Little Eversden Parish Meeting Minutes: Monday 4th March 2019

GREAT AND LITTLE EVERSDEN PARISH COUNCIL

The Little Eversden Annual Parish Meeting was held in The Pavilion on Monday 4th March 2019 at 8 pm

Mr Clive Dalton, Chairman of the Parish Council, was in the Chair.

Minutes of previous year’s meeting held on 5th March 2018 confirmed.   A member of the public asked why the date had been changed from the published date in the previous minutes.  The Clerk expalined this was a provisional date and it was difficult to schedule 12 months of dates including 2 Parish meeting plus the Annual Parish meeting at the exact times in a very busy 3 month calendar.

The following reports were received from Representatives.

Recreation Ground Report - Derek Blatch, Chairman of the Eversdens Area Recreation Ground Committee (Read by the Clerk)

The extreme dry weather over the summer of 2018 resulted in very large cracks appearing on the recreation ground.  This affected both cricket and football.  CamSpice, who use our ground for cricket, were not able to fulfil their fixtures and Comberton Crusaders, whose U11’s and U12’s use the ground on a Saturday, and U16’s and U17’s on a Sunday, were not able to play any of their home games at Eversden until 8th December for U11 and U12’s, and 16 December for the U16 and U17’s.  This resulted in a considerable loss of revenue.  We did start to verti-drain the ground at the end of November, but it was still too dry and had to stop.

We moved the top pitch down ready for the 2017/18 football season to give us room for the new pavilion and possible future community hub also play equipment for the 12-18 play area.  As a result of us doing this, we have installed four pieces of new play equipment which was opened by Diane McCullum on 22 December 2018.  The other is that we have, through the Parish Council, applied for planning permission for a new pavilion.  We continue fundraising with two quiz nights during 2018, one in April and the other in October, and we raised a total of £1,237.80.  A massive thank you to Domenic Shelly for being out quiz master and to all of you that helped and supported this fundraising event.

We had our annual jumble sale in February which we share with the village hall, and received £411.26 for our funds.  We also have Barbara’s books, who makes regular donations.  Barbara also held a book sale in her garden on 7th July which raised an impressive £550.  In addition to our fundraising, we are running a 100 Club, with draws taking place once a month.  The first one of these took place at the village lunch on Saturday 2nd March 2019.

The Connections Bus visits the recreation ground car park on a Monday evening from 4.00-6.00pm in term time, and is funded by the Parish Council.

The pavilion is used for coffee mornings, which are on the second Thursday of the month.

Lastly, a thank you to Peter Mallows, our groundsman, for keeping the ground looking so good, and to the Committee for their hard work throughout the year with the general running, fund raising and the jobs around the ground that we would otherwise have to pay for someone else to do.

I think we have really moved forward this year, and we can look forward to an exciting year ahead.

Village Hall – Edwina Mullins

This year for Eversden Village Hall has been eventful!   We have seen the regular events like Café Creative and the Ladies Clothes swap build up more momentum, with Ladies craft nights starting this year with excellent support.

Our first social fundraiser of 2019 was the Blind Panic gig with Pop Up Pub.  This worked very well and raised over £1000 profit.  Many thanks to Banquett Inn for providing an excellent bar, the band for giving their time for free and for the volunteers involved.  The Christmas Fayre was successful again raising £700 profit and the joint event with the jumble sale was also an excellent fundraiser for us.

We have four new committee members this year, all bringing refreshing enthusiasm for making great events within a lovely building.

Since the public consultation in January 2018 – where it was noted that 70% of those present wanted to sell the village hall to help pay towards a new community hub on the recreation ground – it was decided to spend money on the hall where only necessary to keep the building in a hireable state for 3-5 years, until there was a clearer future for the hall.   The wobbly column has been fixed, the mouldy parts of the kitchen replaced and some aesthetic painting in the main room completed.   Outside, considerable vegetation has been cut down which should reduce some of our damp problem.   The damp in the committee room does continue to be a problem, and there is a collapsed drain in the car park causing a large hole, so the repairs are ongoing.

