Last night (8 January) saw the first East Cambridgeshire District Council full council meeting of 2015. Of particular interest to Sutton were the two items on Neighbourhood Plans: one to agree Sutton Parish Council’s application to be considered a neighbourhood plan area, the other to agree the process by which the District Council will play the part it must play by law in supporting the parish council through the process.

This means that the parish can now proceed to the next stage of drawing up its plan and consulting local residents on it. We will shortly receive a questionnaire from the parish council as the next stage in this process.

I welcomed the application, and congratulated the parish council on being the first one in East Cambridgeshire to start this process.

The council unanimously supported a motion from my group to support Ely & Soham Dial a Ride, which had said it would wind down in March due to financial difficulties, and ensure a sustainable community transport service for the future. The council also agreed a separate report proposing to provide one-off financial support of £15,000 to Ely & Soham Dial a Ride and offer in-kind support to the organisation in a complete review of its operation.

Following the announcement by Tesco yesterday morning that it would not be proceeding with its proposal to develop a new superstore at a new location on Angel Drove in Ely, I asked the council leader an urgent question about what this meant for his strategy including for the Station Gateway project and the Ely Southern Bypass.

The Leader replied that he and the council’s Chief Executive were informed of Tesco’s decision by brief letter yesterday morning and had held a number of meetings. He said Tesco’s decision would not stop him in his determination to build the Ely Southern Bypass (though it’s not clear on what financial basis, now that there is no Government money this coming year either), but that he had always seen the Station Gateway project as ‘long term’ – which is somewhat surprising as the Supplementary Planning Document was due to be finalised in the next few months.  I will be seeking further information about the effect of the announcement on the finances and the timetable of this project.