Parish Council

28 Station Road Melbourn Cambs SG8 6DX Telephone 262494 e-mail: parishclerk@melbournpc.co.uk

Minutes of Parish Council Meetings and Planning Committee meetings are available on the village website

Chairman

Donald Mowatt 23, High Street SG8 6AL 268388

Vice-Chairman

Maureen Townsend 32 New Road SG8 6ER 260959

Clerk & Office

Avril Mellor, 28 Station Road, SG8 6DX 262494

E-mail parishclerk@melbournpc.co.uk

Website www.melbourncambridge.co.uk

Councillors

Val Barrett 2 Station Road, SG8 6DX 261227 Frank Benfield 2-4 Little Lane, SG8 6DX, 262421 Irene Bloomfield 78 Russet Way, SG8 6HF 222558 Alan Brett 44 High Street, SG8 6DXBB 260306 Rosemary Gatward 94 High Street, SG8 6AL 261225 Jose Hales 23 Elm Way, SG8 6UH 221058 Dean Hardingham 1 Portway, SG8 6EU 232757 Michael Linnette 11 Chapel Lane, SG8 6BN 262534 Andrew Mulcock 1 Lawns Close, SG8 6DR 222940 Donald Mowatt White Walls, 23 High Street 268388 Mike Sherwen 3 Hale Close, SG8 6ET 260070 Peter Simmonett 42 Greengage Rise SG8 6DS 220363 Christopher Stead 70 Russet Way pm only 260743 Maureen Townsend 32 New Road, SG8 6BY 260959 Richard Wakerley 32 Chalkhill Barrow, SG8 6EQ 262247

Employees

Handyman and Caretaker Peter Andrews 243312

Emergency mobile. 07778-682245 Village Ranger Keith Rudge, 4 Dolphin La, SG8 6AF 221212 Internal Auditor Bruce Huett, 20 Rose Lane SG8 6AD 232855

County Councillor

Susan van de Ven 95 North End, Meldreth 261833 susanvandeven@yahoo.co.uk.

District Councillors

Val Barrett, 2 Station Road Jose Hales, 23 Elm Way, SG8 6UH 261227 221058

South Cambs M.P. Andrew Lansley 01954 212707 South Cambs M.E.P. Robert Sturdy 01954 211790

The Parish Office at 28 Station Road, is entered by the door at the front of the building directly opposite Sheene Mill. The Parish Office is now open on Mondays from 9 am to 1 pm, on Tuesdays from 2 pm from 4 pm, and on Thursday from 9 am to 1 pm. The office is not normally open on Wednesdays or Fridays. As the Clerk is sometimes out on Parish business it is better to ring 262494 to ensure that she is in the office. Meetings of the Planning Committee are normally held on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of every month commencing at 7.15 pm. Council Meetings are normally held on the fourth Monday of each month at 7.15 pm at All Saints’ Community Hall.

The Press

Royston & Buntingford Mercury

Tom Ship, Media Centre 40 Ware Road,

Hertford, SG13 7HU 01992 526639 Royston Crow Heath House, Princes Mews,

Royston, SG8 6RT 245241 Fax 242231 Cambridge News David Williams, 3 Melbourn Street,

Royston, SG8 7BP 249144 Fax 244502 BBC Radio Cambridge

Reception 01223 259696

Newsroom 01223 358510 www.melbourncambridge.co.uk/council/ From the Parish Clerk – Avril Mellor

As the end of the year approaches it seems like a good time to look back at some of the important changes within the village that the Council has been involved with over the past 12 months. After a number of delays the yellow lines eventually went down in Station Road during September and hopefully these restrictions will reduce the traffic problems and improve safety by providing breaks in the line of parked vehicles.

South Cambridgeshire District Council planned to dispose of all their rural car parks to eliminate maintenance costs. This meant that if the Parish Council did not take on the village car park it may have been sold to a private company which would then have imposed parking charges. To avoid this, the car park has been leased by the Council from SCDC on a 999 year lease and is already planning the introduction of hard and soft landscaping to improve the appearance of this area. It is intended that the Safer Route to School through the car park will continue and be enhanced to give clearer definition.

At the time of writing the purchase of the Old Recreation Ground (opposite MVC) from the Church Commissioners has still to be finalised. This piece of land has been registered by the Church Commissioners as a village green. The council feels that having ownership under the same title would allow greater flexibility in the use of the land without repeated reference to the owners.

The lease on the Parish Office comes to an end in February 2011 and the Council has been busy looking into various possibilities in the search for new premises. Hopefully by the time you read plans this will be in hand to move to a new location within the village. Please look out for information about the move on the website www.melbourncambridge.co.uk/parishcouncil/ and on the parish noticeboard.

Two new football teams are now using the Recreation Ground, a team from the Green Man and the 14/15 age group from Melbourn Dynamos, both of which play on a Sunday.

The planned BMX site at Grinnel Hill is nearing completion and is an amazing feat of engineering by the lads who have built all the jumps by hand.

