December 2021

5 Buckden Roundabout December 2021 From your councillor From Your District Councillor - HDC HDC and Flooding With so many random flooding events over the past year it is very understandable that so many Buckden residents cannot understand why HDC has not been more active on flooding. As with our own Buckden Parish Council who have strict legal limits on what they can or cannot do, HDC cannot fix what oth- er Authorities are responsible for. Behind the scenes, HDC has been very active in mobilising co - operation between various organisations and making sure that frequent briefings take place between the various committees, experts and partnerships responsible for water in all of its vari- ous forms. HDC developed an excellent Decision Guide and Action Tree showing all the various Authorities, Organisations and Govern- ment Agencies responsible for flooding and water in our area, available on the HDC website. It is a surprisingly long list but basically it ’ s Cambridgeshire County Council, Anglian Water, the Combined Authority, DEFRA, and the Environment Agen- cies, plus National Highways for A1 drains and culverts. As they say in films, all the usual suspects (Casablanca actually)! One very big problem affecting response to the flooding prob- lem is the principle in English Law of “ Property Ownership ”. If you own your bit of land, no - one can come in and tell you what to do. As a result, bits of the Taylors Lane culvert did get cleared, but, other bits under drives which were clearly part of the freehold- ers land did not. Lets not even ask about the culvert under the A1, despite my many complaints to National Highways! The principle is called “ Riparian Ownership ”, if you have a stream on your property, you are responsible for maintaining it. HDC has continued to research its project to map Riparian Owners in the area and producing a map of localities and re- sponsibilities. In reality this is a big step forward as it did not exist before, so many thanks to Jon Neish, HDC Conservative Councillor and HDC Cabinet Member for leading this project forward. What this means is that as a property owner you are responsi- ble for your property. At the BPC meeting on 9 November, two Councillors gave excellent advice on sand bagging and alterna- tive solutions, “ Snakes ” and “ water proof boarding ”, used at Kimbolton on many older houses. BPC also has a proposed a project to provide mobile pumps to help with problems, anoth- er useful idea. Do look at the minutes, all good stuff. But the really big issue we have to sort out is “ Grey Water Run Off ”. Any area of compacted land, waterlogged land, or tar- mac, or even bricked drive, sheds water at a faster rate than local drains can cope with. The western side of the A1 is a vast catchment area caused by mono agriculture, field size increase, summer dryness and hedgerow destruction etc, so on to the next problem for Buckden. Solar Farm Planning Application at Vicarage Lane Diddington. This is a planning application for 106 acres (4.2HA) of Solar Farm on the middle area of Vicarage Lane. I walked it with the developers, a fabulous site, sunny secluded and with more pheasants than I have ever heard in my life, well done Rampley Bros and Thornhill Estates! This is a seriously big site, and de- pends on energy exports to the National Grid, Anglian Water, (Continued on page 6) FRIENDS IN DEED Friends in Deed is a group of volunteers who offer help and support to residents of Buckden. There are times in our lives when we could all do with a little extra support or companionship what- ever our age or circumstances. WELCOME BACK TO THE COMMUNITY CAFÉ We are so pleased to be able to re - open our Community Café in the Living Stones Room in St Mary ’ s Church Buckden on the 2nd Wednesday of every month 2.30 - 4.00pm. WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 8TH. Please come and join us, whether you are in need of support or just fancy a cuppa, chat and homemade cake. Need someone to talk to? - it is not easy to ask for help, but why struggle when there are people happy to listen and to help? When we keep things to ourselves and struggle on, things can feel overwhelming and a little bit of help can make all the difference. Come and speak to us at the Community Café or email friendsindeed@stmarysbuckden.org.uk . We can arrange either home visits or a friendly voice and ear over the phone. This is a free service and can be either a one - off chat or regular chats. Need a lift to an appointment? Our team of volunteer drivers are able to provide transport for vaccination / hospital / den- tal / hair appointments etc when family, friends or public transport is not an option. There are fixed fees for this service. Please email our transport co - ordinator peter.mount@btconnect.com or call 07914 669967 and leave your name, number, address and details of your appointment (date, time, location). Please do give us 48 hours notice if possible; 24 hours notice as a minimum and we shall do our best to meet your needs. Want to volunteer? We are always on the look out for new volunteers. Just contact us at friendsindeed@stmarysbuckden.org.uk if you would like to know more. We are looking for more drivers, so if you have a car and some free time, please get in touch. All our volun- teers are DBS checked and safeguarding trained. We have contacted Ken Billington, our new County Councillor, to invite him to communicate with his constituents by writing a monthly article for the Roundabout, as our District Councillors and previous County Councillors have done, but we have had no response from him.