Little Eversden Parish Meeting: 7th March 2016

                                    LITTLE EVERSDEN PARISH MEETING 

The Little Eversden Annual Parish Meeting was held in The Pavilion on Monday 7^th March 2016 at 8 pm

Mr Tebbit, Chairman of the Parish Council, was in the Chair.

Minutes of previous year’s meeting held on 2^nd March 2015 confirmed.

The following reports were received from Representatives.
Recreation Ground Report – Derek Blatch (read by the Clerk)

We start with some sad news that the Eversden Cricket Club folded during the 2015 season due to not being able to raise a team. Before the decision was taken the team were doing well.

We again have teams from Comberton Crusaders using our football pitches, namely Under 18, 17 and 16 boys on the top pitch and Under 10 girls on the bottom pitch.

With the lack of rain over the summer of 2015 were not been able to carry out any Verti draining, spiking or over seeding but we did manage to improve the drainage around the central area of the top pitch by laying extra drainage runs where we had standing water earlier in the year.

Since then we have had November 2015 the dullest on record, December the wettest and warmest on record and in some parts of the country the wettest January 2016 on record. All of that has resulted in no football between the 22nd November 2015 and the 7th February 2016 ( 10 weeks ). We are now hoping for some dry weather to help with the back log of fixtures.

The council had scheduled to clean out the Awarded Drain to the north of the field back in October 2015, but it has been too wet to get a machine on to the field to carry out the work.

We have removed the roundabout from the bottom of the field as the plywood panels had become very rotten and dangerous. We have replaced the panels with Aluminium Checker plate. It now just leaves for the panels to be drilled and bolted onto the roundabout, and then reinstalled.

The existing pavilion needs a large amount of money spending on it, namely a new roof, demolishing the garage and committee room due of subsidence and then rebuilding.

The committee considered that the money would be better spent on a completely new pavilion. The new pavilion will include two team size changing rooms and two smaller ones, a club/ committee room, large kitchen, large main hall, toilets and entrance hall.

The pavilion will be sited nearer to the existing play area and encroach onto the field.

The time scale for this will depend on fund raising and grants but it is hoped that we will have plans ready to show the Parish Council in April with the view to summit for planning soon after.

The top 11 v 11 pitch will move down the field some 10 metres for the start of the new season in September 2016. This will allow us to install the 12-18 year play area next to the existing play equipment at the pavilion end of the field. If all goes well with grants we should be able to have all the 12- 18 year play equipment installed by late summer.

The Connections Bus visits the recreation ground car park on a Monday evening 4.00 – 6.0pm in term time and is funded by the Parish Council. We pleased to say that the Parish Council have agreed to fund the bus for the year April 2016 to March 2017. A big thank you to the Parish Council from everyone involved in the Connections Bus Project.

We had a successful quiz night back in October 2015 and we raised £376.00. We had our yearly jumble sale in February that we share with the village hall and raised a total of £789.00

Lastly a big thank you to the committee for the hard work throughout the year, especially with the Jumble Sale and Quiz nights.

Village Hall – Betty Mallows

The Village Hall still remains a well used place for village functions such as Jumble Sale and Xmas Fair, annual events for many years. Hirings for children’s parties is very popular for both village residents and people from other villages. Film nights arranged by Village Society members are well attended.

The Committee is still talking about the possibility of replacing the present stage with something more modern. Café Creative on Saturday mornings is a good time for people of all ages to meet.

Finances are in a good state and are looked after by June White.

Thank you to all the Committee for their hard work keeping the Hall in good stead for people to use now and in the future.

Unknown Donor’s Charity – Steve Dinsdale

The Unknown Donor’s Chart helps to enable young people living in Little Eversden to undertake recognised training courses and apprenticeships leading to a profession or trade for their future careers. It can contribute towards the costs of course fees, or equipment necessary for training courses.

