Really excited about being involved in this event organised by East Cambs CAN! Do sign up and come along if you’re interested in developing clean energy at a community level in East Cambridgeshire.

Work is set to begin tomorrow (Thursday 8 June) to restore the phone mast on the water tower at Haddenham. The reinstatement is expected to be complete and operational on Thursday 22 June.

Many residents of Haddenham, Sutton and surrounding villages have been without mobile phone signal since early May following damage to the tower which hosts the mast.

Before the recent bank holiday two new microwave links were installed adjacent to the damaged water tower to provide some connectivity, with all connections having to be re-laid. The main site however still needs to be reinstated with the full complement of technology, and Wireless Infrastructure Group has been instructed to proceed with the works.

This has been a very challenging site as the main structure, where all the equipment was installed, was severely damaged and needed to be repaired prior to the completion of the remaining technology installation.

SSE Renewables, in conjunction with the landowner, are proposing to construct and operate a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and associated infrastructure on land at Martins Farm, Littleport CB6 1EJ.

Construction and operational access to the site will be taken from Crouchmoor Drove, off Hale Drove. The associated equipment comprises:

A public consultation event is scheduled for Tuesday 27 June 2023 at Littleport Leisure Centre, Camel Road, Littleport CB6 1EW. The event will start at 15:00 and conclude at 19:30. The event is open to the public, and you do not need to register in advance.

More information about the proposal, and the consultation event, at https://www.southerybess.co.uk/

Residents and business owners are being encouraged to give their views to help shape Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Service’s plan for the next five years.

The service has launched a consultation which is available in the Consultation section of the Fire Service website, and which is open until the end of July.

More information on the Fire Service’s Community Risk Management Plan at https://www.cambsfire.gov.uk/news-and-incidents/news/2023/06/2023-06-06-help-shape-the-future-of-your-local-fire-and-rescue-service

Following a message from a resident, Mark and I have both been pursuing the completion of the path from Stimpson Street—on the Vistry development at the top of Mepal Road—to the top of The Orchards.

The path is a requirement of the planning approval given to Vistry for the development, but it has still not been finished.

Vistry told Mark:

“Initially, we held off completing the full extent of the permanent footpath works as we need to put in a new foul sewer within this location to serve Phase 2. However, this work has been delayed due a number of reasons. Therefore, our engineers are now looking at either realigning the sewer connection so that we can fully construct the permanent footpath, or if not, we put in a safer temporary surface in the interim.”

And a member of East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC)’s planning enforcement team told Lorna:

“I understand that the installation of the footpath involves works on land owned by ECDC and therefore before I contact the developer, I am awaiting confirmation from the relevant ECDC departments that all necessary agreements are in place for the works to proceed.”

Mark and I joined the biannual Community Liaison meeting today organised by the team at the Elean power station in Sutton.

EPR Ely, the straw-fired biomass power station on the Elean Business Park, will start its annual two-week shut-down on Sunday 2 July. In the middle of that day they will be carrying out their usual explosive cleaning, so be prepared for some loud noises. This used to take place at night, but in recent years the firm has responded to community concerns and moved to a daytime schedule for this operation.

The company operating the plant has been rebranded Melton, and is actually owned by Octopus Energy.

They’re looking to extend their works car park, and have recently installed some EV charge points. They will be recruiting more operational staff, and also continuing to seek local apprentices from time to time.

A survey has been launched asking parents how much they currently pay to access their funded childcare place.

It will help Cambridgeshire County Council understand and improve the local market for funded early years and childcare places – known by the Government as free childcare.

Parents and carers are encouraged to complete the survey on the Council website by Friday 28 April. The findings will feed into further work by the Council with early years providers, improved information for families, and future policies and guidance on funding, as well as feedback to central government. The survey can be found at https://forms.office.com/e/DbXa0VMyxe.

More information at https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/news/parent-feedback-sought-on-cost-of-free-childcare-places

The—as yet unconfirmed, but almost certainly correct—rumour of the closure of the current GP practice operation at Priors Field in Sutton with effect from 31 March has come as a huge shock to the local community, including me as a patient as well as a local councillor.

Residents are clearly concerned, and have a number of questions, not all of which can be answered at this moment.

Cllr Mark Inskip and I have launched a petition to NHS England, and to Sutton’s MP (who also happens to be the Secretary of State for Health), calling on them to save GP services at Priors Field, which you can sign here. Please sign and share widely.

To be absolutely clear, neither Cllr Mark Inskip nor I had any prior notification of the closure, confidentially or otherwise. I learned the rumour from Facebook on Tuesday evening like most local residents. And at this stage, some of what follows can be based only on speculation. It is however the best information I have to date, and I have been in contact with the local Director of Public Health about the situation, asking her to clarify the processes involved.

