POLICE will hold a series of information stalls in the area, during August. It’s a chance for the public to meet local officers and to receive information and guidance.

As far as Marlow Bottom is concerned, convenient venues are tomorrow at the Church Road cricket pavilion in Little Marlow, between 9 and 11, or Bourne End Police Station between 1 and 3.

A further opportunity will be between 2 and 3.30, at Marlow’s Dean Street Police Station on Wednesday, August 20. Property marking of gardening tools and bicycles will be offered, free of charge.

If you cannot make these dates (there are others available, locally), and would like a visit or information from the local Neighbourhood Team please call 101 or email MarlowNHPT2@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk or MarlowSouthWestRuralNHPT@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk CONFUSED by a Wycombe District Council letter? They could be, too!

Last Monday I received a letter from WDC, announcing a change in the way we register to vote (until now, we received a form in July to be completed by mid-October).

The letter states in one paragraph: “Your details are not on the open register”, followed, a few sentences later, by “Your name and address will be included in the open register unless you ask for them to be removed”.

WDC switchboard was busy and confused. The council was obliged to use text prepared by the Electoral Commission even though the meaning was contradictory.

Probably a large number of people – possibly all currently registered voters – will have received the letter, and WDC may have to issue an explanatory letter.

Meanwhile, if you are sensitive to your details being sold commercially, then remain alert to further information and be sure to enquire into your record.

AFTERNOON tea for anyone? Diana Bond, who has already raised hundreds of pounds for Age Concern, will hold another fundraising tea party in the Barn Club, between 2-4pm on Wednesday, August 13.

Diana’s afternoon cream teas with home-made cakes will cost £6 and that includes a raffle ticket for some attractive prizes. I’m also told her events are rewarding social get-togethers.

REMEMBER, Neale Hatch will be playing cricket to raise funds for the Sue Ryder Nettlebed Hospice, from 2pm on Sunday at the Church Road cricket ground in Little Marlow.

NEVER dial this number.

Another telephone trick has come to light and it’s potentially a very expensive one.

Simply do not dial any number beginning 0284, 0876 or 0809.

The tricksters’ method is technical and legally very complicated.

It originates in the Dominican Republic, beyond the authority of the British Telephone Preference Service.

Typically, you will be left a message to ring an 0809 number immediately. Just DON’T.

APPARENTLY, not everything I wrote about the Handy Cross (HC) plans last week was correct, even quoting what a Bucks Highways speaker had presented at the Valley Plus meeting.

Within hours of the paper appearing WDC had sent me a rejection of some of the facts and much of my adverse comment on how the developments have been publicised.

Contrary to what the Bucks Highways speaker said, a Coachway Park & Ride will be created, similar to that at Thornhill, Oxford, with a covered passenger concourse and waiting room and cafe, with a bus stand capacity for up to four buses or coaches at a time.

We had been told there would simply be something akin to a lay-by as in town bus stops.

The extra traffic lights are considered part of an incremental improvement for the Handy Cross area, as is the linking of all the nearby lights in what is described as a “learn-as-they-go, self-programming” system, able to “adjust automatically to traffic flows”.

The present Park & Ride service on the Cressex side will not be lost because the new Next development is funding a replacement service.

This will suit drivers who are averse to driving around the main HC complex.

I was told that the sports centre will actually be bigger than at present, in terms of number of lanes and exercise areas.

What I dispute is the WDC spokesman’s claim that the car park capacity will remain as now.

In fact the area set aside on the planning map is restricted to the space at the extreme SE section of the site, just beyond the row of houses.

But, when an event is scheduled, a system of “Virtual Messaging Signs” (no, nor do I) “on the approach roads, will enable drivers to use the Coachway Park & Ride car park”.

The WDC spokesman went on to say that they do “work closely with Bucks Highways, as do they in turn with the Highways Agency, both of whom we continue to make acutely aware of the significance of Handy X Hub to the future of the district and its residents”.

The problem is that there was no mention of the public in that information flow, other than through a WDC Blog.

I rest my case.

OXFORDSHIRE Clinical Commissioning Group invites participation in the ‘Improving Services in GP practices’ consultation by the consultation manager, Julia Stackhouse.

Please share your views about your local doctor’s surgery and how services could be improved over the next five years, online by August 18. Phone 01865 334652 for a paper copy.

WHAT’S about ten years old, has around four and half thousand legs and is red from top to toe?

I’ll tell you next week.