Notes on the meeting of Reach Parish Council meeting held on Wednesday  8th January 2003

Present

Chairman Cllr Lambert, Vice/Chairman Cllr Robinson, Cllrs Summers, Harrison, Pearson and Aves; also C/Cllr Fitch.

Reports

County Council

Social Services

Eric Robinson has been appointed as the new director of social services for the county.

County budget

This was out for discussion with three options said Cllr Fitch. There may be significant cuts depending on which option was chosen.

Comprehensive performance assessment

The county had been judged as ‘good’ by a recent inspection by the Audit Commission on behalf of the government. It was rated in the top half of counties generally. District councils are to be inspected in the same way next year.

Library service

Despite petitions Bottisham public library was to close. Cllr Fitch said £91k would be saved by doing this although it would cost £100k to send out a mobile library in its place. He is trying to see if there is another way of running the library, possible as a charity along the lines of Bottisham swimming pool.

Area cost adjustment

Cambridgeshire County Council’s area cost adjustment was £18 million, which was somewhat unexpected.

Police

Cambridgeshire Police had received £4.2 million for extra work involved in the Soham murder case and the protection of Huntingdon Life Sciences.

 District Council

Cllr Cane relayed that ECDC were aware of a dumped care in Reach. She said promised government legislation should mean that such cars could be removed more quickly than was presently possible.

 Swaffham Prior Primary School

Cllr Pearson said the school’s OFSTED inspection would be carried out on 24–27th February. The mobile was to be replaced shortly and builders had started work on a new staff room.

Correspondence

Alan Barnish, Chief Executive of CCC had written outlining the Comprehensive Performance Assessment and the 2003-4 Budget Provisional Revenue Support Grant.

John Richards, Divisional Traffic Engineer from CCC had written explaining the decisions of the Jointly Funded Minor Highways Improvements Programme for next year. Reach was not to be included in the scheme.

 Reach matters

It was reported that a lot of household rubbish had been dumped in Harrison Drove. Clerk to report to environmental health.

Grass was growing in the play area. The playing field was also very mossy. Councillors agreed to form a working party in the Spring.

 Cllr Summers reported on possibilities for broadband access in the village. He said there were some subsidies available for villages to go onto broadband. PC voiced its support.

 The bus shelter at Ditchfield had been damaged again.

 Cllr Harrison spoke about cars speeding into the village from the Swaffham Prior end – Clerk to write to Highways department to enquire about traffic calming. Cllr Robinson commented that drivers from the Burwell direction were using Reach as a ‘rat run’ to get into Cambridge.

 Cllr Pearson asked when the enhancement scheme for replacement lights would be continuing as only half of Fair Green had been done so far. Clerk to enquire about this and also lights which were not working in the village (but  had already been reported).