Archive for December 2014

Fighting local Natwest branch closure

December 29, 2014 Banking Comments Off on Fighting local Natwest branch closure

NatwestIt was with some amazement that the news came through of the closure of the Natwest Histon branch, to take place on March 25th.

The branch, just north of Cambridge, has not only the large population of Histon/Impington, but also many large surrounding villages like Waterbeach, Milton, Cottenham, Landbeach, Girton and Oakington.Natwestpostoffice

The Histon branch represents the last remaining Natwest branch located in the South Cambridgeshire District Council area – of over 100 villages.

If the closure does happen, then Natwest customers will have to either use the Post Office for certain services or go into Cambridge City, St.Ives or Ely  – as the nearest branches.

To this end I have put forward a motion about the branch closure to the next Full Council meeting of South Cambridgeshire District Council in January. Any members of the public can attend the meeting to show their support.

NatwestmoneybanksIt is very much my hope, that Natwest, as a listening bank, will listen to public opinion on this issue and the community feeling as we go into 2015.

Please feel welcome to contact me on this issue.

Call for School route to be gritted

December 15, 2014 Road safety Comments Off on Call for School route to be gritted

Icy road Landbeach CottenhamToday I met the County Council gritting team in Witchford with fellow local Councillors. The issue at hand is the School bus route and busy road linking Landbeach and Cottenham not being gritted.

The gritting team have a budget of £2.2million per year and need to find savings of £750k. They have managed to use budgets to ensure this is now actually £450k. The savings will be found by; (1) changing leases arrangements (2) route optimisation (3) domain forecasting software that splits the County into sections. That said this would be to maintain the current service as it is. However this gives you a picture of the challenge we face to get Landbeach to Cottenham road gritted as a priority.

All routes are designated as primary (red, blue) or secondary (green) priority. With set criteria;

The next review will be sometime in 2015 where a panel will make recommendations on routes to then be signed off by a senior director at the County.

The condition of the School buses is not something covered by the gritting team. So we will need to work with Village College on this.

Currently the County treat 44% of routes (primary) compared with neighbouring areas reaching around 30-35%.

The gritting team have agreed to work up a costing for gritting the School route Landbeach-Cottenham road.

From this we can; (1) Apply political pressure for the County to again fund this route (2) Community provides the funding to reinstate (3) Community does the gritting.

Typically primary routes are gritted 40-50 times a year.

I have spoken to Steve Ellison from Cottenham Village College who is fully behind us – as this is both a safety issue and getting an education everyday for local youngsters.

I will continue to press for action.

Visit to Red Balloon Braintree

December 4, 2014 Education Comments Off on Visit to Red Balloon Braintree

I was delighted to visit the Red Balloon Learner Centre in Braintree today. For those that do not know Red Balloon; it is a charity founded by Dr Carrie Herbert MBE to help recover bullied children that can no longer attend school.

Currently the charity has Learner Centres in London, Reading, Norwich, Cambridge and Braintree, They also provide ‘Red Balloon of the Air’ which is an on-line environment for those areas not covered by a Red Balloon or where there is not a full physical Learner Centre.

What struck me about attending is how young people can be helped back into mainstream education. Indeed RB over the last 18 years has seen 95% of their students going back to School.

It always amazes me how little support the 16,000 (this is a conservative figure with a small c) children out of education receive. This is why I have drafted a ‘Charter for bullied children‘ which should be implemented nationally.

For those that want to learn more about Red Balloon please www.redballoonlearner.co.uk there is also a charity event on December 11th www.redballoonlearner.co.uk/events/2014/12/sophie-bevan-sings