Ickleton 20mph zone

The police are helpfully saying that they will be very willing to come and talk the parish council through what is needed by way of a speed survey so that the long-running attempt to get a 20mph zone on Abbey Street and Frogge Street can move on apace.

Baffler sound barrier for the scrapyard at Whittlesford

The parish council at Whittlesford voted in favour of the planning application from the scrapyard to put up a noise reducing sound barrier.
We want to understand more about the technical build and we want the environment officers to monitor this, from the district council, but this is a good step forward to reduce the noise from the business.
We also have the road swept now by the district - and trying to get the County to do something about the mud on the road.
 I have written to the police asking them to keep up their patrols in Station Road and we will also write to the transport commissioners about unsheeted loads leaving the yard.
 

Lock up your shed or shed a tear!

Police are reporting two break-ins to sheds at Thriplow, where thefts of expensive garden eqpt ie a lawnmower then ocurred.

Even tho the evenings are getting lighter, people are not outside much so the thing to watch is not popping in and out of the shed and then leaving it unlocked, becoming a target for all sorts of nasties passing by.

Vandalism and a possible theft foiled

People coming out of the school quiz evening on Friday evening found a couple of teenagers bouncing on the bonnet and roof of a parked car - and despite the hot pursuit by the school caretaker they got away.

On Saturday afternoon quick thinking residents spotted a suspicious person entering the sports pavilion who was then challenged. A call to the police resulted in the person being picked up at the Sawston end of the footpath. We will have to see if any charges are brought.

Iceni ok as long as the noise is kept down

People at heathfield I talked to this afternoon expect Iceni Water to keep noise to a minimum and not operate vehicles during nighttime and especially at weekend if the company's planning application is to go through.

I'll pass on the comments to the planning officers at South Cambs district council.People can see it is good for the local economy if the company is doing well, and also that the activity around the site in the evening might deter the undesirable element who tend to hand around at the entrance to Heathfield.

Ticket machine robbed again

It's been two years at least since a series of crimes at Whittlesford train station left the ticket machine empty and out of order for months.
Now it has happened again, along with graffiti sprayed on the stairs over the tracks and the phone box done over in recent months. 
There's a police neighbourhood meeting at Sawston coming up so will put this at the top of our agenda.But the train company is responsible for the station area. Time to put CCTV at the station back on the agenda?

Station Road - honey bees and holes in the road

Out in Royston Road and Station Road this evening - issues included the commuter cars parking from six in the morning, through the damage left from the lorries building the new developments (I'll see if the planning people can get the builders to come back and make good) to the noise from the scrapyard (where the parish council is arranging for residents to meet the owner to see if some compromises can be reached.
Also learned about the fate of English bees from the apiarist who sells very fine jars of their honey from the front-gate near the top of Station Road, and I was reminded that we still need BT to come and fix their telephone box after it was vandalised over a year ago!

Old Bill Update

Went to the Neighbourhood Policing Panel at Sawston, representing Whittlesford and also Thriplow. Main points from the meeting:
- police have issued 12 parking tickets in the first quarter of the year (Jan - Apr) in Station Road, Whittlesford and will continue to target (see pic at left taken following day);
- regarding over-loaded vehicles on Station Road police ask for information, even if it is that X type of lorry goes past at Y time on a certain day. Then the police say they will try to be there to witness the offence;
- 7 out of 21 offences in Whittlesford for the quarter were actually making off without payment offences from the two garages on the A505. Police say this type of offence is rising and they need to get on top of it;
- police will continue to patrol Heathfield near the Iceni building on late evenings -  I fed back that local residents had noticed the police patrols.

Interestingly, there were eight burglaries in Shelford area, then an arrest (in London) and suddenly, no burglaries. Police observation - crims. often choose to work the areas they know, time after time.