Further to the recreation ground committee submitting plans for a new pavilion with a 9mx10m function room, an EGM was called in December 2018.  It was agreed that this function room would be in direct competition with our own main hall, as it is slightly smaller but would not suffer from the having the columns and old heating, and benefits from outside amenities like the excellent new play area.  An analysis has been completed and approximately 50% of private hirings are projected to be lost to this new facility.  The previous 5 years of income vs spending shows that if we lose many hirings, we will soon not be a self-sufficient building.  We will always innovate with public events to ensure sustainability where possible but we cannot control private hirings.   We remain open to working with the Parish Council, Recreation Ground committee and the independent think tank that residents have created , on a solution to this that the majority of the village would be happy with.

(Note: FYE 2018 includes £2k precept for the first time)

We will carry on making the village hall an asset to the village, as a facility for private hirings and a venue for bringing the community closer together.

Unknown Donor’s Charity – Sue Glasse

The Unknown Donor’s Charity 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 we haven’t received any requests.   We would like to remind all Little Eversden residents that this is a unique opportunity for our community and encourage our young people to get in contact with us if they think they are eligible for assistance and we would be happy to facilitate.

Details can be found in any Tail Corn magazine and any requests should be made to either:

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.

Connections Bus – Clerk

The Parish Council continues to fund the Connections Bus in the Village for the benefit of the young people on a Monday evening between 4- 6 pm on the Recreation Ground.

Approximately half of the Village’s 11-18 population currently attend the bus on a regular basis.   Despite asking there is still no availability to change either the timing or the day the bus visits to encourage more young people.

The Bus has always been very well supported by the Council and the Village and despite a further 1.5% increase this year to £261.00 per visit the Council have resolved to continue to the fund the Bus, but only until the end of the summer term.  The attendance figures and cost will then be reviewed.   We have also tried to promote the bus to neighbouring villages that do not have a visit.

Activities and discussions on the Bus continue to be wide-ranging, predominately led by the young people’s interests.   The termly reports are available to view on request.

Comberton Village College – Peter Law (read by the Clerk)

In January 2019, the DfE published the national school performance tables, which allows for comparisons to be made of school performance over a number of indicators.  These tables show the performance of students at the end of KS4 and KS5/sixth form confirming what we knew to be an excellent set of results for both year groups.  The Year 11 cohort achieved a Progress 8 score of +0.78 and our Year 13 students achieved an incredibly positive overall progress score of 0.20 (above average). These fantastic results place the college and its Sixth Form in the top 5% of comprehensive schools and post-16 providers nationally and reflects the ongoing commitment and hard work of the staff at the college.

It was therefore no surprise that students leaving Comberton Sixth Form had a really positive set of opportunities, including record numbers of students going on to Oxbridge and Russell Group universities. The figure for Oxford and Cambridge offers received in 2018 has already been surpassed by our current Year 13, so we are looking forward to another year of extremely positive results, outcomes and destinations this summer.

School life is as busy as ever. Our recent newsletter had 65 reports covering everything from sports to plays, in-school events, overseas’ trips and to various theatres, and much on the outstanding achievements of our pupils. For greater detail on life at Comberton, have a look at our latest News@Com at https://issuu.com/comberton/docs/cvc_dec_18_final_for_web?e=9403286/663

Our tradition of fund-raising remains strong and again thousands have been raised for a variety of causes. Charity events have included the annual Walk for the World, the Centre MacMillan Cake, Year Group Cake sales, Children in Need day, World Aids Day, Wood Green Animal Shelter and EACH totalling just over £6,100. We will continue by supporting Comic Relief this month.

