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Events Committee and Events A big thank you to the Events Committee, especially Peter Marriott, for organising some smashing events over the past couple of months, also to all of you who made these events so successful by supporting them. The French Market- drew hundreds of shoppers (though a little more care with the parking around High Street's junctions, blind bends and side-streets next time please shoppers!) and many people asked "Can we have an English or Farmers' Market next?" The Christmas lights- in Market Street, newly purchased by the parish council and put up by the Events Committee, made the village centre looked very festive. Thank you to the householders/businesses who allowed us to tap into their electricity supplies. The carol singing- saw a huge crowd brave the cold December night. The "scratch band" filled the gap nicely after the original band couldn't make it, and thanks to Bob Stone and Richard Owen for conducting it so nicely. Hope you all saw Santa Claus, this year on a rather steep roofladder rather than his usual cherry picker! Vandalism: Please report any incidents of vandalism (eg the recreation green's phone box being daubed with white paint on Halloween Night)the Police to both the Police and the Parish Council. Thank you to Debbie Wake and Sue Ellington for clearing up the litter from the green the next day. Parking around Priory Avenue/Carters Way. We all love having visitors to our homes but please ask your visitors to keep this junction clear so that other vehicles can pass. Constables Rood A massive clearance operation with several skips took place in November, organised by Geoff Green and Glyn ..(surname?) with many volunteers from the village providing manual labour and John and Martin Johnson of Friesland Farm providing heavy machinery labour. A big thank-you to all of you. Over coming months Geoff and Glyn will be looking for ideas on what to do with this parish-council- (ie village-) owned piece of land. The parish council has set an initial sum of 500 pounds aside. Planting a small wood is one idea but the ground currently lies low so would need building-up to prevent the roots drowning. Highways news: Traffic calming work should have started by the time you read this. The parish council continue to push for repairs to Ramper Road (surface and edges) with the county council. Bollards: The parish council are also asking the County Council to install bollards along the eastern verge between the primary school and Trinity Farm. This is because during the schoolrun when the western side of Middlewatch is clogged with parents' parked cars, through-traffic is mounting the verge with two wheels to nip through rather than wait for a gap and many children walk along this verge. Byways Maintenance: Landowners along Swavesey Byways Landowners along Swavesey Byways pay a levy (approx 90 pence per hectare of land) towards the maintenance of these droves, the rest being levied via council tax/local authority. This level of funding provides a central pot for the basic materials for maintenance (gravel, road planings, etc) and for outside contractors' occasional work to level or camber the drove surfaces. The day-to-day maintenance of small potholes has always been an unwritten system of handfilling small holes with materials sourced by the landowner (or landowners together buying larger quantities of materials and using machinery to spread them) and should ensure that the droves remain usable and safe, while the landowners don't get stung by huge levies. It is sad to see this system is breaking down in one or two places because a few landowners are refusing to volunteer their time or money. Please reconsider your decision. It's for your own benefit and an afternoon spent filling small holes with your own hardcore or contributing towards the cost of some filling materials is far cheaper than replacing the suspension on your car. To everyone who drives along the droves, be you dog-walkers, visitors, fishermen, loving couples, etc, please drive slowly as it is speed, not just amount of traffic, which is causing the potholes and making them larger. No.15 Bus Service: Thank you for all your emails and letters received calling for the reinstatement of the old 155/156 service through Boxworth End and an end to buses using Ramper Road which is clearly not wide enough, let alone in good enough condition, for such use. We are using your letters to strengthen our case to get this bus re-routed off Ramper Road. Travellers update: The travellers in Rose and Crown Road are currently in the stages of Appeal with South Cambs District Council in their bid for retrospective planning permission for their site which they own. Cottenham Parish Council have asked us to support Cottenham PC's own statement on provision of traveller sites. We have replied that we broadly agree, ie that local authorities should identify suitable plots in the same way that they currently identify land for housing, etc; that travellers should be encouraged to buy, equip and manage such plots (rather than local authority buying and equipping and renting them out); and that sites should be of complementary size to the area in which they're situated so that local facilities (eg schools) can accommodate their needs. Free Kitchen Bins: Available on Saturday 19th and Sat 26th February 2005, 10am - 12noon, Swavesey Memorial Hall. Click Here to see poster |
