Stagecoach Fare Increase

Stagecoach will be putting up it's prices on the 28th February.

The new prices will be;

• Dayrider - £3.40 (+10p, +3%)
• Dayrider Plus - £5.20 (+20p, +4%)
• Family Dayrider Plus - £5.70 (+20p, +3.5%)
• Megarider - £11.50 (+50p, +4.5%)
• Megarider Plus - £20.50 (+50p, +2.5%)

The announcement is available here (from Stagecoach's website).

It's disappointing that in a time of economic hardship for residents across the region the bus provider in the area is raising fares. Especially when looking at it's published accounts Stagecoach managed to turn a £205m profit in 2008 into a £227m profit in 2009 - clearly escaping many of the effects of the recession.

At the same time as raising prices Stagecoach has also been proposing many cuts to the local bus services (like the evening stops for the Citi 4) and this is even before the cuts related to the opening of the Guided Bus take effect.

It's very difficult to see how this can possibly be justified. Perhaps The Office of Fair Trading knew what it was doing when it referred the Local Bus Market to the Competition commission.

Full Council on Thursday

The theatre of Cambridge City Full Council is being held this Thursday at the Guildhall. The meeting is important as it is the one that agrees the budget for next year.

Anyone who wishes to attend is more than welcome to do so, and if you wish to ask a question or bring a petition you can find out more details about these from Committee Services.

(I'm sure Neil and I will tweet highlights of the meeting at @nmcgovern and @cllrmikepitt)

Planning applications in Kirkwood and King's Hedges Rd

Two planning applications this week.

First one is in Unit 3 Kings Court, Kirkwood Road for "Installation of one fascia sign (non-illuminated), one hoarding sign (verge sign) and one captive balloon". An unusual application! The reference is 10/0072/ADV.

The second is for a single storey front extension to 173 King's Hedges Road. The reference is 10/0108/FUL.

As usual get in contact with the planning officers, instructions on how to comment are on the development control webpages of the City Council. As always any difficulties get in touch with us and we'll try to help.

North Area Committee advance warning

Councillors on North Area have been sent the draft agenda for the March 4 meeting of the NAC.

As usual the meeting will take place at Manor Community College, Arbury Road, with planning at 6.30pm, and the main meeting at 7.30pm.

The planning items appear to be in West and East Chesterton, and one in Arbury.

The main agenda includes

• Feedback on the 2009 Youth Summit, including a report on actions resulting from it
• The traditional open forum
• The Police are coming in to look at the local priorities.
• And we'll be getting an update on the Environmental Improvements Programme.

Police surgery in Arbury Court

The latest ecops update includes a reminder that the next police surgery will take place in Arbury Court between 11am and 1pm next Wednesday (24th February).

This is an opportunity to meet the local team and raise any concerns you might have in an informal setting. The local police team are very nice! (and very keen to help.)

The ecops newsletter also says that the crime figures appear to be on the way down again.

Cambridgeshire 2010 Integrated Plan - Budget Amendment

At the meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council the Liberal Democrat group proposed an amendment to the Conservative groups budget. If you'd like to read the full budget amendment it's available here (via Google) or you can download it as a PDF here.

"It’s not just about cuts and savings; it’s also about investing in our county"

Cllr David Jenkins, Liberal Democrat Group Leader

Cambridgeshire Registration Service - Looking for Feedback!

Cambridgeshire Registration Service is seeking comments from across the County on the service they provide (for the registration of births, civil partnerships, marriages and deaths) and how they can work to improve it.

Registration Offices are located in Cambridge (by Shire Hall), Ely, Huntingdon and March. A limited range of services are also available at offices in Addenbrookes Hospital and Wisbech. On-line services for customers include making appointments to register births and deaths as well as ordering copy certificates is available here.

Survey Forms will be available at the offices above, and an on-line Survey is available here. There is a prize of a £50 High Street gift voucher for one participant.

I've used the service twice and have never encountered a problem, neither have I heard of one from friends of colleagues (I don't doubt that there are problems out there! It's just that they seem to me to be the exception rather than the rule). It's difficult to know how to improve a service like this other than "make it ubiquitous"/"make it easy".

In the current climate though if it ain't broke ...

Planning application on Buchan Street

It has been a while since we had a planning application in the ward to report. Today's weekly list has one in Buchan Street.

Application 10/0062/FUL is for the erection of a conservatory to side of property, and is for 15 Buchan Street.

As always more details are available from City Homes offices on Arbury Road, or via the development control web pages. In case of concern or difficulty please contact the team.

Community development and leisure grants

We have been contacted by the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation concerning Community Development and Leisure grants.

The CCF administer grants on behalf of the City Council to organisations who provide services and activities to people who live in the North Area of Cambridge. In particular they aim to support organisations who work with "people whose opportunities arerestricted by disability, low income or discrimination".



