Warden support

Cycled over to Lettice Martin/Butts Green/The Lawn and had a talk with Nicola, the warden there who stands in when Sally is away: they both do a great job helping residents of the sheltered accommodation scheme. The worry for the residents is that the warden service will have to be cut back due to the budget constraints that the district's housing department is faced with.

I have had some lively and interesting discussions with people at the centre there, over very large mugs of coffee, and I know how much folk value the warden service. It offers people who want to live as independently as possible the security that if there are problems, someone is there reasonably frequently to provide advice and support. I will be going over in early September to take stock of people's views.

That Whittlesford Station ticket purchasing experience

I see that the shiny new ticket machine at Whittlesford station only takes credit cards - this one replaces the one that was stolen earlier in the year (but not the same one as the ticket machine in the car park - that was stolen in June - now do keep up).

Bit tricky if you are still at school, I'd have thought and just want to take the train of an afternoon into town. The knowledgeable and helpful staff in the ticket office are only there till midday.

The reason given is that there is some problem accepting coins. Or is it that National Express can't face having yet another theft of a ticket machine...

That field along the A505 at Thriplow Heath

Calls on Thursday morning - when I was on the train into work - from people concerned at renewed activity on the field near the Pet Crem. This field has had a High Court injunction secured on it by the district council since February to prevent unlawful development - such as people occupying the site without planning permission.

Spoke to the South Cambs planning enforcement team (who had just come back from clearing Smithy Fen of similar unlawful development) who went to take a look first thing Friday morning. Quiet at the moment, they tell me, but regularly checked, I'm assured - just in case anything happens over the Bank Holiday weekend for instance.

Linton Wind Turbines - public enquiry

Not a Whittlesford or Duxford matter really, but one that a lot of people locally have an interest in. Just had a letter from the disctrict council saying that the planning application into South Cambs to erect seven wind turbines at Little Linton Farm will be heard by way of a public enquiry. Representations need to be in to the Planning Inspectorate before 11 Sept. There is an online portal through which comments can be submitted, which is www.planningportal.gov.uk. The campaign to stop the wind turbines is here, and the company wanting to instal the turbines is here.

August planning decisions at South Cambs

I attended a marathon planning committee meeting at South Cambs today, lasting six hours, which is pretty unusual. Planning application volumes have fallen considerably, but there is an increase in applicants coming back to the committee and saying, as happened today for example, can we renegotiate the money we agreed to pay in lieu of including social housing in our development.

There was a huge planning decision to make over the old Bayer chemicals plant near Harston, and the proposals to decontaminate it and build houses on the land. Although different - very different - to what happened in Corby when the local council tried to clear some steelworks itself, which resulted in families suing the council for the health problems and deformities brought about by living on top of land not properly remediated (to use the technical term), we were still very mindful of the duty of care we as a council owe those families who may some day live on that land at Harston.

Less dramatically, there was a planning application in to add another house to the development planned for the disused gravel pit site south of Station Road in Whittlesford, which both Duxford and Whittlesford Parish Councils have opposed. It is behind the hedge at the left of this photo looking west along Station Road. I raised concerns about the traffic that will be trying to get up the very steep unadopted road out of the development and onto Station Road, just as the cyclists and commuters are trying to catch the 0753 to Cambridge. But that side of Station Road is in Duxford, so it isn't really my call: but I will continue to press for a coherent plan for the piecemeal development that is happening alongside the A505 at Whittlesford Bridge.

Formula 1 at Duxford - last day of this year's testing

Last Wednesday saw the final test day this year at Duxford by the Renault team. There were plenty of excited children there, and some excited grown-ups too. The weather was pretty iffy, and the team would have liked to test over two days, as Thursday's forecast looked good, and they had had quite enough wet weather testing earlier in the summer, thanks very much!
But talking to the Renault guys(when they weren't shepherding schoolkids out of the way of a very powerful jet engine on wheels)they are clearly very conscious of the potential annoyance factor for local residents, and they only tested on the one day, rather than running into the Thursday. This would suggest that the team at Duxford, led by Richard Ashcroft and Mick Martin, are getting it right in terms of weighing up the balance between the income stream from the testing and the good relations with the locality. Next thing is to get the views of the environmental health team at South Cambs. Whittlesford Parish Council are going to do a questionnaire for the village.