For 120 years, it has helped many young people to get started on a variety of career paths, and hopefully will continue to do so. Requests and contributions are treated in confidence. This year no requests were received, so we would like to remind new and long-standing Little Eversden residents about the charity and it’s purpose. Details can be found in any Tail Corn magazine, any requests should be made to:

Any requests should be made to:

Mrs Sue Glasse  35 Lowfields   01223 262621

Mr Steve Dinsdale 52 Harlton Road  01223 263906

Village Sign – Derek Blatch (read by the Clerk)

This has been mown regularly and now extends along the verge up to the footpath opposite Bucks Lane.

The Beech hedge is in good condition and is due for a cut before spring arrives.

I am pleased to say that the area around the seat has not flooded again this year even though we have had a lot of rain during January and February 2016.

The sign has been removed for refurbishment, the stones are in good condition, however the seat has a build-up of algae and requires a wire brush and coat of Cuprinol Hardword Furniture oil.

Connections Bus – Read by the Clerk

Numbers

There have been 11 visits by the bus during the term and we have seen 27 young people with an average attendance of 10.

 Activities

Craft and other activities available on the bus this term have included fantasy film art, face painting, jewellery making, firework scratch art, hama beads, leather crafts, doodling and making Christmas decorations.

Quizzes have been held on literacy, pirates, food prices, rugby, identifying chocolate wrappers, firework night, alcohol awareness, bullying, road safety, animal welfare and Christmas.

General

Week 1 Good start back with usual football outside. Conversations about school, uniforms, music, diabetes, autism and family issues.

Week 2 Good conversations about school, homework, families and wildlife. Group playing football. One young person interested in becoming a volunteer.

Week 3 Very wet session with 8 playing football outside. Conversations about doctors, STDs, families, holidays, the pill, school, relationships, exercise and sport.

Week 4 Cancelled – bus off road

Week 5 Cancelled – Broken engine cover on bus

Week 6 Young volunteer signed up. Usual football outside and conversations about school, uniform, future jobs, exercise and healthy eating.

Week 7 Quieter session with only 10 playing football. Conversations about school, Duke of Edinburgh award, families and sport

Week 8 Half term

Week 9 Football ended early and young people came on to bus due to dark and fog! Conversations about school, 6^th form applications, loans and interest. Young volunteer working well.

Week 10 Conversations about half-term activities, Christmas, alcohol, school, 6^th form, diabetes and depression. Challenged some young people about their use of language.

Week 11 Less playing football today. Enjoyed leather craft and chats about school, ISIS and opticians. One-to-one is now back in mainstream schooling.

Week 12 Very slow session probably due to very cold weather. Conversations about sexuality, relationships, parents, terrorism and black Friday.

Week 13 School was off so low numbers due to young people thinking bus was not on.

Week 14 Another quiet session. It appears the footballers are not coming out in the dark, although they have in previous years. Conversations about 6^th form, exams, families, relationships and drugs.

Week 15 Cancelled – No driver available.

As the Connections Bus was a large amount of the precept, Mr Mr Tebbit  asked the public for their views on whether we should continue to support the bus.  Nobody at the meeting had any objections and were all in support of continuing to fund the bus. 

Comberton Village College – Carol Handley

In February the College was visited by the Secretary of State for Education. She only gave two days notice of her intention so a programme had to be rapidly prepared. It was to be a brief visit after school and she wanted to see some of the after-school activities on offer and to meet some of the staff. This was arranged and there was a lively question and answer discussion with ‘middle managers’ and she left asking them to contact her freely at any time in the future. She was impressed too by the range of after-school activities on offer. But her visit was very timely in another way. Some years ago the College set up a centre designed to help children with Asperger’s syndrome integrate more easily with regular school. It opened with three students, but has been so successful and acquired such a reputation with parents that it had completely outgrown its original accommodation – an elderly portacabin. This was replaced by a purpose-built building last year which will house up to forty students though it will still be known as ‘The Cabin’.   The Secretary of State’s visit was thus perfectly timed for her to perform an official opening of the rebuilt Cabin.

