Reach Annual Parish meeting held on Wednesday 2nd June 2004

Present

Chairman ClIr Robinson', Vice Chairman ClIr Aves, Cllrs Harrison, Pearson, Moseley and Hill; also C/Cllr Fitch and D/Cllr Alderson and members of the public.

Apoloqv

Apology received from Cllr Summers.

Reports

County Council

General

ClIr Fitch said next year County Council boundaries would be changed (if the Audit Commission agreed) and his division would include Burwell, Reach, Swaffham Bulbeck, and Swaffham Prior, with 6100 electors. There had been an enormous rate of growth within the county, which was reflected in the creation of 10 extra councillors.

Planning

Cambourne was a growing area with many planning applications. South Cambridgeshire District Council and the Trading Standards Department were to move there. Northstow was about to start development. There was a considerable amount of housing development elsewhere, especially in Ely.

Finance

All council tax payers had received a four-party brochure giving a breakdown of their bills. The county section had risen by 6.9%, although this was the fourth lowest in the shires.

Education

Over half the 70% of the total £234 million budget had been spent already. The Ofsted report on the LEA had received a `good'.

Bottisham Village College had excellent above average results in last year's GCSE results, with two-thirds of pupils attaining grades A⁺-C. The college had applied for special status in humanities studies; £50k had been raised towards it.

A'sensory' garden had been planted in the college grounds which was selling produce.

Library service

Bottisham community library had been closed but later re-opened and run very successfully by volunteers. Burwell library was to be re-built.

Social services

This had a budget of £129 million. There was now a joint service for older people between the Primary Care Trusts and the Social Services Department. This had reduced `bed blocking' by 70% in the county.

Environment

ClIr Fitch spoke about climate change generally, which had caused floods and higher

temperatures etc., leading to road damage. River water and air quality was now high but noise polution had risen, especially on main roads.

Landfill sites were becoming full. Warboys had had an application to open a hazardous waste site turned down.

Hare coursing was on on-going problem locally.

Police

Headquarters for the area had moved from Histon to Ely. Community Support Officers had been introduced. At a cost of £18k a year it was not feasible to budget for one in Reach.

PC Tony Payne was the local policeman for the area, working with PC Bonnington from the Cheveley beat. St Adam Gallop and Kate Kent were the contacts at Ely HQ.

Fire and rescue service

Fire workers were now back at work after the pay dispute; the second half of their 7% settlement was due soon.

Arson and hoax calls were double the problem of 1990.

The service was now a separate body from the County Council and therefore precepted separately for council tax purposes. Cllr Fitch said he stood on the committee.

Transport

Cambridgeshire traffic was up by 30% in the last 10 years (UK average 19%); the A14 traffic had increased by 40%. Trunk 'A' roads were 74% above the UK average and other 'A' roads by 43%.

Work on the Fordham by-pass had begun. There was a proposal to widen the A14 at Fen Ditton.

The 'double-bend' road at Swaffham Bulbeck had been improved to lessen the dangers of ice on the road in the winter.

Bottisham and Burwell had undergone extensive traffic calming.

The Old Railway Bridge between Reach and Swaffham Prior was the subject of a study. Services running under the bridge were likely to cause problems if it were to be lowered.

The Park and Ride service had been a huge success; ClIr Fitch said he hoped the opening hours would be extended.

Questions

ClIr Hill asked ClIr Fitch about reports suggesting that Cambridgeshire was the poorest performing police force in the UK and that there had been calls for the resignation of Tom Lloyd, the Chief Constable. ClIr Fitch responded that he was aware of this situation and there were major problems with vehicle associated crime and burglary locally. There were, however, fewer assaults and 'con-men' in the county.

A resident of Reach spoke about the small choice of residential homes for old people locally. Patients were often transferred from Addenbrooke's hospital to care homes some distance from relatives. Cllr Fitch said changes had been made recently in the social services department, which he hoped would help the situation. He commented that home carers were not paid adequately.

  Clir Pearson asked where rubbish would go when the present landfill sites, e.g. Milton were full. ClIr Fitch said there were moves to stop unnecessary packaging, particularly in the retail trade. Incinerators were not popular.

District Council

Chairman, Cur Robinson, welcomed Allen Alderson who had been elected District Councillor for the Swaffhams Ward in a recent election.

