many job opportunities.

We’ve already run the highly successful ‘Multiply’ courses and I’m delighted that we’ve got new drop-in Literacy, Digital and Numeracy workshops now running through the summer holidays until the end of August. These workshops, taking place at venues in High Wycombe, Aylesbury and Chesham, are part of our ‘Opportunity Bucks’ programme, which aims to improve health and welfare for people across the county.

All the details are on our website.

We will also be hosting another Jobs and Apprenticeships Fair in Chesham after the summer, after the success of last year’s similar event, where we bring employers and residents of all ages together to explore what work opportunities are available in the county. This year’s event is on Saturday 23 September so look out for more details on our social media channels.

Ready, Set, Read!

And for our younger readers, don’t forget the brilliant annual Summer Reading Challenge available across all our libraries!

Children aged 4-11 can sign up at their local library where they’ll get their 'Ready, Set, Read' collectors folder, then setting their own reading challenge to complete across the holidays!

Take a look at the details on our website.

Customer Partnership Panel

The council always wants to hear feedback from residents and we urge people to get involved in council business and the services we provide to you. You can find out more about how to get involved in meetings and our Community Boards from the information pages on our website, and how to have your say on any live consultations we have running.

Of particular note at the moment is that we’re inviting people to join our ‘Customer Partnership Panel’ to help us find out more about what people think about how we communicate with our residents and how we run our digital services. If you’ve ever reported or requested anything using our website, we’d love to get your input.

You can find out more, and register via our website.

May I finish by wishing you all a lovely summer. If you are going away, have a great time. If you are staying local, remember to take advantage of all the great museums, historic houses, attractions, facilities, walks and outdoor spaces we’re so fortunate to have on our doorsteps right here in Buckinghamshire. It really is a great place to live.

Yours,

Martin Tett

Leader of Buckinghamshire Council