Local Councillors

District and County Councillors’ Report

Riparian Ownership and Responsibilities for Ditches and Watercourses

This is a follow-up to our report last month, as both the District and County Councils are actively working to improve information dissemination on riparian ownership. Cambridgeshire County Council reports: “As part of our Community Flood Action Programme, we are updating our riparian guidance document to make it more useful for those living next to a watercourse. As this document is aimed at residents and landowners, we wish to seek their views and get a better understanding of their awareness of riparian issues. We have therefore prepared a short survey (five questions) which has been reviewed and approved by our Surveying Analyst Team. We would be grateful if you could disseminate this with your residents and parishes by social media, word of mouth or on your website/ publications. Deadline is 30th September but could be extended. A link to the survey is here: https://forms.office.com/r/5HQbNqGtba.” We are meeting South Cambs District Council’s new watercourse team in the village in late September to understand and discuss maintenance plans for Meldreth’s significant network of ‘Award Watercourses’ including the one running along the eastern side of Chiswick End.

Civil Parking Enforcement Explored for South Cambridgeshire

At their September meeting, the Highways & Transport Committee will be discussing the potential for the County Council to oversee inconsiderate parking (including, for example, pavement parking) in three districts including South Cambridgeshire. If agreed, the Council would apply to the Secretary of State for a Special Enforcement Area. The Greater Cambridge Partnership has agreed to fund the project if it is decided to go ahead.

Citizens Advice at the Melbourn Hub

Citizens Advice are back at Melbourn Hub every Wednesday from 10.00am to midday. Appointments can be requested via Melbourn Hub: email hubadmin@melbournhub.co.uk, telephone (01763) 263303.

Home Adaptations for Living Independently

Every year the District and County Councils complete an annual report showing how many home adaptations for disabled and older people

have been completed. You can see it at: https://www.cambshia.org/ about-us/plans-and-performance. Given the challenges in 2020/21, it’s great that although the number of adaptations completed and the spend was lower than in previous years, the district and county councils still managed to complete 166 adaptations, by investing over £2m to enable residents to live more independently in their own home. Our service works closely with occupational therapists who were heavily redeployed to primary care services because of the pandemic. We look forward to a busy year ahead as these critical services resume. If you or a relative needs help to continue living at home please contact hia@cambshia.org.

Landlord Enforcement

SCDC have approved a Private Sector Housing Policy which allows the council to intervene and take action, including fining landlords, if private rental housing falls below the standards we expect. If you are aware of sub-standard property being rented to friends or family, please do get in touch.

Biodiversity Supplementary Planning Document

This is an important piece of work that sets high ambitions for biodiversity in our district. South Cambridgeshire is one of the poorest areas in the country with regard to the amount of land managed for nature and for the number of trees. This document, together with our Zero Carbon Strategy and our Doubling Nature Strategy, will go a long way to addressing this lack of biodiversity. The document is available here: https://www.greatercambridgeplanning.org/emerging-plans-andguidance/biodiversity-spd.

South Cambs Magazine; are you receiving it?

We know there’s been a persistent problem with some postcodes not receiving the South Cambs Magazine. If you or someone you know is not receiving it, please get in touch.

Unemployment Rising in South Cambridgeshire

Unemployment is going up in South Cambridgeshire and our main worry are the 4,197 redundancies affecting largely young people, in manufacturing as well as wholesale, hospitality and retail.

Welcoming Afghan Refugees

Thanks to local residents who have contacted us asking how they can support Afghan refugee families. SCDC is building on the work it has

been doing since 2018, when we agreed to house four families a year from Syria and the surrounding areas, by now offering homes to three families escaping the terror in Afghanistan. SCDC will be using houses available through its private rental housing company and will be working with the County Council and with specialist charities to make sure that these people have the access they need to support, education and health services, so that they can start to rebuild their lives.

Planning; the Local Plan, Strategic House Building and Thakeham

Please see the separate article in Meldreth Matters on pages 42-45 from the South West Cambridge Action Group.

OxCam Arc Consultation

This is a central government issue playing out in the background with which we need to keep properly informed. There is currently a consultation taking place on the ‘Spatial Framework’ for the ‘OxCam Arc’ which we encourage residents to respond to. The ‘Arc’ is the label given to central government’s ambition to massively increase economic activity in the broad swathe of land which runs from Oxford to Milton Keynes to Cambridge. This increase in economic activity will be accompanied by an increase in jobs and transport infrastructure, which will then inevitably lead to a requirement for more housing. There is as yet no defined target for this housing let alone allocated sites, but figures of over one million new houses have been mentioned.Development on this scale has potentially huge implications for us. It is really important that residents know what is proposed and understand its implications so that they are able to feed back their views in a meaningful way. You can find the consultation at: ://placebuilder.io/futureofthearc.

Combined Authority News

The new Mayor Nik Johnson is moving forward with bus franchising proposals. Currently 90% of bus services are commercial and councils therefore have no control over their routes, frequencies or fares. We know that we urgently need at least a 24% shift to public transport from cars to reduce carbon emissions significantly. and this won’t happen unless we have attractive public transport alternatives. The draft business case is expected in the Autumn prior to plans going out to public consultation. The leaders of the District and County Councils appealed for subsidised travel for young people as we are well

aware that in rural villages, getting young people to education or training is a real problem without access to a car. The Mayor declined to declare a Climate Emergency but has established a Lead Member role for Climate Change and Environment which he has offered to the leader of SCDC, Bridget Smith. The CPCA Board voted, not unanimously, to accept all of the recommendations of the recently completed Independent Climate Change Commission which focused on moving us swiftly to Zero Carbon. It is disappointing that not all members of the board accepted that rewetting peat is absolutely critical to minimising carbon emissions in our region and that future drying out of peat will in fact cause vast quantities of carbon to be released into the atmosphere. The CPCA has been awarded £172,000 to run a career hub for next year. It will involve 30 schools and colleges and will hopefully help to get our young people into training and jobs.

Zoom Cuppa surgery: Wednesdays 5.00-6.00pm

If you’d like to meet with your councillors by Zoom, to bring any concerns or ask any questions, please come along to our weekly Wednesday Zoom Cuppa Surgery. Please contact Sally Ann for a link: Sallyannhart@riskingonpurpose.com. Or feel free to pick up the phone/drop us a line any time: our contact details are given below. 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

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