It appears that all may not be rosy in the garden at East Cambridgeshire District Council’s planning committee.

Things have come to such a pass that a proposal has been tabled by the leader of the council, no less, to this evening’s Full Council meeting, to set up an arbitration mechanism to resolve disputes between the council’s professional planning officers and the chairman of the planning committee.

The proposal, which applies solely to the planning committee, is that if the planning officers want to amend a draft planning committee agenda and the committee chairman disagrees, the matter is referred to the Chief Executive of the council for him to resolve in conjunction with the leader of the council.

What on earth has been going on behind the scenes that matters should have come to such a state?

Today saw a small exhibition at the council offices in Ely about community land trusts as a way of providing affordable housing locally.  There are already a number in operation in East Cambridgeshire, not least in Soham and an emerging community land trust development in Stretham, but none yet in Sutton.

And after a meeting of the council’s Regulatory & Support Services Committee – more of which later – I also managed to attend the exhibition at Ely College of developer Turnstone’s proposals for a multiplex cinema, swimming pool and fast food restaurants on the A10 at Downham Road, Ely, next to the present sports grounds.

I’ve previously reported complaints from local residents about increased noise levels, apparently from the straw burning power station.  Since then, it has been suggested that the noise complained about might in fact be from Anson’s coolers rather than the power station.

The council’s environmental health officer has been in touch with the power station and with the Environment Agency who regulate it with regard to noise.  The council has also contacted Anson’s Packaging to request that they check their mechanical plant and take any necessary action to ensure it is not causing excessive noise.

Residents continuing to experience noise which they believe comes from the power station can contact the power station directly on 01353 775600, or failing that, the Environment Agency’s incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60 (state that the potential noise source is an Environment Agency permitted installation in the Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire area).

Meanwhile, if the noise is from Anson’s, let’s hope a check of their cooling systems resolves the problem.

My first ‘Meet Your Councillor’ surgery event in the Community Room this evening attracted seven residents.  There were a number of issues people wanted to talk about, and which I’ll be taking forward as appropriate, including

• arrangements for disposing of domestic food waste
• road safety for horse riders in the village
• speed limits at The Gault
• progress on the replacement of the build-out, and of the bridging of the ditch between St Andrew’s Close and the school
• overgrown shrubbery overhanging pavements and forcing mums with buggies into the road

There was praise for the first highway officer drop-in event last Thursday, and a hope that this will be a regular event into the future.

The next Meet Your Councillor surgery event is on Thursday 24 July, again from 6:30 to 7:30pm in the Community Room at the school.

A number of bus timetables will undergo changes from next month, including the 9, 11, 12, and X5 (Stagecoach) and the X1 (First).

The 9 will now see the

• 16:15 Chatteris – Cambridge
• 17:16 Ely – Cambridge
• 17:10 Littleport – Ely
• 17:15 Chatteris – Cambridge
• 18:15 Chatteris – Ely

journeys running 15 minutes later.

Full details and timetables are available from Stagecoach on 01223 433250 or  Cambridge.enquiries@stagecoachbus.com.

Several residents of Sutton say they’ve noticed an increase in the noise from the straw-burning power station.  I’ve taken this up with the council’s environmental health team, who have asked me to forward details of anyone who would be willing to speak to them about this. If you’re experiencing increased noise levels, and would be happy to be contacted by an environmental health officer, email your contact details to me and I’ll pass them on.

East Cambridgeshire District Council is consulting on changing where people vote in a number of wards, including Sutton.  The consultation document is now online.

The council’s current proposal for Sutton is to move the polling station from the Pavilion to another location in the Brooklands Centre, on the grounds that this would offer a ‘larger room with better disabled access and easier route to polling station from car park’.

Members of the public are invited to comment, and the council would particularly welcome comments from individuals or organisations with expertise in all kinds of disabled access.  The deadline for comments is 12 September, to the Electoral Services Officer, East Cambridgeshire District Council, The Grange, Nutholt Lane, Ely, Cambs, CB7 4EE.  Comments will be open to public inspection at the council during office hours.

Yesterday saw the county council’s transport strategy consultation road show visit Ely.  I was far from being the only Sutton resident to drop in to The Lamb to speak to county council officers and see what they had to say.

There is much to absorb in the draft strategy, and I’m sure I’ll return to it here shortly, but the section of it that is the most immediately disappointing relates to heavy vehicles passing through villages.

The document rightly states that movement of freight is important to our economy, and predicts that freight traffic will quadruple by 2030.  It recognises that the impact on our villages can include congestion, noise, and poor air quality, with effects on people’s quality of life, health, and well-being.

The strategy includes transferring more freight onto rail, which is fine. However, it then goes on to state that the county council will

continue to work with freight operators to promote the use of the most appropriate strategic routes for road freight

[give] freight companies information on appropriate routing when planning their journeys

[as part of planning agreements] work with operators to secure routing agreements to ensure freight operators are using the most appropriate routes for their journeys and minimising impacts on local communities, and

explore the use of faster broadband and improved ICT to improve freight efficiencies, logistics and fleet management

In other words, no change to the current, failed strategy which has seen heavy vehicles continue to pour through our villages to the detriment of residents’ quality of life.  There is no mention of weight limits, restrictions or any other effective action to tackle the problem.

It is quite clear that the present arrangements aren’t working, and there is no evidence that continuing to do the same thing will have any different result.  I’ll be arguing for a far stronger strategy to address this problem in my response to the consultation, and I would encourage fellow Sutton residents to do likewise.

The draft strategy document is available for download, and there’s a website to enable residents to respond online by the deadline of 11 July. It’s a document with a lot to say, about all forms of transport across the county, and I’ll be commenting on other issues in the weeks ahead.

During the recent by-election, I said that I would set up regular ‘Meet Your Councillor’ surgeries for local residents.  I’ve now done this (with many thanks to Rosie and Melissa at the parish council for sorting out room availability).

The district council is prepared to pay for councillors to hold surgeries in their wards, but only four times a year.  Personally I don’t feel this is often enough, so I’ve decided to hold a monthly surgery anyway.

These events will take place in the Community Room, from 6:30 to 7:30pm. You don’t need an appointment, just drop in.  And you don’t need to have a problem, either – if you’ve got a gripe or a good idea, or just want to talk over a local issue, that’s fine too.

The dates from now to May next year are as follows:

2014

• Monday 23 June
• Thursday 24 July
• Tuesday 26 August
• Thursday 2 October
• Monday 27 October
• Thursday 20 November
• Monday 22 December

2015

• Thursday 22 January
• Monday 23 February
• Thursday 19 March
• Monday 27 April

Sutton is one of a number of parishes which some years ago formed a joint group to try to address the issue of heavy vehicles cutting through our local villages. The group met again tonight, and I attended for the first time. We agreed a response from the group to the consultation on the government’s proposals for the A14, which will have an impact on traffic through many villages, and discussed the group’s work on gathering evidence about the effects of heavy vehicles on local communities, from noise to air quality.

I’m keen to see this group achieve its objective of ensuring that effective action is taken to reduce the numbers of heavy vehicles on village roads and to reduce their effects.  It’s the number one issue mentioned to me by local people and we need to ensure that the group’s work benefits Sutton and its residents as well as our neighbours.

We heard today that there’s a fresh consultation on the Local Transport Plan and Long Term Transport Strategy for Cambridgeshire.  Both raise significant issues for our village, so it’s worth trying to get along to the consultation event at the Lamb in Ely next Wednesday (11 June) any time between 3:00 and 7:00 pm.