Tonight I moved the budget amendment from the Liberal Democrat group. This proposed:

• Moving support for Community Led Development to the new free resource in place thanks to Cambridgeshire ACRE and the Combined Authority.
• Deleting an increase of one-third in the Council’s PR budget.
• Investigating civil parking enforcement, the system used by almost every other district in England instead of police enforcement of on-street parking.
• Delegating £169,000 of spending to parish and town councils.
• Committing £500,000 towards a safe crossing for pedestrians and cyclists at the A10 BP roundabout at Ely.

This is what I said.

“Our amendment is intended to alter the proposals from the Conservative group in a number of significant ways.

Firstly our amendment deletes the post of Community Led Development Advisor and the £100,000 of CLT [Community Land Trust] pre-development finance support. Put very simply, and in terms no-one will misunderstand, we don’t trust this administration and its version of community led development as far as we can throw them.

Every other district in the county is part of the community led development offer by Cambridgeshire ACRE through the Combined Authority, at no cost. We see no reason why any authority seeking to be transparent, inclusive, and genuinely respectful of the voice of local communities would not want to do the same.

Secondly, our amendment deletes the increase of £25,000 in the cost of the Council PR budget. There is no excuse for increasing the size of the Council administration’s self-promotion spend by one-third and we will not support it.

Thirdly, we would use some of this saving on a one-off spend of £10,000 to investigate options for introducing civil parking enforcement. By the end of this year we will be able to count on the fingers of one hand the number of councils where on-street parking is still enforced—or more realistically not enforced—by the police. And East Cambridgeshire will be one of them. It’s time to look at ways in which we can join the rest of society while achieving our own local objectives.

Fourthly, we would delegate the £169,000 Rural Services Delivery Grant to parish and town councils, with a view to them spending that money on environmental or biodiversity activity, or actions to help mitigate development in their communities.

Fifthly and finally, we would commit an initial £500,000 from the new Growth & Infrastructure Fund as matched funding towards a safe crossing for pedestrians and cyclists at the A10 BP crossing in Ely. This is something residents have been crying out for ever since the roundabout was reconfigured under the cheer-leadership of the Leader of the Council, to exclude safe travel on foot or by bicycle. I commend these proposals to this Council.”

The Lib Dem budget proposal was defeated by the Conservatives by 17 votes to 10.

East Cambs Lib Dem councillors voted tonight to thank residents for how they had behaved in lockdown. But Conservative councillors removed comments expressing local people’s disappointment at the Downing Street parties now being investigated by police.

Cllr Mark Inskip (Sutton) proposed the motion at the Full Council meeting. He contrasted the lockdown parties in No 10 with the quiet dignity of HM The Queen at the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, and how local residents had obeyed the rules.

The motion said the Council “thanks East Cambridgeshire residents for their efforts in respecting and abiding by COVID-19 rules since March 2020, particularly during periods of lockdown, and notes the excellent community spirit demonstrated by volunteers helping those most in need”.

The words Conservative councillors voted to delete were:

“Council shares the severe disappointment of many East Cambridgeshire residents that this leadership and responsibility has not been demonstrated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. While residents of the district obeyed the lockdown rules, often at huge personal cost, missing funerals, cancelling weddings and saying goodbye to dying loved ones on video calls, the Prime Minister was acting as if the rules did not apply to him.”

I said “To not only tolerate, but to endorse the actions of the Prime Minister and his acolytes by excising these words from the motion, is a deliberate slap in the face by this administration to everyone who endured so much.”

An interesting day today, reviewing bids to the County Council from parish councils to make local roads safer.

I and fellow councillors considered a number of bids from across the district. Each parish council making a bid needs to commit at least ten per cent of the total cost of their project. And no project can ask the County Council for more than £15,000.

Realistically the money available means we should be able to recommend between half and two-thirds of the plans.

The County Council’s Highways & Transport Committee will meet on 26 April to receive our recommendations and make its decision.

This morning saw the first of five thousand trees being planted at Oldfield Farm in Landbeach.

The trees are part of the Queen’s Green Canopy project to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The farm is part of the County Council’s rural estate, and is let to a local tenant farmer.

We were delighted to be joined by Cambridgeshire Deputy Lord Lieutenant Major Tim Breitmeyer DL, himself a local farmer. Local county councillor Anna Bradnam joined the tree planting event, as did officers from the council’s rural estates team.

The following planning application in the Sutton division has been published by East Cambridgeshire District Council.

