District councillor for Sutton, Mepal, Witcham, and Wentworth (East Cambridgeshire District Council) and county councillor for Coveney, Little Downham, Mepal, Pymoor, Sutton, Wardy Hill, Way Head, Witcham, and Witchford (Cambridgeshire County Council)
Cold homes can affect mobility and put older people at greater risk of falling. It’s important to be extra careful to avoid falls during winter months.
Do you know what increases the risk of falling? Are you worried for a friend, a family member or an elderly neighbour? Encourage them to use the interactive risk checking tool to help identify their risks. Access the online tool for tips to prevent falls at www.steadyonyourfeet.org/cambridgeshire
Expert advice on Awaab’s Law, tackling damp and mould, and retrofitting
Landlords from East Cambridgeshire are being invited to a free information event to find out how to prepare for upcoming changes to Awaab’s Law and effectively tackle damp and mould in their rented properties.
Hosted by the Cambridgeshire Private Sector Housing Group, which represents councils across the county, the countywide ‘Dealing with Damp and Mould’ forum will take place on:
Monday 13 January 2025
1pm to 5pm
The Maltings, Ship Lane, Ely CB7 4BB
The event is open to both private and social landlords and will offer expert guidance to help landlords meet legal responsibilities while improving the safety and wellbeing of tenants.
The afternoon will see keynote presentations from:
Nadhia Khan, Executive Director of Customer and Community, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing: Nadhia will share insights into her organisation’s experience of dealing with significant failings in handling complaints related to damp and mould, providing a valuable perspective on lessons learned.
Ian Sanders, Principal Environmental Health Practitioner, Hull City Council: Ian has a wealth of experience in all aspects of damp and mould and acted as an advisor and contributor to the recent government’s statutory guidance.
Steph Salmon, Retrofit Project Manager, Cambridge City Council: Steph will present a range of retrofitting options available to landlords, focusing on improving energy efficiency and tackling the root causes of damp.
Awaab’s Law was introduced last year as part of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. It followed the tragic death of a toddler who died in December 2020 due to prolonged exposure to mould in the social home his family rented from Rochdale Boroughwide Housing.
The law requires social landlords to fix hazards that pose a danger to tenants’ health with a strict, legal time limit. But with its extension to the private rented sector expected under the Renters’ Rights Bill, the forum provides a vital opportunity for landlords to stay informed, network with industry experts, and ensure compliance with the new regulations.
There will be an opportunity for Q&As after each keynote presentation and the chance to network with other landlords and housing professionals. Refreshments will also be available.
Places at the event are limited, so early registration is encouraged.
Freezing temperatures are forecast by the Met Office in Cambridgeshire until Wednesday 8 January and health experts are urging people to be Winter Wise and look out for others.
Val Thomas, Acting Director of Public Health for Cambridgeshire County Council, has issued advice to help residents look after vulnerable friends and neighbours as well as themselves.
With the weather taking a cold turn for several days to come, a quick reminder about gritting on Cambridgeshire’s roads.
Cambridgeshire County Council’s 37 gritting vehicles cover 44 per cent of the county’s road network. Cambridgeshire is split into three gritting areas:
Fenland and East
Huntingdonshire and South
Cambridge
Which roads are gritted and when will depend on the forecast temperatures in each of these three areas, so there may be occasions when some parts of the county are gritted but not others.
Roads on the County Council’s gritting network are classified as primary or secondary gritting routes. Primary routes are the priority for gritting, because they serve as major connecting routes for communities and allow most road users to get to work and access essential services. Secondary routes are gritted in addition to primary routes as and when resources allow when there is a forecast of a prolonged cold spell, where road surface temperatures fall below zero, or when snowfall is forecast.
You can find which roads are primary or secondary gritting routes here—in the Map categories menu to the left of the screen, choose Transport and Streets, then select Primary Gritting Routes and Secondary Gritting Routes from the drop-down menu.
The Council checks detailed weather forecasts throughout the day, and at midday every day during winter receives road and air temperatures from twelve weather stations around the county. This information guides where and when to send out the gritters and how much salt needs to be spread.
You can find more information about winter gritting in Cambridgeshire here. And the County Council posts regular updates on Facebook and X (Twitter), including road gritting news and weather warnings.
In the meantime, do drive safely and take care out there. In 2022, 14 people were killed, 379 were seriously injured and 1,227 were slightly injured in reported road collisions on Great Britain’s roads when there was rain, snow, sleet or foggy conditions, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. The AA has useful advice for driving in snow and ice.
The Government has now announced how much each council area will receive for highways capital maintenance for 2025/26.
For the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough area it’s £10 million, with a quarter of that amount to be held back until the respective councils have proved they will meet certain—still to be announced—criteria.
£10 million sounds a lot, but
The Government may hold back twenty-five per cent of it
It includes Peterborough as well as Cambridgeshire
In Cambridgeshire alone the backlog of highways maintenance is around £600 million
Better than nothing, then, but a long way from what we need.
I got a response I wasn’t expecting when I asked at Cambridgeshire County Council’s Highways & Transport Committee yesterday morning whether the council might consider the introduction of more speed cameras.
In a discussion about Cambridgeshire’s ‘Vision Zero’—the aim to reduce to zero the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads—I pointed out how few speed cameras there are in Cambridgeshire compared with, for example, Staffordshire.
