July 2022

4 Buckden Roundabout July 2022 Buckden Parish Council Buckden Parish Council News... Council Website For more information, please visit the Buckden Parish Council (BPC) website at www.buckdenpc.org.uk. To automatically find out what is going on subscribe to our Newsletter service using your email address. The Queen ’ s Platinum Jubilee The Jubilee celebrations were a great success across the vil- lage. Events started with the Beacon lighting on Thursday evening. Thanks to Overloaded who designed and manufac- tured the Beacon (See separate article on page 18), to Chris Bylett and Angel Voices for leading the singing and to the Vil- lage Club for supporting the event. Royal tea at the Towers on Friday was attended by a large number of residents of all ages. The Royal themed fancy dress parade was wonderful, and the cake competition produced some fantastic contributions. Thanks to all those at the Tow- ers for their amazing organisation. Particular thanks to Tizzy Pape for all she did organising the various competitions and designing the posters and leaflets. On Saturday a tea party was held in the Village Hall for the older residents of the village. More than 80 people attended. Thank you for the wonderful tea provided by Sue McGrath from the Vine and to all those who helped to make this such a success. Thanks to the Village Hall and to the to the Village Club for supporting the event. The bunting designed by children from Buckden School was used to decorate both the Towers and the Village Hall. De- spite dreadful weather on Sunday several very successful street parties were held. Road Closures Numerous road closures are being undertaken during June and July particularly on the A1 and at the Roundabout. Full details are available on the website . Cycle racks By the time you read this the village hall stands should be in place. Further cycle racks are planned for the High St. Vacancies We have three vacancies for Parish Councilors. We still need more capacity on the council to take forward a variety of initi- atives to improve the village. Please join us. If you are inter- ested, please contact the Clerk for further details. Annual Assembly This took place on 17 th May, and was very well attended. Thank you to all presenters. Council Meetings Please note that in future our monthly meetings will begin at 7pm instead of 7.30pm. The next Council meeting will be at 7.00 pm on Tuesday 12 th July. 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 also meet if required. Agendas for these meetings are posted on the Parish notice boards no later than the Saturday preceding the meeting. Office opening hours The Clerk is operating flexibly between the office and home. If you wish to meet with the Clerk, please call on 01480 819407. All of the papers and reports for Council Meetings are available on the Thursday before meetings on Council website www.buckdenpc.org.uk .This provides the opportunity to see the agenda, reports of work carried out by the Council as well as reports from out 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 Rd, Buckden, PE19 5UY. Telephone 01480 819407 Email: clerk@buckdenpc.org.uk. Broadband for Buckden The broadband provision in Buckden, apart from the new housing developments, has been, for a number years, lacking in both performance and reliability. While we we have fibre to junction boxes, connection to individual houses is by old tele- phone copper cable. I understand that BT Openreach do not plan to provide fibre to individual houses until Dec 2026 at the earliest. Good internet access of broadband is increasingly important, for both young and old alike, and will be even more so in the future. Many of you will have recently received a flyer from County Broadband (CB). CB is proposing to replace the copper connec- tivity to individual houses with fibre to provide enhanced net- work capability and meet future demand. I was visited by a CB project manager and was impressed by both the plans and also the contract proposals, which initially tie you in for just 2 years. The project should be completed by about Sept 2023. However, for the project to be viable, CB needs a take up from Buckden of 25% of households - excluding the new develop- ments. I have decided to sign up with CB and invite you to consider doing similarly; hopefully we can meet the 25% threshold for the benefit of all residents. John Upham, Buckden Resident