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)
This year, due to Covid-19, many of us will need extra help to keep warm and healthy. Spending more time at home with a higher demand for energy and increased heating costs, more of us could be drawn into fuel poverty.
The Public Health Team in Cambridgeshire has put together the Stay Well this Winter website, which contains a wealth of information for local support, free resources, financial aid, and key contacts.
Cambridge University Hospital has an ambitious strategy for redevelopment of the Addenbrooke’s site in the coming years, the County Council’s Health Committee has heard.
The three-stage plan includes
short-term improvements to the Emergency Department and ‘surge centre’ capacity to address current pressures
a new Children’s Hospital and a Cancer Research Hospital by 2025-26, for which the Government has already committed some of the funding
further developments from 2025.
We were told that the UK’s cancer outcomes were comparing poorly with other countries, and that part of this was down to the need for people to get medical help sooner. One-third of people with lung cancer currently present to health services as emergencies, rather than in a planned way earlier on.
I asked about the rise in online and virtual consultations since the arrival of COVID, pointing out that while these were popular with some patients they were more challenging for others. We were told by senior oncologist Hugo Ford that currently 35 per cent of consultations are virtual, against a Government target of 25 per cent. There was agreement that we must be careful to ensure this does not result in a large number of patients being disadvantaged and cut off from health care.
I also asked about CUH’s plans for environmental sustainability and decarbonisation on the planned improved campus, and was told there was a sustainability plan in place working towards being ‘net carbon zero enabled’. I’m sure that after the immediate crises of the pandemic are over this is something we will want to return to.
PlayStation: Desperate to get your hands on a PS5 for Christmas? Sold out in all major retailers, it’s being used to trick customers out of their hard earned cash. Scammers are listing a photo, or an empty box, to mislead buyers into parting with up to £550. The description ‘photo’ or ‘box only’ is buried in the small print. The same trick is also likely to be played with other high value items listed for sale. Please read the description carefully before committing your cash.
Bank smishing scams: smishing is phishing by SMS to your mobile phone. You get what looks like a text message from a bank saying a new device has been paired with your bank account. The aim is to trick you into clicking on the link and giving away your bank details to the fraudster. Please be alert.
Royal Mail or courier scam: beware of emails and texts that ask you to pay money to rearrange delivery of a parcel or item of mail. The message looks as if it’s from Royal Mail or a well-known courier company, but it will ask you for your card details to process a small fee to receive the (fictitious) item. The scammers can them access your account. Remember you will never be asked to pay a redelivery fee by Royal Mail or any legitimate courier. Just because their logo is on the message doesn’t mean it’s genuine. And never input your bank or card details after following a link in any email or text claiming to be from Royal Mail or a courier, because your card details will be stolen by criminals.
Stay Well this Winter is NHS England’s annual winter campaign that aims to reduce the negative impacts of cold temperatures and winter weather on our health and wellbeing.
Winter conditions can be bad for our health, especially for people aged 65 or over and people with long-term conditions. Being cold increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. It could also suppress our immune system, lung capacity, and ability to fight off infection.
There are things we can do to stay well in winter:
Heat our home to at least 18°C (65°F).
Keep the bedroom window closed on winter nights, as breathing cold air can increase the risk of chest infections.
Stay active when we are indoors and try not to sit still for more than an hour or so.
Get the flu vaccination – ask your pharmacist or GP if you are eligible for the free flu jab.
If you feel unwell, don’t wait for symptoms to get worse – you can consult your local pharmacy first.
If you are worried about your health, visit the NHS Website, call NHS111, or in an emergency call 999.
Look out for other people who may need a bit of extra help over the winter.
For more advice on keeping warm and well, you can find the leaflets by Public Health England and by Age UK here.
Cambridgeshire County Council has received a waste and minerals planning application from PJ Lee & Sons to extend their crop irrigation complex at Sutton Gault.
The application is for the construction of irrigation reservoirs by the extraction and export of sand and gravel; silt lagoons; mineral processing plant; weighbridge; temporary buildings and use of existing access onto the A142 Chatteris Road between the Mepal Outdoor Centre and Hiams Bridge.
Comments can be made on the application until Saturday 9 January.
Copies of all the application documentation can be viewed online at http://planning.cambridgeshire.gov.uk by entering the relevant application reference number (CCC/20/052/FUL) and registering to submit your comments online. Alternatively, you can send an email to planningdc@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or send your comments to the County Council in writing at Box No SH1315, Shire Hall, Castle Hill, Cambridge CB3 0AP.
Cambridgeshire County Council has made two Orders to record the widths of Dunham’s Lane and Granny’s End Road in Witchford.
