September 2023

20 Buckden Roundabout September 2023 Village News Bookings After the usual quiet August period, September activity is again picking up, with several corporate bookings and a 50 th birthday party alongside all our lovely regular hirers this month. Don ’ t forget that we host several Pilates classes as well as Dog ’ s Trust training, NHS exercise clinics and other activities. We have three conference rooms that are great for corpo- rate bookings, plus the main Hall for larger meetings/ training sessions. We have reduced hire rates for residents of Buckden/Stirtloe/Diddington so if you would rather walk to your next meeting than get stuck in traffic, please email me! We can also offer refreshments and can order a buffet lunch, so we are a one - stop - shop for all your meeting needs! Check out our calendar for September here: https:// www.buckdenvillagehall.co.uk/events/calendar - for - the - hall/month.calendar/2023/09/07/ - BVHT AGM Tuesday 5 th September 2023, 7:15pm The Trust ’ s AGM will be held on Tuesday, 5 th September at 7:15 pm in the Lincoln Room (entrance on the side right hand door by the preschool). Everyone is welcome. The Village Hall is here to serve residents of Buckden so please do make your views known. BVHT news We are delighted to welcome our new caretaker, Ian, who joined us in August. Ian is a village resident and will be cov- ering the late afternoon/evening shifts. Please join us in welcoming him. Long term financial planning and strategy The Trustees are developing strategic funding plans for the next one - , three - and five - year periods. Parts of the Village Hall are now over 40 years old, and even the extension built with Millennium funding grants is almost 25 years old. Maintenance and repairs are an on - going cost – during Covid we spent £40,000 replacing the floor in our Main Hall. BVHT is obliged to meet net zero EPC standards to renew leases which will be another heavy investment requirement to upgrade our huge gas boilers. Just a reminder that BVHT is a self - funding charity – and we have to work very hard to meet our heavy operating expenses @ c. £65,000 p.a. As the Trustees develop their strategy, we want to incorpo- rate residents ’ views into our priorities for funding and re- furbishment. We would like to hear from residents on what projects and improvements YOU would like us to focus our efforts. Please email any views or opinions to admin@buckdenvillagehall.co.uk with positive and con- structive feedback. That said, all this is contingent on successful fund - raising so please do volunteer or be patient and supportive as we for- mulate strategies, budgets and fund applications which are very labour - intensive when the Trustees are all volunteers. We have applied to various charitable funds with varying degrees of success, and we will seek to build on our learning experience. Valley water update and Your Valley needs you! Regular visitors to the Valley will have noticed that the wa- ter quality in the Valley has deteriorated since the water was beautifully clear in early April. There are a combination of factors contributing to this: • the shallowness of the pond which facilitates sun- shine at low levels • the lack of any water feed to the stagnant pond wa- ters as the stream has dried up • very high phosphate levels leading to an unbalanced ecosystem. The high phosphate level is a product of land runoff as the lake is surrounded by agricultural fields and gardens. The main drains from the Hall also feed into the lake as do the playing fields. We have sought advice from the Environ- ment Agency as well as specialist contractors, and we are evaluating costs and options. Various water samples have been taken to inform a course of action – all of which con- firm high phosphate levels. Our grateful thanks to our ever - helpful Environment Agency representative who lives in the Village and takes an active interest in Buckden more gener- ally. The main concern is that the stream to the lake has dried up. As we have had decent rainfall, we can only assume that there is a blockage somewhere along the stream route which runs under the petrol station, under Springfield Close and out through Morris Close. We would be very grateful if residents along Morris Close could let us know about the state of water flow as we do not have access to private land along this water course. The pond weed on the surface water is brought in by water- fowl so there is little we can do to prevent this although it is not great for oxygen levels in the lake. We are consulting pond maintenance experts on a course of action for that and the blanket weed. We have been treating the algae with monthly bacteria applications, but this has struggled to keep the algae growth in check. The obvious improvement would be an aerator to create more waterflow, which our previous contractors strongly recommended. Algae thrive in warm stagnant water. There isn ’ t a power source to the Valley to run an aerator, so we need to rely on solar power and a tower to reach a steady source of light - with the usual concerns about vandalism. A solar powered aerator and power source start at £5,500 + VAT each – and we probably need two aerators. We contin- ue to actively fund - raise. The Trust has a working group of amazing volunteers who (Continued on page 22) Burberry Road, Buckden, Cambridgeshire, PE19 5UY Tel: 01480 811101 www. buckdenvillagehall.co.uk email: admin@buckdenvillagehall.co.uk