Letters to the Editors
That Windmill Photo
Dear Editors
Your inclusion of the photograph of the mill taken around 1960 from Mill Hill aroused particular interest at the Windmill! I am pleased to say in response to your question that as the photo below demonstrates, the general view of the mill has changed little, apart from the fact that the mill sails now have shutters and are back earning their keep!
Our restoration work replacing the sails and stocks was completed in September 2007, just in time for the winter weather. On a stunning day in September, we hoisted the new sails into position and I am delighted to say welcomed many of the children from the village school and other locals who came and watched. One parent remarked that they hoped it would be their children's children who next witnessed the sight next time round - we certainly hope so...!
The mill began working again the following weekend once the sails had been regulated and the stone furniture cleaned down ready for flour production once more. Since then we have been busy; the sails are much more powerful than the sails they replace due to a greater angle of "weather" (a miller's term for the angle of tilt on the sails) - the profile now being typical of that found on local mills built by Hunts of Soham - the local millwrights (now long gone) who we think built the mill. Keeping things local, I am pleased to say that we have secured organic grain from Fen End Farm in Cottenham, so we are also grinding locally grown wheat using, of course, wind power! Green, organic, low food miles - what more can I say? Over the last year we have had visits from all three families who owned or rented the mill before ourselves - spanning over 150 years. Representatives of the Bulleid, Foster and Danby families have all come. Whilst we are not sure of the exact date the mill was built, we are going to celebrate 150 years of milling next year. There will be an event in the early summer when we look forward to welcoming all those who contributed financially to the restoration of the mill. Thank you to all those contributors reading this article - what you made possible can be seen from miles around. We are certainly proud of our achievement completing this ambitious project; we hope you are too.
The mill is open every 2nd Sunday of the month and flour is available at other times by arrangement. Please call 01638 74109 jon@fostersmill.co.uk
See our centre spread, and on behalf of all our readers, we'd like to say that Swaffham Prior is very proud of its beautifully restored mill. Many congratulations to Miller Jonathan and all participants. We 'd also remind the bread-bakingly challenged that Prior-milled bread is on sale at Lanes Bakery in Burwell every Saturday. Eds.
Christmas Holly
Dear Editors,
Thank you once again to Elisabeth and Alastair Everitt for organising the picking, advertising and sale of the Christmas holly. I am sure you will remember that there was a lack of holly berries this year when the time came to pick the bunches. However, a few were available and these were supplemented by the generous donation of holly, with berries, from Clifton Fletcher's tree. In all a total of £52.50 was raised for the Church Flower Fund and the Church.
So, thank you to the Everitts for organising the event, Clifton Fletcher for his holly and all of you who went along to buy the holly.
RASP Broadband - What is going on??
Dear Editors,
I remember when the very idea of Broadband internet in this village was a pipe dream - I had great difficulty just getting a second telephone line when I ran my business from my barn (sorry, sir, not enough circuits from the Burwell exchange - we would have to dig up the road.. .).
At that time, NTL's fibres ran past us along the main road to provide the Burwellians with all the cable services they might aspire to. But only in Burwell. At the same time, BT weren't interested, and seemed to want to make broadband access as difficult as possible, so much of Cambridge (including half the Science Park), and all of Newmarket, were Broadband deserts. Swaffham Prior was off the bottom of anyone's list of priorities.
Then along came RASP - a posse of enthusiasts who appeared at my door one day with an antenna on a stick, and proved they could get me a signal from their system in Reach (courtesy of some magical fibre connection that still exists - like an oasis in a desert - in a forgotten wardrobe in one of the remoter villages in the county), and I signed up on the spot.
Needing the link for business purposes, I was initially happy to pay over the odds for a reliable connection, then later on was pleased to be told that they now had enough subscribers for the rate to come down to a more domestic level. I encouraged friends and colleagues to sign up, and my company accounts soon depended on it. When properly on song, it beats the socks off your standard ADSL, providing the same speed in both directions (try that on your BT Openworld).
But now the posse of enthusiasts no longer appears at the door - and don't answer the phone. Friends and colleagues have cancelled their subscriptions and signed up with BT instead, simply because their systems stopped working for whatever reason, and their pleas for assistance were never even acknowledged, let alone responded to.