The Cam Academy Trust continues to grow. It now comprises four secondary schools (Comberton, Cambourne, Melbourn, and St Peter’s Huntingdon) and seven primary schools (Gamlingay Village Primary, Hartford Infant School, Hartford Junior School, Jeavons Wood Primary school, Everton Heath Primary School and Thongsley Fields primary and Nursery School) All four secondary schools and some of the primaries are set for meaningful growth in pupil numbers in the coming year. This comes with some organisational challenge but is crucial for long-term viability of all these schools. Ultimately, it is a great endorsement of all the excellent work done by the staff in the Trust schools.

Meridian Primary School – Carol Etchie, Headteacher (Read by the Clerk)

All at Meridian send our warmest greetings.

It is our 50th year and it has been a very exciting year so far!

We had a whole school event (and much publicity) around our ‘1960s dress up day’ in the autumn term with a few past staff members (who were part of the early days of Meridian) joining in too.

Our school headline priorities this year are:

Leadership

  1. Growing strong Leaders at all levels
  2. Developing good communication, technology and resources

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

  1. Securing the excellent teaching, learning and progression of maths across the school, including promoting resilience and challenge for more able learners
  2. Accelerate learning in writing and maths for specific targeted groups (Pupil Premium group, SEND group)
  3. Review quality feedback to improve practices

Well-being and safety

  1. Support healthy social and emotional practices to develop friendships, partnership and life skills
  2. Review Healthy Eating policy and practice
  3. Review on-line safety (policy and practice)
  4. Widen Participation in music and PE

Pupil Outcomes

  1. All targets for all key phases (GLD, Y1 phonics, Y2, Y6) are all above national figures
  2. Good progress is made by children’s outcomes from their starting points at the end of Y6
  3. Improve maths average scaled scores at Y6
  4. Children assessed as working at greater depths in all areas of Reading, Writing and Maths continue to achieve greater depth outcomes.

We were particularly pleased with our end of year outcomes at the end of last year (July 2018). At the age appropriate expectations, we were above both Cambridge and the national results in EYFS, Y1, Y2 and Y6. We continue to aim high each year. The children are making good progress and on track for the targets set this year.

On roll we have 191 children. We are almost full in all our junior classes, however, this is not the same for our younger years. For e.g. currently, 32 children are in Y6 and 25 children are in our reception class. We are planning ahead for the numbers/ forecasts for the school. Differences in class sizes have a financial implication in our future funding for the school.

We continue to develop out sports provision within the school, so all children can find an interest in a particular sport. This year, we started a running club which has proved very popular with our junior children. We were able to take some very keen runners to take part in the county cross country run at Milton Park in November last year. Our netball club continues to grow from strength to strength and recently we sent two teams to represent Meridian in the local netball tournament. Both teams finished in the top two places of the competition and will now continue to the next stage.

Next week will be our Science Week. The children will all be undertaking a ‘Skip to be Fit’ workshop and they are being sponsored to skip for two minutes to raise money for science resources for the school. Two of our classes will also be visiting the Cambridge Science Centre for workshops on electricity as part of their topics this year. We also have many parents willing to share their scientific field of expertise.

We are pleased to now offer free lunchtime music clubs for our infant children to learn to play the recorder and to join as an infant choir group. Our junior choir has expanded and we now have approximately fifty children attending our junior choir on a regular basis.

We are in the process of recruiting a new caretaker and the staff team have been very helpful in giving support where necessary to ensure efficiency for the day to day running of the school.

Together as a school and governing body, we still remain motivated and ambitious to develop the school even further.

Some areas we are still keen to address and develop over a number of years:

  • Raising the profile of technology and updating our old computers, promoting IT for the digital future of our generation
  • Re-vamping our extremely tired/ out of date infant playground to support imaginative and healthy collaborative play

We are all extremely proud of our school and the continuous support from our communities.

Thank you for your support, you are always welcome to visit our school. We are looking for keen volunteers who would like to be interviewed by our children and who have had links with our school over the 50 years. Please do let us know if you would like to be considered.

