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January 1997
NEWMARKET ROAD TRAFFIC IMPROVMENTS
By mid-summer this year there will be a 500 parking space Park and ride site at Green House Farm. There will be security control, lights, waiting area and a frequent bus service to and from the city
centre. Traffic congestion should be relieved beyond Marshalls but I am investigating the possibility of a little more crowding between Quy roundabout and Greenhouse Farm which might arise if the Park and Ride site becomes very popular.
A further improvement is to move the existing junction at Airport Way/Newmarket Road 600 metres towards Quy and turn it into a roundabout. In the last 5 Years there have been 27 injury accidents at the existing T-junction and that is the main motive for the change. In addition, it is hoped to move traffic more smoothly between Quy and Airport Way.
Also cycleways and footpaths will be built in the area of these changes. The whole cost is about 1 million pounds raised by loans with Government approval.
Within the next few weeks I shall be returning to my campaign to link up the
Burwell-Swaffhan Prior cycleway with Quy and beyond. Over the last seven years we have had part of the local network completed, especially Lode and Bulbeck to Bottisham as well as the Burwell to Swaffham Prior path mentioned, so we are progressing, although always more slowly than I would like.
THE BUDGET Some of you may have attended the annual public meeting at Shire Hall to discuss the Budget. It will have been a gloomy occasion. We are intensely frustrated to find ourselves needing f15m. more than we are going to get in tax or grant. The Government's own Elliott Committee said we should receive fl0m. more than at present and that is near enough the gap between what the Education service alone needs and what it will be allowed to spend. So for Schools the outlook is bleak with cash reductions to their budgets likely. At this moment the size of them is estimated as a little under 1% for secondary and about 12% for primary. From that part of the Education Budget retained for centrally met services the reductions will be much higher at over 5%(equivalent to more than £1 million). Meanwhile, in the next month the short listing and eventual selection for a new Warden at the Bottisham Village College will take place. We shall all miss Pat O'Shea who has achieved much in a short time.
SOCIAL SERVICES
Lastly I turn to the tragic case of Rikki Neave and the consequent report by the independent Bridge Child Care Service. Many of you will have seen the conclusions as reported in the press, radio and television, so I do not want to go over it all again. On the 11th January the Bridge people together with the Government Social Services Inspector reported to County Council Members. It was a sobering meeting and no avoiding the recognition that serious mistakes were made in the
way the Social Services dealt with the case over a long period. Personally, I was fairly reassured that Social Services acknowledged shortcomings and have already or were now in the process of correcting faults and attending to the changes recommended. I was more reassured that the same Government Inspector will return in April to check what changes for the better have been or will be achieved. He will report to us on his findings. Everybody with responsibility in this exacting service will be doing their utmost to ensure that no similar case arises in the future.
February 1997.
THE COUNTY BUDGET 1997-98
We have tried our utmost to ease the burden on your Council Tax bill for the next twelve months. We faced a very tight settlement following the Government's public intention to increase the proportion of Council Tax to cover local services and its refusal to provide grants to cover public sector pay awards. If you also take into account the fact that we still await Government agreement to pay Cambridgeshire another £10m/year cost of living adjustment currently enjoyed by such local counties as Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex, you won't be expecting an increase exactly in line with inflation. So on 11 Feb., after a morning's debate, the County Council arrived at a revenue budget of £408.9m. From that sum you take away Business Rate and Government grant and that leaves just over £108m. to be charged to Council Tax payers. On a like for like basis this is the equivalent to an increase of 5.4% (£23.94) on a Band D property and pro rata for other bands.
Sticking to Band D for simplicity, this means a
1997/8
1996/7
County precept of £470.97 as compared with £447.03
District precept of £ 25.00 as compared with £ 25.00
Police precept of £ 51.03 as compared with £
45.00
Parish precept of £ 22.65 as compared with £
22.93
Average total of £569.65 as compared with
£539.96
* Adjust the total for the actual parish precepts which are: Bottisham £18.60 , Burwell £25.93, Reach £19.21, Bulbeck £16.76, Prior £21.45, Lode £15.63.
My District Council colleagues in Swaffhams, Burwell and Reach will be able to give you details of Council Tax in other bands. In Bottisham and Lode Valerie Leake or I can answer these enquiries. Returning to the County's affairs, I can reassure you that in spite of all the handicaps placed on the Council by Government decision, the priority services of Education, Social Services and Fire Cambridgeshire continues to fund in excess of what the Government calculates we need to spend to provide standard services.
I hope you will also be reassured to learn that one-off funding is available to SOCIAL SERVICES to enable the recommendations of the Bridge Report on the Neeve case to be carried out quickly.
On the capital side of the Budget the A142 Fordham Bypass remains in the intended programme with enough money for this coming year to carry out preliminary design work.
Of particular interest to Reach the continued efforts of several of us most concerned has resulted in the threat to the sunsidised bus service passing the Prospect Trust at Snakehall Farm being withdrawn. Because the subsidy has been recalculated to less than £4/journey the County-has been persuaded to continue it for the main benefit of the young people with learning difficulties who attend this horticultural
training unit. A small but satisfying victory for them and those of us concerned about their well being.
James Fitch |
