Sutton could find itself with two county councillors – but having to share them with Coveney, Little Downham, Haddenham, Mepal, Stretham, Little Thetford, Wentworth, Wilburton, Witcham and Witchford.  The new county ‘division’ (area served by a county councillor) would be called Littleport West.

That’s the proposal from the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, which has opened a consultation on revisions to Cambridgeshire County Council.  Overall, the number of county councillors in Cambridgeshire would be reduced from 69 to 61.

The Boundary Commission comments: “We acknowledge that this division covers a large geographic area owing to the sparsely populated nature of the parishes that make up the division. However, we consider that our proposed division will reflect community identities and not divide them between divisions.”

The consultation opens today, and closes on Monday 6 July, and local residents are invited to comment on the proposals.  The Commission aims to publish final recommendations in September. Subject to parliamentary scrutiny, the new electoral arrangements should come into effect in time for the next county council elections in 2017.

The Commission’s report on its draft recommendations can be found here. Interactive maps of the proposals are available here where residents can also make comments or even draw alternative boundaries.

At last night’s district council meeting, councillors were told that any proposal to dual the A10 between the A142 at Witchford Road and the A142 at Angel Drove will not happen for at least another five years.

I told the council that this was worrying and that action is needed much more quickly. The A10 is already congested at this point, and this will only get worse after Ely’s traffic bottleneck is moved from the railway crossing to the A10 junctions. To let the problem reach crisis point before it is addressed is short sighted in the extreme.

If, like me, you vote by post at election time, you’ll probably have got your postal ballot papers for the parliamentary election yesterday. I’ve already been asked why we didn’t get our council election papers at the same time.

The answer is that the NE Cambs parliamentary election and Fenland DC elections are being run by Fenland District Council, who issue postal ballot papers for those elections. The SE Cambs parliamentary election and East Cambs DC elections are being run by East Cambs District Council who issue ballot papers for those elections. And the two councils are working to slightly different timetables. So those of us in Sutton, Littleport or Downham Villages – who are in NE Cambs constituency but in East Cambs District – will get our ballot papers separately from the two different councils.

The council ballot papers should arrive tomorrow.

Tomorrow (Monday 20 April) is the last day for electoral register applications from people who want to be able to vote in the general election and the council elections, and aren’t currently on the register. Any applications to register after that will be too late to vote in next month’s elections. You can register online here – you will need your National Insurance number to do so.

And 5pm on Tuesday 21 April is the deadline for applying for a fresh postal vote, if you don’t already have one.

East Cambs District Council has received an application for ‘non material’ amendments (reference number 13/00487/NMAA) to the planning application for the proposed data centre at the Elean Business Park (next to the machinery sales ground).

The application is described as ‘Re-configuration and change of orientation of the substation compound and buildings only. The data centre and landscaping remaining unamended’.

Let us hope that this means the data centre might be a step closer, as the land on which it is intended to build has remained derelict and neglected for a long time, plagued by dumped rubbish, occasional temporary residents, the dangerous removal of metal drain covers (presumably for their scrap value), and fly-grazing.

The council is adamant that the condition of the site is the responsibility of the owners – who don’t seem eager to act, pleading that ‘the site is difficult to secure’ – but doesn’t seem to have the resources to mount any sort of enforcement action.

As I reported last month, Cambridgeshire County Council signed a £100M ‘PFI’ contract with Balfour Beatty in 2011 to replace Cambridgeshire’s street lights. No effective consultation took place when the contract was being drawn up, leaving parish and district councils to pick up the pieces when work was about to start and the problems caused by the contract became all too apparent.

The botched contract paid no respect to features like the eighteen ‘heritage’ lamp columns between The Row and the church, originally installed by the district council.

The parish council was told that the lamp fittings on top of the heritage columns would be replaced with ordinary modern street lamp fittings unless they either paid for more appropriate replacement ‘heritage’ style lamps, or took over the running costs of the street lights themselves.

Sutton Parish Council originally decided to let Balfour Beatty install modern fittings, but has reconsidered in the light of more accurate information from Balfour Beatty about what this entailed, and will now be paying for replacement ‘heritage’ fittings. Like parish councils across Cambridgeshire, our parish council has found itself in a very difficult situation and has made the best decision it could in the circumstances.

Sutton’s Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Lucy Nethsingha joined David Wright and me in the village this morning, where we had tea and coffee respectively at Deli@65 and at Nellie’s community café. Lucy enjoyed meeting local residents and seeing Nellie’s community spirit in action, and was very pleased with her food purchases from the Deli.

A two-day £48,000 scheme to improve an accident site at Little Downham is due to take place next Monday and Tuesday, 30 and 31 March.

Bates’s Drove ( the A1101) at Little Downham will be closed at Toll Corner (this junction) for approximately 150 metres in each direction from the junction with the Hundred Foot Bank (B1411) from 9.30am to 3.30pm on each of the two days.  It will be possible for non-motorised road users to pass through the site under supervision of the contractor.

Personally, I’m very pleased to hear it! I very nearly came a cropper in my car with two passengers driving down the A1101 at night and missing the bend, as the lights along the Hundred Foot Bank looked like the continuation of the A1101 until I realised too late they weren’t.

There will be NO changes to collection days for the bank holidays – Easter, May, or August. Waste and recycling collections will take place as usual: please put your materials out for collection by 7am on the normal day.

East Cambridgeshire was the third most improved English council for recycling last year, with 45.5% of waste recycled, up by 12%. Further improvement is expected this year, but we can’t do it without you. Please recycle as much as you can.

Additional wheeled bins for garden waste can be provided in return for payment of an annual fee of £48. Paid-for bins will be identified by brown lids and licence stickers that will change each year.  Information about this offer is on the Council’s website.  To subscribe to this service please telephone the Council on 01353 665555.

East Cambridgeshire District Council has received a planning application for a two storey extension to side, single storey extension to rear, and garage conversion at 28 Sutton Court.

The application can be viewed at the District Council offices in Ely during office hours, or at The Glebe by arrangement with the Parish Clerk.  Details of the application (reference 15/00275/FUL) will also be online on the council’s Planning web pages, where it is also possible to leave comments if wished.