Well at the time of writing the Indian summer I was hoping for in the last issue looks to have arrived - trouble is it is only forecast to last for 3 days. Grateful for small mercies, I guess.

It was good to see the Car Show back - another small step back to normality for our Town and as usual a great event. Well done to the organising team.

As reported last month I had emailed the Leader Of Herts County Council regarding our refuse/recycling site off Aspenden Road which remains closed and allegedly will not reopen. I have received a reply which outlines the reasons for not re-opening the facility. The major reason is that some of the land occupied by the current unit is actually owned by another landowner and said landowner wants his land back! Herts County Council are actively reviewing alternative sites in Buntingford and will report back at a later date on their findings. I do not believe it is a given that an alternative Buntingford site will be found.

An early warning that our Christmas Lights this year may be compromised. The lights along the High Street are installed via fixings on the buildings and in the last couple of years several of the fixings have failed. A recent survey of all the fixings has shown that many need replacing. We await a survey report from our Christmas lighting contractor to see what needs to be done to put the fixings back in a useable state. Dependent on what the survey says, it could be that the remedial work may not be complete in time for Christmas this year. We will, of course, install what units we can.

CPRE, The Countryside Charity (formally the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England), are reporting that the government is set to 'abandon' its damaging proposals to deregulate the planning system. Along with other agencies, CPRE have mounted a long campaign opposing the Government's plans which were looking to carve up neighbourhoods and green spaces into zones - where a community's say over what gets built would no longer exist. Basically a developer's charter. We await government confirmation of this change in policy

Graham Bonner, Chairman, Buntingford Civic Society

If you have any queries about Buntingford Civic Society or issues you would like to raise, you can email the Chairman direct at chairman@buntingfordcivic.org.uk.

The October issue of the Buntingford Journal will be available from the usual retailers from 24th September.

More information about the Buntingford Civic Society can be found here and membership forms can be found here.