A new series of drop-in sessions in Ely for people with a learning disability and the family and friends who care for them has started.
The drop-ins, which will be run by the county council’s Learning Disability Partnership East Team, will be held on the first Friday of the month at Ely Library, and anyone requiring information or advice is welcome to come along.
A planning application has been received for the demolition of the existing timber extension to the pharmacy in the High Street, and its replacement with a new permanent structure and additional extension to create a single-bedroom flat. The reference number for the application is 15/00067/FUL and as usual the application details can be found online at the district council’s website.
Deli@65, in the High Street in Sutton, is applying to extend its hours of business. The owners would like to open from 7:30am to 10:00pm Mondays to Saturdays and from 10:00am to 4:00pm on Sundays. The reference number for the application is 15/00091/VAR and the application details are available on the district council’s website. To submit any comments you may wish to make to the council, you can use the council’s planning pages, or email the Planning Department.
Very pleased to have succeeded today in getting East Cambs District Council to remove Saudi Arabia from its list of ‘approved countries for investments’. A régime that executes its own citizens, and those of other countries, brutally and in public; inflicts barbarous punishments on people simply for expressing their views; and routinely represses women, is not one we ought to be having any truck with.
A planning application has been received by East Cambridgeshire District Council for an extension to an existing annexe at 35A The Row. The reference number for the application is 15/00037/FUL, and as usual the details are online or can be viewed at the District Council offices in Ely during working hours or at The Glebe by arrangement with the parish clerk.
At last night’s parish council meeting, parish councillor Graham Redman drew my attention to this piece of news, about a reported fraudulent email claiming to come from Anglia Revenues Partnership.
Anglia Revenues Partnership collects council tax and other monies from residents in East Cambridgeshire on behalf of the district council.
The advice from the council is very sensible. Treat any email, however official looking, that asks for any personal information with deep suspicion. The council (and Anglia Revenues Partnership) will never ask you to supply personal data by email.
This year, following changes to the law, local councils up and down the country have moved to a new system of individual electoral registration. This means that instead of the old system or the ‘head of household’ (cue debate about who that is!) filling in one form for everyone living at that address, each person now has to register to vote individually. For most people, their data has been matched with national databases and their voting rights have just transferred across to the new register. But for many people, this national matching has not been possible and they need to apply for their vote.
2,500 people in East Cambs have not registered
Across East Cambridgeshire, about 2,500 people who were on the electoral register last year have not had their data matched, and have not yet registered to vote. They will still be able to vote in this May’s election, though after that they may be removed from the register. If you haven’t yet registered to vote, you can do so online here, or by post. You will need your National Insurance number. Remember: not only can you be liable for a fine for not responding to a request to register, it can also play havoc with your credit rating!
If you had a permanent postal or proxy vote, however, and haven’t yet registered to vote individually, you will lose it – and though you will still be on the register until May, you will not get a postal or proxy vote and will have to vote at a polling station. You will need to complete your individual electoral registration and a fresh postal or proxy vote application to get your postal or proxy vote back.
900 people in East Cambs have been removed from the register altogether
Meanwhile, around 900 people in East Cambridgeshire have already been removed from the electoral register. These are people who have not responded to each autumn’s electoral canvass for three years in a row. Again, they will need to complete the individual electoral registration process to get their vote back.
Don’t forget 16 and 17 year olds need to register!
Over 18’s who are already on the register will have their registration carried across until May, as stated above. But if you’re 16 or 17, and haven’t registered individually under the new system, you’ll lose your right to vote when you reach your 18th birthday. So if you are 16 or 17 years old, or know someone who is, make sure you – or they – are registered.
Cambridgeshire is 24th out of 207 local councils in the UK for the number of claims by motorists in 2013/14 resulting from damage by potholes, the RAC reports.
485 claims were made against Cambridgeshire County Council for pothole damage, and half of them (242) were successful, resulting in payouts totalling £104,263.66.
This represents an increase of 177 per cent in the number of claims on the previous year, when 37 out of 175 claims (only one in five) were successful and £55,080.04 was paid out to motorists.
The success rate for claims in Cambridgeshire was more than double the national average of 23 per cent.
According to the annual ALARM survey of local authorities, the current backlog of road maintenance work on local roads in England and Wales is £12 billion.
A full statistical table can be viewed here.
An amendment to the design has been received for the planning application for a new property on land next to 16 Tower Road (reference 14/01245/FUL). Representations can be made to East Cambs District Council’s planning department until Monday 9 February.
As I reported recently, the Conservative Club in the High Street has submitted a premises licence application (reference 15/00088/LIQ_02) to the District Council. Details of the application are on the district council’s website with a deadline of 18 February for residents to make representations to the district council (by email or in writing to the district council’s Licensing department at The Grange, Nutholt Lane, Ely CB7 4EE).
The changes to the licence in the application mean that the club would remain as a club premises but also be able to provide
It would also be able to allow members of the public to access the club for events, something which is not possible under a club premises certificate as only bona fide club members and signed in guests are allowed access in qualifying clubs.