North Area Committee 17th May @ The Manor

The next North Area Committee will be at the Manor on Thursday 17th May.

The planning part of the meeting will start at 6.30; there are two applications on the agenda but the one that will probably be of the most interest is the application to convert the Grove Pub (opposite the Manor) into a Sikh temple.

The main meeting starts at 7.30 and the agenda is available on the City Councils website (see here). The main agenda items are:

• Community Development and Leisure grants*
• Engagement with Young People
• Primary School places in North Cambridge
• Northern Corridor Area Transport plan
• Policing and Safer Neighbourhoods

And, of course, the usual open forum where you can ask questions.

* (see here for report) There are two grants specific to King's Hedges in the list; Cambridge Music Festival (requesting 2,000), and Cambridge Carbon Footprint (requesting the very precise 2,323). The Cambridge Carbon Footprint event is targeted at both King's Hedges and Arbury.

Speeding: No-One Thinks Big Of You

Cambridgeshire County Council Road Safety Officers have launched a new campaign targeting young male drivers who speed. 

The campaign, titled 'Speeding: no-one thinks big of you', is inspired by a similar campaign in Australia and aims to use peer pressure in a cheeky, subtle way to reduce young male driver and female passenger casualties. 

Given the target audience, the campaign centres around information, advice and discussion on the Road Safety Team Facebook page and Twitter feed. 

This will be accompanied by posters, featuring students from Huntingdonshire Regional College, which depict young females waving their little fingers, 'pinkies', at guys who are speeding or driving dangerously to show off. 

Local Cambridgeshire County Councillor Andy Pellew said; "It's encouraging to see the County Council taking the issue of speed seriously but there is a great deal of work still to do to make our roads safer, especially for young people who are disproportionately victims of this kind of crime.

The target of this campaign is the young male driver, the aim is to give their passengers the confidence to tell their friends to slow down. Let's hope, with the high numbers of young people attending CRC and the Manor this new approach is successful."

Matt Staton, Road Safety Officer for Cambridgeshire County Council, added:  "The aim of this campaign is to encourage teenage girls to tell their boyfriends/friends when they don't like their driving and show they are not impressed.  We also want to make young male drivers aware that they don't impress people when they show off in their cars." 

North Area Committee Meeting Tonight!

Just a quick reminder that tonight the City Council’s North Area Committee will be meeting at the Shirley School, Nuffield Road, Cambridge CB4 1TF – note that this is a change from the usual venue of the Manor on Arbury Road.

The agenda for the planning part – which starts at 6.00 pm – is here.
The agenda for the main meeting – which should start at 7.30pm – is here. The main meeting will start when the planning items are completed, if that’s after 7.30.

The main items on the agenda (aside from the planning items and the Open Forum) are:

• The Fen Road Area – Issues and Solutions
• Policing and Safer Neighbourhoods
• Future Work Programme for the Area Committee

If you have any issues you would like your local Councillors to raise then please let us know.

Minor Highways issues within Kings Hedges

As you might have picked up from the minutes of the Cambridge Area Environment and Traffic Management Committee (no? It's a riveting read) Cambridgeshire Highways used to have a list of all the open highways issues in each division (split into unfunded and those with an identified means of funding) which would come to the AJC meeting, be discussed (usually added to) and then would be back in the hands of officers who would get done what they could, identifying new streams of funding if possible, and then report back to the next meeting of the AJC.

As you can see it's a fairly simple process but doesn't actually add a lot of value as a) most of the work is done by officers and (in my view more significantly) b) it encourages Councillors to get things added to the list that won't ever get done. Basically anything that doesn't have an obvious source of funding, isn't a legal requirement, or isn't part of some bigger project is just not going to happen.

The list, after a few years of b), is now pretty long and some of the the reasons why some of the items are sitting on the list have been lost in the mist of time.

Clearly it's time for a change and so the County Officers are now proposing that they spend some time in each Division with local members and prepare a list of highways issues relevant to that division.

In light of that I've been looking at the highways list we already have for Kings Hedges and the new items that people have already suggested (note that in some cases it is a problem that needs a solution rather than a solution!) and come up with the following list;

• 20mph speed limit on Northfield Avenue (outside KH Primary School), 
• Coach parking on Woodhead Drive, 
• Car parking on Lovell Road, 
• Arbury Road cycle path (specifically doing something around the Milton Road junction), 
• Verge parking on Milton Road, 
• Pavement parking across the division,
• Traffic improvements on Arbury Road outside the Manor,
• Verge parking on Hawkins Road, and 
• Cycle route on KH road (specifically around CRC junction)

That's just off the top of my head. What else do you think should be on this list?

Secondary School Application Deadline Approaches

Parents of children due to start secondary school in September 2012 are being reminded that the relevant forms must be completed and submitted by the end of this month.

The Secondary Application Form - and Supplementary Information Form if required - must be submitted to Cambridgeshire County Council by 31 October 2011.

Information and guidance about how to apply for a place is available in the Next Steps - Admission to Secondary School: a guide for parents 2012 - 2013 leaflet. This publication is available from Cambridgeshire County Council's website at: www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/admissions, where parents will also be able to access the online application facility, or download a paper copy of the Secondary Application Form

If parents submit their applications late, there is a real risk that their child will not offered a place at one of their preferred schools, as other children's applications (those received by the 31 October deadline) will be processed ahead of theirs.

For further information, e-mail admissions@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or log onto the County Council's website at:

www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/admissions

Pupil Premium Brings More Money Into King's Hedges

Today figures have been released by central government for the amount of pupil premium each school is to receive. The total figure for each school is based on the number of Free-School-Meals pupils the school has enrolled.

King's Hedges schools will receive the following amounts;

• The Manor £52,704
• King's Hedges Primary School £55,632
• The Grove £27,328

The total amount for King's Hedges is £135,664.

As Chair of Governors of the Manor this is fantastic news for the school and for the local community. King's Hedges contains some of the areas in Cambridgeshire with the highest levels of deprivation. Any extra money that helps our local schools invest more in the future of our children the more benefit, both in terms of higher achievement and - critically - aspiration, that we will see.

More Positive News from The Manor

The march of continual improvement at the Manor* is continuing (despite very turbulent times in Education in England) as this years results build on last years success.

This year for the first time over 60% of the Manors' Students achieved 5 higher grades wit almost 50% managing the same achievement including Maths and Science.

Given the significant areas of deprivation (some of the worst in the County) within King's Hedges and Arbury this is an impressive achievement.

The overall figures are;

• 5 higher grades  = 61.3% - 3% up on last year,
• 5 higher grades including Maths and Science = 48.4% - about the same as last year (0.2% change)
• 5 A* - G grades = 91%

The continual improvement is probably the best news. Being able to build on last years fantastic results is a real tribute to the hard work of Ben Slade (the Principle), the staff, the Governing Body and above all the students.

*- Just in case you aren't aware; I'm Chair of Governors at the Manor.