Brill Parish Council Annual Report
June 2025 to May 2026

Annual Report 2025/2026

Purpose

Brill Parish Council exists to serve the civil Parish of Brill, building a safe, sustainable, harmonious and productive community.  The Council also has a statutory duty to protect Brill Common. It is a rare privilege to have a beautiful common on our doorstep and we all have a responsibility to preserve it for the benefit of nature and the enjoyment of future generations.

Highlights

Common and Village Greens

The Brill Common and Village Greens Advisory Group continues to support the Parish Council on conserving the common and green spaces as a peaceful place of natural beauty. Thanks are due to the many volunteers who work on the common. Your contributions are invaluable. 

The most significant highlight is the appointment of Fiona Bennett-Meere as our Wildlife and Community Ranger. Fiona is working with our amazing voluntary groups; you can already see the difference made by Fiona and the volunteers when you walk around Brill Common.

There have been some issues with householders encroaching on the common and the Parish Council continue to take a proactive approach. Brill Parish Council own 78 acres of common land. It is used for recreation and conservation and is designated as an area of wildlife importance.  Encroachment is illegal. The Parish Council has on-going plans to install more wooden “stobbs” to control future encroachment.

We continue in our quest to mow less in (select) village space in order to encourage more wildflowers and “feed our bees”. We worked with Brill Sports and Social Club to reduce the use of '“weed and feed”; these chemicals have not been used on the football field or the playing field this year. You can see daisies, dandelions and other wildflowers popping up here and insects arriving to feed off these early flowers. The volunteers who look after the cricket field and its surrounds continue to do an amazing job.

Support for local groups and events

The Parish Council has been pleased to provide funding to support local groups, including:

• payment to The Brill Society to offset expenses incurred with Midsummer Music

• maintenance of the war memorial

• installation of flood lights on the MUGA to extend the time it can be available to the community

• The Brill with Ukraine group continues. We meet less frequently but support remains firm. We still have two Ukrainian families living in Brill.

Roads and traffic

The two electric vehicle charging points which were to be installed in the Memorial Hall car park have been cancelled due to Buckinghamshire Council failing to come to satisfactory arrangements with the contractor.

The windmill carpark has been resurfaced and the potholes filled in. Hedges along access roads to our village have been cut to give road users greater visibility.

On-going business

The Parish Clerk and Councillors have been working to ensure the smooth running of the village, including -

• reviewing and commenting on planning applications

• organising services such as street lighting, grass cutting and emptying the dog waste bins

• arranging the removal of fly-tipped waste

• contingency planning including improving document control using DropBox to make it easy for councillors to share documents and to have clear records to handover to the next council

• organising safety inspections and maintenance of the playgrounds

• ensuring there is public liability insurance in place

• responding to questions and complaints 

• communications with Buckinghamshire Council officials

• maintaining the financial accounts

• keeping residents informed with a monthly newsletter (digital and print) and comprehensive website.