New Royal Papworth Hospital

County Councillor Susan van de Ven

9000 Pot holes in three months What’s happening to our roads and pavements? I’ve been overwhelmed with reports of pot holes: tyre blow-outs, falling off bikes, near-misses by swerving drivers, and so on. Last year, Cambridgeshire Highways received 7,500 pot hole reports. In the first three months of 2018, 9,000 reports were made. Shoddy repair work shouldn’t count but does.

What can you do? As annoying and frustrating as it is, please go on-line and report every pot hole in your street. Please Google ‘Cambridgeshire Report a Fault’ and follow the links – this is the best way of reporting and it is the tool I use.

This will create an accurate public record – and you can see straight away where you have contributed to the public map.

Have you blown a tyre or wrecked your bike? Then please lodge a request for reimbursement for damages. The PDF form is at the bottom of the fault reporting page.

And if you want to moan at someone or want help reporting, please drop in at one of my advice surgeries or contact me anytime. Thanks for your help in setting the record straight. Completely new train service starts 20th May The new timetable coming into force on 20 May is described as the biggest change in rail services for decades: we are part of ‘Thameslink’ territory and will be connected up to a far greater network throughout the Southeast than ever before.

Locally we will have twice hourly trains all day, MondaySaturday (except 11am-noon due to the Cemex goods train!), and an hourly service Sunday. All trains will be eight carriages, Tube style, with much more vestibule room. Trains will depart on a completely new schedule on a massively complex grid – details on the Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton website: meldrethsheprethfoxtonrail.org.uk.

As part of the phased roll-out of the new service, from May 20th until December 2019 our trains will continue to terminate at King’s Cross, but thereafter will run via St Pancras, providing onward service to Blackfriars, London Bridge, or Gatwick from Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton. New platform shelter: so far so good While the wheels move slowly, it looks like the promised new shelter for Meldreth’s Cambridge-bound platform is going ahead. There’s a months-long lead time but the starting gun has been fired. This has come about via lobbying from the Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Rail User Group. Flood avoidance tours Highways came out to Melbourn in April to keep a preventive eye on avoidable problems that result from blockages in the drainage network.

Continuing action is needed at Back Lane/London Way, Orchard Way near Maple Way, and possibly new work along Trigg Way. It is usually very localized reporting that provides the clue to a network problem, so please always get in touch with any concerns.

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID

The Village Feast

According to ancient custom Melbourn’s annual three-day feast begins on the first Thursday in July, but so little had been heard of the event this year that little or no feast was expected by most people, mainly because of the many wartime rules and regulations of one kind or another, but we have to record the coming of one of the largest, liveliest and best patronised feasts for many a year. It was, however, a little altered in character, the event being more of a Fun Fair than an old-time village feast.

There were no sweet stalls or real coconuts, but their absence was compensated by the existence of a superabundance of swings, shooting galleries, dodgems, roundabouts, all of which were patronised by hosts of American, Belgian, French and Italian visitors in addition to our own people, which made the event a cosmopolitan affair, the like of which may never be seen in Melbourn again.

Royston Crow 14th July 1944

New Royal Papworth Hospital

The new Royal Papworth Hospital is due to open at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Addenbrooke’s in September this year.

The hospital is looking for additional volunteers to help in a number of areas, including; • Greeter desk • Assistance in the day ward • Waypointing • Ward visiting • Administration assistance

•Mobile trolley service, and a number of other areas

If you would like to get involved and commit to a few hours or a day a week, in the first instance you may like to come along to shadow one of our current volunteers to see if you would enjoy joining our group of dedicated volunteers, please contact in confidence. Email: papworth.pals@nhs.net Tel: 01480 364896 Or write to PALS Supervisor Royal Papworth NHS Foundation Trust

Papworth Everard, Cambridgeshire. CB3 8PE

Affordable exercise classes and sport sessions for the over 50s and those returning to a more active lifestyle in Melbourn

My name is Steph and have lived in Melbourn for 15 years. I have recently started to deliver a Strength and Balance Exercise class on behalf of Forever Active at All Saints Community Hall in Vicarage Close. Forever Active are a charity that specialises in exercise for the older adult and work closely with the CPFT (NHS) Falls Prevention Service. The weekly class is a mixture of seated and standing exercises to help improve mobility and independence by strengthening bones, increasing suppleness and stamina. The class runs weekly on a Tuesday 12.00–1.00pm and your first class is a FREE taster so you have nothing to lose by coming a long and giving it a go. If you would like more information or to let me know that you are going to attend, please contact me tel: 07751280464 For more information about Forever Active please visit www.forever-active.org.uk or contact enquiries@forever-active.org.uk

www.forever-active.org.uk 07432 480105

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID

Collapse of Churchyard Gate

A favourite pastime of the children of the village during the school holidays has been that of swinging on, or climbing up or over, the large iron gates at the main entrance to the churchyard. On Tuesday morning as four youngsters were doing their daily gymnastic exercises on the gates, one of the huge iron supports collapsed and the gate crashed to the ground, one child being beneath the fallen ironwork. Help was quickly at hand and the energetic youngster was rescued more frightened than hurt. The accident, however, might have resulted in the child being seriously injured.