Without support, RASP is doomed. Subscribers will melt away - now that there is a valid alternative - and money will run out, because I don't suppose the magic fountain in the wardrobe runs for free. I assume that the original band of enthusiasts who kept it running have better things to do with their spare time than to keep being polite to a much larger number of technically-challenged users like me.
Having been unable to attend the recent AGM, I have no idea of the current corporate, administrative or financial status of the enterprise - and in particular whether there are either plans or funds to provide support on a professional basis.
So can someone please tell me if my preferred connection to the outside world will still be working next month, if anyone other than me will still be trying to use it, and if so, how much it will cost me, particularly if I want my hand holding when it stops working?
RASP Broadband - from the Outgoing Chairman
Dear Editors,
I have been chairman now from the initial setup of RASP over 4 years ago, and of course was involved in the first concepts and setting up of the system. I still remember the day I first went on the internet from the bedroom window managing to connect to Drakken over the other side of the village, without wires.
From then we have come a long way, first connecting up some users in Reach. I was approached by a young man from Swaffham Prior and he was soon connected up as well. We then spent time wandering the streets of Swaffham Prior with my fishing pole seeing who we could connect. We now have around 60 people using the system, with a total of 8 masts and connections have been made out to Upware, Swaffham Bulbeck and even here in Soham I can sometimes see the system.
The "sometimes"is a problem and I can no longer help in the way I would have wanted to and I feel a new voice is needed to take RASP forward into the future. I therefore have decided to resign as chairman with effect from 1st January 2008, to let a new person take over at the committee meeting of Monday 7th January in Upware I will always be available as a consultant if any issues arise that require my knowledge or expertise.
I hope that RASP continues to thrive and I hope to catch up with you all at some time in the future.
RASP Broadband - from the New Chairman
Dear Editors,
My name is Roger Gunkel, I am a resident of Upware and, as of 3 weeks ago following the AGM, the new RASP chairman. I have been a user of the service for about 18 months and, although I am very comfortable with computers and many types of applications, I am certainly not a "techie". My understanding of broadband and networking is very basic, but I am someone who believes in getting involved from the inside.
After signing up for the magical wireless system for similar reasons to yourself, I quickly realised that my only contact was the member who had signed me up. I also rapidly discovered that he also had a living to earn and could not be available whenever I encountered a problem. Fortunately my system was pretty reliable until a few months ago when I began to encounter a few more problems, with only my one contact to turn to.
My conversations with my contact had made me realise that RASP was in fact initially a group of very enthusiastic and knowledgeable people who were able to set up the system for the benefit of themselves and their local community. Many others, including myself, with limited or no technical knowledge were delighted to join the group and reap the benefits. Unfortunately this has become somewhat of a poisoned chalice to many of the originals, who have found the burgeoning weight of nontechies requiring assistance, taking the enjoyment and excitement out of the original dream. This has also been exacerbated by members adding their own home networks to their connection, whilst sometimes not having the knowledge to differentiate between RASP network faults and problems with their own computers and systems.
As a result of all of this, I attended the AGM, made some suggestions and threw ideas around along with others attending. Somehow I became chairman, probably new blood and an innocent! The overwhelming feeling was that RASP offers a great service when working properly, surpassing the performance in most aspects of other systems such as BT, even where that is available. HOWEVER, reliability, and particularly access to help and general group communication is sometimes woefully inadequate.
THIS IS NOW GOING TO CHANGE!
It is worth reminding all who subscribe to the group, that we are all equal members. There is no "them and us", only those with technical understanding and those without, so it is important for all of us to be kept in the loop and offer our help and support where possible. It is also important that those with the technical knowledge are given the space to work on the heart of the system both to improve performance and to be pro-active in the maintaining of system reliability.
To this end, a Technical Committee has been set up to identify core problems and centralise available equipment and expertise. This has already led to the identification of some major areas of improvement, some of which have already begun to be implemented. A monthly meeting of the TC will enable the general RASP committee to be kept up to date with progress and I will be making a regular report to all members via the website or email. It has further been decided that a basic technical and fault finding package will be prepared for all existing and new members. This will enable all of us to carry out simple checks on our system integrity in the event of possible problems, rather than assuming that all loss of connection is down to network failure. This will of course help the techies to concentrate on core reliability, whilst still having a life.
