Memorial Hall & Annual Parish Meeting
Prior to the Annual Parish Meeting on Tuesday 8th April, the Hall will be open from 7pm in order for you to look around the new extension area. Please take this opportunity to view the new facilities available at the Hall and take part in your Annual Parish Meeting.

Ride them Dodgems!
The fair is coming to Swavesey. Whether it will have dodgems or not you can only find out by going along to see. You can ride the rides and have the fun of the fair from Thursday 08 May through to Saturday 10 May.

Pooh!
Not a pleasant subject to talk about, or to scrape off one's shoes. Do you have a dog and walk it around the village including on the Green. Then do take a plastic bag with you for those doggy accidents and put it in one of the special bins provided. It is not any good putting the plastic bag and its content in the nearest hedgerow, they look unsightly and cause a double health hazard - so always bin it.

You could save yourself money as well by using the bin. The Dog Warden will be patrolling around Swavesey and will prosecute if people are seen not to be clearing up after their dogs. There is a fine of up to £1,000 - so using the bin is also a money saver

Money for Rubbish
Sounds too good to be true - but it happens. That green box we put out every fortnight with stuff to be recycled. Not only is it helping the environment but it is also helping your community. From the recycled rubbish the community get recycling credits which then turn into money. So the more we put out, the more we help the environment and our community.

Memorial Hall
Clean and tidy. How many parents have said this to their children about their bedrooms. We all appreciate walking into the Memorial Hall finding it clean and tidy. Could all users then please make sure the Hall is clean and tidy after they have used it - there is no-one employed to do this after each function. This is how we show consideration for others who are using the Hall.

Frustration also occurs at the Hall when some of the parking is done without a lot of thought. The entrance to the car park down the side of the Hall is narrower with the building of the extension and so parking down the side of the Hall must be done prettily. Please can the front entrance also be left clear and not parked across - it would help everyone if the front entrance is kept clear. Thanks.

Meetings
Parish Council meetings are open to the public to attend and are normally held on the 4th Monday of each month, unless a Bank Holiday occurs. At the Chairman's discretion, a 10 minute session takes place before the start of each meeting, for members of the public to ask questions or make statements. Members of the public are not permitted to take part at any other time. Lists of this year's meetings are posted on the Parish noticeboards.

Last month we spent a few days with friends in the United States. It is always interesting to see how things are done in a foreign country and compare it with what we do here. As might be expected many things in the USA are done on a much grander scale than here in the UK and some of their state highways were no exception; but it was very interesting to compare the state of their roads - we may complain about our potholes, but I came back thinking that really we don't do too badly in comparison with some of the roads in Texas - perhaps I caught them on a bad day!

One thing that I found very disconcerting however, was throwing glass bottles into the bin, along with tins and biodegradable waste. Of course, composting in the hotter parts of the USA must be more tricky (although I suspect not impossible), but our waste hierarchy of reduce, re-use and recycle does not seem to have crossed the Atlantic. Perhaps that explains why the Americans found it difficult to met their obligations under the Rio summit. So I allowed myself a quiet pat on the back for the efforts we are all making to be more environmentally friendly. We are doing well, but there is still a long way to go. In Cambridgeshire alone the amount of rubbish we produce each year is growing by 3% and only about half of that is due to the growing number of households. Government targets mean that we need to increase the amount we recycle to 36% by 2005/06, compared with a target of 24% for this year - this is a tough target, but I have always said that saving the planet is not a cheap option. At present the County and District Councils, working in partnership collect paper, materials, glass and tins for recycling; at the Household Waste Recycling Centres we can also deposit metals, hardcore and topsoil; at Whittlesey we are also trialling the collection of plastics. A number of people have asked why we can't recycle plastics more widely - the simple answer is cost. The nearest recycling centre for plastics is Peterborough and from Milton every ton of plastics would cost over £80 to transport and then recycle; this compares to a landfill cost of around £30 per tonne; so much as I would like to recycle plastics, given the other pressures on the budget, at present it is simply not cost effective. We can only do it at Whittlesey because of its distance from Peterborough. Just before Christmas we heard that together with the District Councils in Cambridgeshire we had been awarded nearly £4million to increase recycling. In South Cambridgeshire that means that later this year we will be able to collect compost and also add cardboard to the list of goods we can collect for recycling. This will all help to meet the targets we have been set and environmentally is the right thing to do, but we still have a long way to go.

I am always available for consultation, either in person or by phone, letter or e-mail. I can be reached at the new address or telephone number below.

Shona Johnstone
Highfield
5 Lowburyholme Road
Over
CB4 5NP
Tel: 01954 230565
e-mail: shona.johnstone@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

PEOPLE living in villages along the A14 between Brampton and Cambridge are being asked how they want to spend their share of a £2 million pot of money to traffic-calm their village.

The 21 villages, including Swavesey, are in line for a share of the money which the government has given Cambridgeshire County Council and partners to put in traffic calming measures ahead of major works to the A14.
The council's Environment and Transport Department along with partners WS Atkins, Wrekin and Ringway want to carry out the work over the next two years.

They are urging local people to tell their Parish Councils what they want to see happen in their village.
Formal consultations and public exhibitions will be held later this year but the partners are seeking the views of local people informally from the start to begin to build up a picture of what each village needs.
Cambridgeshire County Councillor Shona Johnstone, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport said:
"The measures will not take traffic out of the villages but they will help to slow it and to reduce some of the noise and pollution which can really affect people's lives.

"We also cannot promise speed cameras as the criteria for these are very specific and strict.
"We really need the input of people living in the villages."
The money is ring-fenced for this section of the A14 which is the busiest in the county.
The calming measures on offer will include a mix of physical engineering, interactive signs, road resurfacing and reduced speed limits.