Bassingbourn District and County Councillor’s Report August 2022
Cllr Susan van de Ven
Cost of Living: Support and Information in one place
South Cambs District Council has now created a ‘Cost of Living’ webpage which will be kept updated and seeks to include all known support information in one place. This will be replicated in the September issue of the South Cambs Magazine. This includes general advice and personal support; financial help and household grants; childcare; health, food and travel cost support; energy advice and support; home improvements. Please visit and have a read through: https://www.scambs.gov.uk/cost-of-living-support/
SCDC is in the process of setting up a ‘warm places’ scheme for the colder months with publicly accessible warm space. It doesn’t have the capacity to run these in-house, nor in every village; at the time of writing, it is tendering a service through the voluntary sector, and more information will be available in September.
Ivy Farm Bridge: new public right of way consultation
As I’ve been reporting, Hertfordshire County Council, which owns the Ivy Farm Bridge, currently an agricultural bridge over the A505 just west of the A1198/A10 roundabout, is preparing a formal consultation on the creation of new rights of way on either side, as part of a footpath diversion order, which would enable a legal right of way across the bridge and provide a safe pedestrian connection between Royston and Bassingbourn (and on to Litlington).
As soon as the consultation document is ready in mid-September, I will share links and a PDF with the parish clerk for posting on the parish council website. The consultation will run for six weeks. Anyone who wishes to respond can write to the address provided, to indicate their views – there will be no box ticking form.
Please note that the proposal is for legal rights of way enabling a pedestrian crossing only – a first step in creating public access over the bridge. Achieving this would be very significant; if you support the principle please do say so.
Rather than a separate public information event as I previously suggested, I have requested an agenda item for the September 20th PC meeting as, on reflection, this seems the fairest and most efficient way of sharing information and taking questions.
Any issues to raise with SCDC CEO?
The South Cambs District Council CEO Liz Watts is coming out to meet me for a Bassingbourn and Litlington Ward walk next month. Please let me know of any issues you’d particularly like me to raise with her. As you know, SCDC deals with planning, housing and homelessness, licensing, environmental health, benefits and has developed a lot of work around climate and environment and local business support. SCDC is also a partner member on the Greater Cambridge Partnership, the Combined Authority and the Health and Wellbeing Board.
Local Highways Initiative and Active Travel Grant update
As previously reported, Bassingbourn has been successful with two grant applications relating to lowering speed limits and creating a more favourable environment for walking in the village, and especially to school and college. One is the parish council’s Local Highways Initiative (LHI) and the other is the Active Travel Grant, which is government funding coming down through the Combined Authority. It’s great to have both lots of funding because the end result will, hopefully, be a stronger one. From an admin point of view it might look confusing, because the money comes from different places and, for various reasons, different aspects will be delivered at different times.
What is being proposed? Principles have been developed over a long period of time, involving the parish council, school and college headteachers, and School Crossing Patrol Officers. The core element of the overall proposed scheme is a 20MPH speed limit from the cemetery in The Causeway to the Primary School in Brook Road, together with side roads. It was felt that the blind bends in Brook Road, leading to the school crossing point at the junction of South End/High Street, need physical interventions to slow traffic down – and so the LHI application included speed cushions along Brook Road. The Active Travel funds offer ‘build-outs’ near the cemetery entrance and near the Village College in South End.
All of the map documents outlining the detail will be posted on the parish council website and made available in the Old School Community Centre. At the time of writing I’ve asked the council officers to make the maps clearer; please keep an eye out for these in September and do share your views, so that issues of concern can be flagged up. The speed cushions will be subjected to a road safety audit by traffic engineers in the autumn, and then a consultation on any tweaks arising, with construction aimed at next summer. The build-outs in The Causeway and South End would be this November; again, please feed back your views to the parish council and me.
Bassingbourn School Crossing Patrol Officer: Vacancy
This vital post is now vacant and the County Council has been advertising for the post, though at the time of writing there have been no applications made. I’m expecting a PDF of the vacancy that can be posted on the PC website, and which I’ll send to the Village Voice also.
