Christmas and New Year
All the councillors and staff of the Buckden Parish Council would like to send seasonal greetings to all the residents
of Buckden and Stirtloe. We hope that your Christmas is everything that you could wish for and that 2014 brings
health and prosperity.
The season’s celebrations will, of course, be kicked off by the
Christmas Lights Celebration
, a joint Buck-
den4Business and Parish Council venture, to take place on
1
st
December, 2-5 p.m
. in the High St. Last year was
great fun and this year looks to be even better. We hope to see you there.
Calling all potential councillors – we
really
do need you
Next year will be an important year for Buckden Parish Council. Elections for the council will be held on 22 May
2014, alongside the European and District Council elections.
At the Buckden Parish Council, we are very keen to apply for Quality Council status, which would bring us several
benefits, especially when applying for grants. In order for us to be able to apply, we need to have sufficient candi-
dates to force an election in May 2014, i.e. more candidates than we have seats.
As well as enabling our QC application, we would also like to increase the representation across all age sectors, in
order to be better informed when taking decisions that affect all our residents. There are some big issues on the
future agenda – including the A14 – that will affect Buckden for many years. Please consider giving a little of your
time to the Parish Council. If you need any further information, and would like to know exactly what is involved,
please contact the Chair, Fiona Shirley, tel: 01480 811703 or John Chase, the Clerk, at the address below.
Village Plan
You will remember that the Parish Council is supporting the development of a Village Plan for Buckden and that a
survey to establish the views of the residents was carried out in 2012. It might seem that everything has gone quiet,
but since the survey was completed, the Steering Group has been working hard to analyse the huge quantity of
data that came from the survey, and to use that analysis to create a draft of a readable and concise Village Plan.
The Chairman of the Steering Group, Martin Shirley, attended the Parish Council meeting on Tuesday 12
th
Novem-
ber to present the draft to parish councillors. The Parish Council has established a Working Group which will study
the draft and come back to the Village Plan Steering Group with questions and corrections of fact. This review will
take about two months. It is anticipated that after this review, the Parish Council will adopt the Village Plan which it
will use to guide decision making, and to support it in negotiations and discussions with other bodies and in fund
raising.
Any questions or comments on this report can be addressed to the Parish Clerk
John Chase, Clerk to Buckden Parish Council, Buckden Village Hall, Burberry Road, Buckden PE19
5UY, Telephone (01480) 819407, Email
clerk@buckdenparishcouncil.org.uk
Do not forget our website at
www.buckdenparishcouncil.org.uk
There will be a
Parish Council Meeting, including a 15 minute Public Forum on Tuesday 10
th
De-
cember starting at 7.30pm
in the Village Hall. Members of the public are welcome to attend and raise
any Buckden related issues..
If required, the
Parish Council’s Planning Committee
will meet on
Tuesday 10
th
December
starting
7pm. Agendas for the meetings are posted on the Parish Council notice boards not later than the Sat-
urday preceding the meeting.
4
