Parliament Week - Parish Council Visit

As part of Parliament Week, we welcomed members of Berryfields Parish Council into AVA for question and answers sessions in both Primary and Secondary phases.

Here's what we found out:

• The Parish Council take care of all 14 parks in Berry fields, carrying out monthly checks on all of them.
• They have also set up a Youth club for ages 11-14 for people to relax and play games and do other fun things.
• They run a foodbank on Thursdays, and help provide Christmas hampers for those struggling with Christmas.
• To make Aylesbury a better place, the Parish Council would like to add football pitches, basketball courts, cricket pitches, tennis courts, a community orchard and picnic sites.
• Money is one of the biggest challenges they have. This means that they can only work on projects within their financial reach. They aren't yet involved with road safety around Berry Fields because the roads are not yet 'adopted'. However, they are trying their absolute hardest to make roads safer through measures such as more zebra crossings.
• They are working hard to reduce littering, provide more dog excrement bins, recycling bins, and reduce graffiti.
• An extremely exciting spoiler that the Parish Council is that they are planning to create a Youth Parliament, after a successful similar scheme run by Milton Keynes Council.
• They said ‘every day is different, and every day is a massive adventure for them, and that they are always here to support and keep Berry fields our home forever.

One of the key focusses during the Q&A was road safety, particularly around the school, and our Student Parliament shared details of the Road Safety Campaign they are planning. The campaign aims to improve safety on the roads around Berryfields, with a focus on the areas directly outside the school.

Student Parliament members are in the process of gathering input from key AVA staff members. Once they have this information, they will begin designing campaign materials to share with key stakeholders within the school community.

Next week, they will be conducting their own traffic survey outside the school during peaks times. We look forward to sharing our findings in the coming weeks.