Sutton to Ely cycle way

Plans for developing a direct cycle route from Sutton to Ely are pressing on apace.  Funding has been provided to the County Council to develop the area along the A142 from Wentworth junction to the area west of Witcham Toll. A shared use pedestrian and cycle path will be constructed that will be approximately 1.8m to 2m wide.

This path will provide a link between the existing paths from Sutton to the Witcham Toll area and Wentworth to Witchford. This will support a cycle and pedestrian path from Sutton to Ely.  Links around the area of Witcham Toll are limited in space and while this area will have paved access, this means that some reallocation of space will be needed.

The cost of this scheme is £350,000, and the money has come from the Department for Transport.  It is intended to begin Phase 1 in early autumn, and Phase 2 around Witcham Toll in late autumn.

If you have any questions, you can contact project manager Paul Rawlinson at the County Council by phone on 01223 699906 or by email at transport.delivery@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.  Congratulations to Paul for getting this scheme under way.

Council meets to revise local plan

The planning inspector considering East Cambs District Council’s local plan announced a couple of months ago that the plan didn’t demonstrate enough housing being built in the next five years. In fact, the council’s proposals fell short by 320 homes in that period.

Tomorrow the council holds a special meeting, to propose revisions to its draft plan. All these revisions involve bringing forward extra house building around the outskirts of Soham, in areas that were pencilled in for later in the local plan period, which extends to the year 2031.

This would mean 51o homes to be built by 2019 on five sites around Soham, which would more than cover the shortfall.

The council needs to resolve this matter not only swiftly, but also to the satisfaction of the planning inspector – because until it does, without a five year housing land supply, the National Planning Policy Framework states that there is a presumption in favour of approving planning applications, unless the adverse impacts significantly outweigh the benefits. In this period, all sorts of unsuitable planning applications could get the go-ahead – and in that situation, the only people with a smile on their faces will be the developers.

 

 

Black bag delivery

When the council introduced wheelie bins last year, it decided that rather than issue a single black bag each week as it used to do, it would give each household 52 bags at a time, to last the entire year.

It’s now almost a year since we got our wheelie bins, so the next year’s supply of bin bags – two rolls of 26 bags each for each household – will soon be arriving.

Here in Sutton, our bags are due in the week commencing Monday 29 September. Why not make a note now on your calendar to remind you? If you don’t receive your bin bags by Monday 6 October, contact the council by email or phone 01353 665555.  The last date for claiming non-delivery of black bags will be Friday 31 October.

Of course, if you need to use extra black bin bags, you can supply your own, though with the amount of waste that can now be recycled in the green and blue wheelie bins, one bag a week is enough for most families’ needs.

Visit to AmeyCespa

Lorna at AmeyCespa 2014-08-06 small

Today I was one of two councillors to visit AmeyCespa’s waste handling facility at Waterbeach. We spent a very interesting couple of hours learning what happens to all the waste – recyclable and non-recyclable – after it leaves our homes. We saw the green bin waste before and after it has been processed; the blue bin waste being split, mechanically and then manually, into the different forms of recoverable material; and the black bag waste being sifted for recyclable material and then readied for landfill.

The cleaner and less contaminated the material in our rubbish, the better quality the material recovered from it – so it’s really useful if we can wash cans before putting them in the blue bins, for example. Recyclable items can be recovered from black bag waste, but they’ll almost certainly be more contaminated and of less value than those which have been put in our blue bins.

The worst contaminants of blue bin waste are dirty nappies and – really! – dead pets.  Not nice for the staff who have to manually pick out non-recyclable material from the waste stream at the end of the process.

East Cambridgeshire’s recycling rate has shot up enormously since we’ve had the wheelie bins – where we were lagging seriously behind other parts of the county, we’re now not far behind.

 

County council highways drop-in

Pam Joyce, our local highways officer employed by Cambridgeshire County Council, has started running drop-in sessions for residents in various parts of the district, including Sutton.  Her next drop-in session here in Sutton is on Thursday 7 August, from 10:00am to 12:00 noon, at The Glebe. So if you’ve got a local highways issue you would like to raise with Pam, please do pop along.

NB I know not everyone is free on a weekday, so if you can’t make it but have an issue you’d like me to raise with Pam on your behalf, I’m more than happy to do so if you email me your concerns.

Foodbank in Sutton

Ely Foodbank hopes to have a collection and distribution service running in Sutton by the autumn. The Foodbank has already secured the agreement of the Parish Council to provide accommodation at The Glebe, and now needs to find at least 15 volunteers to help run the service in Sutton.

Volunteers will need to be available for about an hour and half once a week, on a rota basis.  Training will be provided before the service opens, which organisers hope will be in October or early November.

If you would be interested in volunteering for the Foodbank in Sutton please email Ely Foodbank no later than Monday 8 September.  Meetings about the Foodbank will be held in Ely at 3pm on Tuesday 9 and Tuesday 16 September, and potential volunteers will be very welcome – please email Ely Foodbank for details.

