Newborough and Borough Fen Parish Council

I hope you’ve all had a great Easter and enjoyed the break. We have now started the long journey towards pulling together a Neighbourhood Plan. I say “long journey” as typically this can take 2 to 3 years to pull together and get full approval. Over the next 12 months you can expect to see a stand seeking your views on how you see our community going forward and explaining just what a village plan is (and what it isn’t). The steering group is on a steep learning curve so we may not have all the answers straight away but will do our best to answer where we can. We will also be writing to each household and business seeking views that we aim to include in the final document. Once completed, you will all get to vote and agree (or not) with the Neighbourhood Plan, but all that is a long way down the road. It is important that you take every opportunity to give us your views.

You don’t need me to tell you that the condition of the roads in and out of both the village and wider

Borough Fen are atrocious. Not a week goes by where somebody doesn’t mention this to me, and I can only agree.

Upkeep of the roads is not costed for by the Parish Council, with this responsibility sitting with Peterborough City Council who hold the budget. We have 3 paid City Councillors who look after our interests in the City Council and we have raised this with them. As always, money/budget is an issue for the Council, but we will continue to put pressure on them to try and ensure our community is fully considered for the upkeep of the roads. I have never seen the roads in such a poor condition and fear we are getting to a point of cars being damaged and worse accidents, purely as a result of the poor state of the roads.

We continue to push for an improved bus service, especially now that the building of Roman Fields is nearing completion and seeking the possibility of utilising the service through the new estate. Again, this does not sit with the Parish Council, so we have to look to the City Councillors to fight our corner.

As the weather gets warmer (okay, slightly warmer) the grass starts to grow more. I don’t want to be in the position we were in last year where our contractors let us down, so our Parish Clerk has already been in touch with the contractors regarding regular cutting. Fingers crossed when you get to read this you will have seen the grass being cut!

Bank holidays are like buses (but not in our village!) in that they all seem to come at once. The weather is also predictable for a bank holiday, in that it seems to deteriorate as the holidays arrive!

Here is hoping that for the King’s Coronation we have good weather on the 6th of May so all can make the most of planned events.

Newborough and Borough Fen have an ‘Afternoon Tea Party’ planned on the 7th May from 2pm-6pm in the Village Hall.

Chairman: Susie Lucas

01780 740 159 susie.hall34@gmail.com

Responsible for: Staffing/HR, Community, Allotments Association, PCC Liaison and Good Neighbours Scheme.

Councillor: Cliff Stanton

01780 749 123 cliffstanton@btinternet.com

Responsible for: Nature Recovery Plan project, Village assets and maintenance and website.

Councillor: Michael Perkins

07587 240 607 hawthornfarm@hotmail.com

Responsible for: Internal finances checker.

Councillor: Irene Walsh

07753 203 844 walshirene@yahoo.co.uk

Responsible for: Planning, Staffing/HR and Community Liaison and Road Safety.

Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer: Jenny Rice 07889 669 550 bainton.ashton.clerk@live.co.uk

Vacancy: Please see website/notice board when applying for this position.