Even More Houses on Arbury Park

Buried away in the opaquely titled Housing Shortfall Report of South Cambridgeshire District Council is a plan to add even more housing to the Arbury Park development.

There are many reasons why this is a bad plan.

The sites are right next to the A14 and neglect the well known impact of the road on the residents. Noise pollution is known to cause blood pressure problems, and this is in addition to air quality issues. The solution is to keep the current noise barriers which reflect the problem onto the residents of Impington and make an unwelcoming, ugly and forbidding entry to the city.
The buildings already planned for the site will already stretch King's Hedges Road and Northfield Avenue to breaking point.

The lost of community resources and employment space will make Arbury Park a much less pleasant place to live and less sustainable. Indeed they acknowledge that there is no space for reasonable open space and propose taking development money to be spent elsewhere in the district: on the other side of the A14.

Arbury Park residents are already dismayed at the lack of community facilities for this new development which has also left them with unfinished pavements, no street signs and lighting and parcels of land being developed separately without a cohesive Master Plan.

Everyone believes this area will become the responsibility of Cambridge City Council following a future boundary review between South Cambs and Cambridge City, and given other sites they identify are mostly in North West Cambridge except for two smaller sites, it would appear that the attitude of South Cambs is to put all the housing on this side of the A14 and then hope the City picks up the pieces.

Recently Cambridge City Council congratulated South Cambs DC on doing a review of Arbury Park and the lessons to be learned from mistakes on the development, including the lack of a quality urban design. Too soon it seems.

I will be opposing this proposal, as will the rest of the City Liberal Democrats!

Milton Road Trees: (Partial) Success!

I've just received some really good news from the County Council.

In response to a question from Lib Dem County Cllr Kevin Wilkins about the trees Cllr Matt Bradney, "the Cabinet Member for Growth and Infrastructure" said:

In the case of Milton Road, there are some longer-term issues over future
investment in bus priority and cycleways that could have implications for
tree planting locations. Unfortunately, the extent of these implications
on the section of Milton Road approaching the King’s Hedges Road may not be
fully understood until guided bus operations commence next year and further
monitoring work on bus delays has been undertaken.

However, in light of the recent feedback from the Area Joint Committee and
following further discussions with the Director of Highways and Access, I
have asked that officers meet with the City Council’s Arboricultural Team
to approve replanting proposals. It should be possible to agree proposals
for the majority of the route but, as indicated above, there may be a need
for replanting near to the King’s Hedges Road junction, in particular, to
be held over at this time.

So this is a partial victory: we can get trees replanted on some of Milton Road, and we will continue to fight for the trees near King's Hedges Road.

The County Council have been forced by your pressure to come a long way from their position last summer which was that "we are not replacing trees" because of the possible impact that the "Long Term Transport Strategy ... may have on Milton Road" they decided to "hold off new planting in case it is not consistent with those emerging plans." (This was in an email dated 20 June 2007.)

When this was published Mike Pitt asked for a rethink on on 18 April 2008 in an email to Cllr Mac McGuire. Despite resending it he is still awaiting a reply!

Hopefully we will see replanting soon.

Planning application at Colleges Nursery

Colleges Nursery on Campkin Road has put in a planning application to replace its existing fence.

The reference number for the application is 08/1231/FUL, and more information can be found (as ever) on the development control pages of the City Council website.

Temporary Bus Stop Put In!

A victory for your local LibDem team thanks to the help of the Cambridge News.

Following the Cambridge News taking up the story of my attempts to get the County to agree to a temporary bus stop things happened fast: The County gave approval to Stagecoach the very next week, and when I checked at the weekend I found we have got a temporary bus stop. This after the County had dragged their feet and not even replied to Stagecoach's emails to them.

The County Council should have made arrangements for such a stop before closing the one on Milton Road for the Guided Busway works: another example of the County Council's Tories from Fenland not caring about the impact on the city.

However a big thank you to the Cambridge News for helping us out by drawing attention to the problem.

The new bus stop is about 20 yards down Greenend Road, just past the Co-Op.

Retrospective planning app in Ramsden Square

A retrospective application for a "replacement car port" has been made by a house on Ramsden Square. The application number is 08/1124/FUL.

As ever more details can be found at the development control pages of the City Council website.

