Our Man at the Annual Village Assembly
The Crier Annual Village Assembly reporter, John Chalmers, was up North sorting out the BBC, so this year it's a report from a stand in.
There was a good turn out by the PC, neither the ECDC or CCC representatives attended though they did provide full written reports, as did some other organisations, with only the Scouts giving a live presentation.
Last year 17 members of the public attended. This year there were only SIX. And halfway through there were only THREE. So what went wrong this year? Lack of publicity? Lack of controversial issues? Lack of free liquor? Probably everyone has a different answer.
What good people ECDC employ. Dave White, Waste Strategy Team Leader for ECDC, gave an excellent presentation on Recycling. He started by saying that ECDC has the worst recycling record within Cambridgeshire, though this year it was the only one to have had a slight increase. Nationally recycling has gone down a bit with the recession which has resulted in fewer wine bottles and thinner newspapers. £120,000 has been saved by ending the plastic bottle collection, and because plastic is so light the extra land-fill costs are minimal.
All our glass goes to Yorkshire for aggregates or bottles, plastics go to the Far East, and newspapers for newsprint go to Kent. Health and Safety (heavens forbid) are looking at boxes and black bags and David White revealed that he is really a bin man following his previous experience and would like the change. But there can be no change until the Veolia contract is renegotiated in a few years time. What was the reaction from the floor? Almost everyone overwhelmingly wanted to keep black bags. David Greenfield led the charge and compared his hazardous-obstacle-riddled-bin-day-life in Cambridge City with life in black bag Prior. Elisabeth Everitt challenged the need to supply free black bags at a cost of £40,000. David W said that ECDC had looked at the question and decided it was worth the money. Many in the meeting disagreed and said that people often need to buy extra black bags anyway.
David Greenfield was having a lovely time and enjoying raising all his concerns. He lamented that ECDC only provided 4 paper bags for green waste. David W said that this was standard and that ECDC had gone over the top in initially providing many more. David G thought this could lead to bonfires which he abhorred, and he was in such fine flow that no one dared say that apart from black bags in the country you also have bonfires. If lit responsibly bonfires can be one of the joys of Autumn, as the great poet said, together with cottage log fires.
The biggest problem that anyone from ECDC has in talking to us about recycling is that at some point he has to mention the recycling plant at Grunty Fen. Now no one in Prior or the surrounding villages is ever going to make the trip to Grunty Fen. This is especially so when, thanks to Suffolk CC, we have off Exning Road an absolutely outstanding recycling centre. It is kept impeccably, the staff could not be more helpful and cheerful, and the only regret is that the new contractor has abolished the shop which really offered a great sense of community and well being.Mr White was excellent, answered all questions honestly, and received welldeserved applause. At this point one member of the public peeled off.
Next came the excellent power point Scouts presentation, put together by Steve White, and narrated by Tim Doe. The organisation is going from strength to strength, Karen King is the new committee secretary, two thirds of the scouts are girls, and Tim Doe now has his "Wood Badge" . No-one quite knew whether this was good or bad but you can probably call on him now if you have some logs to cut.
The PC then presented its report. At this stage more members of the public had gone and we were left with Ruth Stinton, David Geenfield and the reporter. The Chairman was asked whether he would support free liquor at next year's annual meeting. He did not reject the idea, though, when pressed, he would not say what kind of wine he will be providing.