Background to the Foodbank

Launched 18 months ago with the remit to serve people within a 15 mile radius of Ely, Ely Foodbank provides a minimum of three days’ emergency food to people in crisis. This service has now expanded with Foodbank centres in Chatteris, Littleport, March and Soham – all part of the Ely Foodbank (Trussell Trust) partnership.

The main way food is donated is through regular giving by shoppers and supermarket collections. Volunteers engage the public at the stores by providing them with a Foodbank shopping list and asking them to buy extra items while shopping. These extra items are then donated to the Foodbank. Schools, churches, businesses and individuals also donate non-perishable in-date food to the Foodbank.

Once collected, the food is sorted by volunteers who check that it is in date and pack it into boxes ready to be given to people in need. Recipients obtain vouchers from care professionals such as doctors, health visitors, social workers, Citizens Advice Bureau staff, welfare officers, the police and probation officers. The vouchers can then be taken to a Foodbank distribution point where they are exchanged for food. The volunteers who distribute the food can also ‘signpost’ people in crisis to agencies able to provide help with their longer term issues.

More information about Ely Foodbank is available at www.elyfoodbank.org.uk

(With acknowledgement to Alan and Lynne Williams)

Want to earn some summer cash?

East Cambridgeshire district council is looking for people to help with this year’s election registration canvass. This involves going door to door and ensuring that the council’s electoral register is up to date.

There are quite a few areas in East Cambridgeshire where the council needs canvassers but they include Mepal, Witcham and Wentworth which aren’t at all far from Sutton.

The council’s registration canvassers are paid 17p per property plus a one off mileage payment of £10.  Canvassers must be over 18, able to collect all materials (I assume from the council offices in Ely although they don’t make that clear), and available to do the work between Thursday 7 and Wednesday 13 August.  Canvassers must not be politically active.

The closing date for applications is Monday 4 August. If you are interested please call the council’s elections team on 01353 665555.

Storm tonight could mean power cuts: action you can take

July 18, 2014 3:42 PM

Electric light bulbYou can help keep safe if there is a power cut following the storms due tonight. This briefing has just been sent to local Councillors by UK Power Networks, who look after the National Grid.

One thing you might not think about: cordless household phones may not work without electricity. You should have at least one phone in the house that is wired and plugged in.

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Today is a normal day across the networks with no widespread power cuts due to the weather. However, UK Power Networks has been notified of a severe weather warning from the Met Office with heavy rain, thunderstorms and lightning forecast to hit the East of England, South East of England and the London area this Friday night and over Saturday 19th July.

Our paramount focus will be on restoring electricity to customers as quickly and safely as possible and we are currently putting in place a range of measures to be better prepared to respond to any potential impact on our networks and customers.

Measures

We are preparing to deal with the storm’s potential impact on our network and customers.

Below are some of the measures we are taking:

  • We are arranging additional staff to cover call centre roles. Additional people have been allocated to take and make phone calls and provisions are in place for even more engineers and resources to be available on short notice in case of need.
  • We invest in a partnership arrangement with the British Red Cross and can activate their volunteers to support vulnerable customers if power is affected.
  • The emergency teams in the local authorities have access to the web link that enables them to see fault levels.

Our electricity network is built to be resilient but extreme weather can affect overhead power lines when tree branches and windborne debris damage them. In the event of a power cuts as result of the localised gusts, lightning and heavy rain, UK Power Network’s priority will be to restore supplies as quickly as is safely possible and keep people informed as best we can during a constantly changing situation. We will work from job to job targeting big jobs first where many customers are affected.

In communication with customers, we urge the public to stay well clear from power lines and anyone spotting a damaged power line needs to report it to UK Power Networks.

To report any power cuts and damaged lines on free helplines, please refer customers to the following numbers: In the South East call 0800 783 8866, in the East of England call 0800 783 8838 and in London call 0800 028 0247. You can also see www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk and follow the company on twitter for updates @ukpowernetworks .

Preparing for a power cut

Below is some advice on how our customers can prepare for a power cut:

  • Keep our freephone number handy
  • See the website for some useful videos offering you advice during a power cut.
  • Keep spare batteries for radios and torches – local radio stations often broadcast helpful information
  • Keep an old-fashioned corded phone which you can plug in, as cordless phones won’t work in the event of a power cut
  • Take care if using candles, tea-lights and other naked flames
  • Keep fridges and freezers closed, with a blanket over as they will stay cold for many hours
  • Switch off all your electrical equipment, except one light which will let you know when the power comes back on
  • Remember the street lights may also be off so take care if you go out
  • Exercise caution in localised flooded areas -specific advice is available on the Environment Agency website.
  • Look out for elderly neighbours and other vulnerable people

We would be grateful if you could forward this email to your contacts, including in district and parish councils.

Kind regards,

Stakeholder Engagement Team

UK Power Networks

Newington House

237 Southwark Bridge Road

London SE1 6NP

How healthy are we?

The Public Health Observatory – part of Public Health England – publishes Health Profiles for every council area in England.You can find them here: click on E and select East Cambridgeshire.

The Health Profile for our district shows that generally we’re in average or better than average health compared to the rest of the country, except in two aspects: the numbers of people killed or seriously injured on our roads, and the incidence of malignant melanoma (skin cancer).