The following planning applications in the Sutton division have been published by East Cambridgeshire District Council.

19/00339/ADN
Little Downham
Sign north east of 1 Third Drove Little Downham
Directional sign to Head Fen fishing lakes (retrospective).

19/00354/FUL
Little Downham
43 Matthew Wren Close Little Downham CB6 2UL
Two storey side extension.

19/00329/OUT
Wentworth
3 Main Street Wentworth CB6 3QG
Two new self-build plots and associated works.

19/00333/FUL
Witcham
Witcham Lodge Headley’s Lane Witcham
Part two storey and part single storey extension with access to roof terrace.

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.

On the radio earlier this morning, to talk about the county council’s belated admission that charging people to use computers in libraries was never a good idea and hasn’t worked.

Councillors this morning will be asked to scrap the charges. They are likely to raise only £9,000 this year, instead of the £108,000 predicted.  Not only that, they’ve seen computer usage in our libraries plummet (a report last September said there had been a 54 per cent drop in use).  And there’s been a drop of more than ten per cent in visits to the library in October-December 2018 compared to the same period the previous year – hardly in keeping with the council’s pronouncements about seeking to put libraries at the heart of the community.

All of this was entirely predictable – in fact Liberal Democrat councillors predicted it when we opposed the charges being introduced in the first place a year ago.  The same thing happened when charges were introduced for parking at the Park & Rides, and usage fell by 14 per cent.  (Liberal Democrat councillors opposed those charges too).  When the computer charge figures looked bad in September, six months on, I proposed that the charges be scrapped there and then, but was outvoted by the Conservative majority.

It’s not just about money and footfall, though, it’s about a fundamental principle of libraries (and computers in libraries) being key to reducing, not increasing, inequality and isolation.  Charging people to use computers flew in the face of that, and I for one won’t mourn their end.

If you’re a commuter to Cambridge, you might want to try to make a few minutes to drop in to the transport consultation event at Ely railway station next Monday morning (Monday 18 March).

Officers from the Greater Cambridge Partnership will be available from 7:30AM to 9:00AM to talk about proposals for future public transport networks and ways to reduce congestion.

If you can’t spare the time on your journey to work, you can give your views online by filling in the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s survey by 31 March, or contact them via email at consultations@greatercambridge.org.uk or via Facebook and Twitter, making sure to use the hashtag #BetterGreaterCambridgeJourneys

More information can be found at www.greatercambridge.org.uk/choicesbetterjourneys

The following planning applications in the Sutton division have been published by East Cambridgeshire District Council.

19/00296/FUL
Little Downham
2 Bury Green Little Downham CB6 2UH
Single storey side extension.

19/00322/AGN
Little Downham
Elm House Main Drove Little Downham
Agricultural storage building.

19/00315/FUL
Sutton
8 Cherry Rise Sutton CB6 2PW
Single storey rear extension.

19/00320/OUT
Sutton
Land rear of Whitegate Farm Witcham Road Mepal
Up to two dwellings, two double cartlodges, access and associated works.

19/00317/FUL
Wentworth
Ramsey House 10 Sutton Road Witchford
Single storey rear extension.

18/01789/FUL
Witchford
Site west of 39 Sutton Road Witchford
Detached three bedroom bungalow and ancillary works.

19/00033/FUL
Witchford
22 Field End Witchford CB6 2XE
Two storey rear extension and single storey front extension.

Cambridgeshire County Council has just announced new funding rounds for its Innovate & Cultivate Fund.

The fund is open to voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations based in or outside Cambridgeshire, and public sector organisations in Cambridgeshire. Its aim is to support initiatives that strengthen communities and reduce pressure on County Council services, thereby giving a return on investment. Council services inviting applications include adult social care and children and families services.

The Innovate & Cultivate Fund has two streams: a ‘Cultivate’ fund for smaller projects that build community support networks and an ‘Innovate’ fund for bigger, bolder and more innovative initiatives.

