December 2023

4 Buckden Roundabout December 2023 Buckden Parish Council Buckden Parish Council News... Council Website For more information, please visit the Buckden Parish Council (BPC) web site at www.buckdenpc.org.uk. To automatically find out what is going on subscribe to our Newsletter service using your email address. Potential Highways Projects The Parish Council is considering applying for funding for mo- bile vehicle activated signs for Lucks Lane. These units are electronic signs which are only visible when approaching mo- tor vehicles exceed a certain speed. If you have any concerns about speeding in Lucks Lane, please send your experiences to our Clerk so we can include these in our application. The more information we have about the problems caused by speeding the more likely we are to get funding for the scheme. If there are any other road safety issues in the village that you think we should be aware of again, please send that infor- mation to the Clerk. Buckden Parish Council Allotments - Community Plot . This growing year, the Buckden Allotment had a half plot lying fallow, so they decided to start a community growing space. They had great success with organic early potatoes and have continued to grow and harvest many vegetables over the sea- son. The harvest has been given to Diamond Hampers in Hun- tingdon for sale, with the proceeds from this going to the local Food Banks. Diamond Hampers CIC have two stores in Huntingdon which have been operating for 3 years providing access to affordable food, clothing and other essential homeware and hygiene products. The stores are staffed by volunteers and many others. They were initially set up to address a huge dignity gap across the community and to develop something that hadn ’ t been done before. They wanted to be the hand up that people needed in crisis, not the handout, and to provide empowerment, not enablement. Diamond Hampers are delighted that the allotment Communi- ty Plot is offering spare items for The Pantry food part of the operation. If anyone else in the village has spare produce over the growing season or wants to donate in other ways with tinned and packet food; which is then sold in their shop in All Saints Passage in Huntington, the proceeds of which go to the local food banks please consider donating it to Diamond Ham- pers. The group organises a regular delivery to them, any surplus vegetables are placed on a blue picnic table near the gate and once a week a member of the group collects them all together and delivers them. The more donated the better. If you want more information about the organisation their website is https://diamondhampers.org Buckden Flood Group The Parish council has now taken delivery of a storage shed for its flood equipment. The green shed is near the entrance to the allotments on Silver Street. It contains brooms, shovels and squeegees. These can be used for sweeping away water and accumulated leaves and debris that are blocking drains. There are also two road drain brushes (like chimney sweeps' brushes) in case road drains get blocked. There are keys for lifting the drain covers and a crowbar in case extra force is needed. In addition there is a small first aid kit and a powerful torch. There are 4 Hi - Vis jackets in case of an emergency in the dark. By the time this is published, there will be two pumps, with hoses, for use in pumping out properties should they be flooded. The Parish Council is grateful to Cambridgeshire County Coun- cil which supplied the store and equipment at no charge. Access to the store is secured by a padlock, with a numeric code. Details will be published in next month's edition as to how the code will be made available in the event of a flood. Buckden has been very lucky that it has not suffered flooding during the last three named storms. The Taylor's Lane water- course has filled quite high, but the work done by the County Council to the drains under the High Street seems to be effec- tive. If anyone notices any flooding, please report it to the Parish Clerk as soon as possible. The Flood Group is still looking for Flood Wardens, to alert residents of flooding. Anyone willing to volunteer should con- tact the Parish Clerk. With winter approaching this is particu- larly important. Councillors Richard Salmon has resigned as a Councillor. We are very grateful for Richard ’ s support to a variety of village initiatives over several years. Council Meetings The next Council meeting will be at 7.00 pm on Tuesday 12 th December. 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 both meetings are posted on the Parish notice boards no later than the Saturday preceding the meeting. Office opening hours The Clerk operates flexibly between the office and home. If you wish to meet with the Clerk, please call on. 07483 033357. 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 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 Rd, Buckden, PE19 5UY. Telephone 01480 819407 Email: clerk@buckdenpc.org.uk.