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 launch of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Climate Commission’s interim report on Monday 15 January was nothing if not thought-provoking.
Most of our high levels of carbon emissions are transport-related, we were told, making it all the more important to get a collective grip of the transport agenda.
Because the stakes are high.
We have just six years left to take some serious remedial action, warns the Commission.
There are multiple benefits to tackling climate change: from cleaner air to healthier homes, and better public transport to good jobs in the growing green economy. But it’s a huge task, with significant investment needed. And behaviour change will be needed for around 60 per cent of the required reduction in carbon emissions.
The Commission’s first full report will be published in September, including
The following planning application in the Sutton division has been published by East Cambridgeshire District Council.
21/00364/FUL Mepal Holne House Chatteris Road Mepal Proposed demolition of existing extension / outbuildings and erection of two storey rear extension and side porch.
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);
Ministers have withdrawn £45M of the £100M the Government promised to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough following concerns about insufficient delivery progress and below-expectations value for money under Mayor James Palmer.
The £100M programme for housing in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (except Cambridge) is one of the central planks of the 2016 ‘devolution deal’ between the Government and the local authorities in the area.
Local Government Minister Luke Hall MP writes:
“I have concluded that the programme has made insufficient delivery progress and that the value for money being achieved is below our expectations. I will not be extending the timeframe or continuing to fund the programme on its current basis.
However, rather than closing the programme at this point, I remain committed to enabling investment in schemes that will deliver further affordable housing, at pace, in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
I have confirmed to Mayor Palmer that the Department will, subject to further work on the details, consider making further funding available to CPCA for the delivery of affordable housing by 31 March 2022.”
Mayor Palmer’s challenger for the Mayoralty in the forthcoming elections, Lib Dem Aidan Van de Weyer, has responded:
“This is disastrous news for the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
“As a result of Palmer’s incompetence and arrogance, hundreds of desperately needed affordable houses will now not get built. The housing programme is now at an end and several schemes than had been approved – and that residents were looking forward to – will have the rug pulled from under them.
“Peterborough will be particularly impacted as 215 of the affordable houses affected are in the city.
“The housing money devolved to the Mayor was not new money, but was going to be invested by the government through Homes England into the area. So we are now actually worse off because of Palmer’s tenure as Mayor than if he had never been elected.
“Palmer should have been focusing on getting the maximum benefit for our residents, not spending time on pet projects like the £100,000 houses, which were never going to contribute to solving the housing crisis.
“It is clear that the government simply do not trust Palmer to deliver on his promises or to spend tax payers’ money wisely.
“Palmer is the only metro mayor in the country who has had money removed from him by government. He is a national embarrassment. He is dragging the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough down with him. He needs to be replaced.”
Cambridgeshire County Council’s highways committee has agreed a new policy on maintaining road verges – and it’s excellent news.
I’ve been pressing the County Council for some time to make it easier for local volunteer groups like the one in Sutton to manage local rural verges and seed them with wild flowers, and asked for this to be included in the Council’s new verge maintenance policy.
The new policy states that the Council will not require an application for a licence before groups can do this. And the Council has now instituted a new verge maintenance programme that brings it into line with the recommendations of nature charity Plantlife.
Volunteers can use the already existing Highways Volunteering forms and once risk assessments have been completed, this will enable them to be covered by CCC insurance whilst working on the public highway of which the verge forms part. Local Highway Officers will be encouraged to promote this scheme through their meetings with Parish Councils, residents’ associations and individuals.
The new system looks far more encouraging and permissive, and I really hope that’s how it works out in practice.
Following the rejection of questions that residents wished to ask at the next County Council meeting, Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have accused the leadership of the Council of attempting to cover up the findings of the audit investigation into the tenancy of Manor Farm, Girton held by former Tory councillor Roger Hickford.
Brian Milnes, a Lib Dem district councillor for Sawston, which Roger Hickford used to represent on the County Council, said:
“I have been following this issue with great concern for over two years. It has always astonished me that Roger Hickford was appointed to very powerful positions while he was being investigated. He was appointed to the Greater Cambridge Partnership, which controls £500 million of funds for infrastructure investment, and he sat on the Local Outbreak Engagement Board, which oversees the County-wide response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I want to ask Cllr Steve Count, the Conservative Leader of the County Council, what he knew about the allegations against Roger Hickford and why he made these appointments. It is a basic principle of accountability that our council leaders have to explain their decision to the public. And the best place for that is at a council meeting. Cllr Count has not yet accounted for his actions. He should not appear to be hiding behind legal loopholes to prevent that happening.”
Geoff Seeff, a resident of St Neots, said,
“The Leader of the Council has not yet clearly stated that the report in Manor Farm should be published. Regardless of details of what’s in the report – which we don’t yet know – I’m concerned about the principle of transparency in the way that the leadership of the Council deals with these matter of great public interest.
“If Cllr Count is not willing to answer my question at a council meeting, then I put it to him now: does he or does he not agree that the report should be published? Does he adhere to the principles of openness and accountability that he signed up to when he became a councillor?
“The public has a right to expect better of our representatives. The residents of Cambridgeshire will not let the Tories who are running the County Council in such a disgraceful way off the hook.”
The meeting of the County Council’s Audit & Accounts Committee discussing the Manor Farm affair on Friday 5 March, before moving behind closed doors to consider the secret report.
