Fulbourn Primary School Class Saved

The number of classes in a school is determined by the number of children likely to need them. This makes sense most of the time. There are a number of complex ways to work this out and by and large we do end up with the right number of classes in all our schools for the number of children.

Fulbourn Primary School numbers has been hit by the Windmill Estate being replaced with new housing. People have left the estate and have not been replaced yet in the new housing because they have not been built. In fact the rate of building has slowed because of the economic climate making this dip in school numbers worse and longer than expected. This means that for a short period school numbers would have fallen enough to lose the seventh class resulting in all the other classes getting much bigger and a teacher leaving.

Sometimes unusual factors threaten the formula and this is where people have to step in and make the correct decision even if it means bending the rules. I was asked to step in by a school governor who frankly did not believe that much could be done but was desperate to save the class.

I meet with the Head to discuss the matter. As a result I arranged for the County Councils School Organisation and Planning Officer and the County’s Schools Finance Manager to meet with the Head and me to see what could be done to manage this extraordinary situation.

The Head and I wrote a compelling business case for the retention of the seventh class which we gave to the officers at the end of our meeting. We argued strongly that this was an exception and that the class would be needed.

SUCCESS. Our case was made, understood and accepted. Against all our hopes the class is saved for another year. This felt good and reminded me why I stood as a county councillor.

 

Public Finances

Borrow too much, spend too much and think that the boom and bust cycle has been broken for ever and guess what – it all goes wrong. Worse, we now have all to pay, at the local level, for the mistakes of this flawed governments fantasies.

Dire warnings from the main UK political parties on reductions in the money given to councils and public bodies means the way services are delivered is due for a complete re-think. Forecasts suggest Cambridgeshire County Council, which has strong rating for use of resources, could be around £113 million worse off in five year’s time than it is now.

Under a new scheme – Making Cambridgeshire Count – communities will be put in the driving seat of what services they want and how they are delivered.  At the same time Cambridgeshire public bodies and the County’s most influential organisations will look at ways of reducing duplication of resources and redesigning services to be more effective and focused. Council chiefs say that it is right that authorities tighten their belts at this time but ‘salami-slicing’ from services public bodies deliver will neither provide the savings needed nor the services Cambridgeshire wants and deserves. Although over the next five years funding will stay relatively the same, the Council will have to find an extra £47 million to cover inflation and a predicted £55 million is needed for the increased demand for services.

Fen Ditton December 2009 parish report

Cycleway to Fen Ditton

At a recent members A14 improvement seminar I was able to raise the issue of crossing the A14 and our new cycleway. I am pleased to say that my suggestion that the highways agency might want to engineer the problem away, when the A14 widening takes place, has now made it into the cabinet paper that will become the counties formal response to the A14 widening scheme. No promises that it will be carried out but at least it is now “officially” on the projects list of things to consider. I was pleased to see the road surveyors out and about last week preparing for the cycle way.

Gritting changes proposed to help cyclists
A range of trial improvements to the gritting service are to be piloted in Cambridgeshire over the coming months following the very hard winter last year. The initial proposals, which include trialling the gritting of major cycle bridges in Cambridge and treating of so called secondary routes earlier will inform the major in-depth review, the results of which will be implemented next year. Cambridgeshire already treats more than 40 per cent of its roads using a fleet of high-tech gritters. Government does not give extra money for gritting roads, paths or cycleways. Last year saw the fleet of 38 gritters go out around 85 times, using some 15,000 tonnes of rocksalt, costing about £1.8 million.

This initial review followed requests for better gritting of cycling facilities and last year’s record cold that this winter, 11 bridges will be gritted at the same time as the main roads are gritted. A special, less corrosive rocksalt, will be used to grit the bridges to reduce harm to the bridge structures.

Talks will also begin with District and City Council partners to see if they have any staff, such as road sweepers, who cannot carry out their normal work when snow and ice forms who could be used to put rocksalt from the County Council stocks on paths.

Cambridgeshire County Council already uses more affective and environmentally friendly forms of gritting, as used in Scandinavian countries. Gritting is a vital part of road safety strategy but we do not get extra funds from Government to do it. Government must do its bit, especially in the light of the national salt shortage, to make sure highway authorities have the resources and funding they need.

