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

20/01078/FUL
Little Downham
The Cottage Hundred Foot Bank Pymoor
Demolition of existing two-storey dwelling and replacement construction of two detached three-bedroom dwellings.

20/00861/FUL
Little Downham
13 Lawns Crescent Little Downham CB6 2TT
Two storey and single storey rear extensions.

20/00862/FUL
Little Downham
20 Eagles Lane Little Downham CB6 2TG
Internal and external alterations.

20/00899/HEN
Little Downham
Wigeon House Downham Common Little Downham
Construction of single storey rear extension which extends beyond the rear wall by 7m, has a maximum height of 3.97m and an eaves height of 2.45m.

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.

Weekly rates of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population, up to week 17–23 August (data extracted 26 August 2020).

Note: Rate per 100,000 resident population, crude rates calculated using mid-year 2019 population estimates. Last updated on Wednesday 26 August 2020 at 4:04pm. Figures are from pillar 1 and pillar 2 testing.

Three months on – and nothing to show

Remember this survey? It was launched by East Cambridgeshire District Council on 9 March, shortly before the beginning of lockdown. Because of COVID-19 the closing date was extended to the end of May.

Three months on from the closure of the survey, and we’ve still not been told anything about what East Cambridgeshire residents said, or what their priorities are.

Two rounds of bids for the Government’s emergency active travel fund have come and gone, which local residents’ responses could have influenced – but haven’t.

The forward plan for the Council’s Finance & Assets Committee, which is overseeing the walking and cycling surveys and which next meets on 24 September, currently does not schedule any update on the findings.

No date has even been set for a meeting of the Bus Working Group which is overseeing the bus survey.

And members of the Council’s COVID-19 Recovery Working Group were told last week that councillors could not be guaranteed to see the results of the surveys in the next two weeks.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 11,900 people in East Cambridgeshire have benefited from the job retention scheme.

A further 3,700 people in the district are receiving financial support through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, following a successful national campaign by the Liberal Democrats.

These schemes have helped stem the tide of job losses, says Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey MP – and the Chancellor of the Exchequer must not threaten mass unemployment by ending them before it is safe to do so.

Liberal Democrats are also urging the Government to extend support to those who have so far been excluded. Three million self-employed workers across the country are still not covered by government support. Liberal Democrats are calling on the Chancellor to expand the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme to include:

• The 150,000+ people who became self-employed since April 2019.
• Those who are registered as limited companies.
• Freelancers who got more than 50% of their earnings through employment.

“Now is the time to extend support to those wrongly excluded and for Ministers to deliver a Green Recovery Plan that will create millions of jobs, keep people in work and tackle climate change,” says Ed Davey.

You can support their campaign here: https://www.libdems.org.uk/protect-jobs

Changes to the Busway and a number of other Stagecoach service timetables take effect from Sunday 30 August.

Details can be found at https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and-offers/east/august-30th-service-changes

Stagecoach say these changes are “to ensure that we’re providing sufficient capacity across our network, ready for the return of schools and colleges and in anticipation for increasing numbers returning to work”.

East Cambridgeshire District Council’s trading company has submitted its planning application for Phase 2 of the redevelopment of the MOD homes near the Princess of Wales Hospital – and only 30 per cent of them are set to be affordable.

Of the 53 homes proposed to be built, just eight will be available for affordable rent, and a further eight for ‘affordable’ purchase.

That’s no more than the council’s Local Plan would expect of a commercial developer, and a crashing disappointment for those hoping for a local home they can afford.

Details of the application are on the council’s Planning web pages – search for reference 20/01006/FUM.

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

20/01020/FUL
Little Downham
Site north west of Woodlea Cophall Drove Little Downham
Construction of new chalet style property (resubmission of approved application 16/00537/FUL).

20/01045/FUL
Little Downham
Site adjacent to Thistle Croft Pymoor Lane Pymoor
Agricultural shed.

20/01011/FUM
Sutton
Faerch Plast Ltd Elean Business Park Sutton
Additional six material storage silos, plant enclosure extension, new loading area canopy, and pallet storage enclosure.

20/01057/ADI
Sutton
20 Ely Road Sutton CB6 2QD
One set of halo illuminated letters on rails and non illuminated sub text, two sets of halo illuminated letters on rails, and one internally illuminated double sided totem sign.

20/00951/FUL
Witchford
12 Manor Close Witchford CB6 2JB
Single storey dwelling.

20/01040/FUL
Witchford
The Old Milking Parlour 20 Main Street Witchford
Detached double garage with gym and home office space above.

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.

Some of the latest statistics from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Public Health Intelligence Team.

• 66 new laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough between 3 and 9 August (down 10 on the previous week)
• Declining trend overall in COVID-19 cases in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, though with increases in Cambridge (+5), Huntingdonshire (+2), and Cambridgeshire (+3) in the most recent reporting week.
• No COVID-19 related deaths in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough in the week ending 31 July (down from one in the previous week).
• All-cause deaths numbers remained the same as the previous week for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (96 deaths). Peterborough had an increase of 1 death.
• East Cambridgeshire (+5) and South Cambridgeshire (+1) had an increase in all-cause deaths between the last two reporting weeks.
• The last notifications of a COVID-19 related death in a care home setting were 15 July for Cambridgeshire, and 8 July for Peterborough (data as at 11 August).
• The number of all-cause deaths is below the 2014-18 average in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Numbers in Huntingdonshire remain above the 5 year average. All other districts are below/similar.
• The number of all-cause deaths in care homes is similar to the 2014-18 average in South Cambridgeshire, and below in Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, and the remaining districts.

The following planning application in the Sutton division has been published by East Cambridgeshire District Council.

20/01013/FUL
Little Downham
Kevlin 70 Ely Road Little Downham
To convert existing garage to ancillary living accommodation for the main dwelling.

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.

I’m one of the signatories on this letter to sixth form heads in Cambridgeshire.

Dear Cambridgeshire Sixth Form Head,

We have been horrified by the scandal of marked down grades for A level pupils, and the astonishing reinforcement of educational inequality which the system chosen by the government has produced.

We know you share this horror at the downgrading of many of your students.

We are deeply concerned that a similar impact will be felt by many GCSE students, who will be receiving their grades this coming week. 

We are writing to ask that you do everything in your power to take students on the basis of the Centre Assessed Grades, rather than those they are allocated by the government’s algorithm. 

We know this may prove difficult in some cases, as some sixth forms are over subscribed.  We would ask that in these cases you work together to try to ensure that every Cambridgeshire student is given a suitable place, with as many as possible offered their first choice, and where this is not possible that judgements are made in consultation with schools, rather than in using the flawed grades produced by the OFQUAL algorithm. 

We recognise that the chaos caused by the government’s exam results are not your responsibility, and wish we did not have to write to you asking for your help to fix the problems it will cause for many students:  that should lie with the government. We also know the great strain that has been placed on schools over the last few months and the extreme challenges you are facing in preparing to re-open in September. We offer our thanks to you and all of your staff for the incredible work you have done, and wish we did not need to ask more of you at this time.  We will do all we can to support you with the practicalities of making this offer and are writing to the Cambridgeshire MPs in the hope they will offer the same.

Yours sincerely,

Aidan Van de Weyer
Liberal Democrat Candidate for Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough

Lucy Nethsingha
Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Cambridgeshire County Council

Cheney Payne
Teacher and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Cambridge City Council

Ian Sollom
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for South Cambridgeshire

Pippa Heylings
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for South East Cambridgeshire

Lorna Dupré
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Cambridgeshire County Council