Exam results have continued to be very satisfactory both at GCSE and A levels. There have been 130 applications to UCAS and a promising number of offers have been received.   The Sixth Form is now well established with 187 in year 12 and 174 in year 13. Last December the total number in the College was 1703. Because we no longer have applicants from Cambourne the pattern of entries has changed slightly and there is now room for some children from outside the defined catchment area. There are 240-50 in most year groups now instead of the 300 which we had before. There is a healthy number of applications at all levels.

Ofsted have recently been taking a particular interest in the achievement of so-called disadvantaged children – that is children with mental or physical disabilities and those eligible for free school meals. These attract quite significant extra funding. Comberton is not in a geographical position to have a high proportion of these children but it does try to keep them rather than pass them on elsewhere as some schools do. However, the statistics are not as good as we would hope and it was no surprise that last spring Ofsted visited. They were pleased at what they found and encouraging about all the measures that were being planned.   But it is noticeable that most of the behavioural and attendance problems do (not surprisingly) occur in this group.

The Comberton Academy Trust is likely to grow further in the next few years. The next phase of development at Cambourne will require another new secondary school and a further two primary schools. It is very probable that the Trust will be asked to plan these and oversee their foundation. This will present an interesting and continuing challenge for the future.

Meridian School, Comberton – Read by the Clerk

Having recently taken up the role here as Headteacher in September, I am delighted to introduce myself as Mrs Carole Etchie and it is wonderful to have been so warmly received.

The children are proud of their school and enjoy being here. They display good citizenship and are caring towards each other. We are widening opportunities for other additional responsible roles within the life of the school.

The staff and community volunteers are committed to ensuring the school remains a homely, calm and caring environment for everyone to feel welcome.

Over the past year, we have successfully appointed a new teacher and we now have eight classes in the school, with two smaller reception classes. Our intake in other years continues to rise with new families joining the village.

We were very pleased with our Y6 SATs results in summer 2015. All children achieving L4+ and L5+ was significantly above national in combined data for reading, writing and maths. In maths and reading at L5 they were significantly above.

Our KS1 also did well in children achieving above average in writing and maths and these were above national figures expected. We were congratulated in a letter from Cambridgeshire county council with our high performance results.

A new school improvement plan was written in the autumn term 2015 with some key areas to address; the learning environment, safeguarding, assessment, presentation and marking. We now have a new post Ofsted action plan based on some of their key findings from their recent visit in December 2015. We continue to address some of the areas listed above as well as have a big push on extended writing across the year groups this term. We are also looking at the quality and depth of our curriculum. Since this recent Ofsted visit, the school is now classified as ‘Requires Improvement’. However, we remain motivated and ambitious.

Other exciting projects/ initiatives in operation since summer term 2015 to date:-

• Re-launching our 4 R’s across the school (resourcefulness, reflectiveness, relationships, resilience)so they are embedded within our teaching, learning and assemblies
• New refurbishment of our library and additional books courtesy of the PTA from all the fund raising over two years!
• Shakespeare Schools’ Festival, where our year 3’s performed an adaptation of ‘Twelfth Night’ (written by the class teacher) at the Mumford Theatre
• Various fund raising events for local and global causes led by the school council, with our continued support for two children’s education in The Gambia
• All children in years 3 and 4 being taught how to play chess
• Younger children supported in balancing and riding a bike
• Outdoor music concert to parents by KS1
• Whole school community ‘Sing Up’ day
• Cycling Fun day
• Visiting theatre group performing ‘The Jungle Book’
• A huge tidy up of the school grounds (internal and external)
• An Increase in technology (iPads) for classroom learning.
• Summer Science week and we look forward to another science week after Easter
• We are very excited about our whole school Shakespeare week – next week!

We are all extremely proud of our school and the dedication of staff and parents in supporting a number of changes over the year.

Thank you for your continued support, you are always welcome to visit our school.