Previous grants have supported youth organisations through set up costs, the Arbury Carnival, Chesterton Carnival and Ambaby's.

If you think you know of an organisation or project who might benefit get in touch with the Foundation or with a member of the team.

The next North Area committee is on 4 March at Manor Community College on Arbury Road.

Electoral reform in the news so...

I'll use it as an excuse to have another Youtube link to John Cleese!



There is a longer (9 minute!) version on Youtube as well.

Pupil premium policy launch

We don't often link to policy announcements, but as a teacher and a school governor I was very excited by the relaunch of our pupil premium policy. This will take steps to raise the achievement of pupils in more deprived areas by providing money to reduce class sizes and provide targeted catch-up classes or 1-1 tuition.



More details about the plan can be found at the Liberal Democrats website.

(The next video will hopefully be John Cleese again!)

Tree works in the west of the ward

There are a number of scheduled routine tree works coming up in the west of the ward (broadly speaking the area is northwest of Campkin Road, but also includes Arbury Court).

Details can be found on the tree part of the City Council website. People living nearby ought to have been written to, so that they can comment. Let us know if this hasn't happeed, and the details are linked from the schedules page.

The locations affected by removals are:

• Albemarle Way
• Augustus Close
• Buchan Street
• Callender Close
• Craister Court
• Legion Court
• Turpyn Court

The removed trees will be replaced. See the links above for more details.

The deadline for comments is quite soon (28th January), so if you have worries contact the officer by email or phone(01223 457138). In case of difficulties contact the team.

New Leaflet: City Faces School Places Crisis

In case you haven't seen it yet, or if you are interested in viewing the leaflet electronically, it is available from The Straight Choice website by clicking here.

It looks like the Straight Choice website has resolved it's technical/legal difficulties and is back in operation (this was related to usage of the Royal Mail Postcode database - getting this data put into the public domain actually now forms part of The Guardians' "Free Our Data" project).

We are always looking for more deliverers in Cambridge. If you are interested in delivering leaflets and becoming more involved in King's Hedges please get in touch.

Real Time Passenger Information

Recently I've been contacted by a local resident who had a very good question on the Real Time Bus Information signs like the ones pictured that have been cropping up across the city. The question was related to the information being displayed be the signs - particularly the sign pictured on the right which is the one at the Northern end of Northfield Avenue (Armitage Way).

I'm in the process of providing a written response to the resident but I thought the information I've been able to find out might be useful for other people as well.

Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) is a project begin run by the County Council (as opposed to Stagecoach) it's based around monitoring hardware being installed in Buses, training for drivers (so they can log into the system and configure their bus service), signs similar to the ones pictured setup across the City, and a wireless network to allow the signs to be updated as the buses progress around their route.

The basic premise is that the system allows the exact location of buses to be tracked minute by minute and that information communicated to specially-equipped bus stops along the route so that passengers know when to expect the bus.

Of course there will be times when the signal between the bus and bus stops doesn't get through - in this case the bus stop will display timetable information (rather than real-time). You can tell what sort of information you're getting by looking at the display; if the display is saying "Xmin" then you're getting real-time bus information. If, on the other hand, you're seeing a time (i.e 16:49, 16:55, etc in the picture) then what you're seeing is timetable information.

There are five reasons why a bus stop may not be displaying real-time information:

1. A non-fitted bus is used on an RT route;
2. The driver has not logged onto the system properly;
3. Due to adverse weather conditions, the displays or the buses may not be able to pick up or send radio signals;
4. The display may have not received a recent update;
5. The kit on the bus is malfunctioning.

Issue 1 shouldn't be a problem on either Citi 1 or Citi 4 routes; all buses are fitted with the necessary hardware. Occasionally other buses need to be used and these don't always have the hardware installed (for example Citi 2 and 3 routes are on the plan to be upgraded in 2010) but this is an exception.

Issue 2 is being addressed by Stagecoach through driver training. Issue 3 has no solution - well, none within the control of the County anyway! The County is actively addressing Issue 4 with more physical inspections and the use of automated monitoring software. Issue 5 is usually found and reported by the driver.

As I'm sure you can appreciate it's very difficult for people who are looking at Timetable rather than Real-time information to work out which issue is actually preventing the system from working. As a general rule though you can tell if it is an Operator error if there is some Real Time information being displayed. If everything is timetabled, then it is most likely a technical fault.

In the event of you seeing a faulty bus stop if possible you should report it to the County. You can do this online through the 'Have your say' section on the County Councils' website or you can call the Contact centre on 0345 045 5200 - this will direct you to the Passenger Transport or Traffic Management team who should both be able to help.