Winter Maintenance precautionary salting priorities are:

• Roads that carry the heaviest early morning traffic
• Roads linking centres of population
• B roads and busy roads adjacent to fen roads
• Roads that link salted route with those of other adjoining counties
• Making sure all road users live within a reasonable distance of a salted route

We also try to salt all bus routes where possible.

The County will now treat the secondary network when 5 days of freezing conditions are forecast, rather than after 5 days of freezing conditions have occurred. I am sure this will mean far more treatments to the secondary routes than previously.

Tough times ahead for public finances – Council warns.

Dire warnings from the main UK political parties on reductions in the money given to councils and public bodies means the way services are delivered is due for a complete re-think. Forecasts suggest Cambridgeshire County Council, which has strong rating for use of resources, could be around £113 million worse off in five year’s time than it is now. Under a new scheme – Making Cambridgeshire Count – communities will be put in the driving seat of what services they want and how they are delivered.  At the same time Cambridgeshire public bodies and the County’s most influential organisations will look at ways of reducing duplication of resources and redesigning services to be more effective and focused. Council chiefs say that it is right that authorities tighten their belts at this time but ‘salami-slicing’ from services public bodies deliver will neither provide the savings needed nor the services Cambridgeshire wants and deserves. Although over the next five years funding will stay relatively the same, the Council will have to find an extra £47 million to cover inflation and a predicted £55 million is needed for the increased demand for services.

Adequate and good outcomes in Children’s Services
An inspection of safeguarding and looked after children services at the council has assessed the services as adequate overall with some good features. A team from OfSTED - the Office for Standards in Education - rated 26 of the inspected areas in the’ adequate category and 8 as ‘good’. The inspection was one of the first carried out using the new OfSTED inspection methodology. Inspectors said the overall effectiveness of the safeguarding services was adequate, with statutory requirements being met, adding that improvements in services were taking place and that there is an accelerating pace of change. They emphasised that the commitment of partner agencies to the joint safeguarding and child protection agenda was strong. Inspectors praised the ‘considerable efforts’ made towards establishing a clear vision, structures and detailed operational arrangements for its services. The inspectors remarked on the high morale of the children’s social care workforce.

Cambridge City Archives – keeping it in the family!

The County Council’s Archives Service is about to start work on a mammoth project to catalogue and preserve thousands of records which record the history of Cambridge City. The Cambridgeshire Family History Society (CFHS) has provided a £45,000 grant which will fund an archivist for two years to catalogue the records of the Municipal Borough of Cambridge after 1835 and some earlier records deposited at Cambridgeshire Archives by the City Council. The City of Cambridge archives occupy more than 150 metres of shelving with records covering a period from the 13th to 21st century. They include records of meetings, title deeds, rate books and valuations, engineer’s reports, court books, treasurer’s accounts, architects’ plans and drawings. Whilst a multitude of lists exist, there is no modern archive catalogue, so information about the contents of the archive is anecdotal and access difficult. The archivist will also work with the CFHS volunteer group and other volunteers to produce a detailed transcription and indexes of records of special interest and at the same time conservation staff will systematically clean and package documents to ensure the entire archive can be used without risk of damage and to ensure long-term preservation for future generations.

World’s oldest university printer presents collection to Cambridgeshire’s newest Library.

The world’s oldest University printer and publisher - Cambridge University Press, has boosted the stock of Cambridgeshire’s newest Library. A team from Cambridge University Press presented the books, which cover a wide range of subjects from evolution to climate change, to Cambridge Central Library. The books boosted the Central Library collection which includes more than 100,000 items for loan to the public. The Library re-opened to the public on September 29, after an extensive rebuild and refurbishment programme and welcomed more than 17,000 visitors during its first week of operation.

Drumming up excitement for real time at Cambridge bus station.

The County Council has nearly completed work on installing a new Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) display at Cambridge’s Drummer Street bus station. The displays will give passengers an exact waiting time, much like the overhead signs at train stations or on the Underground. Currently 12 of the 31 services that use Drummer Street are equipped to deliver real time information for passengers, while a proposal for a further five services to be kitted out is underway. Two summary boards will display the information in the centre of the station, so that passengers can see exactly how long they have to wait for the next bus.

