Summer Holiday activities for kids from the City Council

It is the school summer holidays and children (and teachers!) have some free time.

The City Council's ChYPPs team proivde a range of activities during the summer holiday for children of all ages. The brochure (in PDF) is available online with lots of information.

Today, for example, their are sessions on St Alban's Rec and Nuns Way. Yesterday on Thorpe Way rec (and many elsewhere in the city). Please do have a look at the brochure and use these facilities: a great chance for your kids to make new friends.

You can find out more about ChYPPS (Children and Young People's Participation Service) in their part of the city council website.

Myself: I'm spending the summer holiday tidying the house. Much less fun.

Planning weekly list: Lovell Rd, Kirkwood Rd and Milton Rd

Three items on the weekly planning list this week.

The first is an application for a certificate of lawfulness for a roof extension at 37 Lovell Road, application 10/0604/CL2PD. The second is for "installation of window openings" at Unit 7 on Kings Court, Kirkwood Road. This is application 10/0676/FUL.

The third item on the weekly list is tree works on Milton Road. Number 392 has applied to do work on a Copper Beach and a Lime, in both cases to "raise to 3.5m and crown thin by 20%". Application number 10/192/TREE1.

As usual more information is available from the Development Control website, and in case of difficulties contact the team.

Arbury Court Library: County library review

The County Council have announced a review of the Library Service throughout Cambridgeshire.

It isn't clear yet what result or impact this will have on the Libraries in Cambridge, but they County have not ruled out changes to the service at either Arbury Court or Milton Road Libraries as drastic as closure.

Last Saturday the Friends of Milton Road library held a discusson and there a similar meeting has been called on Saturday 17th July at 3pm in Arbury Community Centre to see what can be done by the community to defend the Arbury Court Library.

Planning applications last week and this

Three applications on the weekly list, two last week and one this week.


Last week there was an application for a two storey side and rear extension to 41 Lovell Road (reference 10/0507/FUL), and an application to vary "condition 28" of a planning application for the erection of industrial units in Kings Court (off King's Hedges Road) (reference 10/0552/S73).


This week is another extension in Lovell Road, this time two storeys to the rear of 36 Lovell Road (reference 10/0581/FUL).

More details can be found on the City Council web site.

North Area Committee 15 July

This is a bit late to warn people but it is North Area Committee tomorrow.


As usual the meeting is at Manor Community School on Arbury Road. It is on Thursday 15th July, with planning at 6.30pm, and the main agenda starting after that or at 7.30pm.


Planning looks like it will include an application relating to Citygate on Woodhead Drive, as well as other applications from the other wards.

The main meeting agenda has the Open Forum, a chance to ask the local councillors questions on any topic, the public consultation on licensing policy (see the city council website for more information if you can't wait!).

The agenda is online at the City Council website.

Changes to Bus Services

Stagecoach have announced service changes for the 26th July.

These changes affect the Citi 2 to 7 (amongst others) so are probably worth checking out if you use any of those services.

The Citi 1 service is unaffected.

I've attached the file from Stagecoach with the details of all the changes here.

Sad news: Janet Jones

I have just been informed of the sad news of the death of former King's Hedges Labour County Councillor Janet Jones after a long illness.

Cllr Geoff Heathcock writes:

Janet was a True stalwart of local democracy and a campaigner of some power especially on the welfare of Social Services over a very long period of time. She will truly be an act that won't beeasily followed.

She was elected as a Councillor for Arbury in 1970, and served Arbury on the County Council from 1973 to 1985, when she moved to King's Hedges. She was King's Hedges County Councillor for 20 years from 1985 to 2005. In addition she was also chair of governors at the Manor School.

The thoughts of the team are with the bereaved.

Parkside Federation Academy Application

Well the first school I'm aware of has published a consultative paper on changing status and becoming the first of the Governments new Academies in Cambridge.

It's good that the school is undergoing a consultation, as one of the few (6?) outstanding schools in Cambridgeshire there is no requirement on the school to consult and yet the Governing Body and the Head have decided that a public consultation is the best way forward.

The door has now been opened - let's see how many follow.

The document sent out is available here.

Planning application on King's Hedges Rd

There is one application this week.

The address is 6 King's Hedges Road and it appears to be for something connected to a mobile telephone network. The reference is 10/0513/TELDET and more details can be found from the online application tracker of the City Council, which has been much improved, or in person.

As ever any issues contact the team.

Arbury and King's Hedges teams at Arbury Carnival

On the right is a picture of some of the Arbury and King's Hedges team running our book stall at the Abury Carnival this Saturday.

From left to right Alan Levy, Tim Ward from Arbury. At the front is the Mayor, Sheila Stuart. Behind her is Neil McGovern then Mike Pitt and finally the deputy mayor Ian Nimmo-Smith.

Andy Pellew was busy helping to organise the event but he did drop round to see us. Follow that link for a few other photos.


Thanks to everyone who dropped round to the stall to buy a book or just for a chat.

Planning application in King's Hedges Road

One planning application last week in King's Hedges for the "installation of a dropped kerb and tarmac from kerb to driveway" at 21 King's Hedges Road (reference 10/0363/FUL).

For more details go to the development control pages of the City Council website. In case of difficulty contact one of the team.

Planning applications on weekly lists.

Sorry but I missed the weekly list for 10th to 16th May which had two applications for the ward. Haven't been any others in recent lists though.

The two applications were in Garry Drive "Erection of boundary brick wall and gates (retrospective)" (10/0385/FUL) and at Citygate for "Erection of four one bed and four two bed flats and works to parking area" (10/0367/FUL).

Apologies for the delay in reporting these!

City Cuts Rubbish to Landfill (despite increase in number of homes)

Cambridge City Council has cut the amount of rubbish it sends to landfill by more than 2,500 tonnes despite the number of homes increasing by around 1,500.