Liberal Democrats Lucy Nethsingha and Aidan Van de Weyer have demanded that Cambridgeshire County Council release the audit report into the tenancy of Manor Farm, Girton, following the decision by the Cambridgeshire County Council Audit & Accounts Committee to publish only one small part of the report.
Aidan Van de Weyer, Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said:
“This sordid saga should have been coming to an end with the completion of the audit report into the tenancy of Manor Farm, Girton. Instead, the public is being kept in the dark while Tory councillors and their lawyers work out how much they can keep secret.
“Cllr Steve Count, the Tory Leader of the County Council has said that he ‘fully accepts all the findings of the audit, and its recommendations’. Yet he refuses to support the publication of the findings and all the recommendations. It is untenable to selectively refer to parts of a secret report in this way. Cllr Count is making a blatant attempt to influence the opinion of the public before the full facts are known.”
Lucy Nethsingha, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group at Cambridgeshire County Council, said:
“We heard on Friday that members of the audit committee had been told that they had personal liability if they stepped out of line and published any part of the report. The council lawyers should be finding ways of enabling publication, not giving ammunition to those who want to hide this scandal.
“I call on Cllr Count to tell us his side of the story, not hide behind spurious claims of impartiality. He is the Leader. This happened on his watch. The buck stops with him.
“Cllr Count has many questions to answer. What did he know about the award of the tenancy to his Deputy Leader Roger Hickford and when? When did he learn of any of the allegations against Roger Hickford? What action did he take as Leader at the time, especially in relation to the welfare of staff? Why did Cllr Count appoint Roger Hickford to the board of the Greater Cambridge Partnership when the investigation was under way?
“If Cllr Count and Tories on the County Council continue to cover up the findings of the Audit Report, public confidence in the Council’s ability to act fairly and in the interest of all residents will be severely damaged.”
On International Women’s Day, I’d like to say a big personal Thank You to all my women councillor friends and colleagues in my district and county council groups. Here’s to you for all you do!
An excellent explanation here from Professor Christina Pagel of Independent SAGE on what might happen with COVID-19 under current Government plans.
The vaccination rollout is going really well (thank you, NHS) uptake is better than expected (well done, everybody), and the vaccines appear to be more effective than at first thought (high five, science). Case numbers are dropping, and lockdown has been helping too.
But, says Professor Pagel, for all to continue to go well, the Government’s current strategy is relying on
the vaccines doing most of the work to keep cases low as we open up
being able to open schools up and keep cases reducing (R rate less than 1)
no new variants popping up that resist the vaccines
cases getting low everywhere.
Will that work?
Cases are still relatively high. SAGE thinks opening schools all at once, as is happening today in England, is likely to push the R rate over 1 (i.e. cases will rise again). Allowing cases to remain at current levels risks new mutations of the virus taking hold while most of the population is unvaccinated or at best half-vaccinated – and our border controls are nowhere near strict enough. And there are places, largely areas of deprivation, with stubbornly high COVID-19 rates.
According to Professor Pagel, these issues could be solved – with effective test and trace alongside supported isolation, safer workspaces, safer schools, tackling poverty, addressing vaccine hesitancy, and implementing stricter border policy this year.
But without those steps, the Government is putting all its eggs in the basket labelled ‘vaccination’.
If you’re on Twitter, do follow the excellent Professor Christina Pagel for clear and well-explained commentary on COVID-19 science and policy.
The next deadline for applications to Cambridgeshire County Council’s Innovate & Cultivate Fund is Saturday 1 May 2021.
One-to-one pre-application advice will be available on Thursday 18 March and Tuesday 23 March.
The fund supports initiatives that strengthen communities and reduce pressure on County Council services, and the Council is looking for a return on investment. Council services that are inviting applications are adult social care and children’s services.
The fund is open to voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations based in and outside of Cambridgeshire, and public sector organisations in Cambridgeshire. Please note that projects serving Peterborough residents are not eligible.
This funding round is for ‘Cultivate’ grant applications (£2,000-£15,000) for projects that build community support networks for vulnerable people. The ‘Innovate’ funding stream (£15,000-£50,000) is suspended until further notice.
Pre-application advice
The Council strongly advises organisations to seek advice before submitting an application. Bookings are now open for telephone advice appointments on Thursday 18 March and Tuesday 23 March. These fifteen-minute one-to-one appointments must be pre-booked and are available on a first come first served basis. Please book here.
Cultivate Project Ideas
The Council has developed application guidance for three new Cultivate project ideas – Mobile Warden Schemes, Community Youth Worker and Digital Inclusion Projects – that can help people to remain independent and active within their community, encourage volunteering and complement more costly Council services. The Council also continues to invite applications for Timebanks, Good Neighbour Schemes, Dementia-Friendly Communities and Men’s Sheds. You can find guidance on how to apply for a start-up grant for each of these projects here.
Applications and further information about fund priorities and criteria can be found on the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation (CCF) website.
Elizabeth Court and The Orchards in Sutton, and Cross Lane in Little Downham, will now not be resurfaced this coming year, due to ‘budget adjustments and constraints’ at the County Council.
They are now being put forward for the 2022 programme.
Is this an early outcome of the £7.5M cut to highways maintenance in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough I reported on recently? I’m trying to find out more, including what other cuts to local road repairs we can expect this coming year.