The Orders have been made at the request of Witchford Parish Council and will be available to view online at https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/libraries-leisure-culture/arts-green-spaces-activities/definitive-map-and-statement-orders
They will also be advertised for a period of six weeks by means of an advertisement in the Ely Standard tomorrow (3 December). Notices will be put up on site and also at Ely Library, and copies of the Orders sent to the applicant, landowner(s), statutory undertakers, and interested user groups.
Anyone may make a representation about, or objection to, the Orders during those six weeks, in writing, to HighwaysAssetManagement@Cambridgeshire.gov.uk before 14 January 2021 and should include the reasons for making an objection or representation.
Cambridgeshire County Council, Peterborough City Council, and the five district and city councils in Cambridgeshire are all working to close the gaps in the national Test and Trace programme operated by SERCO, contacting people who have tested positive for COVID and giving them help, advice and support to self-isolate.
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);
The Combined Authority’s latest Board meeting was certainly different to any I’d previously encountered.
I’m not a Board member, but I attend as Chairman of the Combined Authority’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee to ask questions agreed by the Committee about items on the Board’s agenda.
At this meeting:
The Mayor had to announce that the person lined up to be appointed as Chief Executive of the Authority’s ‘special purpose vehicle’ to develop the CAM metro, at a salary of £225,000 + ten per cent performance bonus, had just turned down the job.
We were informed the Leader of the County Council had resigned as finance portfolio holder (I’m told due to pressure of work).
We were advised that the Combined Authority was scrambling together an emergency meeting of the Combined Authority’s Transport Committee, to discuss the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s Cambourne to Cambridge corridor project, following the Transport Committee’s failure to agree (or even find someone to second) the Mayor’s proposal to its previous meeting.
After three and a half hours, with five items still to go, people were drifting off to other commitments, and the meeting was about to drop below the minimum number of members required to legally continue—so the rest of the business was deferred and a commitment made to reconvene a meeting in the next few days to finish it off.
The Overview & Scrutiny Committee had asked a number of questions about several of the agenda items. We were particularly interested in the CAM: why was it proposed to pay the Chief Executive, even if the preferred applicant hadn’t declined the offer, so much? Why were the non-executive directors to be paid £40,000 a year? And why was so much being spent on executives and directors for this project when there was no money in sight to actually build it? The response was that this was ‘perfectly normal’, ‘exactly how major schemes of this type begin and go on to get funding’, and while it was a ‘big challenge’ for us councillors to understand these things, this was how big national projects happen. It will all be fine.
We asked some initial questions about the Combined Authority’s budget, but we will be seeing that twice more at our Committee, in December and January, before it is finalised.
One of the most interesting Board papers was the review of progress on the 71 projects undertaken to meet the commitments of the ‘Devolution Deal’ to set up the Combined Authority nearly four years ago. We had a lot to ask about this, and unfortunately didn’t get much back in return.
Our first query was whether, in light of the recent and future shocks to the economy, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough would still meet its commitment to the Government to double the growth of the area’s economy. There was ‘every prospect that we will get back on track – absolutely yes’.
We then asked about the Public Sector Reform Commission, which has apparently been meeting for a long time, with nothing public to show for it at all. Something will be in the public domain ‘very soon’, we were told.
One of the commitments was to achieve ‘world class’ connectivity for the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough area. How would we know it was world class? The ‘acid test’, we were advised, was ‘whether the area continues to attract global investors in the future’. It’s not clear that those two things are uniquely linked, but the Overview & Scrutiny Committee will I am sure follow this with interest.
When would the impasse with the Government be resolved about its holding back of £45M of the promised £100M for affordable housing, and when will it be settled whether this multi-million pound scheme ends in March 2022 or March 2021? The Government minister had been ‘supportive’, we were told, and it should all be sorted out ‘in the coming days and weeks’.
Finally, we asked a large number of questions about various of the 71 commitments where the updates in the Board’s papers said that these were ‘not yet completed by Government’. What was happening with these? The rather circular response we received was that the updates were in the Board papers. Well yes, it was those updates we were seeking further information about. There will be regular updates and the Overview & Scrutiny Committee will be included in these, we were assured. But clearly not today.
The following planning applications in the Sutton division have been published by East Cambridgeshire District Council.
20/01494/FUL Sutton 36 The Row Sutton CB6 2PD Two storey rear extension and alterations (variation of previously approved 16/00334/FUL).
20/01512/FUL Sutton 180 High Street Sutton CB6 2NR Single storey rear extension.
20/01496/FUL Witcham 8 Silver Street Witcham CB6 2LF Single apex dormer in first floor extension.
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);