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Jottings From Your County Councillor For the County Council, 2004 ended on a good - no, excellent - note. First at the beginning of December the public inquiry into the guided busway scheme ended. Overall, personally, I was very pleased with the way that the inquiry went. Many objectors withdrew their objection during the inquiry and others, having stated that they wished to appear, simply failed to turn up. Interestingly, the Chairman of Cast. Iron only appeared on the first and last morning of the inquiry - it will be very interesting to see what he has to say about the inquiry once the Inspector produces his report! We now await that report, which the Inspector said he expected to produce in the late spring. The other main piece of good news was that the Comprehensive Performance Assessment carried out on the County Council at the end of November ranked the Council as an excellent authority. This was a great boost to all the council staff who have worked so hard to improve the services which we provide. Of course, we must not be complacent and there will always be room for further improvement, and indeed we must work towards that, but it is a vindication of our policies to provide better services for people in Cambridgeshire. They say that good news comes in threes - I supposed the third bit of news is good - or at least better than in previous years. This is the announcement by government of the grant allocation for Cambridgeshire for the next financial year. Two years ago, the government finally agreed that Cambridgeshire qualified for what is known as Area Cost Adjustment - the additional money needed to compensate for higher costs of living in areas close to London. Having done that, they then immediately withheld some £9m on the grounds that the gainers (eg. Cambridgeshire) had to compensate the losers (mainly northern authorities). Last year that figure rose to £11m. This year the government decided that all authorities should pay for the losers, so we have only lost £2.2m of grant this year. This still amounts to a total of over £22m - money which is desperately needed for council services, such as schools, care for the elderly and roads. However, the settlement was better than we expected, although the increase in grant will still not compensate for the pressures that we face; inflation is much higher than the standard rate which the government uses and the additional number of people moving into the area only pay through their council tax for roughly a third of the services which they use. The remaining money comes from government grant and business rates and does not cover the costs that we incur. So I guess that it is only partially good news. We have just agreed to consult on a council tax increase of 3%, 4% or 5%. Look out in the press and via the County Council website for details of the consultation and how to respond. 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
Tel: 01954 230565 |
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Boost for youth groups as funding is increased! Youth and Community groups throughout Cambridgeshire and Peterborough can benefit from thousands of pounds of funding for projects. The Local Network Fund at Cambridgeshire ACRE has secured an extra £25,000 to be used by the end of March 2005 and a third year's funding of approximately £366,000 to enable groups to apply for projects from £250 to £7,000 from April. Last year the Local Network Fund awarded a total of over £320,000 to deserving groups throughout the county. This money went towards a range of projects including starting up mother and toddler groups, karate groups and youth cricket teams. Also to benefit from last year's pot were drama training projects, art workshops, museums, pre-schools and skate clubs. Any voluntary group, charity, association or self-help group working with children or young people who are disadvantaged in some way can apply to the Fund, for imaginative projects that fit into the four main themes; aspiration and experiences, economic disadvantage, isolation and access and children's voices. Local Network Fund Co-ordinator Corrina Nicholson said, "So far this has been a really positive experience that has benefited various communities all over Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. We are so pleased that our funding has been increased for this year and that we are able to continue this work forward to what will hopefully be another successful year!" "Our fund is very people friendly, Development Officer Jenny Roberts is on hand every step of the way to talk over project ideas, give help with filling in forms, or any other background information groups may need. Workshops are provided throughout the year on filling out the forms as well as one-to-one meetings." Any groups interested in applying for a grant should contact the Local Network Fund Call Centre on 0845 113 0161 for a form or contact Development Officer Jenny Roberts on 01353 860850 or email jenny.roberts@cambsacre.org.uk for further information. |
