...all creatures great and small

Planning permission is being sought for another development in Station Road, Whittlesford, though this is one that should bring less disruption to residents than the two housing developments currently taking shape. The plan is for a new purpose built building to house the Davey veterinary practice, behind the existing house (which used to be a pub?) and for the house to be converted into office accommodation.

This should mean less congestion between cars carrying commuters and those driven by pet-owners bringing Rover in for his jab of an evening. And at least the three-legged dog that is taken for its constitution in the morning by the practice nurse will still be around.

Tough times for local government

There is no doubt that local government is facing some really bleak times, and South Cambs is no exception. Apart from the recession and the huge consequent scaling back of public finances, other causes for South Cambs' position is the relative wealth of the area, and a historic desire to charge a very low rate to its residents.

What this means is that South Cambs is rarely a beneficiary of any national schemes, where money is taken from some local authorities and redistributed to poorer ones. As a rule of thumb, the flow of such money tends to be from the south to the north.

The historically low rate has meant that increases, even of just below the "cap" imposed by the government, of 4.5%, are small - maybe six pounds a year. The surge in Cambridge sub-region building and the current fall-back of development has meant that the planning department has had to expand and now scale back - meaning some good people in the planning department are facing redundancy. South Cambs is working with neighbour councils to see if there are synergies which can help here, so that things we are good at can be done for other councils, and having "spoke and hub" expertise. Some good things are still being pushed forward - recycling bins to help us meet the new targets, for example.

But it is tough - especially on the officers who provide a good level of service to the people of South Cambs.

Duxford Air Musuem - a wide ranging discussion

Went to the Duxford Airfield Management Liasion Committee (or something like that) which is basically all the local parish councils, me from the district, and Tim Stone from the county, together with the Imerial War Museum Director, Richard Ashton and his team (mainly Mick Martin, who was in fine form.)

We discussed the Formula 1 racing which caused just a bit of contraversy back in the summer. The Musuem will be holding a public meeting in the evening of 7th December, for local people to consider the issues raised by the motor racing testing. The museum was appreciative of the efforts of Whittlesford Parish Council in running a questionnaire to gain village views. If the racing car testing continues next year there are a number of conditions which the environmental noise team at the district council are asking for: 28 days between each day of testing, and plenty of notice (five weeks) of each testing day.

We also talked about flying levels over villages, where the legal limit is no lower than 500 feet, and the airfield exercises a local requirement of flying above 2,000 feet. And also the impact of wind turbines on the airfield and flying. The proposed Linton windfarm site is too far away for it to affect Duxford, but both Marshalls and Stansted have expressed concern. Last year 75,000 people visited air show days, with overall 337,000 visitors. Flying complaints slightly up - as a knock on from the complaints generated over F1 racing.

Whittlesford Village Shop

At Whittlesford parish council meeting on Tuesday we discussed and agreed overwhelmingly to encourage support for the village shop, Masseys of Whittlesford.
The shop is facing the financial pressures all such small businesses are finding themselves up against. We did consider the options of a community shop, and I have talked to people who have set them up. But we all agreed that it is far better for the shop to run as a commercial operation, and that we get behind it in terms of custom and shopping.

The grandly titled Commission for Rural Communities tells us something we already know, that "Post Offices combined with village shops together provide important services for local communities, particularly for vulnerable groups who are more reliant on them for their needs." But the research from the CRC does go on make some useful points, such as:

• the erosion of small shops is the erosion of the ‘social glue’ that binds communities together
• half of the turnover from local retailers is returned to the local economy, while large retailers return as little as 5%.

The conclusions it draws are that village shops and post offices are good for communities, even though changes in the way people shop and communicate continue to place them under great pressure.

I think our village shop is working hard to adapt to the needs of the 21st century, and if we value our community, we all need to think about how we can support it - because by doing so we are supporting ourselves.

Questions from the sheltered housing tenants

People in the sheltered housing in Whittlesford round the Lawn and Lettice Martin Croft have put their heads together and come up with some detailed, sensible questions about what they can expect if the reduction/adjustment in warden services comes about.

I've agreed with the district council that we can have a visit where these questions can be discussed, and people's minds set at rest, or at least they can be given some detailed information, which is better than not knowing what is going to happen. I'm grateful to the officers involved at South Cambs, because this isn't easy for them either - the cost-cutting which we have had to do has seen some good people depart.

I'm sure the discussion will be full and frank. The questions are to do with matters like the heating systems which the wardens had to keep adjusting last winter when it got very cold, the adminstration of the family visit room, medication, smoothing over difficulties between residents, providing advice on various matters, and so on.

On a wider front, it may be that adjustments to the national council housing schemes may ease the financial burdens that the council suffers from in that half of the money goes to the Treasury because we are a "wealthy" district. But we can't hold our breath on that one.

Station Road developments - here is the traffic management plan

The developments being built in Station Road are taking shape - and hopefully now creating less disruption for residents as the access roads into the sites take shape. The development nearest to the cross-roads, run by Hill Residential, was required to produce a traffic management plan, after I raised the question on the planning committee last month.

(This is the site that has inventively discovered a new route out of the site just next to the A505, which the planners are pretty unhappy about as it is potentially really dangerous - you don't except a truck popping out from the undergrowth like some 1944 Tiger tank emerging from the Normandy bocage.)

I talked over what the developers have produced by way of a plan with the planners at South Cambs this afternoon. The traffic management plan - which I'll scan in - includes the creation of a car park on site, so they are not parking on the road or the verges, washing wheels for trucks leaving the site, sweeping the road of mud etc, and managing heavy or unusual loads.

Not a perfect situation but at least we have something to check against it it all gets a bit too haphazard.

Game set and match!

Here is the Whittlesford Tennis Club courts having just been officially opened on Sunday afternoon with brand new playing surfaces paid for by a joint effort from the Parish Council, South Cambs District Council and Sport England. I was very pleased to support the bid made to the council's amenities fund and equally pleased to be there on Sunday to see the result. 17 years since the old surfaces were done apparently, and a bit gravelly on the knees if you stretched too far on the return of service and came a cropper

In the couple of hours when the sun came out a crowd of tennis players and well-wishers turned out on the Lawn to eat cake, toast the new surfaces and watch a bit of rather squally tennis in between the rain showers. Some of those present had started playing in Whittlesford in the 1970s. The Saffron Walden Reporter photographer captured it all.