A £42 million recycling plant, which will put Cambridgeshire at the forefront of waste management in the UK, opened.
The Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) Plant is the first of its kind in the country and will sort and recycle much of the waste that normally ends up in landfill from people’s ” black bag” rubbish.
Rubbish collected from households across the County will be sorted at the plant which is off the A10 near Waterbeach, and run by local family firm Donarbon Waste Management Limited in partnership with Cambridgeshire County Council. The massive, hi-tech treatment plant, built by BAM Nuttall which is the length of three football pitches, houses giant shredding machines called Terminators, and the latest mechanical sorting equipment, provided by Kelagh and Komptech, which removes material for recycling before turning the rest of the waste into compost like material for use on non-food crops or a fuel.

An education centre will also be developed at the site so people can learn more about the facility and why it is so important to recycle. Waste which is normally not recycled will be sorted at the facility. At the moment just over half of the County’s domestic waste is recycled or composted. But this new facility, combined with improved recycling centres, will mean Cambridgeshire will massively reduce the tonnes of rubbish that ends up in landfill. Landfilling rubbish is not only bad for the environment but Government taxes every tonne of waste that ends up in the ground. This tax is currently £40 a tonne and will increase by £8 a tonne year on year.

Cambridgeshire is not only at the forefront of recycling and composting, but, thanks to this new plant, we now lead the way in treating waste that would otherwise be landfilled. The County Council is investing millions of pounds in providing better facilities to reduce, re-use and recycle our rubbish as part of our commitment to reducing our impact on climate change and getting value for money for our taxpayers. This new plant, together with the new recycling centres we are building, will reduce the amount of money spent on throwing rubbish into landfill and reduce the impact of waste on the environment. Cambridgeshire leads the country in using this technology and with the County’s population expected to grow by 100,000 by 2021, we need to stay ahead in dealing with our waste. We are confident that the investment in new waste treatment facilities, which includes over £10 million in two new waste transfer stations at Alconbury and March and a new in-vessel composting plant at Waterbeach on top of this fantastic new MBT plant, will ensure that all councils in Cambridgeshire meet, and exceed their targets. We are also proud to say we will be employing local labour to operate the new sites.

FEn Ditton August 2009 parish report

CYCLE WAY   HORNINGSEA TO FEN DITTON

A public consultation over the proposed Horningsea to Fen Ditton cycleway was held in Horningsea at which over 130 people attended. This is a real opportunity to get the much needed cycleway.

FLYING START FOR COUNTY COUNCIL APPRENTICESHIP SCHEME

A County Council apprenticeship scheme designed to help people into the world of work, has already received almost 200 applications for jobs. The council introduced the scheme to help develop its workforce particularly in the areas of social care, business support and Trading Standards. It is hoped that the scheme will result in 30 apprentices in its first year and more training opportunities could follow in future. The two-year apprenticeships will include work-based training and college or training course study including work towards NVQs, technical certificates and key skills qualifications. The apprenticeships are also a way for the County Council to create employment opportunities for people in a time of recession.

COUNCIL BACKS BUSINESS WITH NEW HIGH SPEED PAYMENT ADVICE SYSTEM

The County Council is supporting local businesses by helping them control their cash flow thanks to a new electronic payment advice system. The system uses e-mail to advise companies that their bills have been paid at the same time as the electronic payment is made. The high-speed service enables suppliers to track their income from goods and services supplied to the county council. The new e-mail remittance advice service is available to any of the thousands of suppliers used by the County Council.

COUNTY COUNCIL PAYS ITS WAY AHEAD OF TIME

The County Council is paying its bills ahead of target and its payment performance has been rated as the best by a county council in the country. During the last financial year, the Council paid 98% of undisputed invoices within the specified 30 days period and many bills were settled within days of being received by the authority. The authority which receives around 500,000 invoices annually is not only the biggest employer in the county, but it is also a significant spender and puts millions of pounds into the local economy every year.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE TRANSPORT COMMISSION REPORT

The County Council is considering the report made by the Cambridgeshire Transport Commission. For more information on the Commission and to download the full report please visit www.cambstransportcommission.co.uk.

In summary the Commission recommends that the Council should make a bid for Transport Innovation Funding (TiF). But it says that a congestion charge should not be brought in any sooner than 2017 and only after the TiF package of improvements are in and working, as well as completion of the A14 improvements and Chesterton Station. It also suggests that a charge would only be brought in when congestion has reached a stage that congestion is deemed to be unacceptable. That trigger point should be agreed by the Council, public, businesses, partner organisations and Government. It stresses this point could be deferred if people use the new public transport facilities.

