JOTTINGS FROM YOUR COUNTY COUNCILLOR
If I have learnt one thing during my ten years as a councillor it is this - we can never get it right. Take wheelie bins for example; the collection of waste is the responsibility of the district council, who then pass it all to us to dispose of - one of those idiosyncrasies that came of out local government reorganisation in 1974. I have been following the rage over wheelie bins with ever increasing amazement. The County and District Councils have been running a joint waste awareness campaign for a number of years, with some success. But we still throw away more and more rubbish each year. That rubbish has to go somewhere - at present it goes to landfill. The government has announced that the landfill tax will rise by £3 per year every year, from the current sum of £15 per tonne, to £35 per tonne. Every increase in landfill tax costs the county council approaching an additional million pounds and that sum doesn't include the increase in tonnage. So the financial cost on the council - and ultimately the tax payer - is growing more and more. There is also the environmental cost of landfill - it simply does not make good environmental sense to keep throwing away precious resources into large holes in the ground. Then there is the government role - they have set every local authority a target for the amount of waste that must be recycled - for the county council who run the HWRC's it is 65%, for South Cambridgeshire District Council it is 25%. This is where the silliness starts. What is measured is only what is collected by the district council and then what percentage is then either recycled or landfilled; because there is no reliable way of measuring what is not thrown away -because it is composted - then that is not included in the equation. So while it makes much more sense to compost at home where possible, it doesn't help either the district or county council to meet their targets. Enter the wheelie bins. Two bins means that the waste can be separated more easily (rather than a team of people sorting through your rubbish in a factory separating it by hand - yes it does happen that way in some places) - with recyclables, such as garden waste and cardboard in one bin and none recyclables in the other. Before we moved to Over we lived in a district which had wheelie bins and I have to say that from personal experience they were a vast improvement over the black bag system. They were easier to move - even over gravel, they were more hygienic - the cats and other animals can't get to them and leave rubbish all over the footways etc. - and it was far better for the bin men who collect the rubbish. The District Council will be sending out more information during the next few weeks, explaining the system - it would be great if the end of the debate concluded with agreement that, perhaps for once, the council did get it right!


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

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

Parish Council News

Wheelie bins
Black dustbin bags will be consigned to the past in September when South Cambs District Council (SCDC) issue each Swavesey household with not one but TWO wheelie bins - one is for household rubbish, the other for cardboard/garden/kitchen composting rubbish. The bins will be collected on
alternate weeks and the existing green bin for paper/glass/metal will stay in place.We are liaising with SCDC on behalf of properties with no rear access and those whose front doors open directly onto the High Street's narrow pavement where storing two wheelie bins would be difficult.

A14 RatRunning Money
Swavesey is being given approximately £250,000 for anti-rat running (traffic calming) measures around our village. This is YOUR money and we'd like you to tell us how best to spend it. Where are the accident or near-miss spots which you'd like to see improved? How about surface repairs and creation of passing places in Ramper Road, a 20mph speed limit in the 'school zone' area of Gibraltar Lane/Middlewatch/School Lane, traffic-calming at Gibraltar Lane/Middlewatch junction, at the blind bends in Station Road by the opticians and as you enter the village at Boxworth End or bollards in the lower road at Swan Pond to discourage boy racers?

We have been asked by Cnty Cllr Shona Johnstone to spend the majority of the money on a shared use, dual-direction cycle/pedestrian pavement (widening the existing pavement by narrowing the road) between Swavesey and Over. Parish councillors believe this should be funded by the Safe Routes to School fund.

What do you think? Write, email or phone and tell us. This is YOUR money to spend on making Swavesey's roads safer for YOU.

Safer Routes to Schools (SRS) Scheme
We hear that SRS funding is likely to fund a pavement along Gibraltar Lane and some secure cycle racks/lockers and cycle path within the school grounds.

County Council boundaries
Cambridgeshire County Council electoral wards are being reviewed and proposals are that Swavesey and Fen Drayton should say goodbye to Willingham and Over and instead form a new ward with Elsworth, Knapwell, Conington, the Papworths and Graveley. It's all to do with figures, each ward will be based on an average number of electors of approx 6000. We've objected and been told our objections will be ignored.

Drainage
The Environment Agency's overdue study into the Earith-St Ives section of the River Great Ouse makes interesting (if technical) reading. Swavesey's Internal Drainage Board (IDB) has replied on several points and we now await a further study into Covills Drain (this financial year). There is no timescale on when any improvements will be made which is worrying.

In layman's terms, the causes of recent severe flooding is that River Ouse water enters and overloads the Mare/Middle Fen area whose purpose currently is to store excess water from the land, roads, village and Uttons Drove sewage works, releasing it into the river via Webbs Hole Sluice. The area
is too small to cope with such ingress so the whole of Middle and Mow Fen go under and breaches occur.

The river water gets in for a variety of reasons: lack of Ouse dredging, impeded riverflow at ex-railway bridge at Fen Drayton, blocked dykes and too-high riverbanks in Fen Drayton, too-low riverbanks in Swavesey and faulty computer-operated doors on Webbs Hole Sluice.

Memorial Hall
We are forming a Parish Council Hall Management Committee. Volunteers please! Longterm we hope to separate the hall management committee from the parish council as then the hall will be eligible for grants which, as a parish council-run facility, it is currently ineligible for.

Citizen Advice

Access for People with Disabilities
From 1 October 2004 the 8.5 million people in the UK with some form of disability should find it easier to enter shops and such places. This is when the final stage of Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act comes into force.

The Disability Rights Commission has produced a series of booklets, which will help you to understand the implications of the Act, and show ways you can respond positively. You can download the guides as www.dtc.gov.uk, and go to the information and lewgislation section, or call 08457 622 633.

School of Choice
The way local education authorities consider applications depends on the type of school and local policy. Where a school is over-subscribed, decisions will usually be made on a ranked criteria, such as the special needs requirement of a particular child, whether the child has a sibling already in the school, and the distance from home to school.

If the authority refuses your choice of school, you must be given a reason, how to appeal, and how to secure a place at another school.

By law infant classes are limited to 30 children only, therefore the appeal process differs. No personal factors are considered by the appeals panel - they can only look at whether the school abided by its own admission policy, or whether it acted unreasonably.

Talking informally to the authority about changing the decision may avoid using the formal appeal procedure, and get the matter resolved more quickly. The advisory centre for education publishes 'Appealing for a School', a useful guide to the appeals system. Telephone the free advice line 0808 800 5793 or visit www.aceed.org.uk.

Working Part Time
From 6 April 2003 parents of children under 6, or of disabled children under 18, have the right to work flexibly, and their employers have a duty to consider these requests seriously. If you have been with your current employer for at least 6 months, you can apply to change the hours you are required to work, or ask to work from home.

For more information call at your local Citizens Advice Bureau or go to www.adviceguide.org.uk or the DTI website www.dti.gov.uk, or www.tiger.gov.uk.

Struggling with your Tax Credits Application?

Don't give up yet, your Citizens Advice Bureau will help overcome your difficulties, particularly if you bring the following when you visit:
" Evidence of your income 2001/02, such as P60, P45 or payslips
" Evidence of any benefits you receive in 2001/02
" Evidence of your current income
" National insurance number
" If self employed, tax returns or accounts
" Details of any other income, for example, income from savings or pensions
" Bank account or building society account details, if you have one.

If you are claiming with a partner, you will also need to provide this evidence for them.

If claiming for a child, please also bring:
" Child benefit book or a letter from child benefit
" Details of child care provided, including carer's registration number and weekly cost.

Note:- Information correct up to 06.06.2003