Parish Council – Clive Dalton, Chair

Mr Dalton informed the meeting that the latest PC news was in Tailcorn.  He also updated the public on recent planning applications.

Views had also been requested from residents on making the villages one Parish.  The three Great Eversden residents in attendance were against the plans citing the size of the villages, differences of opinions and asked what the gain and benefits to the village would be.  The Clerk is meeting with South Cambs to discuss and will feed back at the next Full PC meeting on 8th April 2019.

Aidan Van de Weyer, District Councillor

Elections

The electoral boundaries of South Cambs district were redrawn, so the whole council was up for election in 2018. The won’t be another election until 2022 (we previously elected a third of the seats every year). The elections were won by the Liberal Democrats.

Local Plan – New and Old

We have, at last, got a Local Plan for the district after the Inspector took 4.5 years to approve it. This has stopped the spate of speculative planning applications that saw over 4,000 new homes approved in unplanned locations.

We immediately have to start thinking about the next one, which we will be doing jointly with Cambridge City. A ‘call for sites’ has gone to landowners and we will be starting looking at the options in the autumn.

South Cambs Budget and Business Plan

South Cambs District Council has now set its budget for 2019-20. The bad news is that we have increased council tax by £5 for a band D house, the maximum that we are allowed to by government. This represents an increase of 3.6% in the South Cambs part of your bill – although South Cambs collects the council tax, most of it goes to the County Council, with other amounts going to the Fire Authority, the Police and the Parish Council. There will be a full breakdown on your council tax bill.

We need to increase council tax because government grant to the council continues to fall while costs rise. The council has been making some investments over the last few years and we are having to look at expanding this to ensure that we have a reliable long-term income. To ensure that we manage our money successfully, we have now adopted a clear investment strategy and governance procedure.

The new administration South Cambs has also published its programme for the next year, in a document called a Business Plan. This is a really exciting set of concrete actions and longer-term aspirations. There are a range of measures that will support local businesses through some of the challenges they face, such as the planning process or Brexit. We will double the number of Council Houses that we build from 35 to 70 per year. We will focus on getting walking, cycling and public transport improvements – there is huge demand for cycle ways between villages, for example.

We have an ambitious green agenda, all aiming to make South Cambs a zero carbon district by 2050. That’s a long way away, but a lot needs to be done to get there. Alongside this, we will make sure that all new developments and infrastructure produce a net gain in biodiversity and natural capital. And we will take action to improve air quality across the district. The recycling rates in the district are pretty good but have plateaued. We will have drive to increase the percentage of waste that is recycled but also reduce the total amount of rubbish that we throw away.

Greater Cambridge Partnership 

The Greater Cambridge Partnership (on which I sit), has been conducting consultations on several significant transport projects, some rather controversial. They include:

– Greenways: rural cycleways radiating from Cambridge, including a new route to Comberton. This will be the basis of a very good rural network for cycling, spreading to the Eversdens in the next stage, I hope.

– Cambourne to Cambridge high quality public transport route: the second stage of the route, from Madingley Mulch to Cambourne is being looked at, including a new Park and Ride site. More work is also being done on options for the controversial section closer to Cambridge.

– ‘Choices for Better Journeys’: this is a comprehensive look at options for making public transport andcycling a more attractive option than driving for getting into Cambridge. This will involve both ‘carrots’ in the form of significantly better bus services (more frequent, more reliable, faster) across the region, and ‘sticks’ in the form of restrictions and charging, whether for parking or actually for driving in (ie, a congestion charge). Revenue-raising has to be a factor, as there isn’t currently the money to put into more buses.

The Mayor and the Combined Authority

The Mayor and his Combined Authority have made plenty of headlines over the past year. Things seem to be settling down, although the CA has failed to recruit a new chief executive and will continue to rely on interims. The Mayor has also been claiming that he is the most scrutinised politician in the country.

