Our Reporter at the Parish Council Meeting
Travellers and Footballers
YES, T and F were among the subjects which came up for discussion, at November’s parish council meeting. Travellers down the fen Road are causing problems: Part of the problem seems to be the large number of horses, grazing the road verges where they are tethered. The tethers are too long, and this causes difficulties for traffic, and for local field owners, and for horse riders. It seems that there are disproportionately large numbers of horses in relation to number of vehicles and people As usual James Fitch of the County Council and Mr. Alderson of the ECDC told us about forthcoming changes in our environment. Marshall’s airport is gradually moving-out. The facilities now at Marshall’s will probably move elsewhere and one option is a move to airfields at Duxford and Wyton.
A footpath/pavement in Tothhill Road which is now in a corrugated state will be dug up and replaced in the spring, at a time when the tree-roots causing the trouble can be severely root-pruned without permanent damage.
The second power-line across the fen will follow the route of the present one.
It cannot be concealed or ‘landscaped’ out-of-sight. The CCC Social Services
Department in general is concerned about the amount of unclaimed benefits to
which people are entitled;
Citizens Advice Bureaux all over the country are being urged to ask people to claim what is due to them, as this is of an advantage to the benefit-giving bodies also. The more benefits they give out, the more money they themselves get from central government.
It was noted that a new wooden seat is being actively considered to replace the one at the edge of the children’s playground. Swaftham Prior Charities has undertaken to pay for it.
An outcome of last month’s meeting was noted: Hereward Housing have accepted responsibility for the wall running alongside their property near the Beeches, and will mend it: they will in fact probably demolish the existing wall and start rebuilding from the ground.
Steve Kent-Phillips then reported on his dealings with the Burwell Tigers Football Club, who are hoping to use our playing-field down Station Road as their main base. He explained their plans: pavilion to be built and so on. Permanent goal posts, but the cross-bar removable, and stored away when the ground is not in use. They will provide a secure iron-bar entrance, lockable, and entrance wide enough for an ambulance: there will be an alternative footway entrance, so that Swftham Prior youngsters can go in and kick a ball about. There will also be an alarm-bell and a householder living nearby has undertaken to phone the police if/when the alarm bell rings. Mr Kent-Phillips and the Tigers seem to have thought of everything. The Tigers visualise this as a long-term commitment. The figure of the rental for the first couple of years was agreed