For those who find that faults are not in their own system, there will be a list of numbers of members willing and able to help at the next level. The TC are also looking at possible monitoring software to enable faults to be corrected remotely or even before they become detrimental to performance. The financial position is sound, which enables some investment in new equipment to help improve matters further.
Some of the new measures will take a few weeks to implement and I would ask all members to allow a little time for these improvements to show.
RASP is a superb local facility which needs your support to thrive and grow. It is being put on to a more professional footing and a great deal is owed to those founder members who have selflessly kept it going.
John! My apologies for diverting somewhat from your particular problem, however I understand from the technical committee meeting that it is being actively worked on and should be greatly improved by the time of writing. There will also be regular discussions regarding responding effectively to contact messages, I believe "improving customer services" is the appropriate terminology.
Finally it is time to come from behind the blinds! RASP needs someone willing to act as treasurer ASAP, for the group to continue beyond April.
In addition, a few willing bodies to join a basic start up technical panel and offer occasional help to others less knowledgeable, to the benefit of all. Volunteers please!! Please feel free to email me directly if required.
The dream is very much still alive, so please keep the faith and it will remain so.
Any Other Business
Dear Editors,
I presume that the reason the Crier wants me to explain why AOB (Any Other Business) can no longer be on the agenda of Parish Councils is because of my position as representative for the county at national level at NALC (National Association of Local Councils). This is nothing to do with my county council role.
It is in the interests of transparency. Swaffham Prior is fortunate in that there is usually a member of the 'press' there and everything would be reported upon. This would however be after the event as would the minutes of the meeting.
Therefore no decisions should be made that are not clearly identified on the agenda, so that anyone with an interest or opinion can attend and speak during the public session (or during the meeting if given permission by the chairman). This does not mean items cannot be presented for information and they can be placed on the agenda up to it going out or, as often happens, discussed during the meeting because items arise from a previous minute.
To give a personal example of something that happened over 20 years ago.
Under the heading AOB Burwell Parish Council decided to spend a considerable sum of money draining the recreation ground after a discussion about the condition of the pitch. This was not in the budget, came totally out of the blue and although it might have been necessary no research had been done and no member of the public knew it was likely to happen. There could have been other priorities.
This would not happen today because parish councils are much better run and meetings spending public money and must be transparent about activities. The best way to do this is to make sure everything is on the agenda.
Hope this helps.
Dear Eds
I am surprised that someone as intelligent and with as much experience of meetings as Mr Everitt does not understand why AOB (Any Other Business) should not be an element of a formal meeting of such an august and important body as the Parish Council. I noted his previous grumble about this but didn't respond - he and I live at peace with one another on paper as much as we always have in life, nowadays. So I hope he won't thinking I'm responding because it's him. I'm responding because I can see it still bothers him and I know the answer.
Out there in the big wide world there are people who play meetings for power, like a chess match with real people, or perhaps bridge is a closer analogy. I have only ever observed one Parish meeting in this village, and I was not looking out for whether that was happening, but such things are played subtly, of course. However, I am sure that all attendees in this village are honourable men, to borrow a phrase from that chap, (whoever he was) that wrote those plays of Shakespeare, and that they are not there for such purposes.
But for those who play for advantage, AOB can be used to drop bombshells on an unsuspecting meeting and push through things that an unprepared group of people may not realise was wrong because they had not had time to consider in advance the implications of the issue and may not have gathered all the facts to hand. Another device is to drop an item into AOB when certain a member or members are absent, allowing a vote to be pushed through to the advantage of the proposer and to the detriment of the whole.
I explain this entirely theoretically. No reference is intended to any meeting ever held in this village or any other village, but I don't think it's uncommon in the working world. Since a Parish council is for the general good of all in the locality, devices such as AOB are best avoided. Sometimes even the appearance or inferred interpretation that an advantage was being sought by playing the AOB card, when none was actually intended, might sour good relations between neighbours. I understand Mr Everitt's frustration, but the reason AOB is not there is for the general good.
Doubtful, Mark! But a quote from Oct 2006 Crier: "It was in Any Other Business that Geoffrey ... wanted the PC to condemn the National Trust's flooding programme ... but Andrew Camps pointed out you cannot vote on any items in AOB and also that not every councillor attended the National Trust Presentation."Not a lot wrong there then. Eds