Parish Council – Paul Tebbit

It is the time to report on the work of the Parish Council during the last year. It may be of interest to explain to new residents that the two parishes of Great and Little Eversden decided to form a joint Parish Council back in 1949 following the Parish Council Act of earlier that year. Previously each Parish held occasional add hock meetings, with just one formal annual meeting. The two parishes share not only the Parish Council but also the amenities enjoyed within the community.

This report covers the work of the Parish Council in both Little and Great Eversden, as do the other reports that you have already heard and will also be presented to the Great Eversden Parish meeting in April.

The Eversdens seem a popular place to live with many people wanting to extend their homes or build new ones and we often, at our meetings, have two or three planning applications to discuss and respond to. We are also required to meet additionally between our six weekly meetings’ in order to respond to the applications within twenty one days as required. In January 2015 we received the first of what became many detailed applications for two new dwellings behind 23 High Street, Little Eversden. The site having been granted outline planning previously by SCDC. The application was opposed by some local residents and the Parish Council on numerous grounds and at every stage. However, during last year the developer did obtain permission for both dwellings behind, then demolish the original dwelling and rebuild it.

Lowfields continues to be a busy place with currently three properties being extended. An application for a new dwelling behind 11 Finches field is causing a great deal of concern and has been opposed by both the PC and the District Council whose decision to refuse has been appealed by the developer. We are also awaiting a decision on the silo site south of St Helen’s church.

In Wimpole road Great Eversden work is progressing on the permission for conversion from barns to two dwellings approved last year and we have just received an application for a modern extension to the thatched and listed Merrys Farmhouse on the same site.

An application for an extension at 4 Kingston Road supported by the PC, was refused by SCDC and by the subsequent appeal to the planning inspectorate because of Green Belt considerations. I would comment that it is sometimes difficult to understand how Green Belt rules can be applied so rigorously against individual homeowners, but not to influential business and University of Cambridge.

I am sure you will all know that 10 affordable homes were to be built off Church Street in Great Eversden, to complete the 20 homes required when Low Close was constructed. Continual challenges by those opposing this project have meant that although approval was obtained in 2012 it was not built. This approval had to be withdrawn by South Cambs. This was withdrawn because although no Environmental Impact Assessment was ever required, for this site by virtue of its size, location, and with no special status, this non-requirement for the EIA had not been recorded. Those opposed to the application used this procedural omission by the planning officer to question the applications legality and they threatened a Judicial Review. So in March 2015 this costly and completely unnecessary second application came back to SCDC planning committee where it was passed for a second time and by an increased majority of district councillors. This meeting was a pretty awful experience. Those who spoke in favour of these homes on behalf of the PC and community were loudly heckled in a difficult meeting, where the Chairman had to call for order on several occasions. Our District Councillor, Robin Page in particular became very heated and dismissive of our Parish Council’s support and of support voiced for us by district councillors on the Planning Committee.

Still no houses you may have noticed. Progress seems slow, however I am pleased to report that on 2nd December 2015, SCDC Planning Committee approved the 106 legal Provisions for the Community Orchard and linked footpath through to the Village hall associated with this proposal. We look forward to commencement at last of building during 2016 and to soon be able to offer affordable homes for local people within our community.

There have been issues with hedge encroachment onto the highways and footpaths in both Parishes which have been attended to. As a contrast there have also been objections to some hedge cutting notably at Low Close and in Wimpole Road.

The footpaths in both Parishes are in a very poor state with many complaints from residents. Highways have not agreed to any resurface work but the Parish Council has made a LHI bid where we would pay for 10% of the cost of the path from the top of High Street (Low Close) down Harlton Road past the Doctors surgery and to the A603; we are awaiting that approval. The Clerk has just been informed that our bid was not successful.

The new Village Sign will be installed very soon we hope, and the necessary cleaning and restoration of the War Memorial which is in Gt. Eversden churchyard planned last year should commence soon. Our Clerk has also been successful in our application to the Heart Foundation for a Defibrillator which will be sited at the Pavilion on the recreation ground.