I hope that this winter is not as severe as last year, as I know that many people, myself included, found it hard it stay upright. The Parish Council is arranging for four new salt bins to be placed at strategic points around the village, so please make use of them and if you find them empty, please report this matter to the Parish Office and I will arrange with Cambridgeshire County Council, Highways Department for them to be replenished.

May I take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

It seems a very long time ago since Janice and I first approached SCDC with a view to obtaining planning permission to build Trails on the Pocket Park at Grinnel Hill. Melbourn Parish Council gave this piece of land for such a purpose. We are so grateful to Clive Onslow of Seearo Group for supplying the manpower, soil and heavy machinery along with Peter Norbury of Norbury Building and Landscape Supplies for his help too, with materials and input.

What seemed to be a fairly straight forward task turned out to be much more complicated and time consuming, which involved the services of the ecology, scientific, landscaping and tree officers from South Cambs District Council, as well as the planning department. Needless to say this has taken a long time, but we’re almost there.

Sadly, Janice because of her illness, had to stand down, but along with Cllr. Dean Hardingham and Cllr. Mike Linnette and latterly, Cllr. Jose Hales, the project is almost completed.

The boys and girls have done an amazing job of building the jumps which have already been described by many people as ‘a work of art’ and are at present forming a Club which will come under the auspices of the Parish Council.

Neighbourhood Policing Team

Melbourn Neighbourhood Policing Team are looking forward to opening their new office over the coming weeks. The office is situated on the Melbourn Village College site near the sports centre, and will be used as a base by local officers and venue to meet with local residents.

We are looking to recruit more volunteers to help staff the office for a few hours a week to make the facility as accessible as possible for the local community. The volunteers deal with enquiries, take messages for officers and aim to increase communication between residents and police.

If you are interested in getting involved please contact Val Barrett at 01763 261227 While the world of national government and public finance is in the headlines every day, here at ground level as your local representative, the job is just the same: figuring out how to make the system work for us.

One thing I have learned, is that the answers we need are not always found in conventional places. The progress we’ve made on our local rail campaign is a case in point. While the County Council bureaucracy around education transport is incredibly complicated, the rail operator has been refreshingly responsive to our case and made it considerably cheaper for students to get to Sixth Form and Regional College, than it was last year. That has been a valuable lesson in how things can work.

Primary School construction site

Various hiccups have been reported from members of the public, and it is good to be able to report that both Kier Construction and the County Council have always been quick to respond. Please keep writing and calling about any small problems and we’ll see if we can get them sorted.

Counting small blessings and staying positive, the double yellow lines that were agreed a year ago have at last been put down in Station Road. We’ve also had double yellow lines put down in Orchard Road, directly opposite the entrance to Chapel Lane, in order to ensure that there is sufficient space for vehicles to turn in and out of the lane.

Flooding and drainage issues in New Road, possibly associated with the traffic calming measures, have been brought to attention by residents who have taken the initiative to contact the relevant Highways officer. Thanks for keeping me posted.

I’ve been in touch with the Surgery to see about the state of the access road during wintry conditions – this is a private road and therefore outside the responsibility of the County Council to keep clear. Hopefully something can be sorted, and I’ll report back to the parish council on this.

The Practical Solutions Group – originally called the Anti-Social Behaviour Problem Solving Group, but renamed as the group developed a more positive focus – has been meeting on a steady basis over the past year to look at innovative ways of diffusing problems and supporting new opportunities for communication and community involvement. We met in September to look at our progress over the past year, and to decide whether continuing the group was merited. The outstanding point of agreement in our self-assessment was that progress happens little by little but that it does add up, and that various efforts have paid dividends in sometimes unexpected ways. Most importantly, we have come to recognize the fundamental importance of the proactive work carried out by County Youth Services, behind the scenes at Melbourn Village College and at the Youth Club. Our report is published in full on the village website, so please have a look if you are interested.

Having said this, the PSG is alarmed at the County Council’s decision to cut funding to open access youth clubs, and we support the Parish Council’s interest in finding ways of keeping Melbourn Youth Club open. By the time the Magazine is published there will be more to report, so please keep an eye on PSG and Parish Council minutes for up-to-date information.

Many changes are on the way in terms of the way the County Council is run, though at the moment it is hard to know what things will look like when the reconfiguration has taken place and settled. Councillors will be keeping a watchful eye. I’m sure everyone is concerned about wasteful spending when things are so tight. For example: why is Youth Services taking a £1 million cut, while the Council spends £2 million annually on communications? A lot of bumpf comes through the letter box and surely this is not what people want to see on the priority list of public services.

It has been a joy to have a small window on the cares and concerns of young and very young people in our community. Various projects coordinated by the volunteer team at Melbourn Library Access Point, and the after-school Journalism Club at Melbourn Village College, which I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with, have been great fun. The Village College is now regenerating the Duke of Edinburgh Award