Tonight I attended the Annual Meeting of the Electorate at the Glebe (not to be confused with the Annual Meeting of Sutton Parish Council, which was on Tuesday – see earlier blog post).

Parish Council chairman Bob Browne reported on the parish council’s year, and I gave much the same report I gave to the Parish Council two days before, so apologies to those who had to hear it twice.  There were two questions from the public: whether we yet knew what was going to happen to the planning application for the southern Ely crossing (we don’t – but I do hope it doesn’t end up being decided by Eric Pickles), and what my view was on the government’s Help To Buy scheme and its effect on affordable housing locally (I think the greater problem in this area is the spiralling housing market in Cambridge fuelled by foreign speculators buying up investment properties).

Mark Nokkert then gave a presentation on the Ouse Washes Landscape Project, in which Sutton Parish Council has recently joined as a partner.  It’s only a year since Mark staffed a stand at the Gault Day to show residents what was being proposed: since then, it’s been great to see Sutton with a seat at the table in this venture.

There were several questions to the parish council from members of the public, mostly about traffic through Sutton, as well as praise for the restoration of the Bury Lane footpath.

There was also a suggestion for the parish council to facilitate the hosting of the various Sutton-related websites that are in existence – something that the parish council’s Community Engagement working party will be asked to consider.