The answer from road safety manager Simon Burgin was the one I expected, about the cost. But he went on to say that another factor was that ‘there have to be the appropriate available court slots to deal with anybody committing speeding offences’. Increasing enforcement could lead to people ‘falling through the cracks’ as there would simply not be space to ‘push them through’ the court system—and this was ‘a bigger problem to solve’ than the cost.
It’s yet another example of the collapse of the justice system under the Conservative government.
The formation of a new Liberal Democrat & Independent Group on East Cambridgeshire District Council has set the political balance on the 28-strong council on a knife edge.
The new Group has fourteen members—thirteen Liberal Democrats plus one independent (James Lay, Woodditton). So does the ruling Conservative Group, which is now expected to cling onto control of the council and its committees by the casting vote of the chair at every meeting.
The new Group’s leader, Cllr Lorna Dupré, says:
“This new Group will work together in the best interests of the residents of East Cambridgeshire. Its formation will now force the council to review the size of council committees and the number of members on them. For too long the Conservative group on the council has forced through its agenda by clinging on to a majority which is not justified by either the number of seats or the number of votes it has.”
Cllr James Lay (Independent) adds:
“I was elected in 2023 as a Conservative councillor to represent Woodditton on East Cambridgeshire District Council. I believe the residents of Woodditton deserve an explanation of my reasons for leaving the Conservatives, and joining a new Liberal Democrats & Independent Group on the council as an Independent councillor.
Under the Conservatives, too many decisions have been made behind closed doors without debate in council. The full council meets only five times a year, to restrict and control debate. By contrast, neighbouring South Cambridgeshire, West Suffolk, Fenland, Babergh, and Huntingdonshire meet eight times a year.
Conservatives on East Cambridgeshire are told what to think, and theirs is not a happy ship. Major decisions in the next six months may bring matters to a head and we may see further changes in the Conservative Group then.
Leaving the Conservative Group has not been an easy decision for me. But I hope our new Group will bring more democracy and debate to East Cambridgeshire District Council, for the benefit of all who live in our District.”
Cllr Christine Whelan has been elected as the Group’s Deputy Leader.
The new Group has submitted a requisition to the Chair of the Council calling for an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Council to agree sizes and membership of committees. By law these must be proportional to the balance of the membership of the council as a whole.
Applications are now open for spaces on Cambridgeshire County Council’s Christmas Holiday Activities and Food Programme.
Children in receipt of income-related free school meals can access a fully funded place at a participating holiday scheme or family experience for up to sixteen hours. Recently arrived refugee families and families struggling financially are also eligible.
Residents are invited to find out more about local nature recovery projects in a free event at Ely Library on Saturday 16 November from 10:00AM to 3:00PM.
There will be four talks:
10:00AM Witchford Climate Action Group
11:00AM Wicken Fen: peatland restoration
12:00PM Oxwillow: restoring farmland habitat
12:30PM Natural Cambridgeshire: doubling nature
There will also be a range of stalls including Wildlife Trust BCN, RSPB, Renew: Ely Cathedral Environment Group and East Cambs Climate Action Network. The event is organised in partnership with East Cambridgeshire District Council and East Cambs CAN.
Today I proposed a motion at the meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council about the safety of lithium-ion batteries in e-bikes, e-scooters, and other appliances. I was delighted that it passed unanimously. This is what I said.
“Many here today will be aware of the tragic death of a mother and her two children in Cambridge nearly sixteen months ago. They died in a fire which took hold rapidly in their home, when a faulty replacement e-bicycle battery caught alight. It had been purchased online after the original battery had been stolen.
Lithium-ion batteries are increasingly being used in a wide range of household goods. When they overheat—which they can do for a variety of reasons—this can lead to unstoppable thermal runaway, uncontrolled chemical reactions, explosions, and fires which are very difficult to control.
The importation of lithium-ion batteries into the UK without adequate requirements for independent testing is a particular risk, especially when bought online. While high street shops have a responsibility to ensure the safety of electrical goods they sell, online retailers do not. It is even possible to buy online electrical products no longer available on the high street because they have been recalled by the manufacturers.
Increasing use of lithium-ion batteries has led to increasing risk of fire. Fires in people’s homes, as in the Cambridge tragedy. Fires in waste collection vehicles. Fires at waste sites. A growing threat—to residents in their homes, to council waste crews, and to firefighters. Local authorities such as ours, and our partners are doing what we can to spread information. But it’s not enough.
Lord Foster of Bath and the charity Electrical Safety First have been calling for some time for changes in the law to improve the safety of lithium-ion batteries.
Firstly, there must be a regime of independent approval testing so that the UK public can be assured that the batteries they are buying are safe.
Secondly, there must be regulations for the safe disposal of lithium-ion batteries.
And thirdly, there must be adequate controls to address specific fire safety concerns. These include the safety of chargers, and of conversion kits such as those that turn pushbikes into e-bikes.
This motion asks that we, as a council, endorse the proposals by Lord Foster and Electrical Safety First.
Furthermore, it asks that the Chief Executive write to the Minister to encourage the Government to support new legislation; and to our partners in the Fire Authority, RECAP, and its constituent authorities, to spread the message and encourage them to make their own representations.”
