Safe routes to school in Whittlesford

Out in Whittlesford this morning and early afternoon - dodging the showers and occasional hailstones - and had a long talk with a village mum about how best to get children moving about the place safely, including to school, and the play areas and even the shop.

There are many parts of the village where to get from one place to another means crossing an awkward junction with poor sightlines, or a narrow pavement, or no pavement at all.

The junction of Newton Road and Middlemoor is a good example, and if there are going to be new houses at Newton Road we will have to think about innovation - which is where we would need to explore funding options, and get the the road safety experts at the County Council to advise in terms of coming up with safety ideas. Otherwise children just get driven everywhere, don't have the chance to learn independence, and the roads get busier.

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?" 

Local enterprise

The village shop at the Abingtons must be one of the best stocked around. Up there this afternoon and the battery in my car key failed. Did they sell a replacement - of course they did!.
Later I was in Thriplow where it was good to see the newly re-opened Green Man doing brisk businesss.
This morning I was hearing from a young couple in Ickleton who had gone into the micro-brewing business, using local produce.
Not every business has to be mega to be successful.   

What is it all for...

When I have been out and about in Thriplow, Heathfield and Whittlesford people have asked about the proposals for building many more houses around the villages, and why the developers keep coming back with their plans.
The bottom line is that our villages and the countryside within which they sit are hugely attractive to big developers. Why? Well, we are near enough to Cambridge to bask in its reflected cachet and enjoy its booming economy and chic shops, there is the 43 minutes rail journey down to Liverpool St and the M11, the village shops, schools and pubs, the air museum, people riding horses through the villages, children playing football on a crisp November morning on the recreation ground, cricket on summer evening with the long shadows over the the village green..you get the picture.
No wonder then, that as in the opening of HG Wells famous novel, there are "envious eyes across the gulf of space slowly and surely drawing their plans against us."
But we'll see them off...

How can we slow things down along Newton Road?

Given that Newton Road is quite narrow, has some sharp bends and there are cars parked on the road, you'd think traffic passing through wouldn't just floor it. But they do - and the bent and dented metal rails at the corner of Middlemoor are proof.
Residents point out that the narrow pavement nearby at Bar Lane makes it tricky if you want to take children into the village itself, either to the shop or the school.
Each house has stickers on the bins making the "slow down" plea to traffic on refuse collection days. Maybe we have to think about some other methods - traffic calming and electronic hazard "kill your speed" lights for example.

Local services for local people...

I'm planning to go along to a forum in Shelford that has been set up about local library services - meanwhile what to do about local bus services continues as an issue, with a second of the meetings chaired by County Cllr Tim Stone coming up. The district council has done some good work here in knitting together the various strands of community buses, dial a ride etc for South Cambs.

Some good news in terms of one vital local service - the new units and shelving is going up in the village shop in Whittlesford, so it wont be long now before that is back in action...

Thanks, Marc...

Bought some groceries Sunday morning - last day of trading for the village shop run by Marc Massey.

As well as what we needed on a week-end like OJ, eggs and croissants, and the essentials like kitchen rolls, tea, and tins of soup, Masseys has been good for a whole range of other things, including cheeses, veggie boxes, panettone and carrot cake. And the village shop has over the years hosted wine-tasting, carol-singing, cake-stalls, and village competitions.A tough act to follow...in a tough economic climate for small retailers.

Whittlesford village shop - faced with closure

I'm not posting much on this yet,as most people know about it, and there is a meeting next Tuesday in the Village Hall chaired by the parish council - mainly to see if there is the will and the support to start a co-operative village shop.
Tough decisions too for the current owners, who have really made a go of it for the last five years, and made it the heart of the village. And for the Post Office...