Heathfield gets a little bit more of its own identity

From August 12th the road leading into Heathfield will be known as "Heathfield Way" and that's official. I have a letter from South Cambs District Council, after a bit of prodding, saying the various authorities including the Royal Mail and the Fire Service are OK with the proposed name, and so it will no longer be anonymous but something that actually identifies the road and the community as Heathfield. Maybe not a big deal, but it has taken a while and I'm pleased that this can now go ahead. Maybe we should have a grand unveiling ceremony with a flight of Spitfires from Duxford Museum passing overhead. Or maybe not.

Hanley Grange - Wellcome Trust say "no thanks"

The Hanley Grange proposal, to build up to 12,000 houses in three phases on the triangle of land bordered by the A505, A11, A1301 was put forward presuming a level of co-operation between of a number of land-owners, not just the principal developer, Jarrow Associates. At presentation I attended on 30 June the developers stated that the second phase of development, towards the southern point, was to be on land not owned by Jarrow Associates.

This is land owned by the Wellcome Trust, and a number of people, led by Andrew Lansley MP, have been asking questions about what was going to happen to that land, which was originally acquired from South Cambs District Council in December 2002. I asked the Council in June if there were any letters or memos which explained the section 106. agreement that Wellcome had signed at the time, and there weren't, but the agreement itself states that the "Wellcome Trust for itself and its successors in title will not change the use of the Hinxton Estate."

Today the Wellcome Trust have issued a statement saying: "The Wellcome Trust was approached by Jarrow Investments Limited to consider becoming a partner in the Hanley Grange eco-town submission. The Trust has given very careful consideration to the approach and has decided not to proceed with this proposal. The Wellcome Trust owns around 270 acres of land on the Hanley Grange site. "

The consequence of this decision is that the land owned by Jarrow Associates in the central belt of the triangle is just enough to meet the threshold for supporting enough houses to form an eco-town - maybe 5,000 houses. And it could be that once that is built, or started, then maybe other landowners will come back on board. So an interesting development but not one that ends the eco-town proposal.

Neighbourhood Policing

I attended the briefing from Sawston police team last Monday to listen to their update on the local crime situation and plans for the next few months, and to talk to them about our concerns, including vandalism at Whittlesford station, anti-social behavior late at night using cars and mopeds, and the need for parking enforcement.

I spoke to Inspector Savage who said they would work with British Transport Police to step up patrols round the station in the evenings, and assured us they will take action on people using vehicles for anti-social behaviour. British Transport Police confirmed to me that the number of incidents is rising and would support a move to have CCTV at this increasingly busy station.
I reported back to Whittlesford Parish Council, and we had a discussion about NeighbourhoodWatch, where people who want to get one going are not too sure how to go about it, or how much the police will help. I have spoken to the crime and disorder people at South Cambs who tell me that Community Support Officers have been tasked to help, so I am on the case with PC Iain Perry to find out more.
(And here is a pic of policing, Hong Kong style, from 25 years ago!)

Post Office closures

The announcement of which sub-post offices in Cambridgeshire face closure has brought relief to some village communities and despair to others, as they see yet another vital element of rural life cut away. We increasingly use the internet for many transactions once only possible via the Post Office, but it is still an important service for many people, especially the elderly. The Post Offices in Whittlesford and Thriplow are not on the list of those facing closure, but those in the villages of Grantchester, Fen Drayton, Impington, Arrington, Elsworth and Over are scheduled for closure. One message is clear - without support from their communities, we might face further cuts to this service in the future. As the old lady running the village shop in my father's village used to say "Use it or lose it!".

Whittlesford Station - not safe for cyclists or their bikes

I was one of the Whittlesford residents who met with the County engineers yesterday to complain about the new parking scheme for Royston Road and Station Road, and the dangers and inconvenience it is causing to local residents and people getting to the station. If you cycle to Whittlesford Parkway rail station, as I do, or your kids cycle to get the train to school, you first of all take your life in your hands getting there, because the new parking restrictions on the approach road have clogged the street with cars, so you can't see vehicles up the hill, and you may find your bike smashed up while you are away, because of increasing vandalism at the largely unsupervised station, which has no CCTV.

People were angry with the result caused by the new parking scheme put in place earlier this year, and told the County engineers in no uncertain terms.

I chaired a Parish Council meeting last month where residents pressed for a face to face meeting with the highways officials. A number of local residents have since contacted me with their complaints. Some of these are elderly residents fed up with commuters parking and blocking their drives, and some are parents whose children cycle to the rail station to get to school.

A Station Road resident wrote to me to say: "Since the introduction of 'parking areas' and the removal of restrictions, the situation is now worse than ever. Cars often race down the road to the Station; large articulated lorries have great difficulty reversing up the road on a daily basis. On leaving our property it is impossible to see cars travelling down the road past a long line of parked cars to the West. By the time these fast cars reach the area of our driveway they are already pulling out to get around cars parked on the other side of the road. We have had several very 'near misses'."

At the same time, people cycling to the station run the growing risk of finding their bikes smashed up when they return. Regular cycle station users told me on Thursday afternoon that the situation is getting worse, as we surveyed the latest vandals handiwork, and commiserated with a teenager who returned to find both his bike wheels removed and the lock smashed. Next to his bike was another one with the wheel kicked until it was bent out of shape. A cycling commuter said to me "This is getting worse, and there is no CCTV here, and the British Transport Police just take down the details and that's it."
I have written to the British Transport Police and I will be bringing it up at Sawston next Monday at a meeting with the policing team who are responsible for Whittlesford, to see if they can send a patrol car down to the station to act as a visible deterrent. And a bit of parking enforcement would not go amiss either!