Housinq Ely was to continue with its large building programme, said Cllr Alderson. Some 7300 new homes were needed in the East Cambridgeshire district. £65.5million would be spent on housing in the next 2 years, including sheltered housing. A proposal for eight low-cost houses on Dencora Field, Rogers Road, Swaffham Prior was being considered. Green waste

The paper bag scheme had not been totally successful as many parishioners were unsure how to use the bags. At present the scheme only ran within 30mph areas. Queries on the scheme (and Cleanaway in general) should be addressed to Gerald Tickner at ECDC.

Burwell Road/Weirs Drove iunction

Burwell Parish Council and the Highways Department were aware of complaints about the danger of this junction since the planting of hedging very close to the road. ClIr Allen said he would keep in touch with the situation;

Clerk to contact Burwell Parish Council.

Traffic speeding in Reach

ClIr Alderson said he had received many complaints about traffic speeding through the village. He asked if traffic `calming' was required, e.g. signage or some form of gateway at village entrances. It was agreed that drivers were at fault but traffic monitoring had failed to show it as a big problem generally.

 Swaffham Prior School

(Written report for summer term 2004 submitted by Isabel Hill, Minor Authorities Governor).

`The school currently has 100 children on its role; two traveller families have moved on, 14 children will be starting reception in September and they have started their induction visits. Fifteen children will be leaving at the end of term to go to secondary school.

Due to the Government's budget earlier this year additional funding has been found for the school this current year, this significantly eases the tight pressures on the school's budget.

All children from year 2 to 6 have now taken their internal and external SAT exams. Various exciting activities for the children are taking place this term from a visit from the Fire Service for class 1 and 2, trip to Mepal Outdoor Centre for class four and Duxford Museum for classes 3 and 4.

The new play area for the younger children is on track for the summer, this will be located on the area by the field outside class 1. The school pool is also having some repairs before summer use.

The Governing Body has proposed a new Constitution to be instigated in September 2004, this will bring the Governing Body up to 15 members, there will now be two Community Governors. I will no longer be continuing as a Governor from the end of this term, so the school is looking to fill this vacancy.

The school also has vacancies for two midday supervisors.'

Cllr Pearson said that under the new constitution the parish council would be asked to nominate a governor for the school (not necessarily a parish councillor). He spoke about the welcome extra funding from the County Council and said travellers' children had been of benefit as they had boosted the school role.

Village Hall Committee

In spite of appalling weather the 2004 Reach Fair had made £1 k profit. The committee had received complaints about visitors to the fair parking along local roads on the outskirts to the village.

Swaffham Prior PCC

ClIr Robinson explained how the PCC donated some £5k each year, e.g. £30 to each pensioner at Christmas. This might drop in the future, he said, as investments were not working as well as in the past and there was now a shortage of funds.

Swaffham Prior Youth Club had been given £2k for a new floor.

Police Liaison Committee

No report had been submitted as Cllr Summers was absent.

Chairman

ClIr Robinson reminded those present that the Parish Council was 50 years old and asked for suggestions as to how this might be celebrated.

The Chairman thanked Ron Greenhill for help in renovating the shed and weather vane at the cemetery and John Holmwood for renovating the bier.

Bryan Pearson and John Holmwood were thanked for cutting the grass on Fair Green and the playing field. ClIr Robinson said offers of help from other parishioners would be welcomed.

The Parish Council had developed a system for dealing with planning applications where two councillors visited the sight before the monthly meeting. This seemed to be going well and the Chairman thanked councillors for doing this in their spare time.

The Dyke's End pub had been sold. Although the legalities had not yet been finalised it was hoped that a draft document for the Parish Council to take over the freehold would be ready soon.

Cllr Robinson thanked Cllr Summers for editing Out of Reach.

Thanks were given to Charlotte Cane for her time as a District Councillor; Allen Alderson was welcomed to the post.

The Chairman finally thanked his councillors, the clerk, and members of the public who attended meetings.

Reach Matters

The mower had broken again. Councillors agreed that it was important to get it repaired as soon as possible.

Public forum

Travellers

Councillors were asked if there were any contingency plans for unwanted travellers in the area. It was suggested that the District Council should look at the recent situation in Cottenham (where residents had refused to pay their council tax as travellers  on a  large

site there appeared to be outside the law), and consider what they would do in a similar situation. It was agreed that there was often a 'knock-on' situation with travellers fly-tipping and speeding through villages.

Cllr Fitch said the problem was indirectly a County Council matter as traveller sites were owned by the County Council although run by the District Council. A new traveller liaison officer had been appointed by the County Council and ClIr Fitch thought this would help a great deal. He praised Brian Hicks, the traveller liaison officer at ECDC for his work with travellers.