August 2021

4 Buckden Roundabout August 2021 Buckden Parish Council Buckden Parish Council News... Council Website For more information, please visit the Parish Council web site at www.buckdenpc.org.uk. You can automatically find out what is going on by subscribing to our Newsletter service using your email address. Flooding At the time of writing contractors for Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) were operating in Taylors Lane and the High Street to clear drains and ditches. A very big thank to those residents who mounted a well organised media campaign which undoubtedly brought this forward. The Chair has also met with our MP Jonathan Djanogly to discuss this issue. This long overdue work is planned to take up to two weeks. Hunts End Work has begun on the path across the Green and should be com- plete by the time you read this. The wildflower areas will take some time to establish. This work has been undertaken with funding from the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation. The Great Big Green Week This is a national event taking place from 18 th to 26 th September. We plan to get involved and run a series of events. Initial ideas include: • Litter Pick Day • Wildlife and Ecology Appreciation Day • Hunts End Wilding Day • Electric Vehicle Advice Day • Extreme Climate, Flooding and Pollution Concerns Day • Cycling and Footpaths Day • Home Efficiency, Thermal Imaging Camera, Solar Panels and Insulation Day Further information to come. Tree Protection Orders Hunts District Council (HDC) has put in place a Tree Protection Order in relation to land at Buckden Quarry to cover an area of mixed broadleaf woodland. This woodland relates to the County Wildlife Site adjacent to Bishops Way, Buckden. BPC wish to acknowledge the efforts of the local resident who initiat- ed contact with HDC about planned works which included a proposal for tree felling in this area. We are grateful for their efforts and are pleased both to support them and to see the prompt and helpful response on this matter from the HDC Arboricultural Team. Further details of the Tree Protection Order, which is initially for a limited period, will be posted on the Buckden Parish Council website. Solar Panels through Solar Together Written by: Chris Wright, of the Buckden PC Climate Change Mitiga- tion Advisory Group. “ SOLAR TOGETHER is a CCC group buying scheme, by which you can install Solar Panels on a southerly facing roof at a cost that is more than 40% lower than normal. Several homes in Buckden have taken advantage of the scheme and are now generating their own power. Surplus is sold back to the grid or stored in batteries for night - time use. You can expect to cover your initial investment and be in profit after 10 years. Meanwhile your monthly bills will be drastically reduced. We registered interest in the scheme and paid a deposit of £150. The next step was a survey of the roof by the company that had won the contract. Had they judged our roof unsuitable, our deposit would have been refunded. Within a few days we had a quotation and specification. In our case, this was for 10 panels and a battery which is located with the inverter in our loft space. The installation took place over one day. As a snapshot of performance, today our system has generated 12.5kWh of which we have used 5 kWh and sent 5 kWh to the Grid, from which we have drawn nothing. We have put 4 kWh into our battery and drawn 1 kWh from it. SOLAR TOGETHER will be promoting the scheme again in the autumn. If your roof faces between South East and South West with South as optimum, and it isn ’ t obscured by tall trees, search for Solar Together Cambridgeshire to register your interest. Not only will this be a great investment and reduce your monthly energy bills, you will also be making a real contribution towards mitigating the Climate Crisis. So, help yourself and help the Planet. If you would like to see what it all looks like, I can be contacted on cw95765@gmail.com ” Lucks Lane Attenuation Basins The County Council Flood Agency have confirmed that the current proposals to drain the main flooded basin into a secondary unflood- ed basin are unsatisfactory. They asked Bloor Homes to find an alter- nate solution. Silver Street Development The development remains ‘ on hold ’ whilst investigations into poten- tial surface water flooding are undertaken. Representatives of the Council are meeting with Anglian Water on 29 th July to reiterate con- cerns about the potential impact on the sewage and drainage sys- tems. Save the Date We are proposing to hold a Road Safety and Sustainable Transport focus group on 27 th September at 7.30pm to consider all the issues currently facing the village with attendees from CCC, Highways Eng- land etc. Council Meetings The next Council meeting will be at 7.30pm on Tuesday 14th Septem- ber. 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.