Mind how you go

Heathfield says well done to the cops

It was good to talk to people in heathfield yesterday morning, and especially to hear that while there are still noisy kids in cars and on bikes congregating in the centre of the estate, near the Iceni water building, people say that the local police paying more attention to the problem, with more regular patrols crusing in and around on fri and sat nights, has made a difference. 

good and bad...

The embryonic village orchard at the entrance to the allotments is still there and what was planted before Xmas is flourishing - hope they survive the coming cold snap. The area will get a tidy up this month.

On the downside someone has left a trail of graffiti through whittlesford village so need to get it cleaned up and see if the local police recognise the "tag".

Station Road - cops taking parking enforcement action

Went down Station Road to catch the train to London - high-viz. police patrol car and high-viz officers were there challenging the owner of large van that was parked up on the yellow lines and causing obstruction.

Good to see a follow through to the concerns on this that the parish council raised at the recent neighbourhood police forum in Sawston.

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.

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.

Burglary and an attempted break-in

Getting reports that a commercial premises in Whittlesford had an attempted but thankfully unsuccessful break-in over the week-end. Police in attendance.
Early in August a burglary took place at a house in Whittlesford while people were away, but the goods taken may have been recovered thanks to police action in raiding a premises in another village after a tip-off.
So check security, especially if late holidays planned, team up with neighbours to keep an eye on empty houses.
We will take up these developments with the local police squad at the early October Neighbourhood Forum  at Sawston.

crime prevention day at Whittlesford station

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Given that no one in their right mind would leave a bike at the rail station overnight, this seems like a very good idea. Thursday 1st September, from four till seven.

Where's tha bin?

Brilliant idea from South Cambs and Cambridgeshire Constabulary - stickers showing the speed limit to go on the side of the garbage bins - so that once a week on bin collecting day motorists will see a huge row of reminders as they drive through this and all the other villages..

thinking about tomorrow's services, and keeping today's up to scratch...

Every now and then I have a day more or less totally given over to district council and parish work, and last Thursday was one of them…

0715 Up and around Whittlesford delivering leaflets containing the reports for the Parish Council annual meeting the following evening. Nice and peaceful across the Recreation Ground at this time of the morning

0815 Quick bowl of shreddies and granola (home-made, thank you very much) then off to Heathfield to meet up with some residents complaining about the numbers of cars parked up and being repaired. As I leave the house the phone rings. A fellow parish councillor asking for details about street naming, which is a district council task. It is important in this case to get this right as we want to name a new road in Whittlesford after the village lady whose generous will has made possible the affordable housing being built as part of the development.

0945 After the Heathfield meeting (of which more later) I arrive at South Cambs offices at Camborne. I’m chairing the climate change working group at ten, but I just have time to check with one of the lawyers at the council about a planning application that has gone to appeal. Thriplow Parish Council want to write to the planning inspector and I need to to get some details. Helpful quick word and then in to the climate change meeting at ten. We work through the draft of an action plan for the next three years, setting out how the council will support local people, and local businesses, make sustainability work, and in particular try to help people make savings by being more energy conscious. We also go through some ideas by two of our working group on how the council’s own buildings rate in terms of sustainability and how we can put our own house in order.

1230 Working lunch with a group of officers and councillors to go through options for improving the council’s customer contact centre. Part of the discussion about social networking methods as a means of delivering customer service. Interestingly, I already get text message reminders about appointments from both my doctor and dentist.

2.00 Finish the customer session and check a numbers of points with the district’s planning team so that I am ready for the parish council meeting – there is growing concern about the scrapyard operating at the end of Station Road in Whittlesford. Pass on the concerns about parking in Heathfield to the Planning Enforcement Officer. He has visited the area once about this, but perhaps another visit at a different time may be needed.

3.00 Leave Camborne and decompress, but I’ve got to be back in a few hour’s time for a group meeting of councillors.

8.30 Collect one of my boys from Whittlesford Station. As I’m waiting I notice that the phone box has been vandalized. After all the policy and strategy thinking I’ve been doing earlier today, I reckon there is still the old-fashioned need to make sure services are delivered properly and things get sorted out. So we need to get BT to do the repairs, and hope that the rail station is not going through another of the bouts of vandalism that have impacted it and its users in the past.