The maximum Cultivate grant has been increased from £10,000 to £19,000, and there’s new guidance on starting Cultivate ‘Seed’ Fund Projects that can help people to remain independent and active within their community, encourage volunteering and complement more costly Council services.  Projects include Timebanks, Good Neighbour Schemes, Dementia-Friendly Communities and Men’s Sheds.  See the fund’s webpages for details.

Application deadlines are:

• Wednesday 1 May for Cultivate grants (£2,000 – £19,000)
• Thursday 1 August for Innovate grants (£19,001 – £50,000)

Application forms and further information about fund priorities and criteria are on the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation website.

Pre-application advice: bookings are now open for an Innovate and Cultivate Fund Advice Session on Monday 25 March, 1pm-4pm at March Community Centre for applicants planning to apply for a Cultivate grant on 1 May. Please book here.

An advice session will be held in June for applicants planning to apply for an Innovate grant on 1 August (bookings not yet available – please email lianne.parrett@cambridgeshire.gov.uk to be added to the circulation list).

If you have any queries about the application advice sessions please email lianne.parrett@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.  Cambridgeshire Community Foundation can answer questions about applying for the Fund info@cambscf.org.uk.

This just in from the Greater Cambridge Partnership:

“The Greater Cambridge Partnership has just launched Choices for Better Journeys – a public engagement campaign about future travel in the Greater Cambridge area and beyond.

In autumn 2017, Our Big Conversation asked people about the travel challenges they faced and their ideas for the future. Many people said that a more affordable public transport network, with better availability and reliability, would be of great benefit to them, and criticised the level of congestion in the Greater Cambridge area.

We have looked at how we could significantly improve public transport across the area, alongside continued improvements to walking and cycling provision, to give people better choices for travelling into and around Cambridge.

Your views needed

We are now asking for people’s views on a range of issues and ideas, including:

• proposals to transform public transport to offer a better alternative to the car;
• different options for tackling congestion, improving air quality and freeing-up road space; and
• funding a future improved public transport system.

Choices for Better Journeys will run until 31 March, please complete the survey to tell us your views.

The survey has been developed in collaboration with Cambridge Ahead and in association with Cambridge Network and the Cambridgeshire Chambers of Commerce.”

Liberal Democrats on East Cambridgeshire District Council are proposing to increase council spending to address key issues facing our area.

The Lib Dem group has submitted a budget amendment which would increase the council’s community transport grant pot from £15,000 a year to £50,000 a year, in recognition of the decline in local bus services.  They also propose to allocate £16,000 to additional landscape consultancy responses on planning applications, as increasing numbers of speculative planning applications pour into the district.  And they propose that the council should sign up to membership of the Association of Drainage Authorities at a cost of £334 a year, so that it is at the forefront of collaborative working on drainage and flooding, issues of critical importance to East Cambridgeshire.

This would be paid for by scrapping the buffet served to councillors before Full Council meetings (£900 a year), and by a council tax rise of less than 3p per week at Band D — less than the current rate of inflation.

Liberal Democrat council group leader Lorna Dupré says: “We believe our amendment reflects residents’ priorities — supporting public transport, providing expert responses to planning applications in our countryside, and protecting our area from the risk of flooding.  There is no excuse in these straitened times for the public purse to be paying for a councillors’ buffet, and a below-inflation 3p a week rise in council tax — the first in a number of years — would be well-spent on the proposals we have outlined.”

The amendment will be proposed at the meeting of East Cambridgeshire District Council tonight (Thursday 21 February 2019).

Park & Ride journeys into Cambridge increased by nearly a quarter of a million in the last year, with more than three million people choosing to use the services.  And January figures saw an increase of more than 15 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Usage of Park & Ride services slumped by 14 per cent after a parking charge was introduced in 2014 for use of the Park & Ride network.  The removal of the charge has seen ridership bounce back, which is good news for reducing congestion. And the Greater Cambridge Partnership is working on plans to improve and expand the Park & Ride network.