April 2020

4 Buckden Roundabout April 2020 Buckden Parish Council Buckden Parish Council News... Annual Parish Meeting REMINDER this to be held on 22 nd April at 7pm in the Village Hall. Please join us. Buckden Neighbourhood Plan The latest update of the plan will shortly be submitted to HDC. We will be able to tell you more about the progress of the plan and the next steps in getting it approved at the Annu- al Parish meeting. Silver Street and Mill Road developments At the time of writing the hold on both developments is still in place until 3rd April. We continue to await an update from Highways England about proposals for the Roundabout. If we hear anything more, we will put an update on the Council web site and Facebook. Coronavirus update Some of you may be concerned about the Coronavirus. The Local Government Association has published a very useful list of different government advice sources https:// www.local.gov.uk/coronavirus - information - councils we would recommend taking a look at Government advice at regular intervals. The Parish Council will also be checking reg- ularly to inform decisions. Please be aware that things might change very rapidly so do keep up to date with the latest ad- vice on the news and on - line. At the time of writing, the government advice is broadly busi- ness as usual, so there are no specific measures we will be taking at the moment and Council meetings and the Annual Parish Meeting is currently still going ahead . See further guidance from the local pharmacy on page 14. Where did the Parish Council ’ s money go in 2019 - 20? We funded a number of major projects including develop- ment of the Neighbourhood Plan, a new Zebra Crossing at Hunts End, the new Round - about - Buckden footpath, allot- ments improvements, the Local Cycling & Walking plan and the Perry Road safety improvements (due to be installed soon by CCC Highways team). Councillors secured additional fund- ing to pay the majority of costs for these projects with grants totalling £44,835 over and above council tax households paid. Despite this substantial amount of additional funding, we have had to dip into the Parish Council reserve funds to meet the need in - year for the Parish Council to pay unexpected costs to cover services previously provided by HDC, deal with vandalism at the playground and complete the essential pro- gramme of works around the parish, including new railings at the Buckden Cemetery and new Christmas lights. Parish charge in Council Tax April 2020 to March 2021 Hunts District Council (HDC) have confirmed that the Parish share of your Council Tax will rise in April 2020 by 64p per week for each average (Band D) household. The Council has set a budget to ena- ble us to continue to maintain the parish land & trees, complete the Neighbourhood Plan and continue to reflect and act on the priorities set by residents in relation to the development of new housing in the village. Significant investments are planned for new highways safety initiatives, as well as sustainable transport and climate change mitigation projects, including bids already submitted for grants to support these financially. Where possible costs have been reduced by seeking alterna- tive providers or negotiating reduced prices. Our budget plan includes some rebuilding of the reserves which had fallen by £60,000 over the last 5 years, so that we can avoid overspending as and when we have to pick up fur- ther costs passed over to us by the District and County Coun- cils during 2020 - 21. In addition, grants will be sought whenev- er possible. Historic Footpaths Walkers are being urged to help identify 10,000 miles of his- toric footpaths that are missing from the map in England and Wales and could be lost for ever. All rights of way must be identified before a government deadline of 2026, after which it will no longer be possible to add old paths to the official record. The walking group Ramblers is calling on walkers, historians and map enthusiasts to use its new mapping site to identify missing footpaths. The online tool divides the official map into 150,000 1km squares so users can compare historic and current maps side by side, spot any differences and submit missing paths. If you are interested in this please go to: https://www.ramblers.org.uk/dontloseyourway Office opening hours are: Mon, Wed and Thursday 10.30 - 2.00pm, Tuesday 2 - 4pm, Friday – closed. Council Meetings The next Council meeting will be at 7.30pm on Tuesday 14 th April. The meeting will include a 15 - minute open forum. If you want to speak at the meeting, please let us know what you want to say, by contacting the Parish Clerk. You will get a three - minute slot. The Council Planning Committee will meet on 10 th March. Agendas for planning meetings are posted on the Parish no- tice boards no later than the Saturday preceding the meeting. All of the papers and reports for Council meetings are available on the Thursday before the meetings on the Council website http://buckdenparishcouncil.org.uk . This provides the opportunity to see the agenda, reports of work carried out by the Coun- cil as well as reports from our County and District Councillors. Any questions or comments on this report should be addressed to the Parish Clerk at: Buckden Parish Council, Buckden Village Hall, Burberry Road, Buckden, PE19 SUY Telephone 01480 819407 Email clerk@buckdenparishcouncil.org.uk