Whittlesford Parish Council update

I attended the Whittlesford April parish council meeting last Tuesday: as well as a useful discussion about the potential for a village orchard, which Ann Beeby is leading on, and I am helping, and some discussion about planning matters, here are the main things I've been doing that I reported on:

I have had complaints about litter round the bench at the corner of the A505 and New Farm Road, and will contact the district environmental services to arrange to have a clear-up done.

Station Road scrapyard: I met the enforcement officer at South Cambs who updated me on the request for a meeting that had come in from the owners, in response to the formal letter written to them about apparent lack of planning permission for the site. The planning team at South Cambs are going to meet with them this week. The purpose of the meeting is to see if the owners have any evidence to counter the district's assessment that there is no covering planning permission.

Boundary changes – I attended a meeting of the Electoral Committee at South Cambs, where the district boundaries between Whittlesford and Duxford were discussed, following on from the changes to the parish boundaries. The committee agreed to change the district boundaries so that the A505 will be the boundary. The inconvenience for residents living on the south side of Station and Royston Road is that they will have to vote twice in district council elections in two years: in 2011 in Duxford, in 2012 in Whittlesford, as the Boundaries Commission in London can't make the change any quicker.

I asked the housing and new communities team at South Cambs for an explanation of the sheltered house that appeared to be for sale at butts green: they confirmed it is just the equity share – I’ve passed that information on to people who raised the question.

I attended the Neighbourhood Policing Panel at Sawston. I queried progress on the two burglaries just after Christmas in Whittlesford. The police had conducted patrols afterwards and offered advice to a number of houses that looked vulnerable. No arrests have yet been made.

Blue lamp update: Sawston Neighbourhood Policing Forum

Well attended and brisk session last evening to discuss local crime and anti-social behaviour issues with Inspector Savage and his high-quality team. Went there representing Thriplow and Whittlesford.

Lot of concerns about people parking on pavements, in front of schools, speeding through villages and using mobile phones while driving. Also rogue traders pestering people on the doorstep. Police distributed 17 tickets in Whittlesford last quarter - mainly at Station Road. The two houses burgled in Whittlesford in late December/early January. Police regretted that they haven't caught the culprits but they did mount patrols following on from that and identified some high-risk houses and gave advice to people in the village about crime prevention.

Insp Savage confirmed that he is in close discussion with planning enforcement officers at South Cambs about the scrap-yard at Station Road Whittlesford - I can confirm that because I saw him in South Cambs HQ the other week!

Interesting presentation delivered by Sawston Village College youngsters about vandalism and litter in the area, and an urge to action to get it sorted.

In some ways, we should be thankful that generally speaking crime is low in this part of the world, because we have strong, active and reasonably prosperous communities.

Neighbourhood policing forum update

A brisk meeting on a cold January night.

Locally, the Sawston-based police led by Inspector Savage that cover this patch of Cambridgeshire including Whittlesford, Thriplow and Heathfield have focused on traffic, speeding and parking issues, and on bogus traders, in recent months.

The police have visited Station Road Whittlesford on a regular basis and issued a number of warnings and parking tickets. Their focus is the commuters who chance parking on Station Road, though they have also got the message across to the builders (who are less in evidence now the two developments are almost completed.)

Incidents in Whittlesford and Thriplow are below those recorded during the same period last year and crime such as burglary is down across the sub-district.

They haven't found too many bogus traders, though the meeting heard reports of a scam whereby householders are offered a gutter-cleaning service at a very reasonable price, the trick being that the cleaners then surreptiously and quietly damage the guttering in the process of cleaning, say that they have spotted a problem and then offer to repair it at what quickly becomes a very unreasonable price.