Your County Councillor

COUNTY COUNCIL LETTER

October 2000

The joint campaigns to improve roads and paths and persuade motorists to cut their speed within our villages dominated my work this last month.

At the Joint County and District Committee for East Cambs. (2nd Oct) two petitions from Burwell enabled me to push hard for speed calming measures for that village. If all goes well at the next meeting of the County Transport Committee, then calming measures for the three entry roads to Burwell will be accepted for year April 2001/2. These schemes are topping the list for our part of the county and I'll do all I can to gain the County's backing knowing that there is support at District and Parish level. Competition from other areas of the county, all for limited funds, means some projects may slip but we can hope for the best.

Just to press home the point about speeding, I have asked the Police to do a seven day check (cables across the road) in Burwell as soon as it can be fitted into their busy programme. In addition we can hope for warning signs to beware of pedestrians crossing the Burwell Swaffham road at the Devils Ditch.

Meanwhile, the news for cyclists and walkers is good at Lode. The new foot/cycleway between Lode Crossroads and Anglesey Abbey is virtually complete but for signage. It will now be safer for all traffic and the disappearance of the old bus shelter has improved the visibility towards Quy from Lode.

This path is one more small link in the path from Quy to Burwell. The next priority on my list is to get a similar path from Lode to Swaffham Bulbeck (the Denny) along the B1102.

While all this goes on, the County has begun a mobile campaign to reduce speeding by urging motorists to MAKE THE COMMITMENT to think about speed in a bid to cut deaths on the road. Drivers are given key rings in the hope that the slogan will remind them to slow down while driving.

News locally has been excellent this year. Good OFSTED reports all round. Bottisham Village College becoming a beacon school and turning out excellent exam results and Swaffham Prior School reappearing bright and shiny after a short spell under special measures.

OFSTED has looked at the Local Education Authority (LEA) which runs the education service in its widest form within the county. The verdict was "a competent LEA with more strength than weaknesses". The report praises its "strong and effective corporate planning framework" which is reassuring to us members. It adds that educational attainment of pupils of all ages is significantly above averages and the LEA's support for literacy and numeracy was picked out for special praise. OFSTED points out that Cambs. is poorly funded in comparison with other counties. It also criticises the amount of money delegated to schools and suggests a greater proportion should be passed over. This very topic will be before the Bottisham V.C. governors in the near future. Already Cambs. has set a target of 85% delegation for next year compared with 80% this. Another area for criticism was Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Its provision needs to be improved. All in all "good but could do even better".

James Fitch