The Chair and Forum members to introduce themselves.

The Chairman welcomed all to the meeting and Forum members introduced themselves.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Parish Councillor Barbara Story as well as Colin Rayner from the National Farmers Union (NFU), but he mentioned that Nick Manderfield would be able to speak on behalf of the NFU as vice-chair.

Nick Day was invited to represent the Crown Estate but was unable to attend.

To receive any declarations of interest from Councillors.

No declarations of interest received.

To approve the minutes from previous meeting held on 9th November 2022.

Geoffrey Copas suggested an action list in the minutes which could then be reviewed in the next meeting to ensure the actions were being met. He also suggested a ‘matters arising’ and ‘any other business’ added to the agenda. He also suggested that reports be circulated before the meeting which would then be highlighted during the meeting. Councillor Hunt supported the proposals.

Laurence Ellis, Democratic Services Officer, stated that he would look into this.

ACTION: The clerk to look into altering the agenda.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 29 November 2022 were a true and accurate record.

To receive an update on the Biodiversity Paper from James Thorpe.

Jason Mills, Natural Environment Manager, explained that BAP had been approved by Council, though the farming HAPs (Habitat Action Plans) had not been adopted yet. He acknowledged that work and consultation with the farming community was required to further develop the final Farmland HAP. He believed the best way forward was to enact some consultation amongst farmers and suggested that he and other Natural Environment Officers visit the farms to gain an understanding of farming practices. From there, start a conversation on the best practice and methods, which would then be incorporated into the Farmland HAP. He believed that there had been some good practices amongst farms, based on his visits, but these were not being highlighted amongst residents and captured in the BAP.

Jason Mills then stated that he would present a Farmland HAP in six months which could then be reviewed and then be agreed.

Vice-Chair William Emmett commented that Nick Manderfield had organised an environmental competition recently, in which Councillors were invited to, and that Jason Mills should have gathered a substantial amount of information on farming projects to start formulating the Farmland HAP and questioned why he needed to visit the farms again. Jason Mills replied that the event was part of an environmental awards and, while visiting many farms during the day, it was more of a whistle-stop tour with only brief visits. While mindful of interfering with farmers’ busy schedules, Jason Mills wanted to gain a better idea of the day-to-day activities and what farms were doing to benefit the environment.

Vice-Chair William Emmett responded that farmers had signed up to a 5-year environmental improvement agreement, which had already produced positive benefits, and that farms took part in the National Farmland Bird Count. Therefore, he stated, there was already a lot of work to be seen.

Councillor Stimson suggested to invite Paul Sedgwick from the Crown Estate to Forum meetings as he handled rural affairs.

ACTION: Invite Paul Sedgwick from the Crown Estate to the next Rural Forum meeting.

Geoffrey Copas suggested that Jason Mills could create a list of the amount of acreage which were part of the environmental schemes so that they could be presented to the general public. He reiterated his criticism of the BAP, namely its size, and that it needed to be better presented to farmers. He compared this to the Chiltern report, where the Chiltern Management Board produced a document on what farmers were doing for biodiversity.

Reflecting on the comments received, Andrew Durrant, Executive Director of Place Services, suggested that the farm visits should have suggestive draft action areas beforehand so that the visits were planned and productive rather than going in with a blank slate. From this, he suggested, the farm visits would be about consolidating, refining and solidifying those actions further as well as pick up on any gaps.

ACTION: Officers to formulate draft actions in preparation for farm visits.

(Councillor Bhangra entered the meeting virtually at 17:50; Councillor Johnson entered the meeting at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 107.

To receive an update from Barnaby Briggs on the Climate Partnership.

Barnaby Briggs, Executive Chair of Climate Partnership, gave a presentation. He briefly informed the Forum that the Climate Partnership was an initiative, established by RBWM to promote action on sustainability.

Barnaby Briggs started off by giving an overview of the actions in which the Climate Partnership had done so far:

• Established the Climate Partnership Community Investment Company (CIC), with an independent Board, Vision and Mission.
• Engaged with more than 50 stakeholders, from large corporates to community groups, to establish what would be the best actions to enact.

Three projects were initiated, including projects on:

• A big solar scheme at Furze Platt school which sought to expand the school’s solar power. He added that this would have an element of community ownership later in March 2023, where residents would be able to buy shares in this project.
• A domestic energy efficiency with local partners to improve energy efficiency in households. This would also involve some community ownership which would be revealed during the summer of 2023.
• Wellbeing and biodiversity with BBWOT (Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust) and other partners to promote connectivity with the natural environment.

These projects, Barnaby Briggs explained, were intended to catalyse change and to start setting the agenda.

Other actions included:

•       Commissioned assessment needs of what was going on nationally, internationally and in the Borough, to create a create debates and conversations.

•       Direct support amongst local community groups, including Cookham’s Footprint and the ECO Action Hub.

•       Arranging a Net Zero event with the Chamber of Commerce.

•       Creating up a website (https://www.theclimatepartnership.co.uk).

Barnaby Briggs then showed a graph which provided the basis on understanding where the Climate Partnership and Borough could have the most impact. Based the graph, the Climate Partnership focused on projects relating to, for example, home energy retrofit and affordable and efficient homes.

Barnaby Briggs then explained the next steps were to:

•       Continue to deliver and grow the three projects.

•       Set up a Strategic Advisory Panel, ideally composed of local big employers and special interest groups, to create community oversight.

•       Organise a Launch Event in the summer.

•       Increase the size of the Board.

•       Expand communications, including a Website & Newsletter.

•       Recruiting staff.

