March 2021

5 Buckden Roundabout March 2021 From your councillors From your County Councillor The County Council met in full via Zoom on February 9th. The main topic was the budget for the coming year and, provision- ally, for the following four years. The detailed work had already been carried out in the preceding weeks in the various com- mittees The majority group inevitably wins the final vote and the oppo- sition groups propose their alternatives with little hope of getting them accepted. It is, however, an occasion for airing different views and there were many speeches of congratula- tion and thanks to CCC staff for their resilience in the Covid crisis. The scope for radical new ideas is very limited: most of the CCC budget is already committed to essential statutory services such as adult social care, looked after children as well as high- ways maintenance. This year ’ s budgetary process has been overshadowed, inevita- bly, by the Covid pandemic which has required much flexibility from council employees, with extra costs, partially offset by extra grants from central government. In terms of the County Council tax increase, this will be 1.99% for general expenditure and 1% towards Adult Social care. This means that the County Council component of your tax bill for next year will be as shown in the table. For people living in the Band D benchmark house, the increase amounts to £40.59 per year, or £3.38 per month. County council tax ac- counts for 70% of our overall council tax bill, the rest being levied by Fire, Police, District Council and Parish Council. The new investments in- cluded in the approved strategic plan for the com- ing year are an extra £4m on Footpaths and Pavements, £170k towards saving the road B1050 in the Fens (which is in danger of collapsing) and £1.090k on flood attenuation and biodiversity. Funding will need to be transferred from reserves to balance the budget. The Liberal Democrat alternative for 21 - 22 (1.99% plus 1.5% for Adult Social Care) would have added a further £0.57p per month for a Band D household, above the Conservative pro- posal. The Lib Dem improvement schemes included £600k for Community Support Hubs, £200k for Green apprenticeships and small businesses, £40k for Junior Travel Ambassadors and further capital investment in in energy - saving measures, road improvement and in enhancing and increasing biodiversity, with a revenue implication of £51k. In addition, they proposed to save £105k per annum by streamlining council committees and reducing the Special Responsibility Allowances for council- lors. From Your District Councillor Once again, many thanks to the many residents who have re- sponded on both flooding and the Luton Airport stacking con- sultation. Sadly, flooding has not gone away, but the sheer scale of this in Buckden and in many other places, has meant that senior managers and board directors in Huntingdon Dis- trict Council, Cambridge County Council and Anglian Water are talking together and as a result senior flood officers have visit- ed Buckden and Southoe to see the problems for themselves. This is progress, although the sheer scale of the issues does not mean instant solutions. The growing consensus is that the AWA sewerage system may no longer be adequate for Buckden or Southoe and that a sec- ond pumping station may be required. There is also growing concerns about the use of ponds (Attenuation) by House De- velopers and Highways England to get rid of surface water. These may not be working as planned. At least these big - ticket issues are at last out in the open and this may have an impact on the Silver Street and Mill Road developments. Another big issue for Buckden, is that on 6 May, a whole range of Elections are going to take place. Some may be website based, but others will use Polling Stations. So, there is clearly some relaxation of Covid rules coming. Postal voting may be very widely used, so being registered on time is important. There is a web page on the HDC website setting out the details. Elections relevant to Buckden on Thursday 6 May 2021 are for the following polls: • Police and Crime Commissioner election (postponed from May 2020) • Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Mayoral election • Cambridgeshire County Council elections • Buckden Neighbourhood Planning Referendum Plans are being finalised and there is a statutory requirement for these and candidate names to be published at least 28 working days before the referendum date so this will be com- pleted by the middle of March. A dedicated page for the Buck- den NP referendum will be on HDC's website. Key information regarding the upcoming elections can be found on this link: https://huntingdonshire.gov.uk/elections/ upcoming - elections/ Anyone who wishes to have a postal vote still has time to regis- ter for one. The deadline for registering to vote is midnight on Monday 19 April 2021. Arrangements are in place to help ensure polling stations are safe place to vote. Local Democracy is important to us all, leaflets are banned at present, so this may be a web - based campaign, but I hope you will involve yourselves as these Polls affect us all, especially the one for Mayor. I hope all goes well for you over the next month and as always get in touch with me if you have a problem. Hamish.masson@huntingdonshire.gov.uk. Hamish Masson—District Councillor Housing Band Ratio Amount £ A 6/9 933.18 B 7/9 1088.71 C 8/9 1244.24 D 9/9 1399.77 E 11/9 1710.83 F 13/9 2021.89 G 15/9 2332.95 H 18/9 2799.54