December 2022

5 Buckden Roundabout December 2022 From your District Councillor District Councillor ’ s Report General I remain concerned about the future of the District Council ’ s finances. Rishi Sunak has taken over following Liz Truss ’ s disas- trous six - week premiership with the national economy in tur- moil and a huge budget gap to fill. He and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have already spoken repeatedly of difficult decisions to come and that means spending cuts. Local councils across the country have seen their budgets chopped away remorselessly over the past 12 years, and Hun- tingdonshire (HDC) has been no exception. Left with a £2.5m inherited deficit, for 2023 - 24, from the previous administra- tion, very high inflation and limited reserves, HDC is now brac- ing itself for what comes next. Environment Agency Funding for a Study of Natural Flood Management Opportunities Received We were informed, at our last LLFA Flood Group, that funding has been received from the Environment Agency for a study of natural flood management opportunities to the west of Buck- den and Southoe. Recommendations and proposals could in- clude the use of Natural England, catchment sensitive, farming and may involve payments to landowners and biodiversity credits. The aim of the study is to look at longer term ways of pre- venting flooding in the area in the future. Huntingdonshire can expect both droughts and flooding as global warming increas- es. Already we are seeing flash flood type events where heavy rainfall highlights the poor maintenance of much of our road drainage. If you have been flooded, or nearly flooded, in the recent heavy downpours please report it to Cambridgeshire County Council via: https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel - roads - and - parking/roads - and - pathways/report - a - flood Or https://tinyurl.com/5n8yneer Check for flooding: https://check - for - flooding.service.gov.uk/location? location=huntingdonshire Or https://tinyurl.com/yfv3m7av New Monthly Expanded Huntingdon Market to be Launched Huntingdonshire District Council, in collaboration with Hun- tingdon Town Council and Huntingdon BID, are launching a monthly expansion of Huntingdon market to focus on local artisan traders that will be known as Fayre on the Square. The Huntingdon market currently takes place every Saturday and once per month, starting with Saturday 12th November, the market will be expanded from its usual location along the High Street to also take over the Market Square. The expansion will allow for a greater number of market stall holders to take part in the market, as well as use the extra space to provide activities and entertainment that will rotate monthly. Each market will open from from 10am until 3pm. The market will feature live entertainment, locally produced goods and artisan gifts. Extension to Finance Granted to Complete the Buckden to Brampton Cycle and Footway We have been waiting for such a long time for this and it was great to be part of the Cabinet that approved the financial ex- tension this evening. Let's hope that it get completed on time and we get better walking and cycling between Buckden and Brampton next year. Please see below: An up to £100,000 CIL allocation was approved at HDC Cabinet on 18th March 2021 towards the improvements to the cycle/ footway including a safer crossing point at Buckden Road, Brampton. This project was offered under a time limit of 12 months to allow details of the future maintenance arrange- ments, confirmation of landowner consent and an updated business case to be provided. It has been confirmed that Coun- ty Council own the land and will be responsible for future maintenance. Whilst there have been delays due to review of options and speed monitoring work needing to be undertaken, the project is now back on track with a revised completion date of May 2023. An extension of time to 31st May 2023 for the comple- tion of this project, has been approved. Let ’ s hope that there are no further delays!!! Wishing you all well, Martin Martin Hassall District Councillor for Buckden, Diddington and Southoe Executive Councillor for Corporate & Shared Services Phone: 07480 798 342 Buckden and Little Paxton Surgeries Patient Participation Group (PPG) It has been a busy and productive couple of months for our PPG. I wish to use this space to focus on our Annual General Meeting, which took place in September, being held in Buckden Primary School. The first half of the meeting involved a Presentation, given by two of our Partner G.P.s, namely Dr. Nathalie Rodri- guez - McCullough and Dr. Mina Rizkallah. The theme of their Presentation was "The Current Challenges facing General Prac- titioners." They reported that the N.H.S. is presently going through, and being affected, by many changes. Some of these are making the working lives of G.P.s more difficult, and are having a direct impact on patients. Our surgeries, in Buckden and Little Pax- ton, are now part of a Primary Care Network (PCN), the A1 PCN. This includes surgeries in Kimbolton, Brampton, Alcon- bury, Sawtry, and St. Neots. The Network is sharing staff occu- pying different roles, such as Clinical Pharmacists, Social Pre- scribers, Physiotherapists, Physician Associates, Mental Health Link Workers, etc., who are tasked with supporting the work of the G.P.s. However, it was pointed out that Primary Health is still underfunded, especially in comparison to Secondary Health Care, 5% being invested in the former, and 95% being received by the latter. The G.P.s stressed the urgent need for more funding to be provided for General Practice. And on an- other point it was emphasized that, in 2022, two million more appointments were being provided each month than there had been pre - pandemic. Within Cambridgeshire, 500,000 appoint- ments had been provided in July, with over half of these being face to face appointments. We then had a Question and Answer session, following on from the presentation. Several issues emerged, which high- lighted the difficulties previously referred to. More demands are being placed on our G.P.s, as a result of these changes in the NHS. They are regularly working 12 hour days, with admin- istrative tasks taking up a lot of their time, such as reading and responding to E Mails, mentoring and supervising the addition- al roles earlier referred to, and having to carry out duties which should have been carried out at hospital, such as writing prescriptions and ordering blood tests. As to the latter com- (Continued on page 12)