An outline business case has been published for the Mayor’s hugely ambitious flagship project, the Cambridge Autonomous Metro (CAM), which involves tunnels under Cambridge. The engineering for this is challenging, to say the least, but the funding structure is even less clear. It will likely require several ‘garden villages’ scattered across South Cambs.

The CA has carried out a useful review of bus services in the county, but it will be a couple of years before a new structure is decided.

The Mayor is pushing hard for a new railway station at Addenbrooke’s (a policy supported by South Cambs), which will hugely help the transport problems of the growing biomedical campus.

East West Rail

East West Rail, the company set up by government to deliver a new railway between Oxford and Cambridge, has been consulting on some new routes for the section from Bedford to Cambridge. This will be an entirely new line. Five route options were presented, all coming within a few miles of the village. Some of the options include a new station to the north of Bassingbourn, with the line joining the existing track somewhere around the Shelfords. The other options have a new station near Cambourne, with the line coming back down to the south of Cambridge.

In order to justify the cost of the line – £2-3 billion – it will have to enable a lot more housing at each new station. Privately, East West Rail officials are talking about towns of 20-30,000 houses, about 4 times the size of Royston, around the stations in South Cambs. There will also be a huge new town between St Neots and Sandy were the new line crosses the East Coast Mainline and the A1.

There is very little information in the EWR documentation about how the line will impact us as it crosses our district. We know that level crossings are not allowed to be installed on new railway lines, so what will happen when the line crosses existing roads? Will some be cut off? Will some have bridges?

With the southern options, there is a particular concern about the impact on Wimpole Hall’s historic southern avenue. Even if the line doesn’t actually pass through the avenue, the bridge that would be needed where it crosses the A1198 will be a huge eyesore wrecking the landscape context of the avenue.

The northern options would run between the Eversdens and Comberton/Bourn and would certainly impact the existing roads and footpaths.

Many people have raised their concerns about the routes, including the CamBed RailRoad campaign, chaired by our county councillor Sebastian Kindersley, as well as South Cambridgeshire District Council. There is lots of information on the CamBed RailRoad website.  We should hear which of the routes, if any, have been chosen in July.

OSP148

In January, South Cambs Planning Committee considered the proposal for 10 affordable houses in Great Eversden on the site known as OSP148 following a lot of work by planning officers to assess the application robustly. It transpired that the Housing Needs Survey was so close to being out of date that it could not be relied on without risk of challenge. The decision was therefore deferred until a new Housing Needs Survey could be conducted. This was done during February by Cambs ACRE – all residents of the Eversdens should have received a copy of the survey.

Lina Joseph, County Councillor (circulated on Eversden OnLine)

I started to speak with some of the Chairs before their Parish meeting. I would like to make this a regular 1:1 time for your Chair to highlight any county issues. Of course, any other Councillor can contact me. Please please please do get in touch if you have a question, issue, project you would like me to know about.

Minerals and Waste Plan 2036

This plan supports the growth of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough as it’s a joint plan. The plan is flexible and takes account of housing growth and other infrastructure projects such as A14 upgrade.

  •  Sand and gravel are the main material taken but also brick clay.
  • The plan is currently being put together. It has not been adopted yet.
  • Construction, demolition and excavation is almost 60% of the total percentage of waste we need to deal with.
  • We do not have a capacity issue with our waste.
  • Currently 9 mineral allocations. None in this area.
  • Further information will be included in local plan.
  • Consultation is started! Please share your views::

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/business/planning-and-development/planning-policy/emerging-minerals-and-waste-local-plan/

Think Communities and Spokes model

The Cambs 2020 programme:

Vision: “A dynamic accommodation solution that facilitates the delivery of better and integrated services closer to our communities; a solution that embraces change and equips a flexible workforce to deliver efficiently and effectively from multiple, welcoming locations.”

