From our Local County Councillor
Joint Minor Highways improvements 2008/9
Burwell (£10,00) and Swaffham Prior (£30,000) were two of 6 successful projects
awarded funding.
Fire Service
After a review it was decided that there would be no benefit in closing Burwell and Swaffham Bulbeck Fire Stations to relocate them to a central point.
Resignation of Leader of council
Shona Johnston, conservative leader of the council has been reported to the standards board. After interviews a candidate accepted the job as Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire County Council but the candidate withdrew after a telephone call the following morning from the Cllr Johnston. She has accepted that this was inappropriate behaviour and resigned from the job of leader. The council will now have to re-advertise in the New Year and so far the recruitment has already cost £48,000. Keith Walters, who was leader for 10 years, will stand in until May when a new leader will be appointed.
Guided Bus
The financial case for the Guided Bus assumed that no business rates would be payable on the busway. It now emerges that the business rates for the busway could cost the County Council up to £1m per annum - a sum for which no budget had been provided, and which had not been disclosed at the outset to the bus operators. With no County Council money available to pay these business rates, the money will have to be recovered through higher charges to the bus operators, which means higher fares for the passengers.
Recycling
- Cambridgeshire County Council Rights of Way Officers have reused shavings from road material from highways maintenance work in the county to improve the surface of rural paths and rights of way.
- Figures show that nearly a quarter of what goes in Cambridgeshire residents' bins is food that hasn't been eaten or past its sell by date. At least putting food into brown bags (cooked as well as raw) would be better than letting it go to landfill.
Central Library Redevelopment
During the course of the building work at Cambridge Central Library serious defects have come to light, which date from the original construction of the Lion Yard shopping centre.
The current estimate of the delay this will cause is up to 6 months. This delay also takes account of extra time needed earlier in the project to remove significant additional areas of asbestos revealed during the demolition work. Autumn 2008 is now the likely time of opening.
Neighbourhood Committees
Committees including all Parish Councils, District and County, Housing, Police, Health andEducation are being set up and will address concerns of communities. They will be open to the public and the southern area includes Burwell, Swaffhams, Reach, Bottisham,Lode and villages south of Newmarket.