January 2021

4 Buckden Roundabout January 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 ’ s going on by subscribing to our Newsletter service using your email address. Parish Council Meetings All Parish Council, Planning and Advisory Group meetings will be online only for the moment. If you wish to attend an online meeting you will find instructions on the web site. Silver Street Development Most of you will have received a letter from HDC asking for your views on three new documents that have been made available on their web site. There is a fuller update about the status of the development on our website. However, in sum- mary our objections to the Silver Street development have been based upon the following factors: • The volume of traffic generated by the development, on top of that created by Lucks lane, is huge and the roads in the village simply cannot cope. The original report in 2018 suggested that there could be a queue of 300+ cars in the High Street in the morning rush hour. • The type of houses being proposed. Our research shows that Buckden needs more high - quality housing suitable for older individuals and more affordable housing for the young, not the profile of housing pro- posed for the site. • Buckden School and GP surgery do not have the ca- pacity to cope with the additional numbers. Both sites are difficult and expensive to expand. • Site access is dangerous and Silver Street itself cannot cope with the volume of traffic. • Construction Traffic would be going through the con- servation area for years. The road infrastructure can- not cope. The Council have continued to meet with Highways England and the County Council during December, but we still do not believe that the proposals for the roundabout are safe. The only real solution is a bypass. We will issue a further update on the website as soon as we have completed our review of the new documents. If the traffic proposals are approved this development is likely to go ahead and we have little confidence that the other issues will be addressed. We recommend that you object. Neighbourhood Plan By the time you read this we hope that Buckden ’ s Neighbour - hood Plan will have been signed off by Huntingdon District Council. Due to COVID the plan cannot be put to referendum in the village until May. However, it will have immediate influence in determining planning applications e.g. Silver Street. A successful referendum will have the effect of consid- erably increasing the amount of money (Community Infra- structure Levy) available to the parish in the event of develop- ment occurring. Consultation on Luton Airport flight paths We are continuing to demonstrate our opposition to the LLA and NATS Airspace Change Proposal . We will be lodging our objections to HDC by the 15th December and to the LLA by 5th February 2021 and where appropriate cooperating with the Perry group ALAS (Against Luton Airport Stack) and other councils. Further details are on the web site at: https:// buckdenpc.org.uk/consultation - on - luton - airport - flight - paths - information - from - hdc/ . Buckden Volunteers Due to the latest lockdown The Parish Council, St Mary ’ s Church and Friends In Deed have reinstated the volunteering scheme in the village. If you know of someone in the village who needs help with for example shopping, prescriptions etc. please ask them to con- tact: 07739249036 or 07525267851 Parish Council 01480 819377 Rev Jes between 9am - 6pm. Council Meetings The next Council meeting will be at 7.30pm on Tuesday 12th January. 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. This meeting will be an on - line only meeting. If you want to join the meeting instructions are on the web site. The Council Planning Committee will also meet if required. This will be an online meeting. Agendas for these meetings are posted on the Parish notice boards no later than the Sat- urday preceding the meeting. Office opening hours The office is currently closed, and the Parish Clerk is working from home. 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.