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Buckshaw Village residents stand together

Earlier this month saw the rescheduled Buckshaw Village Community Association (BVCA) residents meeting (the original was postponed after developers cut through the community centre electricity supply!). A lively event, expertly chaired by Kaye Davies and attended by well over 150 residents, many of whom wanted to have their say.

Buckshaw Village is the largest housing development in Western Europe with around 3000 new homes already built and occupied and many more to come over the next few years. With a number of developers (including the likes of Redrow, Barratt, David Wilson and Persimmon) still building and some significant commercial development on-going, relationships between the various organisations, local residents and commercial occupiers is complex. The site even straddles two different local authorities (Chorley and South Ribble).

It was made clear from the meeting that the BVCA has a significant role to play in influencing decisions made at a local level. This isn’t just organising Halloween parties for the kids or the Christmas panto. The association is having a real impact on planning decisions being made, exerting pressure for roads and highways to be adopted by the County Council more quickly and even trying to address issues with managing agents over costs being levied for service charge information – all issues which affect the residents day in, day out.

There was also an opportunity for local businesses to get their message across, ranging from a slick presentation from Waitrose, to a personal appearance by a dog on behalf of the local vet’s practice. Bizarre but good fun, nonetheless.

Buckshaw is clearly an embryonic community but there seems to be a spirit of togetherness growing amongst the locals and a determination to change what was once the old MOD Royal Ordnance Factory site into a great place to live and work. The BVCA should be applauded for its work and supported in its future campaigns.