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)
The County Council’s summer HAF programme, funded by the Department for Education, is now open for bookings!
Children in receipt of income-related free school meals can book a holiday scheme place for 64 hours (subject to availability). Each scheme offers enriching experiences, a meal and snacks.
The HAF Team can arrange transport for families unable to access the programme otherwise. Ukrainian and other refugee families are also eligible for places as well as families ‘just about managing’ financially.
Watch the video here to see what’s involved. And look out for the HAF Programme on Facebook and Twitter too.
Small business in Cambridgeshire? Concerned about your energy use? Don’t miss out on your FREE low carbon business support this July.
This is your final opportunity to take advantage of this invaluable programme with expert guidance, hints and tips. Whether you’re looking to reduce your carbon footprint, increase energy efficiency, or explore new green technologies and practices, this programme is designed to help you.
Over the two days you will learn how to start your own low carbon journey, measure and monitor how your business can cut carbon, how to carry out a basic energy assessment, how to measure your business’s carbon footprint and take steps to reduce it, and learn about low energy technologies that could reduce energy use and cut costs.
Cambridgeshire County Council is currently delivering this Low Carbon Business Support programme in partnership with Deyton Bell & PECT (Peterborough Environment City Trust). The final sessions are on Tuesday 4 and Thursday 6 July at ‘New Shire Hall’, the County Council’s HQ at Alconbury Weald.
“This is a really overwhelming subject matter particularly at the start of the journey however the trainers have removed the fear and replaced it with fun” Lisa Mawditt
“This session provided a very useful introduction to a relatively new subject for me, there were lots of useful take aways and practical tools which will help us on this journey” Oli Bachini
This programme has been made possible by funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for the St Ives Park & Ride Smart Energy Grid project. More information about the project and the programme can be found at
Really excited about being involved in this event organised by East Cambs CAN! Do sign up and come along if you’re interested in developing clean energy at a community level in East Cambridgeshire.
Image: Rodney Burton / Water tower, Haddenham, Cambs / CC BY-SA 2.0
Work is set to begin tomorrow (Thursday 8 June) to restore the phone mast on the water tower at Haddenham. The reinstatement is expected to be complete and operational on Thursday 22 June.
Many residents of Haddenham, Sutton and surrounding villages have been without mobile phone signal since early May following damage to the tower which hosts the mast.
Before the recent bank holiday two new microwave links were installed adjacent to the damaged water tower to provide some connectivity, with all connections having to be re-laid. The main site however still needs to be reinstated with the full complement of technology, and Wireless Infrastructure Group has been instructed to proceed with the works.
This has been a very challenging site as the main structure, where all the equipment was installed, was severely damaged and needed to be repaired prior to the completion of the remaining technology installation.
SSE Renewables, in conjunction with the landowner, are proposing to construct and operate a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and associated infrastructure on land at Martins Farm, Littleport CB6 1EJ.
Construction and operational access to the site will be taken from Crouchmoor Drove, off Hale Drove. The associated equipment comprises:
Battery Storage Units
Transformer Substation
Water Storage Tanks
Site Fencing, Access Gate and CCTV
Landscape Mitigation and Hedgerow Planting/Enhancement
Acoustic Fencing and Mitigation (if necessary).
A public consultation event is scheduled for Tuesday 27 June 2023 at Littleport Leisure Centre, Camel Road, Littleport CB6 1EW. The event will start at 15:00 and conclude at 19:30. The event is open to the public, and you do not need to register in advance.
More information about the proposal, and the consultation event, at https://www.southerybess.co.uk/
Residents and business owners are being encouraged to give their views to help shape Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Service’s plan for the next five years.
The service has launched a consultation which is available in the Consultation section of the Fire Service website, and which is open until the end of July.
Path between Stimpson Street and The Orchards (photo by resident)
Following a message from a resident, Mark and I have both been pursuing the completion of the path from Stimpson Street—on the Vistry development at the top of Mepal Road—to the top of The Orchards.
The path is a requirement of the planning approval given to Vistry for the development, but it has still not been finished.
