Eastrea Village News No 58

December 2016 No 58

THE EASTREA CENTRE held their 2016 Christmas Festival earlier this month and w e l c o m e d a l l villagers with a f r e e glass of mulled wine and a mince pie.

The music was provided by Eastrea residents Pete Hale, and later by Anthony Nottingham. Among the stalls were remarkable exhibits of paper sculpture made by Bratt Ayers, and an exhibit of the stunning art by the Eastrea artists (photos on the left). Residents and visitors shared memories and renewed acquaintances; in the opinion of the committee it was a highly successful occasion. More events are already being planned for 2017.

Ready to Pay for the BROWN Bins?

BROWN garden bins must be paid for in future! The Council are unable to afford the collection of organic wastes and our brown bins, currently collected free each fortnight, will have to be paid for, starting next month.

The annual charge is £40, but for those signing a direct debit by 9 January 2017 the cost is reduced to £36. Payment can be made at any FDC Drop-in Centre. Villagers can opt out, but there are no reductions.

Do you call them dustmen?

Or (as a humourist proposed) garbologists? Few of us stop to appreciate the sterling work done by Fenland Council’s binmen.

Three of the local team pictured here are Dave, Chris and Alex. The crews are a cheerful bunch and we appreciate all that they do.

E-mail: mail@rothayhouse.co.uk

Eastrea Village News

Page 2

Battling for our Buses RESIDENTS regularly complain about our poor bus service. This is a topic we are trying to address, and we have had some small victories in this continuing battle. Our first minor victories have been over the printing of the timetable. First, Stagecoach managed to spell Neale Wade academy incorrectly. We have had them change it.

Next, the orange band on the existing timetable shows an hourly service running all day Sunday from Eastrea; in fact we have only one bus on that day. We have successfully asked Stagecoach to correct that as well.

PHANTOM WEED KILLER

SOMEONE was recently sent from Fenland to spray off weeds on the pavements in Eastrea. They also managed to kill off private lawn grass (above, right) and — in the most memorable incident — the spray missed the edge of the grass altogether and scorched a line of dead vegetation a foot away from target (above left). We are asking the Council to investigate. Meanwhile, there is always the thought that this could have the makings of a television commercial: someone, clearly, should’ve gone to Specsavers.

Or to college.

WHERE ARE JUDDS?

Recently, a bus was taken out of service in the middle of its run and the driver simply sped through the village, pointing up at the ’not in service’ sign — but nobody knew whether a replacement bus was coming.

Eastrea News editor Brian Ford has raised this with Stagecoach as well; their assistant operations manager in Peterborough, Mr Martin Stanford, has promised that, in future, a driver will stop and inform passengers if the bus is out of order and explain if a replacement is due.

The outstanding problem that we haven’t solved is for a Stagecoach bus to serve residents going to school or work. Eastrea has nothing between 07:18 and 10:18 am and proposals put to Stagecoach have been rejected.

There is now no bus service at this crucial time of day.

ALTERNATIVE bus companies are now being asked about operating a route through Eastrea, and Judds say that they have coaches available.

Mr Mark Judd tells this newsletter: “There is a vehicle that could fulfil this need in Eastrea, however when the service bus was used before it was not financially viable.

It was also subsidised by the school contract that the service also did. At present we hold no school contracts that would help make this work for us.”

Stagecoach have been asked if their 7:18 am service could run instead at 8:15 am, but their commercial director Ross Burton says this plan doesn’t fit requirements— and they have no additional vehicles available.

There are other operators we have now approached.

First Eastern Counties run their X1 bus from Peterborough to King’s Lynn, running along the A47 and passing through Thorney. This service runs from 7:00 am to 11:30 pm, with most buses leaving every half-hour. Brian has now proposed that they alternate with a route that would run through Eastrea along the A605. He says: “The current route between Peterborough and King’s Lynn is 23 miles long; via Eastrea it is 22 miles, so it should be possible.”

First Eastern Counties are now analysing this report and say they will reach a decision in January 217.