The PC and residents continue to be concerned about the risk of flooding from neglected and silted up ditches and culverts in the village, in particular between 44 and 46 Wimpole Road, Great Eversden urgent maintenance work has been requested but so far no action by the property owners.

Our Speed Watch team were very active during the year finding around 20% of speeds in excess of 35 miles per hour on every occasion. Speeds of almost 50 mph have been recorded. There will shortly be flyers for residents along the main road through the village, asking for more volunteers as our coordinators Livia and Charles Fraser have a growing family and may have less time themselves to be operating the equipment. The difficulties in matching the equipment with man power available will be reduced since we are about to take delivery of our own equipment, generously funded entirely by a local business. You will all remember the inconvenience of our through road closure last March for repairs and resurfacing. The newly gritted finish however resulted in a very pleasant week or so of reduced speeds through the village.

We have along with many other parishes supported the Bourn action group who are fighting to ensure appropriate infrastructure, particularly road improvements, where the Bourn airfield development to take place. We feel sure that unless huge investment in roads and junctions are completed prior to Bourn airfield build we will have even more traffic speeding through the Eversdens. We have also made representation about flooding to the Bourn Brook and properties alongside which has already been exacerbated by Cambourne.

We had a successful litter picking throughout the villages in April last year where 17 black bags of rubbish were collected. We plan the same this April and hope we will be well supported again.

The largest item of expenditure in our budget is the Connections Bus for our young people. Providing trained youth workers on a weekly basis in our Community. Your support for our young people has been much appreciated and these annual meetings are a good opportunity to reaffirm that support.

I would like to record my thanks on your behalf to our County Councillor Sebastian Kindersley who has been invaluable in keeping our Community informed not only of County Council matters but also in the absence of Cllr. Page has kept us informed on District Council matters.

Parish Councillor Gemma Spencer moved from Eversden during the year and Mrs Judith Webster was co-opted on to fill the vacancy. Elections for the Parish Council are to be held in May also for our District Council.

I would like to just mention the most recent accident at the A603 junction. Where a resident Michael Nicholson was injured and the Wheatsheaf badly damaged. My colleague Steve Dinsdale worked very hard with the authorities and Cllr Kindersley to get the current 50 speed limit, but more must now be done. I plan to meet with the Publican and the Chair of Harlton PC to open an urgent dialog on additional safety measures at the junction.

Lastly I would like to thank Karen your Parish Clerk, whose tireless enthusiasm and growing expertise that she brings to our council has been invaluable, Thank you.    I or colleagues here will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

District Council

No report was received.

County Council – Sebastian Kindersley

Cllr Kindersley reported on a busy 12 months at both District and County Council. He now sat on Planning Committees at both SCDC and Cambridgeshire County Council and was priveledged to be appointed Chairman at Cambridgeshire County Council.

Pressures on the Local Government budget are extreme with £46 million of cuts needing to be made.  Council members will also reduce in size from 69 members to 61 members with the Eversden’s becoming part of the Hardwick Division with Comberton, as opposed to the Gamlingay Division. We will therefore have a new County Councillor before us.

The Local Plan is currently in abayanceas the Inspector has asked for further work to be carried out. This work has now been completed and the housing numbers are correct as well as the approach to Green belt land.   The SCDC planning policy is also in suspension thus opening the flood gates for 1800 new unplanned application being put forward as a result.

Finally, SCDC wards will change in 2018 reducing from 57 District Councillors to 45.

Mr Tebbit invited any further comments from the floor. Mr Nicholson took the opportunity to inform the meeting about the detail of the accident involving himself earlier in the week. He thanked the Village for their support.   Mr Tebbit said he is taking the matter forward as a matter of urgency with Ben Banks, Chair of Harlton and the owner of the Wheatsheaf. Cllr Kindersley suggested that the best plan of action was to reinsate the a speed camera. The Council will pursue this line with Highways.

Date of Next Meeting

Monday 6^th March 2017.