May 2019

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4 Buckden Roundabout
May 2019 Buckden Parish Council
Buckden Parish Council News...
Neighbourhood Plan
Those of you who attended the Parish Assembly will
have heard the progress that has been made on the
plan. It reflects the views given by residents in the ques-
tionnaire completed last year. The presentation at the
Assembly was the first stage of the consultation which is
necessary to have the plan adopted. Hard copies will be
available in the library and the Council office from the
middle of May and it will also be available on the Coun-
cil’s website. Residents are urged to read it and to sub-
mit their comments in writing to the Clerk as soon as
possible. When these are received the Plan will be
amended to reflect any important suggested changes
and then passed to HDC for its comments. After it has
been agreed with them it will be submitted to an inde-
pendent Inspector. If the plan is approved by the inspec-
tor the final stage of the consultation will be a referen-
dum when all residents will have their last opportunity
to vote for the plan. The final stage will be when the
plan is endorsed by the full District Council. It is a long
but very worthwhile journey.
Parish Council Photo Competition
As announced last month the Parish Council Photo Com-
petition will again take place with all entries displayed
during the summer festival weekend. We are now call-
ing all photographers. Whatever your age. Get out your
cameras and start snapping pictures of Architecture,
People and Nature of Buckden, Stirtloe and Diddington.
We have been able to extend the closing time for en-
tries to midnight on 1st July. Entries should be taken to
the Parish Clerk, dropped through the door of 48 Vine-
yard Way or brought the Village Hall between 6pm-
7.30pm on Monday 1st July.
Entry forms will be in the June edition of the Rounda-
bout. Get snapping we don’t want a negative re-
sponse.
Parish Precept
The Council has received some questions about the ap-
parently large increase in the Parish Precept for the year
2019-2020. Although 22.7% appears high it equates to
approximately 30p per week for a band D house, which
is less than the cost of a cup of coffee a month. The in-
crease is due to several factors. Firstly we have not in-
creased the precept by enough in previous years and
have, as a consequence, allowed our reserves to run
low; secondly we have had several major projects this
year including the church paths,
improvements to the cemetery
and provision of the new zebra
crossing and thirdly we have tak-
en into account the possible extra costs involved if the
County and District Councils reduce the services that
they provide. We did announce the increase in the De-
cember edition of the Roundabout.
Planning and Roads
Residents will have seen the changes made to the
Stirtloe Lane/A1 road junction. The Council has made a
formal complaint about the adequacy of this junction.
We strongly believe that there should be deceleration
and acceleration lanes in order to ensure the safety of
drivers on both roads. Our complaint has been rejected
by Highways England but we are not going to stop in our
efforts.
Resignation of Councillors
The Council has accepted the resignation of two long
standing Councillors, Fiona Shirley and John Moore.
John has been a stalwart of our ROW and Road Safety
Advisory Groups, Fiona has been chairman of the Coun-
cil for seven years of her fifteen years on the Council.
Both will be greatly missed.
Parish Council Vacancies
The resignations mean that there are two vacancies on
the Council. If you are interested in becoming a Council-
lor and helping to shape the future of the village please
contact either the Chairman or the Clerk.
Office Opening Hours The Office opening hours are:
Mon, Weds and Thursday 10.30 -2.00pm, Tuesday 2-4
pm, Fri – closed.
Council Meetings
The next meeting of the Council will be held at 7.30pm
on Tuesday 14th May. The meeting will include a 15 mi-
nute open forum. Residents are asked to apply in writing
to the Parish Clerk by 8th May, outlining what they wish
to say, for a three minute slot.
If required the Council Planning Committee will meet on
Tuesday 30th April and Tuesday 14th May at 7.00pm.
Agendas for these meetings are posted on the Parish
notice boards not 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