22/00168/OUT
Mepal
Land at Chestnut Farm Witcham Road Mepal
Proposed single storey dwelling and associated parking.

Further information can be found on the district council’s planning pages. If you would like to respond formally to the council about any planning application, comments should be addressed to the district council and not to me.  Comments may be made

• online using the council’s public access web page (the link above);
• by email to plservices@eastcambs.gov.uk;
• or by post to the Planning Department, The Grange, Nutholt Lane, Ely, CB7 4EE

Great to see the Floodmobile in the Brooklands Centre car park in Sutton today, with lots of samples of fittings to make our homes more flood resilient.

Here I am with Matt from AECOM, one of the experts on hand to talk residents through everything that’s available. Good to hear that loss adjusters and insurers are beginning to step up, and to go beyond the like-for-like approach which left homes at no less risk after flooding.

The Floodmobile will be taking a bit of a spring holiday, but will be back on the road in early summer.

Out today looking at potential locations for cycle stands in Witcham and Sutton!

Here are district councillor Mark Inskip and I with Witcham parish councillor Julia Bibby, and Vanessa Kelly from the County Council. We hope the parish council will agree to locate stands for four bicycles here. We were also out looking for possible sites in Sutton at the Glebe, along the High Street, and at the Brooklands Centre.

It’s all about active travel, better health, cleaner air, and less congestion on our streets.

Residents of Sutton and surrounding areas are invited to visit the Floodmobile when it comes to Sutton this Thursday (17 February).

The Floodmobile, with samples of over fifty practical flood protection measures, will be at the Brooklands Centre car park from 10:00AM to 3:00PM.

It’s a great opportunity to come and learn what can be done to help make our properties more resilient against flooding.

Renowned flood resilience expert Mary Long-Dhonau OBE will talk to visitors and offer advice. She has had personal experience of flooding on several occasions, and writes on Twitter about flood issues as @floodmary. Also present will be Fola Ogunyoye CEng CWEM FCIWEM, Director of TJAY Consultancy Ltd. He has more than thirty years’ experience in providing flood risk, water and environmental management consultancy services. They will be joined by Matt Tandy, Principal Engineer at infrastructure consultancy AECOM.

Many areas of our region are unfortunately at increased risk of flooding due to climate change and projected increases in extreme rainfall. Events like this one are an opportunity to talk to experts and learn what we can do as individuals and communities to make our properties more flood resilient. Do come and join us – it’s free!

More information on flood risk management in Cambridgeshire is available here.

Cambridgeshire County Council is advertising for new tenants for seven council-owned farms, part of the council’s 33,000 acre rural estate.

The council’s estate – the largest public sector estate in the country – is divided into 226 holdings, with 160 different tenants. The seven farms up for application,1,800 acres in total, are in South Cambridgeshire, Fenland and Littleport. Interest is already high, with 67 viewings booked.

The estate brings in £5M in rent to the council council each year, to support local services. It contributes to the local economy, enables the council to put its environmental commitments into practice, and ensure public access to the countryside with permissive paths and bridleways.

The council is looking for innovative, entrepreneurial applicants with new ideas for developing their own businesses on the land. These could well be arable or livestock farming, but there are also opportunities for ancillary enterprises such as livery, farm shops or engineering.

Applicants will need to demonstrate that they have the necessary skills and a viable three-year business plan and budget. They will also need to show that they understand the council’s expectations for the farms estate, and in particular are keen to farm in step with nature and do their bit to help tackle climate change and increase biodiversity.

Interviews will take place in March, and tenancies will be ready to take up from October onwards. The council has published a brochure about this opportunity, which can be downloaded here.

This morning I was on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire telling Richard ‘Spanners’ Ready about this terrific opportunity. You can hear the interview here.

I’ve just been asked how to make regular donations to the Sutton food bank.

Firstly, there isn’t any longer a ‘Sutton food bank’ as such, in the sense of a location in the village to go and receive food boxes. Food bank deliveries to Sutton residents’ homes are carried out discreetly by volunteers from outside the village.

There are however still distribution centres in nearby towns and villages https://ely.foodbank.org.uk/locations/ These are coordinated by the Ely food bank https://ely.foodbank.org.uk/

Donations for the food bank can be left at the Sutton One Stop and the Co-op.

You can make regular donations of money rather than food here https://ely.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-money/ (Very useful for those of us who do our shopping online.)

And there are also opportunities for local businesses to partner with the food bank, as a number of firms have already done https://ely.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/partner-with-us/