Keeping Heathfield off-limits to off-road bikes

Some feedback from residents on my recent Heathfield autumn newsletter was nice to have, plus a few local issues that I will pick up on, including -

the entrance to Heathfield, at Hurdles Way, has become a bit of collecting point for youngsters on trail bikes, and the police attended an incident last Friday evening after reports of vehicles being broken into. They did a bit of sensible talking to one or two lads, followed up by some Community Officer "visits" over the weekend.
One of the issues is the fact that the good quality path linking Heathfield to Thriplow means that someone on a trail bike can do a nice loop without having to go on the A505. I raised local farmers concerns about bikes at Thriplow parish council earlier this month.

I've spoken to the sector sergeant at Sawston and the patrol cars will drop by every now and then just to make sure it stays quiet.

whittlesford bits

Busy day yesterday - went to look at the site for a pilot orchard, near the allotments in Newton Road. It isnt the full monty, but it will be a start. Trees are on their way.
Then off to South Cambs to go through planning performance with the officers - though there is still room for improvement, the speed with which applications are being dealt with is the best so far this year.
Then a quick shop at Shelford and back for the opening of the new affordable homes at West End.

Yule Cottages, Whittlesford opened by Andrew Lansley MP

Residents of Whittlesford viewed the new affordable homes at West End this afternoon, and which were formally opened by Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP.
As builders cleared away a path to enable people to enter the site, the new residents who will move into the three houses were welcomed by representatives of local charity the Nicholas Swallow Trust, which will administer the scheme.
The small scale scheme is funded by the will from local resident Betty Yule. It follows on from a public meeting in Whittlesford in summer last year, which Andrew Lansley also chaired for us, to consider how to break the deadlock of providing local affordable houses.
For its part, the district council needed to produce a special agreement to allow the homes to be run by the Nicholas Swallow charity, which meant a series of meetings at the beginning of this year with South Cambs lawyers and planners.
Mince pies at the village hall followed on - localism in action.

thriplow revamped recreation play area gets £18k from South Cambs

Brilliant. We discussed this at Thriplow Parish Council on Monday evening, and everyone was hopeful that the bid would be successful after being pushed back - for sound reasons - last year.

The team behind the bid have put together matched funding from a number of sources, and have researched what it is people (and children!) want in the village. It is an ambitious project but there are plenty of able people involved and it will pugrade some rather tired amenities in the heart of the village. I am very pleased and proud to have been able to support the bid as it went into the South Cambs process.

brownfield or green fields?

Looking forward to hearing more from a local Cambridgeshire business looking to move their site to south of A505 opposite Whittlesford Bridge, alongside the Volvo site. They will be coming to the December parish council meeting.
It may be that they can be persuaded to go for the site currently occupied by the county council's highways depot at Whittlesford Bridge, near the station, rather than the arable land running between Duxford and the A505.
But clearly they can't stay where they are, if they are going to carry on being a successful business employing people and being good for the economy.

Talking to the police about Station Road, Whittlesford

The system works! - contacted ecops and have just picked up on voicemail a quick reply about Station Road issues. Cambs Police keen to talk about what they can do to improve policing profile in Station Road, Whittlesford. Report more tomorrow.

Good turn out for Whittlesford Remembrance Sunday

Must have been fifty people gathered at the village memorial at the Guildhall for Remembrance Sunday. Our vicar Ruth gave a thought-provoking sermon at the URChurch beforehand, the trumpet sounded Last Post and Reveille, wreaths were laid, and the traffic stopped.

The new village sign is in position too, as you can see.

solar panels go ahead for village hall

Made a tough decision not to go ahead with solar panels for South Cambs district office roofs, but the numbers just didn't stack up after the tariff was cut. Went on BBC Radio Cambs to talk it through last evening. Interesting discussion with presenter Andy Burrows who seemed pretty well informed.

Closer to home, the village hall is further advanced as a project (and a bit smaller) so parish council this week took decision to ask village hall committee to press ahead. The panels need to be on the roof by December, and connected up - so all systems go!

Just two minutes once a year...

When I was at school we in the cadet force used to march to the Cenotaph on remembrance Sunday, along with the real soldiers, the scouts, etc etc and the police closed the roads all around, end of.
When I lived in Huntingdon fifteen years ago and took my boys to the memorial there, a big fat police sergeant would stand in the middle of the road and stop the traffic.
Now, the advice from Cambridgeshire Constabulary is "Organisers would then need to implement the closure using signing and guarding in accordance with Chapter 8 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and Directions. This would likely involve employing a professional traffic management company."
If this is progress then I'm a dutchman.

swift!

Earlier in the summer when we wading through nettles in a corner of Whittlesford looking for a site for a village orchard, the south cambs ecology officer Rob Mungavin was telling me about swifts.

He had hatched a plan to use recordings of birdsong to attract swifts to new boxes built into a new development at Fulbourn re-placing old buildings where they had nested for years. Now the idea has won him a national award! - here is the detail on the rspb website. Brilliant.

panels, panels everywhere

Following on from the Government decision to cut back on the feed-in tariff for solar panels on buildings. It was bound to happen - and I understand why - but now there is a lot of work going on to see if the panels on the village hall roof in Whittlesford can be in place by the December deadline, and William Westley school are trying to get their scheme sorted too - I've asked the district planners for advice for the school and it may be possible.

South Cambs itself is looking to see if the panels planned for the Camborne council offices are also doable in time. The poeople losing out are the tenants of council properties, because that scheme looks now to be a non-starter. Govt Minister Greg Barker says there will be a community tariff for that sort of scheme - bring it on and lets get started.