Figures show that in 2006/07 596kg of black bin waste was collected from each household making a total of 28,124 tonnes across the city. Last year 526kg of waste was collected from each home making a total of 25,595 tonnes – a reduction of 12 per cent.

Mike Pitt, your local ward Councillor and Cambridge City Executive Councillor for Environmental and Waste Services said:

"These figures are extremely encouraging. They relate directly to the effort made by residents to maximise their recycling and reduce the amount of waste they put in their black bins and gives the city council an enviable recycling record among councils across the county and the country generally."

"We have seen the amount of waste per household steadily falling over the last four years and we will continue to work to encourage recycling wherever we can."

This trend is exceptionally good news, especially in times of economic uncertainty and really shows that the people of Cambridge, if given the opportunity to recycle, clearly think it's worthwhile.

If you have something to dispose of and want to check to see if it's recyclable then there is always the Cambridge Recycling Directory which lists how to dispose of common items in a sustainable way.

Changes to the X9 (Cambridge - Ely - Chatteris - March) Bus Service

Stagecoach has informed the County Council that on the 30th May 2010 it will be varying the X9 Service. This Service currently departs at 16:45, this will be changing to 16:35 with subsequent departure times being 10 minutes earlier up until Stretham - timings between Stretham and Ely will remain the same.

The return journey from Ely to Cambridge will now be via The Gallery and Back Hill in Ely, not Lisle Lane and Broad Street.

Question at Council: Fixmystreet.com

COUNTY COUNCIL – 30 March 2010
Minute 76, Oral Questions
Question to the Cabinet Member for Highways and Access, Councillor M McGuire, from Councillor Shepherd.

Councillor Shepherd asked the Cabinet Member for Highways and Access, Councillor M McGuire, whether the Council could respond to highways problems reported by the public via the national website FixMyStreet. Responding, the Cabinet Member for Highways and Access noted that the Council operated its own webpages enabling the public to report highways problems. He agreed to send a written response relating to FixMyStreet.

Response from the Cabinet Member for Highways and Access, Councillor M McGuire

Currently the FixMyStreet website does not integrate with our own webpages, therefore to update FixMyStreet is a manual process requiring the Highways Team to do this (or a member of the public when they have received a response). Customers can report highway problems on either our own website or FixMyStreet (FixMyStreet then emails the Council with the submitted request).

However, with both systems we currently do not inform the customer once the problem has been fixed, or if it cannot be fixed.

In terms of the Council's website, a project is underway to address this, which will allow customers to report problems, be notified of progress and view what has already been reported. A further phase of development, dependent on funding availability and technical compatibility, will be to integrate this solution with FixMyStreet, so that website can also be updated.

New Form of Government

On the 11th May Nick Clegg made the following announcement:

"We are now going to form a new government. More importantly than anything else, we are going to form a new kind of government; I hope this is the start of a new kind of politics I have always believed in. Diverse, plural, where politicians with different points of view find a way to work together to provide the good government for the sake of the whole country deserves.

That was what we were asked to do by the people of Britain in the General Election last Thursday and that is what we will deliver."

As a Liberal Democrat I believe that the agreement between my party and the Conservatives is full of policies that I personally believe in and have been campaigning for for years. This agreement represents the best chance for us to put the policies we believe in into practice. I sincerely hope that this opportunity will not be allowed to slip through our fingers.

You can read the whole agreement document here.

Andy Pellew
County Councillor for King's Hedges

Guided Busway Problems Discussed in Cabinet

The Conservatives at Shirehall have again discussed the current stalemate on the Guided Busway. The meeting minutes are available here. The agenda and other items are available:

http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/db/council2.nsf/e0c624b01b2e9ade80256b14004eb73b/298394afce81eedb802577070046c665?OpenDocument

The Guided Busway starts at point 171.

You'll notice that in typical County-style point 172 excludes the press and public and count 173 presents a confidential report. It's disappointing, but perhaps understandable, that some legal issues need to be discussed in private.

Cabinet resolved to:

i) Note the progress that is being made towards sectional completion and the opening of the busway between Cambridge and St Ives and in particular, the current overall timescale from the contractor for addressing the notified defects;

ii) Confirm that the notified defects should be addressed satisfactorily before buses could run on the guideway and that whilst the maintenance track could follow the opening of the guideway, that could only be the case if a clear way forward to resolve the problems had been agreed.

iii) That a further update report should be received at the May Cabinet meeting

The one key point that I think all the Cambridge candidates in the recent election agreed on is that the money has been spent. Wisely or unwisely the money is gone. Julian Huppert joined us on the County Group calling for an independent enquiry into where the money has gone and the problems delivering the busway BUT the key point is that now we have a guideway, now we have buses, and now we need to get the service running as soon as possible while ensuring value for money for Cambridgeshire tax payers.

Election Result in King's Hedges

Just a quick update; the election result in King's Hedges was as follows:

Matthew Adams Conservative 813

Martin Booth Cambridge Socialists 92

Simon Brierley Liberal Democrats 1236

Alexandra Collis Green 274

Elizabeth Hughes Labour 986

Today is Polling Day!

Don't forget to vote today!

King's Hedges has two elections today: one for parliament where the Focus team hope we will elect Julian Huppert. Julian will make an outstanding MP, and follow in the footsteps of David Howarth.

For the City Council elections please elect another hard working local councillor for our ward. Simon Brierley hopes to replace Neale as our third City Councillor. He lives in Markham Close and has been active helping the team for several years.

New Election Leaflet

It's the final few days of the 2010 campaign and we've been delivering the above leaflet across the ward. If you'd like to access an electronic version it's available here (via The Straight Choice website).