The Council will consider the Commission’s findings and its options with a report going to Cabinet on September 29. A decision will then be reached on the way forward and this will be taken to Full Council in October.

BUSWAY HANDOVER DATE ANNOUNCED

Busway contractors BAM Nuttall have advised Cambridgeshire County Council that they expect to hand over the track between St Ives and Cambridge at the end of October. This news means that, provided BAM Nuttall achieves this date, Cambridgeshire County Council will be able to open the busway within a month of the handover once final testing and trials are complete. Planning issues with the noise barriers at Histon are now being dealt with and all parties involved have committed themselves to deliver the northern section of the busway for this date.
The Council plans to give some members of the public the chance to try out a longer stretch of the busway before it opens. When the busway opens it will take just 20 minutes to travel by bus along the track from St Ives to the Science Park in Cambridge with buses gliding along at up to 60mph.

CAMBRIDGE CENTRAL LIBRARY- RE-OPENING.

Work has started on fitting, stocking and preparing Cambridge Central Library for its re-opening to the public in late September. Staff and stock which were transferred to branch libraries during the £7.5 million rebuilding and refurbishment of the Lion Yard-based library have now started to move back and preparations are well in hand to prepare the new state-of-the-art facilities.

The Library will eventually house around 100,000 books – 40,000 of which will be new stock – self service facilities for borrowers and computerised stock control. There will be a much improved children’s library, a Learning Centre, base for the Connexions Service, more computers giving free access to e-mail and the internet, a café and improved facilities and storage for the Cambridgeshire Collection.

In addition, escalators have been installed giving access to all three floors and the mechanical, electrical and heating systems completely replaced.

REGIONAL PLANNERS TOLD NEW TOWN AND GROWTH PLANS UNACCEPTABLE

Cambridgeshire planning chiefs have vowed to continue to challenge Governments unreasonably high levels of new housing, including a new 20,000 home town at Alconbury in a new public consultation.

The Government have asked the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) to consult on four options which would require between 3,600 and 4,560 new homes to be built in the County every year from 2011 up to 2031. This could include a 20,000 home town at Alconbury. Developers have put forward other ideas including new developments at Mereham and Hanley Grange. Councils across Cambridgeshire have united to campaign against these developments and are disappointed that lower levels of housing growth are not included.

A public consultation on the levels of housing growth and where new towns should be built in the Eastern Region is to be launched in September by EERA. The consultation will run for twelve weeks from September 2. Councils have agreed to help communities, including residents and businesses, to have their say in this consultation to make sure their voices are heard. The Cambridgeshire Councils have already written to EERA saying that proposals for a new town on Alconbury airfield are significantly flawed, and suggestions for high housing numbers recommended by Government in other parts of the county are unrealistic.

In their advice to EERA, Cambridgeshire planners also said proposals to build the town of Mereham between Wilburton and Stretham is not worthy of further consideration. This follows its rejection by East Cambridgeshrie District Council, Cambridgeshire County Council and an independent planning inspector.

PROPOSED HOUSING GROWTH FUND CUTS THREATEN £6 MILLION OF FUNDING.

Plans to deliver sustainable new communities across Cambridgeshire have suffered a massive blow after a major funding stream was threatened with cuts. Communities and Local Government (CLG) ministers sent a letter to the Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, confirming its intentions to reduce the County’s Housing Growth Fund (HGF) capital allocation for 2010-11 by almost £6 million.

The fund, administered by Cambridgeshire Horizons, is used to support the delivery of much needed new homes and infrastructure across the county and significant cutbacks could now need to be made as a result of this considerable reduction in funding.

Cambridgeshire Horizons and the six Cambridgeshire local authorities are now working together to find a way forward to ensure the continued delivery of sustainable new communities to meet the proven demand in the local area. A short formal consultation exercise is due to be announced later this week, and the group will ensure its voice is heard loud and clear.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE YOUNGSTERS ON A QUEST

Youngsters across Cambridgeshire have been flocking into their local libraries to take part in Quest Seekers – the national summer reading challenge. In the first week alone, over 5,000 children have signed up. The challenge involves reading at least six books during the summer holidays and recording details on special Quest Seeker posters. All libraries offer special book testing sessions, where children can talk to staff about what they have been reading. As a special incentive, stickers and rewards – including activity sheets and bookmarks – are awarded to the children and everyone who completes the challenge will receive a medal and certificate at special presentation ceremonies.