The decision to cease a GP practice does not rest with the council, or with the Government, or even with the NHS. Under the legislation which created the NHS in 1948, GP practices are effectively small businesses contracting with the NHS, and are under no more responsibility to tell councillors about their plans than the local hairdresser or garage would be. Decisions about the business rest with the GP partners, and are theirs alone.

The decision of a GP practice to cease to operate from a premises does not automatically mean that there will no longer be GP provision from that premises. Firstly, the ownership of the building is a matter for the GP partners.

Secondly, the local Integrated Care Board is responsible for planning and delivering health and care services in Cambridgeshire, and I would expect them to be involved in helping to ensure ongoing health provision for local residents. Through the Chair and Vice Chair of the Adults & Health Committee of the County Council, I’m making contact with the Integrated Care Board to understand their input.

Thirdly, funding of primary care provision rests with NHS England, which is why the petition is addressed to them.

Questions have also been asked about the planning consent for expansion of the premises which was given by the council some while ago. The planning consent follows with the building, so whoever owns the building will be able to carry out the consented works so long as the planning permission has not run out. They can also seek to renew the consent if it runs out of time, or submit a fresh application for different works.

Other concerns have centred round the financial commitments sought from developers (Community Infrastructure Levy or CIL funding) towards health care in the village. As Cllr Mark Inskip has said on Facebook, East Cambs District Council maintains a list of infrastructure projects that will potentially benefit from this funding. One of the projects is the extension of Sutton surgery. If the development goes ahead, the contribution has to be made. The GP practice, whoever was running it, would need to apply to the district council to release those funds.

As a patient and a councillor, I am aware of the huge interest in this matter, and will provide updates as and when I receive them.

East Cambridgeshire District Council has published the following planning applications in the Sutton division.

23/00155/FUL
Mepal
11 Brangehill Lane Mepal CB6 2AL
Proposed loft conversion extension.

You can find further information on the district council’s planning pages. If you would like to respond formally to the council about any planning application, please write to the district council and not to me.  You can comment

• 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

Cambridgeshire County Council today set its budget for the 2023/24 financial year. This is what I said about the services for which the committee I chair—Environment & Green Investment—is responsible.

This has been a challenging budget year, with the apocalyptically ill-advised Truss-Kwarteng budget plunging the nation even further into the economic mire.

Inflation is now running at over ten per cent. Supply chains and labour markets have been ravaged by Brexit, as well as by Covid and the war in Ukraine. Britain’s economy is predicted to see the worst performance of all G7 countries, even Russia which is at war and being sanctioned by the world.

Once again the Government has kicked the ball of fair funding for councils into the long grass. It has told us it has increased our spending power by over nine per cent—less than inflation, and half of that increase made up by assuming we will set the maximum permitted council tax increase.

I want to express my thanks to my Environment & Green Investment Committee colleagues and the council’s officers in the directorate for all the hard work they have done this year. I would like to think my Vice Chair Cllr Gay, Cllr Ferguson as the Independent spokes on the committee, and Cllr Corney and previously Cllr Goldsack as the opposition spokes.

Together with our commercial partners, we have continued to decarbonise schools in Cambridgeshire, including at Ramsey, Harston & Newton, and Comberton, with more schemes on the way.

We have seen the Swaffham Prior community heat scheme come to fruition, with the first homes connected. Solar car ports at Babraham Park & Ride are now under construction, and the smart energy grid at St Ives is expected to be energised this summer. North Angle Solar Park is due to complete shortly afterwards. These have been challenging projects in the prevailing economic conditions and I am grateful to the officer team for all they have done to bring these schemes to their present state. Our capital programme includes proposals in the coming years for work at Trumpington, Stanground, Woodston, and Fordham.

We continue to work with partners on flood and water management issues which are so important to local residents, and I was delighted to attend the first Cambridgeshire conference for the growing number of local Community Flood Groups, into which we have put resource over the course of this year.

The Just Transition Fund, which the Conservative opposition wish to axe, has been there to support this work, and money remains in this fund to enable this to continue.

Our Natural & Historic Environment and Biodiversity & Green Spaces teams are doing fantastic work. We now have an interim tree strategy, and will be working towards a final strategy once we have confirmed the level of existing tree cover so that we can set an appropriate target. I was pleased to carry out two tree-related visits last week—one to the Tiny Forest at Fenstanton and Hilton Primary School, planted by the pupils, and the other to unveil a plaque to mark the planting of a tree at Duxford Community Centre to commemorate the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Our County Planning, Minerals & Waste service has been kept busy responding to the large number of development consent orders submitted in Cambridgeshire, and grappling with the effects of numerous significant changes in waste regulation and enforcement on the PFI contract we have been bequeathed and which was designed for a former era. We will be investing in Household Recycling Centre provision at March and Milton.

The budget before us today enables all this work to continue and develop. This Joint Administration puts the climate challenge and our environment at the heart of what we do, and I am proud to support this budget.