Councillor Hunt asked what school was subject to the solar scheme project and what other schools were in the pipeline. Barnaby Briggs answered that the school was Furze Platt Senior School. As for schools in the pipeline, he stated that he reached out to 10 schools (out of 66 schools in the Borough), but discussions had not progressed very far due to focus on installing the solar panel project in Furze Platt, which could then set an example.

Geoffrey Copas asked how many kilowatts the solar panels produced in Furze Platt. He also stated that there should be turbines in every weir along the river Thames. Barnaby Briggs replied that he did not have the exact figure of kilowatts the Furze Platt solar panels produced, though he could provide them  ...  view the full minutes text for item 108.

To receive an update on rural crime as well as feedback to be taken to the Community Safety and Crime Summit on 17th March.

PC Matt Gleave from Thames Valley Police (TVP) gave a verbal update on rural crime.

From September to December 2022, 23 rural crimes were reported in RBWM, with one location experiencing three offences but had since then seen no incidents. The most common offence was lamping with five recorded in the period. Unfortunately, the offenders were not identified, and the offences were usually discovered and reported until the following day which would then hinder investigations.

There was also one offence of poaching and one residential burglary. The rest of rural crimes were single anomalies and not confirmed as rural crime.

PC Matt Gleave then explained that when a crime was reported, the Neighbourhood Team would offer a security survey and look to target hardened properties and farming machinery. He also then promoted the use of the rural crime WhatsApp group to which PCs had access to. He also mentioned the use of the Rural Crime Taskforce.

PC Matt Gleave then informed that TVP ran an operation on Nick Philp’s farm in July 2022. This involved Nick Philp possessing a police radio to contact the police directly, and then had 6 to 7 PCs in patrol cars in Nick Philp’s land and the wider area over the course of a couple of nights. PC Matt Gleave stated the operation was successful as it increased a police presence in an area where police were not strongly present on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Another operation was conducted in November 2023 where hair coursing usually started. The only incident were 4 offenders around The Wreck in Datchet.

The Rural Crime Taskforce had been reasonably active in the Windsor and Maidenhead area, though acknowledged that there were no dedicated officers in the area. Compared to the last rural crime update, where £800,000 worth of stolen machinery and equipment were seized, this had increased to £1.2 million.

PC Matt Gleave then gave some statistics:

• 404 crime investigations were conducted with 123 positive outcomes.
• 1,600 stop checks
• 66,000 tickets were issued with 46 vehicles seized.
• 181 stop searches with 41 being positive.

In the last three months, there were 2 charges in relation to rural crime in the Windsor and Maidenhead area.

Finally, PC Matt Gleave stated that he was requested to gather feedback from the Forum for the upcoming Community Safety and Crime Summit on 17th March 2023, a summit involving representatives from across the Borough which sought to maintain and improve community safety across the Borough. He then asked if there were any key issues which the Forum would like to be raised at the Summit.

Vice-Chair William Emmett was critical of the rural crime update. He stated that there were pages of incidents posted in a WhatsApp group with many of them not being reported because farmers were losing faith in receiving an answer from the police through the 101-call line. He added that his son-in-law had followed a car without number plates for 4 miles trying to contact the police but received  ...  view the full minutes text for item 109.

To receive an update from the Farming Community.

Ed Hurley from Copas Traditional Turkeys gave a general farming update, namely discussing two items on labour and avian influenza.

Regarding farm labour, Ed Hurley explained that the turkey business resolves around the last 4 weeks of the end of every year, and if this does not go well, an entire year of business was gone. He then conveyed that the business had experienced some challenges in labour due to the new regulations and issuing of visas. Originally, he explained, labourers were recruited directly across Europe every year; but the new visa system meant that two companies acquired a monopoly on the issuing of visas. This had increased labour costs by 30% through agency costs and further 10% on visa costs, accumulating to 40% increase in costs overall. This thus caused a change in thinking and operation.

With the current visa scheme coming by the end of 2023, Ed Hurley hoped that the new visa scheme would allow a smooth transfer of skilled labour. He explained that Copas Traditional Turkeys (and the wider turkey industry) were competing with Europe in attracting labourers and were struggling to attract and compensate these labourers properly as significant costs were going to labour providers.

Ed Hurley moved onto avian influenza. While avian influenza had been around for years and had been managed, it had become an endemic in 2023, creating challenges. He explained that it had significantly affected the turkey industry. In the last winter in 2022, 5 million birds were affected, with 2.8 million of these being turkeys, causing the rise in prices in turkeys during Christmas 2022. He added that the goose industry had been greatly affected as well.

While there was no serious outbreak in the local areas, Ed Hurley explained that restrictive and quarantine-like measures between farms were nevertheless implemented to mitigate the endemic. He also stated that bird feed companies were reducing their support to smaller businesses due to the business risk.

When asked by the Chair if there was anything to help match employees and employers, Andrew Durrant said it could be something that could be investigated offline. This, he suggested, may include connecting Ed Hurley to the economic growth team who identify employment opportunities for local people, whether from colleges and school or the adult employment market and therefore create employment pathways.

Ed Hurley replied that he had never been averse to hiring local people, but he added that he needed to hire labourers who were absolutely committed to job in spite of any hardships.

Councillor Cannon asked Ed Hurley on how he perceived the public’s reaction or DEFRA’s (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) communication with the public on bird flu. Ed Hurley replied that public concern caused people either to quickly buy turkeys or panic in catching bird flu and thus hurting the industry further. He added that DEFRA needed to improve their support and response.

Geoffrey Copas stated that the Borough could not really do much to respond to the issue of avian  ...  view the full minutes text for item 110.

To note the next meeting:

·       14th November 2023 (5:30pm)

The Chair informed that the next meeting would be on 14 November 2023 (5.30 pm). She added that an activity in the summer would possibly be arranged.