Local Councillors

Christmas Holiday Activities and Food Programme

This is funded by the Department for Education. Families in receipt of incomerelated free school meals can access a holiday scheme for up to 16 hours per child and will receive enriching experiences, a meal and snacks daily. Ukrainian and refugee families are welcome to attend, as well as families struggling financially. Please check the ‘Cost of Living’ section on the home page at scambs.gov.uk.

Recent Unusual Rainfall and flooding

October 20th saw unusual rainfall in various parts of Meldreth, in common with neighbouring villages. This was a truly extraordinary event and has created new flooding concerns. It would be helpful to know where these incidents took place, so that we can make the County flood risk team aware. Please google ‘Cambridgeshire report a flood’ or feel free to contact us directly.

Anglian Water

We’re seeking an update from Anglian Water on the water infiltration remedial work planned for Meldreth. Anglian Water’s new public affairs representative has accepted an invitation to meet for a general chat about issues in our area, including these planned works.

Patching of High Street and Station Road

This is scheduled for the first week of December as this required a road closure application lead time – apologies as we’d been told this would take place in October. Hopefully this will go ahead as planned, and allow further work next year.

E-Scooters

E-scooters are not legal to use outside of private property, in spite of the fact that they are available to purchase from commercial retailers. The only local exception is the ‘VOI’ brand scooters in Cambridge. Nevertheless, there is increasing use of e-scooters on local roads, and much concern about safety. This has been brought to the attention of the neighbourhood policing team, at the request of concerned residents.

SCDC Trials Plant-Powered Bin Lorries

In our latest step towards decarbonisation, South Cambridgeshire District Council has conducted a trial with eight bin lorries using biofuels, cutting their net carbon emissions by 90%. During the past two months, Greater Cambridge Shared Waste, a partnership between South Cambridgeshire District and Cambridge City Councils, ran the eight vehicles on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) instead of diesel. The Councils are transitioning their fleet of around 50 bin lorries to electric and alternative fuel vehicles to reduce net carbon emissions. Currently, a significant proportion of the waste service’s, and therefore the Councils’, carbon emissions

originate from diesel bin lorries. Two fully electric bin lorries are already being used in the city of Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire and a solar farm is planned at the service depot to be able to charge more of them in future. Once a sustainable fuel source is secured, the Councils could purchase further vehicles which could be powered by HVO. This would be an interim solution ahead of more electric or hydrogen trucks joining the fleet as and when they become available from manufacturers, and in-line with the depot charging facilities becoming operational.

Cultivate Cambs

More funding is being made available for voluntary and community organisations in Cambridgeshire to support residents. Find out how you can apply here: https:// www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/news/more-funding-for-voluntary-and-communityorganisations-in-cambridgeshire

County Council Budget Planning

If you are interested in knowing more about where the Council’s budget comes from and what it’s spent on, you may find this of interest. There’s also a survey asking for people’s views on choices being made for next year’s budget: https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/news/residents-invited-to-give-their-views-oncouncil-spending-direction-1

Inflation – What are the Consequences?

Inflation is very much on our minds at home of course, but also at Cambridgeshire County Council. For the current financial year, the total service budgets are £456 million (net) for revenue and £164 million in the capital fund (with a total programme of over £1 billion). In setting budget in February, we did provide for significant budget growth which allowed for inflation costs of £9.991 million, demand growth £9.615 million, pressures (e.g. increased non-inflation costs or reduced income) £16.236 million and investments of £7.253 million. All this was funded by this year’s council tax increase, savings, and Government funding. In June, the Council allocated additional resources to meet expected inflationary pressures in the current year. These are mainly due to energy prices and to some of the Council’s large contracts which are linked to national inflation figures. The Council also created a reserve to meet unexpected inflationary pressures. Apart from pay inflation, the Council therefore expects to be able to meet the costs of inflation in its revenue budgets this financial year. Even so, the Council is currently forecasting a small (£2.368 million or 0.5%) overspend for 2022/23, mainly due to the effects of the expected level of public sector pay inflation for this year, which exceeds the estimates used in budgeting. But what of next year and beyond? Inflation remains a significant concern in looking ahead to setting the Council’s medium-term financial plan for the next five years. When the Council set its Medium Term Financial Plan in February 2022 it did include a the budget gap. Budget planning is still ongoing, but the 42

budget gap for the coming year 2023/24 is now looking considerably higher than £17.396 million – currently projected at £29 million. This will again need to be filled by council tax, savings, and any Government funding awarded between now and February 2023. Changes in energy prices affect the Council beyond costs such as simply heating buildings or running street lights. The Council is engaged in a number of energy projects, including retrofitting its own buildings with clean energy, building solar farms, installing solar panels on park and ride sites, and the flagship community heating project at Swaffham Prior. The business cases for all these projects change very significantly as a result of changing expectations for the costs of the oil and gas they are replacing. So this places very considerable pressure on the Council.

Zoom Cuppa – Every Monday 5.00-6.00pm

We hold a Zoom Cuppa surgery every Monday afternoon – please get in touch if you’d like to come along and we’ll send you a link. Or get in touch anytime by telephone or email, and we’ll do our best to help with any queries or concerns. District Councillor Sally Ann Hart, sallyannhart@riskingonpurpose.com, 07791 233303 District Councillor Jose Hales, Josehales@gmail.com, 07703 262649 County Councillor Susan van de Ven, susanvandeven5@gmail.com, 07905 325574

Moorlands Court

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