Footway works in St Kilda Ave and Lavender Rd

I've just had an email telling me that there will be

thin coat overlay works to the footways in Saint Kilda Avenue and in
Lavender Road in Kings Hedges Ward, starting on the 22/09/2008, and lasting 1 week. These dates are subject to the weather.

Hopefully this will improve the quality of the footpaths as they need it. Let us know if the works cause any problems!

Recycling centres

Good news from City Homes. In an attempt to increase the recycling rates the Housing Officers are making a big effort to find suitable sites for recycling depots for flats in the ward.

The first consultations have taken place and others have recently started.

If you get a letter asking your opinion do let us know. I am sure most people would welcome more recycling, and if you would respond to say so.

At the moment I have letters for Albemarle and Nicholson Ways, and have seen various sites in Minerva Way.

Slow Down In King's Hedges

The issue of cars speeding in King's Hedges has arisen again. This time I'm trying to find what can be done in Northfield Avenue.

I have already asked (back in April) for a 20 limit on the road. Other towns and cities have found that 20 limits do slow people down even without road humps. Yet the County policy is that you can only have a 20 limit if people are already going slower than 20!

This is a decision and a policy that ought to be decided locally. Not by the Conservative County Councillors from March.

I'll keep plugging away to see what we can do.

Clegg at Conference

This is something of an experiment: a video on the blog.





I feel that Clegg's speach in Bournemouth has not been fully reported, the emphasis he placed on fair tax has been simplified to just tax cuts. See for yourself what Clegg said by viewing this video or going to view it on YouTube.

BBC's newsnight did an interesting piece on the reaction of floating voters to the three party leaders. It can be viewed online at the BBC Newsnight website.

Temporary bus stop agreed

I've just heard that the County Council will allow and Stagecoach have agreed to put up
a temporary bus stop at the end of Greenend Road for those affected by the Milton Road
Guided Bus works meaning the loss of the Lovell Road bus stop.

More to follow: but thanks to the Cambridge News for helping me publicise this last
week.

Planning applications in Turpyn Court and Milton Rd

An application has been made for a single storey extension to a property in Turpyn Court. The reference number is 08/1109/FUL.

More information can be obtained from development control on the City Council website.

There is also an application (08/1083/FUL) in Milton Road for the erection of 6 one bedroomed apartments. This is just outside the ward at 127 Milton Road.

Homelink: Local Lettings Policies

I recently spoke to a local resident about an apparent oddity in the results of allocations in Homelink in South Cambs. A priority B resident was given a home in Arbury Park ahead of a city resident in band A. I did some investigation and felt it worthwhile to share the results more widely.

This was a result of a Local Letting Policy used by the Social Landlord (RSL) who run the housing on the Arbury Park development. They are giving priority for the South Cambs allocation to people who have a family connection to Histon or Impington. They are also giving priority for the houses allocated to Cambridge residents to those with Arbury and King's Hedges connections. Some of the policies are also aimed to ensure that there is a 'good balance' of families in the development.

The priority to village residents policies might make sense when the developments are actually in the villages, rather than over the A14 and seen by most as part of the neighbouring City. I will ensure that they are looked at in the six month review, but the policies are set by RSLs who don't have to be part of the Homelink scheme.

Council tax bill: £1 in every £5 on bus-fare bill

£1 in every £5 paid by Cambridge's Council tax payers is being taken by Stagecoach and other bus operators to fund free bus travel for elderly people many of whom don't even live in the city.

The dramatic impact of the bus scheme has been highlighted in the five-year financial strategy just published by the City Council.

The bus scheme devised by Gordon Brown penalises places like Cambridge,which are forced to pay the bus fares for all elderly people who get on a bus in the city, including return fares for people who live outside Cambridge.

The result is that instead of costing the £1.2 million per year that is provided by Government, the scheme in 2008/9 is expected to cost Cambridge £2.5 million with the additional £1.3 million being met by Cambridge tax payers.

Whilst we support the scheme it is another example of Gordon Brown's Labour government coming up with a headline grabbing idea, failing to fund it properly, and then trying to make others take the blame for the problems.

Ian Nimmo-Smith, Liberal Democrat leader of the City Council, said

The way the government has botched bringing in free bus travel for the elderly is disastrous. We already knew the scheme was underfunded so we had put £680,000 into our budgets, but it is so popular that we now need to find a further £620,000 ontop of that.