  •  Two primary workstreams: (i) the disposal of Shire Hall and the creation of a new ‘hub’ at Alconbury Weald; and (ii) the establishment of a place-based approach to service delivery including the creation of ‘spokes’ as bases for our staff to operate within communities
  • Good progress is being made to confirm our spokes arrangements, which align completely to the Think Communities approach
  • To support our approach to Think Communities, the ways in which we use our buildings is pivotal to a successfully reformed public service delivery model. We want our staff to be based in the heart of the communities they are here to serve, to fully understand the needs and assets within those communities, and to be best placed to achieve the key objectives of Think Communities – improving outcomes and delaying or preventing demand for statutory services.

 Domestic Abuse

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have been successful in gaining £1.6m of additional resource for Domestic Abuse Sexual Violence work over 18 months. This has been through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Domestic Abuse Fund and the Home Office Fund for Children Affected by Domestic Abuse.

Home Office Fund to Support Children who have Experienced Domestic Abuse (CADA) £891k was awarded in October 2018 for children in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which amounted to 11% of the total available funding nationally.

The core focus will be on ensuring that children (aged 0-18) are identified and can access specialist, community-based services which provide one to one and group therapeutic- focused counselling services to improve their mental health and prevent further escalation of risk and need. There will be provision to support the recovery between the child and the protective parent/victim, in order that they are able to recover together.

South Cambridgeshire

One of my conservative colleagues in South Cambridge has successfully put a motion regarding the organisation’s policy to support staff facing the stress of neo-natal and premature birth. They will be provided with more paid leave. This might seem something small but for those parents going through their new-born being born prematurely is extremely stressful and this will take one thing out of their minds, the financial/work related impact.

Combined Authority

Draft Local Transport Plan is being developed.

Good news:

Working with SAT providers. Making sure the routes are updated and Heavy Commercial Vehicles follow the right route and not going through our villages routes which are not adequate for this movement.

They continue to work on the Strategic Bus Review. Rural network should be operated through either ‘enhanced partnership’ arrangements or, if unsuccessful, franchising powers.

I raised also that they need to consult closely with parishes for routes as you are the local experts and it’s extremely important your knowledge is used!

Meeting local businesses:

This year I will be going around and visiting more local businesses. I believe we should buy local and support them. Otherwise, local businesses will close down and will be dearly missed. They play a very important role in our communities and it’s a responsibility of all. However, it is also about sustainability. Local businesses are much more sustainable than larger corporations.  If you haven’t heard about Cambridge Sustainable Food than please take a look at their website. I am involved with them indirectly and they are fantastic! https://www.cambridgesustainablefood.org/directory/

I use local businesses in my area and I started chatting with someone who works in one of the businesses and they see the bus route with positive eyes. They believe it will boost their trade and this is good news for them. Just another perspective that I haven’t come across.

News from Cambridgeshire County Council

A select group of apprentices from across Cambridgeshire gathered in Alconbury Weald yesterday to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week 2019 and the positive impact apprenticeships have on local businesses.

The event, sponsored by Urban&Civic Plc and delivered by Cambridgeshire County Council, with the help of LGSS Learning and Development, was organised to recognise and celebrate apprentices in this county.

Apprentices, and their employers, who live and work in Cambridgeshire were invited to come and share their experiences. They also had the opportunity to participate in two free workshops focusing on the key skills needed to support their End Point Assessments, including tips on compiling a portfolio and how to prepare for a professional discussion.

“Blaze a Trail” has been the theme for the 12th National Apprenticeship Week, and this annual celebration helps to highlight the fantastic opportunities that apprenticeships bring not just to individuals but to businesses and the wider economy.

Along with employers in the region, a selection of students from local schools were invited to attend the event, to learn about the career opportunities an apprenticeship can offer and support blazing a trail for future generations.

Hosted by Cllr Ian Bates with an opening address by Gillian Beasley, Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council, the Apprenticeship Celebration showcased the breadth of different apprenticeship opportunities available in Cambridgeshire.

