June 2019

Buckden Roundabout

June 2019

From Your Councillors

FROM YOUR DISTRICT COUNCILLOR

HDC Local Plan 2036

I attended the HDC briefing on the Local Plan to 2036

and am pleased to report that the Plan has been ap-

proved by the Inspector, with a date for formal adoption

on or about 15 May 2019.

This Plan runs for the next 17 years and provides an

agreed framework for development for all HDC Wards.

This will give us more certainty over how we can deliver

well planned and managed growth which includes

homes, jobs, community facilities and the local infra-

structure to support them.

The Plan is very prudent and well-constructed, and great

credit is due to the various teams at HDC who have done

this work. I will continue to work with our Conservative

team to ensure that your issues are heard in the plan-

ning process, and that the needs of Buckden are met as

we continue to grow.

HDC Portal

Another new development which I hope will be very

useful to residents is our new online system, the Cus-

tomer Portal. This offers a single view of council services

for customers when they log into the secure area; avail-

able 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You can access personalised information, including a

summary of your Council Tax account, and submit re-

quests. Additional services will be made available

throughout the year.

There is also a customer satisfaction widget now live on

the Customer Portal. By clicking on ‘Tell us what you

think’, where comments can be submitted and residents

can suggest services they would like to see added in the

future.

To register, go to: my.huntingdonshire.gov.uk

Since the launch on 30 April 2019, over 1500 people

have registered, and around 50% of registrations have

been completed out of hours, highlighting the need for

digital access to council services.

Taylors Lane Flooding

Residents have raised concerns about the impact of the

Silver Street development on the Taylors Lane stream. I

have followed up on this, and have been assured by the

County Council that the land is capable of being devel-

oped without causing an unacceptable flood risk to sur-

rounding land.

The details of how this will be done (in the form of a de-

tailed surface water drainage scheme) must be a condi-

tion of any outline planning permission granted and

would be submitted at the detailed design stage. I will

continue to monitor the application to ensure they are

aware of the history and the extent of possible flooding.

Councillor HDC Buckden Ward

(

Hamish.Masson@Huntingdonshire.gov.uk

)

FROM

YOUR

COUNTY

COUNCILLOR

At its May meeting, the County Council made a deter-

mined response to the challenge of the recent public

concern about climate change. It was agreed to declare

a ‘climate emergency’ which means that the Council

must come up with specific plans for reducing the car-

bon footprint of its activities and leading residents down

a similar path. Of course, in all these discussions, it is

easy to repeat the platitudes and the real challenge lies

ahead when it come to specific policies and actions.

The second motion was a commitment to tackling air

pollution. This is another issue where we all agree that

‘something must be done’ but tackling it is problematic,

so embedded are we in our routines and expectations.

One specific idea is to work on reducing air pollution

near schools and this was of particular interest to the

parish council when I reported it to them.

We also discussed the move of the County Council HQ

from Cambridge to Alconbury Weald. This is being done

to save money though, paradoxically, it might increase

travel for staff and councillors, thereby contradicting the

good intentions of the first paragraph of this article.

Local issues for Buckden residents

I have been working with other councillors to clarify

what is going to happen to Luck’s Lane when the work

needs to be done for the new houses. The village is for-

tunate to have parish councillors and other residents

who are very vigilant about the detail.

In spite of our best efforts, it has still not been possible

to meet the A14 planners and try to change the pro-

posed layout of the road you take when you have gone

through Brampton on the way to Huntingdon. The road

layout proposed by Highways England will make the

traffic jams worse than they already are. I will report

back as soon as I can but I have the nasty feeling that

the die is cast.

If you wish to raise any local matters with me personally

and would welcome a face-to-face conversation, please

write to me at peter.downes@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or

ring me on 07765 833 486. I can easily get over to Buck-

den to see you if needed.

Peter Downes