Cambridge City Council could be forced to cut hundreds of thousands of pounds of services to meet this unfair bill we've been landed with by Mr Brown.

Cambridge City Council was rated as Excellent and as one of the top four financially competent councils by the Audit Commission.

The scheme is a good idea but the Labour government should play fair and pay fair.

North Area dates

Seeing as a I only just posted the date of the last NAC on the day it was held I thought I'd give a bit more notice of the next two.

The meetings will be held at Manor School (Arbury Road) on Thursday 9 October and 11 December.

I'll give more details of the agenda nearer the time, but the usual arrangement is planning at 6.30pm, with the main meeting starting at 7.30pm with the Open Forum, though sometimes an external speaker will be bumped up the order.

Grove school planning application

A few planning applications have been made in King's Hedges.

The Grove School have made an application to change the use of three classrooms into offices (application 08/1104/CCM).

More details can be found on the planning area of the City Council website.

North Area Committee TONIGHT

Sorry for not posting this earlier!

The North Area Committee meets at Manor School on Arbury Road tonight.

Planning is at 6.30pm (with 3 applications to consider, 2 in Arbury and 1 in West Chesterton).

At 7.30pm is the main meeting.

1. The police are at the meeting for the Safer Neighbourhoods item. This considers neighbourhood policing, and any issues with police and policing.
2. We have a representative of Tesco here to discuss matters. This is particularly with respect to East Chesterton's delivery issues.
3. Then we have the Open Forum for people to raise any issues they wish with the North Area councillors
4. Finally we have the Environmental Improvements Programme back to committee. Come and comment on issues like the Campkin Piazza plan.

Dates for works on Campkin Rd planter

I now have dates for the work to make the planter on Campkin Road safe (see right for a picture of me next to it in April this year).

The brickwork and plant growth make it awkward for cars pulling out to see oncoming traffic. The plan is to reduce the level to ground level. Later in the autumn the planter will be planted with low level plants and a narrow tree.

The work is scheduled for the week of the summer bank holiday, from Tuesday 26 August to Friday 29 August.

Give us our Bus Stop back!

The works on the Guided Busway junction for Milton Road have led to the closure of the bus stop with no alternative bus stop provided.

This is causing problems for elderly, ill, or families with young children who rely on this stop.

Cllr McGovern raised this issue at the Guided Busway Local Liaison Forum last night and was told that no suitable alternative site could be found. However the suggestion of a temporary stop on Greenend Rd for the Citi2 service seemed not to have been considered.

Your Focus team have written to Bob Menzies, in charge of the Busway project, and Andy Campbell, the MD of Stagecoach in Cambridge, to ask that the situation be re-examined.

Guided Bus works update

On Tuesday the gantry that lays the the guided busway reached Milton Road. It has now started back towards Longstanton during which time it will make the changes needed at the junctions.

So the good news is that the noisiest stages of construction (ground levelling and guideway laying) are finished as far as this section of the guideway are concerned.

The bad news is that this doesn't mean the work is finished.

Firstly the guideway needs some work. Bob Menzies, the County Council officer in charge of the project tells me that the work so far

"will just leave the stops, guideway infill, cycleway and landscaping
to do. None of which are particularly noisy."

Secondly the work on Milton Road itself continues. This has been delayed by delays in utility companies "diverting the services" (i.e. moving cables and pipes). This is now expected to take another 2 weeks or so according to the representative of Nuttall at last nights Guided Busway Local Liaison Forum. After that there is about 7 more weeks of work.

In the mean time we don't have a bus stop for residents of Lovell Rd. Cllr McGovern has written to Bob Menzies and Stagecoach about this issue. A suggestion that a temporary stop be positioned on Greenend Road was received positively at last night's meeting so watch this space for more news.

Save our Post Offices

The public meeting arranged by the City Council to discuss Post Office closures in the City is to be held on Monday 11 August from 7.30pm in the Guildhall.

There is also a campaign website for all the County's Post Offices, including an online petition.

The Liberal Democrat group on the County Council proposed a motion using unallocated resources to provide financial support to keep some of the Offices open. This was voted down by the Conservatives.

It appears that only the LibDems are committed to saving the County's Post Offices.