Apprentices from Marshall AeroAcademy spoke about their experiences as did a selection of representatives from RG Carter Construction plus speakers from the Education and Training Foundation, Form the Future, and the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Gillian Beasley, Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council, said: “Apprenticeships are a very important subject for me, as they offer a ladder of opportunity and career progression, which helps to develop a motivated and highly qualified workforce, as well as a way of attracting new staff.

“Our challenge is to get the message out about what an apprentice can do for an organisation. We want to change the perceptions people have on what an apprenticeship is, and who takes them up, to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to take up an apprenticeship and get on the path to a great career.”

“This event has showcased the number of high quality of apprenticeship opportunities available, not just at the County Council but at all levels around the county in a huge variety of sectors such as aviation engineering, construction and management.”

Cllr Ian Bates, Cambridgeshire County Council’s newly appointed Member Champion for Apprenticeships, said: “National Apprenticeship Week is a chance to shout about all that is great about apprentices, their trainers and managers, on a national stage.

“Our event was organised to challenge attitudes towards apprenticeships. We want to increase awareness and take-up of Apprenticeships and Traineeships, and with students here from St Bede’s School and Hinchingbrooke School, I hope we have encouraged them to research the wealth of opportunities facing young people leaving school, as there has never been a better time to get involved in apprenticeships.”

Tim Leathes, Development Director for Urban&Civic said: “Learning and skills are at the heart of Alconbury Weald and apprenticeships play a huge role in that: not just offering pathways into careers but also to upskill and retrain existing employees.

“For companies coming to the Enterprise Campus focused on advanced engineering, manufacturing and digital technologies, and for those working with us to build homes and infrastructure for the future, the fast changing technology and genuine skills challenges, mean apprenticeships have to be a key part of future planning.

“Events like today’s, as part of this important week, are part of our continued work with partners at the iMET Centre, our EDGE jobs and skills brokerage, and the new CITB construction training hub to make that a reality.”

To find out more about apprenticeships visit: https://www.gov.uk/topic/further-education-skills/apprenticeships.

National Apprenticeship Week 2019 – 4 to 8 March 2019

Local proposals/events:

The Dragon Patcher has been repairing our roads in my division. Maybe you caught them on the spot. They are saving money, time and allows us to do many more potholes!

Most of my parishes now have defibrillators. If you are in the process, I am sure one of your neighbouring parishes can help with information and advice on what has worked for them.

Local Natural Partnership Board

As you may already know I represent the Council in this outside body. You have over 10 organisations represented and it’s always active, trying to push the natural agenda forward and upwards.

Recently we have been able to launch a new website, please take a look at it. This is a very exciting milestone.  www.naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk

Events

Please take a moment to review the diary and contact me if you have any questions in regards to any of the events listed or if you are aware of any other events that are taking place that are not listed.

All events can also be found on our webpage at https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/roads-and-pathways/highway-events/

Funding portal

Please do share this link with community groups that wish to find funding pots.

http://www.idoxopen4community.co.uk/supportcambs

Highways

A reminder that you can report road maintenance issues here:

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/roads-and-pathways/roadworks-and-faults/

Hedges

If you have an issue with hedges then they would be advised to log their complaint on our website

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/roads-and-pathways/roadworks-and-faults/

Roadworks

I had calls from residents regarding roadworks. If you would like to know what is happening in your area you can check in this website. www.roadworks.org

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Any Other Business

Two matters arising were that of the school bus.  It was reported that since the Eversden – Meridian Primary (Comberton) bus has been taken over by Executive Coaches there is no bus monitor and also the time keeping is such that many parents take their children to school.  The Clerk will contact the company.

The problem of dogs running loose in the village was yet again raised as an issue.  The Clerk will write to the owners and personally deliver the letter.

The Chair closed the meeting at 8:58 pm.

Provisional Date of Next Meeting

Monday 4th April 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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