District councillor for Sutton, Mepal, Witcham, and Wentworth (East Cambridgeshire District Council) and county councillor for Coveney, Little Downham, Mepal, Pymoor, Sutton, Wardy Hill, Way Head, Witcham, and Witchford (Cambridgeshire County Council)
We all know and appreciate just how hard NHS staff are working at the moment. And in the circumstances it’s natural to believe we shouldn’t be troubling them with other non-Covid health issues.
But the NHS is keen to let us know that they are open for business for non-Covid related illnesses, and indeed are worried that in some cases parents are bringing children late for help when they really should have come much earlier.
Obviously we all need to use common sense, and wait for attention to purely routine matters. But the NHS has published the following helpful ‘traffic light’ diagram to help you to decide what to do if your child is generally unwell.
And once again, a massive thank you to all our NHS and care staff for their amazing efforts at this difficult time.
For many families, the coronavirus outbreak has meant a change in financial circumstances. If your circumstances have changed, and you have school aged children, you might want to consider whether you meet the criteria for free school meals:
Income Support.
Income Based Job Seekers Allowance.
Income-related Employment & Support Allowance.
Child Tax Credit – but no element of Working Tax Credit – and an annual income (as assessed by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)) that does not exceed £16,190.
If you are supported under Part VI of the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999.
Guarantee element of State Pension Credit.
Working Tax Credit during the four week period immediately after your employment finishes or after you start to work fewer hours per week.
Universal Credit with an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400 (as from 1 April 2018).
If you have previously applied or been eligible for free school meals, you do not need to re-apply, as the council will continue to re-check your entitlement each month and will notify you should you become re-eligible.
Whilst schools remain closed the council is continuing to support eligible families to help ease the burden during this difficult time. This may be in the form of packed lunches, food parcels or food vouchers. Once your eligibility has been confirmed, your child’s school will inform you of their own specific provision arrangements directly.
If you have any queries in relation to free school meals entitlement please contact the council’s Education Welfare Benefits Team on ewb.fsm@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or telephone them on 01223 703200.
The following planning applications in the Sutton division have been published by East Cambridgeshire District Council.
20/00435/FUL Little Downham Hill Crest 10 Mill Hill Little Downham Single storey front extension and single storey rear extension with associated external and internal alterations.
20/00440/FUL Sutton 50 High Street Sutton CB6 2RA Part demolition and conversion of existing workshop/garage to form single garage plus relocation of vehicular access.
20/00386/FUL Sutton 31 Mepal Road Sutton CB6 2PZ Single storey front extension to form new garage and conversion of existing garage to habitable room.
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);
It should hardly need saying, but we need a well-respected police force to ensure public confidence in the enforcement of the law. Generally, our police do an excellent job, and we should all be grateful to them for that.
These coronavirus times are unusual, and I don’t envy the police their job. We have been told we need to maintain ‘social distance’, and the Government has laid down the circumstances in which we may legitimately be out and about. I am becoming increasingly concerned that Cambridgeshire Police are over-interpreting these regulations, and as a result are in danger of losing the confidence of the public.
Three days ago it was a misconceived Twitter campaign encouraging people to report their neighbours online https://twitter.com/CambsCops/status/1247589993071226884 Following sustained public criticism, this message was reworded, but the comparisons with nastier and less democratic political regimes had already been made.
And today, an extraordinarily ill-thought out Twitter message congratulating themselves on policing Tesco at Bar Hill and welcoming the empty ‘non essential aisles’.
The response was entirely predictable. What is a ‘non essential aisle’? Who decided what was ‘non essential’ (that’s certainly not laid out in the Government rules the police are supposed to be enforcing)? Are biscuits essential? Wine? Baby clothes? Birthday cards? Why can’t you pick up those things if they’re on the supermarket shelves when you go in for bread, milk and apples? This outbreak of making-it-up-as-you-go-along zealotry has been rightly mocked.
Cambridgeshire Police need, in the popular phraseology, to wind their necks in on this. They also need to be held effectively to account – and of course following the resignation of the county’s Police & Crime Commissioner last November, we are left with a temporary Commissioner who even the chair of the panel that appointed him admitted wouldn’t be up to the job on anything other than a stop-gap basis. His term has been extended for a further year by the coronavirus outbreak, and the new law scrapping all elections until May 2021.
The operation of law enforcement in this country is assessed against three ‘PEEL’ criteria – Police Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Legitimacy. Legitimacy is assessed in relation to whether the force operates fairly, ethically and within the law.
There is also a concept known as ‘policing by consent’, which is well described here. This recognises that in a functioning democracy, ‘the power of the police to fulfil their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect’.
The ham-fisted actions of Cambridgeshire Police in response to the coronavirus are very much in danger of losing that public respect. And if we here in Cambridgeshire reach a point when we can no longer respect and trust our local police, we will be in a very dangerous place indeed.
Update: while I was writing this, it looks as if Cambridgeshire Police has withdrawn the tweet snapshotted above.
If, like many people, you’re finding the current coronavirus pandemic taking its toll on your mental wellbeing, help is at hand.
A number of services serving Cambridgeshire residents have launched, or have reorganised their provision, to help those of us who may be struggling at this difficult time.
Mind has launched a local online wellbeing service called Qwell. Qwell provides a range of materials to help with psychological wellbeing, including educational and self-help articles and forums. Adults can also receive help from qualified counsellors through online chat sessions.
Lifecraft (here) has extended its Lifeline mental health helpline by five hours each day. It’s now available on 0808 808 2121 from 2:00PM to 11:00PM.
How Are You Cambridgeshire? A new Facebook page is connecting people with activities in their local communities that promote positive mental wellbeing.
Sport England are making financial help available to support sport and physical activity during the coronavirus outbreak.
This includes a £20m Community Emergency Fund for small clubs and organisations. Sport England say
The types of organisations eligible include local sports clubs forced to close at short notice but who are facing ongoing costs around maintenance and utility bills, and voluntary and community sector organisations who deliver or enable sport and physical activity.
A specific example might be a grant to support a local boxing club pay costs for their facility when no activity is taking place, or a grant to support a league who have paid for equipment to run a competition which has now been cancelled.
Due to the Coronavirus emergency, the County Council’s 1 May Innovate & Cultivate Fund application round has been cancelled. Any grant applications submitted for this round will be deferred to the 1 August funding round.
Cambridgeshire Coronavirus Community Fund Cambridgeshire County Council is supporting the new Cambridgeshire Coronavirus Community Fund. This fast-track emergency fund is offering grants to help local charities, community groups, local authorities and parish councils, to deal with issues affecting older and vulnerable people in our community as a result of the continuing threat of Covid-19. Grants between £1,000 and £5,000 are available for projects that aim to tackle the impact of financial hardship, potential for hunger, lack of shelter, health issues, loneliness, and isolation.
The County Council will be micro-asphalting a number of our smaller roads in the next eighteen months.
In the Sutton division, the roads on the list are
Laurel Close, Mepal
Silver Street, Witcham
The Orchards, Witcham
Westway Place, Witcham
This programme is for unclassified roads only, and other resurfacing programmes will be published in due course for our busier roads.
The programme is highly dependent on the weather at the best of times, but is currently on hold anyway due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Information about micro asphalting is available here, which is also where updated day to day programme information will be published when work does eventually start.
UPDATETuesday 7 April: In light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, this programme is being suspended due to concerns over not being able to meet guidance for social distancing. Once this period of uncertainty is over, the programme will be rescheduled. In the meantime, the county council’s contractor is removing all advance warning signs relating to these works.