Vistry told Mark:
“Initially, we held off completing the full extent of the permanent footpath works as we need to put in a new foul sewer within this location to serve Phase 2. However, this work has been delayed due a number of reasons. Therefore, our engineers are now looking at either realigning the sewer connection so that we can fully construct the permanent footpath, or if not, we put in a safer temporary surface in the interim.”
And a member of East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC)’s planning enforcement team told Lorna:
“I understand that the installation of the footpath involves works on land owned by ECDC and therefore before I contact the developer, I am awaiting confirmation from the relevant ECDC departments that all necessary agreements are in place for the works to proceed.”
Mark and I joined the biannual Community Liaison meeting today organised by the team at the Elean power station in Sutton.
EPR Ely, the straw-fired biomass power station on the Elean Business Park, will start its annual two-week shut-down on Sunday 2 July. In the middle of that day they will be carrying out their usual explosive cleaning, so be prepared for some loud noises. This used to take place at night, but in recent years the firm has responded to community concerns and moved to a daytime schedule for this operation.
The company operating the plant has been rebranded Melton, and is actually owned by Octopus Energy.
They’re looking to extend their works car park, and have recently installed some EV charge points. They will be recruiting more operational staff, and also continuing to seek local apprentices from time to time.
A survey has been launched asking parents how much they currently pay to access their funded childcare place.
It will help Cambridgeshire County Council understand and improve the local market for funded early years and childcare places – known by the Government as free childcare.
Parents and carers are encouraged to complete the survey on the Council website by Friday 28 April. The findings will feed into further work by the Council with early years providers, improved information for families, and future policies and guidance on funding, as well as feedback to central government. The survey can be found at https://forms.office.com/e/DbXa0VMyxe.
The—as yet unconfirmed, but almost certainly correct—rumour of the closure of the current GP practice operation at Priors Field in Sutton with effect from 31 March has come as a huge shock to the local community, including me as a patient as well as a local councillor.
Residents are clearly concerned, and have a number of questions, not all of which can be answered at this moment.
Cllr Mark Inskip and I have launched a petition to NHS England, and to Sutton’s MP (who also happens to be the Secretary of State for Health), calling on them to save GP services at Priors Field, which you can sign here. Please sign and share widely.
To be absolutely clear, neither Cllr Mark Inskip nor I had any prior notification of the closure, confidentially or otherwise. I learned the rumour from Facebook on Tuesday evening like most local residents. And at this stage, some of what follows can be based only on speculation. It is however the best information I have to date, and I have been in contact with the local Director of Public Health about the situation, asking her to clarify the processes involved.
The decision to cease a GP practice does not rest with the council, or with the Government, or even with the NHS. Under the legislation which created the NHS in 1948, GP practices are effectively small businesses contracting with the NHS, and are under no more responsibility to tell councillors about their plans than the local hairdresser or garage would be. Decisions about the business rest with the GP partners, and are theirs alone.
The decision of a GP practice to cease to operate from a premises does not automatically mean that there will no longer be GP provision from that premises. Firstly, the ownership of the building is a matter for the GP partners.
Secondly, the local Integrated Care Board is responsible for planning and delivering health and care services in Cambridgeshire, and I would expect them to be involved in helping to ensure ongoing health provision for local residents. Through the Chair and Vice Chair of the Adults & Health Committee of the County Council, I’m making contact with the Integrated Care Board to understand their input.
Thirdly, funding of primary care provision rests with NHS England, which is why the petition is addressed to them.
Questions have also been asked about the planning consent for expansion of the premises which was given by the council some while ago. The planning consent follows with the building, so whoever owns the building will be able to carry out the consented works so long as the planning permission has not run out. They can also seek to renew the consent if it runs out of time, or submit a fresh application for different works.
Other concerns have centred round the financial commitments sought from developers (Community Infrastructure Levy or CIL funding) towards health care in the village. As Cllr Mark Inskip has said on Facebook, East Cambs District Council maintains a list of infrastructure projects that will potentially benefit from this funding. One of the projects is the extension of Sutton surgery. If the development goes ahead, the contribution has to be made. The GP practice, whoever was running it, would need to apply to the district council to release those funds.
As a patient and a councillor, I am aware of the huge interest in this matter, and will provide updates as and when I receive them.
