Very pleased to see next-door’s MP Julian Huppert (Lib Dem, Cambridge) backing a Private Members’ Bill to tackle the menace of unsolicited phone calls and text messages.  Like many local residents, I’m constantly on the receiving end of calls or texts that I haven’t asked for, don’t want, and are just trying to sell me stuff I don’t need.  It’s an abuse of people’s personal data and it’s time to clamp down on the companies that inflict this menace on us.

We know that East Cambridgeshire District Council’s record on tackling fly-tipping in Sutton frankly isn’t that great.  But how does our district council compare with others?  The official league table of councils’ fly-tipping performance across England paints a less than impressive picture.

Comparing East Cambridgeshire and neighbouring South Cambridgeshire’s performance in 2011/2012, it appears that:

• South Cambridgeshire issued 18 warning letters, East Cambridgeshire none
• South Cambridgeshire issued 13 statutory notices, East Cambridgeshire none
• South Cambridgeshire issued 25 fixed penalty notices, East Cambridgeshire none
• South Cambridgeshire issued 10 formal cautions, East Cambridgeshire just one
• South Cambridgeshire mounted 13 prosecutions, East Cambridgeshire none
• South Cambridgeshire collected £5480 in fines for fly-tipping, East Cambridgeshire £0

At the very least, that’s a ‘must try harder’, East Cambs.  Surely this is something our local councillors should be pressing the council to improve, and to fund properly?  It is, after all, a pretty basic council responsibility to chase up and make an example of people who dump rubbish indiscriminately and spoil our local environment.

Well, sad to say it’s the end of another very successful beer festival – congratulations to all involved in putting together such a great event.

Yesterday evening a group of Sutton residents – Mark Inskip, Brett Collard and myself – asked a series of questions at the Community & Environment Committee of East Cambridgeshire District Council.  Our aim was to get the council to commit to doing something about the perpetual nuisance of fly-tipping.

Mark (pictured here with me at the Pound Lane recycling point) asked whether the council would improve the signage at the site and consider using CCTV to identify fly-tippers.  The current rather weather-beaten sign directs residents to the recycling centre at Grunty Fen, which was closed 18 months ago!  The council’s response was that there was no money for better signage, though they would put up some small laminated notices on the bins at the centre directing people to Witchford.  They also, apparently, have the wrong kind of CCTV equipment, which can’t be installed at Pound Lane – and no money for better equipment, either.

Brett asked whether the council would stop discouraging residents from preserving evidence of the identity of fly-tippers gathered from dumped rubbish.  The council’s response was that this made it more difficult for the council to prove its case against fly-tippers in court – although, as the council has not mounted any prosecutions at all in the last three years relating to fly-tipping in Sutton, it’s hard to see the logic of this answer.

Finally, I asked whether the council had any plans to improve on the current three full working days which is the target for the council to clear up fly-tipping at Pound Lane after it has been reported.  The council did agree that this has been a problem, and has said it will introduce a regular three-day-a-week clean-up schedule for the Pound Lane site in view of the ongoing problems we have experienced here.  That at least is good news.

The council has only one enforcement officer to deal with fly-tippers across the whole of East Cambridgeshire.  It’s therefore little surprise that the council’s record of action on fly-tipping isn’t as robust as, for example, that of next-door South Cambridgeshire.  But the residents who set this campaign in motion have been promised a meeting with the enforcement officer, where we’ll be able to discuss what else could and should be done to address this all-too-regular nuisance.

Tonight saw the annual meeting of the electorate for residents of Sutton, at the Glebe.

Sgt Mark Yeldham from the Ely South policing team gave an informative presentation on tackling crime in the district, with the good news that most forms of crime have been reducing while detection rates have been rising, and that Sutton is an area of comparatively low crime.

County and district councillor Philip Read – currently chairman of the Planning Committee – arrived at that point and made a similar presentation to the one at Tuesday’s parish council AGM.  A questioner asked him why the district council had flown in the face of planning principles in choosing to site Ely’s new leisure facility in the proposed out-of-town location, to which Cllr Read replied that the council owned the land concerned.  I’m not convinced that that’s a sound argument for locating leisure provision somewhere where it can’t be reached by public transport and is disconnected from the rest of the city and its amenities.  Surely a leisure park near to rail and bus services would be more appropriate?

Representatives from the Youth Club then spoke about some of their recent projects; they were asked whether they were keen to have a permanent skate park locally, and if so where in the village they would suggest it be placed.  The temporary skate park which had visited recently had cost £700 for six hours.

Parish councillor Ian Dewar reminded everyone that there are three vacancies on the parish council.  The next election to the parish council is in 2015 so the term of office would be less than two years.  If you are interested, or know someone who might be, more information is available on the parish council’s web site including an email address to contact the parish clerk.

Just back from sitting in on the Parish Council AGM at the Pavilion tonight, where Bob Browne and Mark Inskip have been re-elected unopposed as Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively.

There were questions from parish councillors to county councillor Phil Read about improving the road between Willingham and Earith, and about why the district council has taken the unusual step of abolishing its scrutiny committee and thereby reducing its accountability.  And the decision was made to grant £1,000 to the Feast Committee – hurrah!

It’s good to see the Parish Council in such a healthy state considering the situation it was facing two years ago.  There’s an appropriate amount of money in reserves, and some good work by the various working parties and panels bringing the council into shape with improved IT and tidier procedures.  All very heartening.

1,570 small businesses in North East Cambridgeshire will benefit from a cut to employers’ National Insurance contributions announced in the recent Queen’s Speech. The National Insurance employment allowance of £2,000 will reduce the cost of employment and help small businesses which want to grow and hire their first employee or expand their workforce.  In these difficult times, that’s really good news.

Excitement at Nellie’s community café at the school this morning as two large cheques were presented to local organisations: £250 to Sutton Rangers for equipment for the youth football team, and £900 towards the church floor appeal.  The money was raised by café volunteers and customers.

Nellie’s has announced the charities it will be supporting for the coming six months.  One is the Triangle Club for local senior citizens; the other is to support local children who use wheelchairs to play boccia at the Upside Down Sports Club in St Ives. Both excellent causes, and even more of a reason to come along to Nellie’s and enjoy a coffee and cake or one of their legendary bacon sandwiches.

Nellie’s opens its doors from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm on the second Wednesday and last Friday of every month, at the school and Scott Court respectively.

The recent episode of fly-tipping at the recycling centre at The Brook in Sutton has caused a great deal of comment.  A group of residents gathered at The Chequers tonight to start putting together a series of questions to East Cambridgeshire District Council about their service standards for tackling fly-tipping; their policies and practice on enforcing the law on fly-tipping and dealing with offenders; and what help they might be prepared to give to adequately sign the recycling area at The Brook and monitor what goes on there.  The next meeting of the council’s Community & Environment Committee is on Thursday 13 June which is when we’re expecting to put our questions to councillors.

Whoops!  I’ve just renewed my membership of Sutton Conservation Society – only six months late.  Sadly I have to work on the night of their Summer Quiz at the Pavilion, but am hoping to make their annual nature walk on 20 June.