Buckfastleigh Town

Fore Street in winter

Fore Street in winter

The historic mill town of Buckfastleigh and the neighbouring abbey village of Buckfast, can be found nestling on the southern edge of eastern Dartmoor in Devon just off the A38, midway between the cities of Exeter and Plymouth.

The name "Buckfast" means "stronghold" – traditionally a place where deer and buck were held, and "Leigh" would have been the pasture belonging to Buckfast – hence the meaning deer held in a pasture (buck-fast-leigh). Buckfast probably existed before Buckfastleigh as it is mentioned in the Domesday Book and in 1018 a Benedictine Abbey was founded and endorsed by King Canute at Buckfast.

Read more about the town here...

Window Wanderland in Buckfastleigh

In the evening of Saturday, 2nd March the town was transformed into a Window Wanderland, as people and businesses decorated their windows or gardens.  You can see photos of some of the many window displays here.   This one was in the Town Hall.

Buckfastleigh Town Council Precept 2019-20 – Statement by the Chair

"The Town Council have decided to raise the Council Tax Precept (the portion of council tax that comes to the Council for spending in the parish of Buckfastleigh & Buckfast) by £5.43 a year (about 10p per week) for the average Buckfastleigh household from April. The increase amounts to 6.63% (£7) per year for a band D home.

This is to replace the loss of the last £9,000 of funding Teignbridge District Council gave to the parish - we now have only what we can raise as a town from Council Tax and from grant applications. The increase will leave the Town Council with the same basic income as last year.

The bid for a grant for £10,000 towards running the youth activity program for the coming year was sadly unsuccessful this time but we will still be running our ‘Hello Summer’ daily activity program for young people during the holiday period, which families have told us makes all the difference to them. We will continue to provide our full range of services which include employing the Town Ranger and providing the Citizens Advice Outreach Service as well as providing grants to community projects throughout the community - like Victoria Park and Pool, the Town Hall and many, many more.

We will also carry on working to pull in grant money so that we are able to expand the services we provide to support the local community without putting more financial pressure on local people."

Andy Stokes

Councillor Andy Stokes

Proposed Housing Developments in Buckfastleigh

You can read here a current summary of the major housing developments in our town that are either currently being considered by Dartmoor National Park planners or are proposed.

Walking for Health

Buckfastleigh Walking for Health is offering free easy guided walks every second Wednesday this year. Walking is the lowest risk of all physical activities, yet produces massive benefits to physical fitness and mental wellbeing. It is a great way to explore your local area, make new friends and learn more about your immediate community. The next walk is on March 13th and will go from Dartington Hall to the Deer Park.  More info here

Climate Emergency

Buckfastleigh Town Council at the Town Council meeting held on Wednesday 13th March 2019 passed a 'Climate Emergency' motion aiming for our community to be carbon neutral by 2030.

As a first step we will set up a Citizens Assembly - a working group to recommend actions that will do three things:

  • Enable the Council to achieve this goal within its own activities
  • Inform, promote, support, encourage and resource our local community to implement actions to achieve this goal
  • Promote and campaign for action and legislation at all levels of government locally, nationally and beyond to achieve this goal

We cannot achieve this goal on our own and we will need to get our community and government on-side to have any hope of achieving it, but by committing to the process in this proposal we can make a start and show the way.

The group will have the support of the Town Council and they will attempt to implement its recommendations.

If you are interested in joining the group, email:  <clerk@nullbuckfastleigh.gov.uk>

The motion can be found here

Buckfast Abbey Care Village Planning Proposal

A public drop-in meeting is being held on Tuesday 26th March between 2 pm and 8 pm at the Old Mill Canteen, Lower Mills, Buckfast Road to view proposals for the former Buckfast Spinning Mill site.  These proposals involve the development of a Care Village including care units and community medical services.  A preliminary version of the proposals will be on display and there will be the opportunity to ask questions and leave written comments.

New Litter Campaign

Teignbridge District Council has introduced a new online reporting form.  If you’re fed up with seeing litter on the roadside, you can help keep our district tidy by reporting anyone you see throwing litter from their vehicle at www.teignbridge.gov.uk/litter  You will need to provide the vehicle registration, the vehicle description and the time, date and location of the incident.

Any person found guilty of littering will be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice of £100.  More information here 

 

Local Elections Coming Up

Elections for the Town Council are coming up in May...  but there will only be voting if there are  more candidates nominated than there are seats available.  There are 12 Town Councillors so we need at least 13 nominations to have an election in the town.  Find out more about the election timetable and how it all works here.

More SOUP in Buckfastleigh – Pitch for your Project or Idea

 

Following the tasty success of the first ever Buckfastleigh SOUP community fundraising event in October 2018, Buckfastleigh Town Council and Teignbridge CVS have now confirmed the date of the next event to support small groups and individuals with new community ideas.  It will be on Friday, June 7th at 6.00 pm. Find out more and sign-up here