There’s still time to pop in to the Princess of Wales Hospital in Ely to see the exhibition of art by Cambridgeshire stroke patients. The exhibition, at the hospital’s Oliver Zangwill Centre, is open until Tuesday 22 April.

It’s part of a research project being carried out in partnership with the University of Bournemouth to study the effect of creating art on helping patients recover their self-confidence and sense of wellbeing after stroke.

I recently attended the launch day for the exhibition and was able to hear about the project from Dr Fergus Gracey, Dr Caroline Ellis-Hill and other members of the research team.

Cambridgeshire County Council is re-consulting community transport ‘Dial a Ride’ users on its decision to end the 50% subsidy paid by the county council on dial a ride journeys.

This cut has already been agreed in the council council budget (the one that took 12 hours to agree and was voted through by just a few votes). The council itself admits that it would add an extra £2 to £4.50 to most Dial a Ride journeys – and community transport providers are concerned about their viability if the cut goes ahead.

The consultation has been issued on paper to users of community transport services, but is also online and is open until Wednesday next week.

East Cambridgeshire District Council has submitted a planning application to itself for the detailed appearance, landscaping, layout and scale of its proposed leisure centre on the A10 near Ely.

The application (reference number 16/00372/RMM) for these ‘reserved matters’ is open for consultation until Tuesday 26 April 2016. Outline planning permission has already been granted for the scheme, and tenders are being invited for the construction of the building and for its management.

If you would like to respond formally to the council about the application, any comments should be addressed to the district council and not to me.  Comments may be made

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

Cambridgeshire County Council has launched a transport survey as part of its Total Transport project.  The survey asks if residents agree or disagree with specific proposals for changes to transport services which the county council hopes to put in place from September.

The survey will be open until 13 May 2016.

The county council is asking parents and carers, people who use council transport to get to day care centres, and local bus and community transport passengers in the Total Transport Pilot area (the northern half of East Cambridgeshire around Ely, including Sutton, Little Downham, Pymoor, Mepal, Witcham, Coveney and Wardy Hill) about the possible changes that the county council is proposing.

The county council is also inviting views from people who are not current transport users, but who face transport challenges.

If you would like a copy of this document in paper, on audio cassette, in Braille, in large print or in other languages, or if you wish to comment further or find out more about Cambridgeshire’s Total Transport Pilot, please contact the project at total.transport@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or by telephone 01223 743787 or post at SH1013 Shire Hall, Castle Hill, Cambridge CB3 0AP

From this Friday 1 April streetlights will be dimmed in towns across Cambridgeshire – though not in Sutton, Little Downham or nearby villages. County Council owned streetlights in places such as Ely, Littleport, and Chatteris will be dimmed by up to 60 per cent, and many will be switched off entirely between the hours of 2am and 6am.

The switch-off is part of the 25 year street lighting contract with Balfour Beatty signed nearly five years ago by Cambridgeshire County Council.

Some affected parish and town councils have chosen to pay to keep some or all of their streetlights on.  An online map is available which shows each streetlight affected. So watch your step if you’re out late.

East Cambridgeshire District Council has published a consultation – possibly one of the lowest-profile consultations ever – on proposals to use Cresswells Lane in Ely (just beyond the Royal Mail offices and the turning into Sainsburys car park) for parking coaches.

The move follows the council’s decision to move coach parking spaces out of Barton Road in Ely, leaving only one coach space instead of the current five.

The consultation is not clear how many coaches will be allowed to park in Cresswells Lane, or how they will turn.  If they are dropping off tourists at the Cathedral, I assume coaches will then access the proposed Cresswells Lane parking via Back Hill, Broad Street and Lisle Lane, adding to the existing traffic congestion in that part of Ely.

The consultation, which closes on Wednesday 6 April, is a revision of the council’s Off Street Parking Places Order 2016, also includes an increase in the fee for a Fixed Penalty Charge (up £10, from £60 to £70) and a proposal to trial and then implement cashless parking at Angel Drove Car Park.

Any objections to the Order must be made in writing, specifying the grounds on which they are made, by 6 April 2016 and addressed to The Chief Executive, East Cambridgeshire District Council, The Grange, Nutholt Lane, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EE or submitted via parking@eastcambs.gov.uk (link sends e-mail).

A copy of the Order, a Statement of Reasons for proposing to make the Order, and maps are available for inspection at the Council Offices in Ely between 8.45am and 5.00pm (Monday-Thursday) and 8.45am and 4.30pm (Friday) or can be viewed online.

Ely’s public library is to close on Sundays as part of a half a million pound savings package required by Cambridgeshire County Council’s library service. The change will take effect from 25 April.

The library service will also be reducing the amount of new stock it buys. Further potential savings, including in the mobile library service, are still being discussed.

More information about the proposals is available here.

Proposed new election boundaries for Cambridgeshire County Council, announced only last month, have been thrown into chaos.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) published ‘final recommendations’ in February for new election boundaries to take effect at next year’s county council elections.  But the proposals were so ludicrous, and the response so scathing, that they have been forced back to the drawing board.

A new phase of public consultation will be held between 10 May and 20 June on the electoral arrangements for Cambridgeshire County Council.  The LGBCE will consider the submissions it receives and publish new final recommendations in September.

To ensure co-ordination between the county review and the review of East Cambridgeshire district council election boundaries, the LGBCE has also decided to defer publication of the final recommendations for the district council until 16 August.

The good news is that Sutton and the Downham Villages may not find themselves sharing two county councillors in the LGBCE’s nonsensical proposed ‘Littleport West’ division along with half of Littleport, Haddenham, Wilburton, Stretham, and Little Thetford.

The bad news is with proposals delayed to September, county council elections in May next year, and normally a five month period between the publication of final proposals and the making of the required Order in Parliament, we may find ourselves not knowing what the election boundaries will be until only a few weeks before candidates are nominated.

Three councillors including myself have ‘called in’ East Cambridgeshire District Council’s decision to close the public toilets at Newnham Street and Sacrists Gate. This means that the decision will be reviewed by the full council at its next meeting, on 13 April.

Today the council agreed to keep Barton Road toilets open for one more year, following an agreement by City of Ely Council to give £8,000 towards their running costs.  Fordham’s toilets will be handed over to the parish council, with a sum of money to assist in running them.