Flint Cross Fire - we need more robust enforcement to control hazards

I was heading to Fowlmere this morning and saw the A505 was closed at Duxford. Seems the whole of the A505 was closed running all the way towards Royston because of the serious fire at wood waste stored at Bridgfoot Farm near Flint Cross. 

I detoured via Newton, but coming back I could see the fires from a good two hundred metres away. 

This could have happened at Dottrell Hall near Fowlmere because the owner of this wood pile is the same person who the county council took through the courts earlier this year and prosecuted for failing to move that collection of wood, as per a court order. (See posts passim titled Dottrell Hall.)

Up the junction

People in Fowlmere and the parish council have raised concerns about the siting of a new junction box that has just gone in on the narrow footpath between Jacksons Way and the High Street. 

A few months back when this junction box was first proposed, and residents objected, I took this up with the broadband team and they gave assurances that an alternative site would be investigated. Usually Connecting Cambridgeshire superfast broadband team are very good at resolving issues like these. They sorted similar problems in Abington and Babraham. 

The junction box has now gone in on the footpath as you can see. So a gold star for connecting the community, but a "could do better" on communciation. There may be a very good engineering reason as to why this big box has to go here, but the county needs to keep the community informed on what is going on down. I have written to the highways and superfast broadband programme director and I want an explanation. 

how much wood would a woodchuck chuck?

Hopefully if the woodchuck was at Dottrell Hall, near Fowlmere, then not much wood in the future. The long running saga of the unsightly huge pile of lumber there looks like coming to an end. The county council served an order ealy last year to the owner to clean up the mess, but to no avail. Tick-tock, nothing happened.

 I began been pressing the planning enforcement team to take action since last autumn on behalf of the parish council and local residents. The planning team were chunking through the evidence although the team lost some staff mid-year which didnt help.

I  met with officers and the legal team at the beginning of this year 2014 to see how this process could be speeded up, or whether orther routs could be tried and I am very pleased to hear this week that following recent action taken by the county council:s lawyers there is now enough leverage over things that the wood will now start to go. I have asked local residents to monitor progress.

Duxford diary

To the list  of successful local businesses (see yesterday) in the area I must add the delightful and hospitable John Barleycorn in Duxford, where we set up base for a day's canvassing - at the beginning I thought we would be on cool drinks in the sun, but by late afternoon it was hot coffee as the rain clouds gathered in again.
The Hunts Road rat-run and the crumbling road surface featured on a lot of people's agenda, plus the debacle over the Post Office move to the excellent village shop, where it does seem as if local demand and resourcefulness (namecheck Mr Shah) is being frustrated by the corporate Post Office's drive for centralised efficiency. I campaigned to keep Thriplow's Post Office open - and I know the problems Fowlmere are having. As someone said to me in Petersfield: "Are we to have any local services?" 

Fowlmere - cake, cold and conversations

Out and about in a very cold Fowlmere all afternoon, with occasional flurries of sleet.

Many thanks to people for inviting me into their warm homes - and the excellent piece of cake (!) - as we talked about local issues, including what should happen to the land at Manor Farm.

For some people it is a further encroachment on the village's green surroundings, bringing more traffic too. For others it is a development of the local economy that might support the infrastructure (pubs, shop) that is in decline.

Fowlmere's bus service ...lessons

The bus services running through the villages of South Cambridgeshire have been heavily subsidized and the County is right to look at this cost.
Over the past year Whittlesford, Hinxton and Heathfield residents who used the C7 bus have had to work hard in trying to ensure the replacement to their service proposed by the County Council is fit for purpose.
For smaller villages such as Hinxton and Fowlmere where there is no shop or Post Office, let alone the rail service that Whittlesford enjoys, public transport is a vital link.
Fowlmere's bus service is under threat as the subsidy is going to be withdrawn. This is already a very limited service of five buses a day into Cambridge, Mon to Fri, and the County Council needs to show that this basic service will be maintained, and that there will not be the dip in service that ocurred for Hinxton, Heathfield and Whittlesford.