Elm Tree Drive and Clarke’s Way pavement resurfacing and County Broadband – what happened?
Pavement ‘slurry’ resurfacing on the first Monday and Tuesday in August, followed by digging up the same pavement on the Wednesday in order to install County Broadband fibre cable, made for a painful illustration of lack of coordination. What happened, what are the lessons learned, and will there be a cost to the public purse in putting things right?
A huge programme of slurry treatment has been underway across the county during the dry summer months, at the same time as a rapid roll-out of ‘County Broadband’ fibre cable (which is a private company independent of the County Council). Works by County contractors and utility companies are planned ahead of time and fed to a central County Council Highways coordination point. In this case, the County Council Highways contractor was notified of the impending County Broadband work and should have waited until that was completed. However, the contractor forgot to pass the information on to its subcontractor. The contractor will return to make good and will foot the bill – this will not come from the public purse.
General questions came to mind as we tried to get to the bottom of what had gone wrong: What about the rights of utility companies to dig up the public highway? Are they entitled to override County Highways’s own programme of works? I asked, and County Highways responded:
‘Yes and No! County Highways is able to protect certain types of new surfacing from being dug up within the first year of being put down if we register them via the New Roads and Streetworks Act Legislation (section 58) however this does not cover protection from utilities putting in new supplies and connections. This includes protection from fibre connection works.
‘We can protect our new surfaces and are working to make sure we are protecting all we can under the legislation. When protected, a utility company can only dig it up either with our permission or if they have an emergency or if it is a new connection or supply.
‘The best way to protect a surface is by the coordination of our works programmes which is carried out at regular meetings where we share our programmes with the utilities. However, if we don’t notify each other of what is being planned where early enough then the utility can push ahead on the basis that we didn’t give them enough warning.
‘The key is the early coordination of programmes so if there is a need for us to delay our works we allow enough time for us to replace a deferred scheme with another, say a scheme we planned to do in the next year’s programme (effectively swapping schemes) This avoids non-productive time for the contractors that they may charge us for.’
Thanks to everyone who has been in touch with questions.
Meldreth Train Services and discount fare for Cambridgeshire 16-18-year-olds
Due to low ridership, GTR have announced that from September, services at Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton stations will need to be scaled back during off peak times. However, services will remain half-hourly during peak times, and run hourly between 10AM-3PM and after 8PM. The 50% 16-18-year-old student discount which is unique to our area is protected, supporting the rail commute to sixth form college and training in Cambridge. This only runs from stations within Cambridgeshire, so for Bassingbourn students it is financially advantageous to use Meldreth rather than Royston. To access the ‘Cambridgeshire Student Connect’ card follow this link:
https://meldrethsheprethfoxtonrail.org.uk/50-discount-on-season-tickets-for-students/
The challenge of regaining and retaining the all-day half-hourly service, at this unprecedented time, remains very significant. Please do use the train when you have the choice and opportunity and help ridership to grow.
East West Rail drop-in event, Haslingfield Village Hall
The July drop-in event was cancelled due to the heatwave, and has now been rescheduled for Sept 9, 2-8PM, at Haslingfield Village Hall.
Care Together: Adult Social Care Commissioning Vacancies
Cambs County Council is advertising for two lead posts in adult social care, as part of its effort to develop local microenterprises: “The Care Together programme will support older people to live happily at home for longer, with a good quality of life, and is being piloted in East Cambridgeshire. The Local Authority is now preparing to expand this approach to other districts in partnership with the Integrated Care System, local charities and community groups and District Councils, amongst other stakeholders.
‘We are seeking to recruit two commissioners to the Adult Social Care Team to help implement the programme throughout Cambridgeshire and would appreciate it if you could share with suitable contacts in partner organisations. This is a two-year fixed-term contract and if partners agree, there is the possibility of a secondment, whereby the successful applicant would return to their current job at the end of the two-year period.” Here is a link: Commissioner Vacancy