What’s been happening at Beaconsfield Town Council?
As well as maintaining our own parks and play spaces, the War Memorial, St Mary’s Churchyard, Hampden Hill, One Tree Meadow, Walkwood and our sports field at Wooburn Green Lane, the council has since 2014 also taken on the devolved responsibility from Buckinghamshire Council to undertake the urban grass mowing and some other maintenance in areas up to 30mph.
We were aware that residents were concerned about the look of the town and wanted improvements. Before 2022, we subcontracted services to Amersham, but considered that by bringing the service in-house, we could be more responsive, have greater control and efficiency, and more importantly could deliver a better service for residents, in line with what they wanted. So, in December 2022, Beaconsfield Town Council took a big decision to bring the delivery of the Grounds Service in-house.
This decision meant significant capital investment for the Council along with the recruitment of staff to undertake the service. This was carried out over the year 2023-2024 and represented significant challenges for the Clerk, Alexa Collins and former Operations Manager Tabish Wazir.
By 2025, we had gained confidence to enter the Buckinghamshire Best Kept Village competition. Although we didn’t win, we received a Certificate of Merit, and it formed part of the steep learning curve that we were on. We never know when the judges will visit, but last year we learned that they visited on a day in-between the winter hanging baskets coming down and the summer hanging baskets going up. We were disappointed not to receive the marks for the fabulous displays we usually have all year round from our supplier Windowflowers Ltd.
But the competition was not our main focus, the delivery of a Better Kept Town was. Since bringing the service in house, complaints about the town decreased significantly and instead we started receiving emails from residents saying Thank You! and Well Done!
This year, we adjusted staffing based on lessons learned and we entered the competition again and are delighted to announce that we have won the Michealis Cup, which is awarded in the Small Town category (population 3000+). On any day of the week, you will see our current Grounds Crew of Martin Trump, Nick Mark and Joe Scully around the town in the Beaconsfield Town Council colours, mowing, weeding, planting and generally keeping our town the way you want it to be. Give them a wave!
On Saturday 19th September, we have our annual Summer event from 12-3pm. We are delighted that the judges will visit around 1pm to award the Michaelis Cup to Beaconsfield Town Council, so please come and join us to celebrate this great achievement for the town.
Everyone loves our events, but we do sometimes get complaints that people don’t know what’s going on. The best ways to find out what’s on, are to:-
1) Subscribe to our website- www.beaconsfieldtowncouncil.gov.uk and put your email into the subscribe box at the bottom of the welcome page.
2) Follow us on Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/BeaconsfieldTC