The good news, for people who plan their journey in advance, is that you don't need to be standing at a bus stop in order to access Real Time information. You can access a really-quite-impressive map by clicking here, the information on the County Council website is available here, and if you happen to want to view this on your mobile phone there is a special website here.

If you have any questions leave a comment or you can contact one of the team.

Julian Huppert selected to stand for Cambridge

Cambridge Liberal Democrats have selected Julian Huppert as their parliamentary candidate to fight the General Election.

Julian was selected from a shortlist of six candidates who fought for the position at Hustings at The Michaelhouse Centre in Trinity Street, Cambridge last night (Friday).

The ballot was called after MP David Howarth decided to stand down at the general election to return to his academic career at Clare College.

Julian said: “I am delighted and honoured to be given the chance to fight for this seat in the general election in my home town; it is a great privilege.”

Julian grew up in Cambridge and has represented the diverse interests of the city, including the universities, students, council estates and the knowledge economy as county councillor for East Chesterton between 2001 and 2009 and as Lib Dem group leader. He is a member of Liberty's national council.

Julian works as a scientist at the Cavendish Laboratory and believes that his scientific background is one of his great strengths in fighting for the Cambridge seat in Parliament.

“So many decisions from climate change to health care require detailed understanding of what is actually happening,” he told members. “We must try to change the way policies are made in this county so that they are made for clear reasons and not just as knee jerk reactions to media scare stories.”

Speaking on climate change he said he was proud to be “green” and that all Lib Dem policies from transport to housing were environmentally sustainable.

“I will continue to fight for our liberal, progressive, green and international values,” he said.

David Howarth said: “I am delighted that Julian has been chosen as the candidate for the general election. He brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the position and I am confident the future is in good hands.”

Your local team were all at the hustings, and were impressed by the quality of all six possible candidates.

I am confident that Julian will be able to stand up for Cambridge's values and interests in parliament if elected. He is an outstanding candidate.

King's Hedges primary planning application

Another planning application with a connection to a local Councillor! This time it's me who is connected as a governor of King's Hedges Primary school on Northfield Avenue.

As part of a very exciting project to support the learning of speech and language they have put in a planning application for the "Erection of language centre with decking area and ramp". The application number is 09/1131/FUL.

As always more details on the proposal can be obtained from Development Control at the City Council. The plans can be seen at City Homes offices on Arbury Road, or other places. See the how to look in person section of the City Council site for more details.

Phone out again...

The snow has melted, making the ground wet so my phone has stopped working.

I cans still be contacted by email or post (19 Kirkby Close, CB4 1XP).

If it is urgent call Neil or Andy (see left) and they should be able to help. Sorry!

County Council Guidelines on Clearing Snow

To coincide with the disappearance of the snow and ice (at least in Cambridge) the County Council has published some advice on clearing it.

The advice boils down to five "hints";

• take appropriate steps to ensure your own health and safety
• try to avoid piling snow and so as to block or obstruct the footway or road in any way
• use grit form highway grit bins wherever possible
• avoid using water as it may form ice and make the situation more hazardous
• take care to ensure all hand tools are removed from the highway

It's a great shame (but not entirely unexpected) that the County Council, while applauding the efforts of individuals across the County to make their communities safer, feels it is unable to offer something more constructive or definitive in the way of advice due to the legal liabilities it would open the County up to.

Gritting - Update from the County Council

Last night the gritters were out across the County (seen pictured here on Arbury Road) gritting the major routes.

Due to the shortage of supplies, Cambridgeshire County Council now only has 5 days worth of salt left (on the basis of not doing any secondary work), and due to the worsening salt situation in the North of England and Scotland there is every possibility that new salt will need to be directed to those regions first.

On Monday there will be a review of the precautionary gritting regime to ensure that the most essential roads continue to be gritted - new salt deliveries are still expected, but could still be redirected Nationally.

As we saw last year and after the brief freeze in December cold weather damages the surface of roads and creates new potholes as well as making existing ones worse. If you are aware of any problems in your area (or on your daily commute) please notify the County Council via the website or via the contact centre on 0345 045 5212 (contact centre is open 8.00 am-8.00 pm, Monday to Saturday). Cllr Mac McGuire (the Cabinet Member Responsible) has given an assurance that they will be repaired as soon as resources and weather conditions allow.

ID Cards launch in Cambridge tomorrow!

I've just heard that the immigration minister, Phil Woolas, is arriving tomorrow (Wednesday 6th Jan) to launch the ID card for foreigners through the city’s St Andrew’s Street Post Office. The move means Cambridge will become a testing ground for the scheme, focusing on the immigration issue, and the first step towards rolling it out nationally.

NO2ID is joining forces with some of the Cambridge City Councillors to stage a protest with banners outside the St. Andrew’s Street Post Office between 8am and 9am tomorrow morning. I'll be there, why not come along?