Independent Press Aug 29th 1947 Little Hands is a Private Nursery School specialising in quality education for the under fives and offers

Flexible hourly booking - open 08.30 to 16.30 Term time bookings with optional holiday club

Bumble Bee room for children 12 – 24 months

Ladybird room for 2 year olds

Butterfly room for children 3-5 years With optional “ready for school sessions”

Holiday club for children aged 12 months to 8 years

All sessions have a high staff to child ratio and are available for funded 2 year olds and funded 3/4 year olds with no extra charges

Categorised as “Outstanding” by Ofsted

For further information please contact Anne McCrossen - Nursery Manager : 01763 260964 e-mail lh-melbourn@btconnect.com

Little Hands is also at Bourn, Linton and Newton visit the website at www.littlehands.co.uk

Melbourn Back Lane trees Recently, six trees were taken down by County Highways in Back Lane Melbourn – this was due to disease. We are offered six replacement trees, to be planted where the parish would like. I’ll be asking Melbourn Parish Council for their view. Help keep Royston & District Community Transport’s minibuses! Royston & District Community Transport is a charity providing lifeline transport for people who’d otherwise be isolated. RDCT has a small fleet of minibuses, including a lovely 16-seat low-floor model, provided by the Department for Transport – and has raised funds for running costs and maintenance. Now the Department for Transport is looking to radically change licensing arrangements for community transport providers running minibuses, meaning they would need a commercial operator’s license, and their volunteer drivers would need professional qualifications, costing thousands. This means that a whole range of activities using RDCT’s minibuses is under threat.

The DfT is currently in consultation on community transport operations and it would be very helpful to RDCT if local residents could write to them saying that they value RDCT minibus services. Please email david@roystrans.co.uk saying just that – by May 1st. Many thanks.

In the meantime, RDCT is critically short of minibus drivers right now – if you or anyone you know would be interested in being a minibus driver, please contact them. Bus ticket for the Mayor The Mayor and Combined Authority are the new county Transport Authority. The Mayor’s Bus Review, announced in November, should finally be starting soon. Meanwhile, the County Council has firmly stated that its current round of bus subsidies, with another stay of execution running until April 2019, marks the end of its financial contribution to supporting bus services. The Cam Vale Bus User Group will continue to be a local voice for bus users. New 128 bus timetable – and now it’s the ‘127’ The Cam Vale Bus Users Group has been working with the bus operator and the County Council on timetable revisions for the combined 127/128 bus service. Special attention has been given to ensuring linking up with the 26 bus and the new Great Northern timetables. The aim is to distribute the new timetable, and bring it into force, as close as possible to the introduction of the new train timetable on May 20, so by the time you read this article. Please get in touch if you’d like to receive Bus User Group news. Selling off county estates, confidentially As I’ve been reporting, the County Council is running out of money and can no longer take proper care of people or infrastructure. The council is rich in land – it has one of the most extensive land holdings of any council in the country. So, to make new money it has created its own commercial development company, with which to commercially develop some of its land holdings. This new company is currently known as ‘This Land.’ Sales of county-owned land to This Land take place through the Commercial and Investment Committee, comprised of democratically elected councillors but whose papers are largely confidential. With the County’s Chief Finance Officer and Chief Legal Officer also serving as Board Members on This Land, there are obvious questions of conflict of interest.

Be aware – many County Council land holdings are in sensitive places in our villages: including part of Melbourn Recreation Ground. You can see County land holdings on the County website here (click on the word ‘Maps’ in the top right-hand corner): www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk. Duke of Edinburgh volunteers helping out Through Melbourn Village College, the Meldreth, Shepreth and Foxton Community Rail Partnership and A10 Corridor Cycling Campaign are now enjoying support from five Duke of Edinburgh Volunteers – litter picking and watering the flower tubs at the stations and helping to bring younger people who would like to be cycling safely to college into the Cycle Campaign’s work on the Melbourn-Royston pedestrian cycle link. Drop-in advice surgery Any questions or concerns? I’m at the Melbourn Hub every first Monday of the month, 3–4 (except August). Or please feel free to contact me any time. Susan van de Ven, County Councillor Telephone 07905325574 | Susanvandeven5@gmail.com

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID

The Spring Offensive

A few days ago the annual event known to the male population of the village as the spring offensive, and to housewives as spring cleaning, commenced in most homes in the village. Long suffering husbands had fondly hoped that little or nothing in the way of spring cleaning would take place this year owing to the rationing of soap and other necessities, the scarcity and expense of wallpapers, curtains etc, but these inconveniences seemed not to deter the housewife, who started the annual upheaval with grim determination. Many a husband who in the morning left his house as he thought spick and span and clean enough for anybody, returned at night to find his home in a highly chaotic state, his pipe and tobacco hidden, the wireless dismantled, his football pool forms missing and everything in a topsy-turvy condition, a state of unhappy affairs which may continue for two or three weeks. When peace and happiness do eventually return to the home this happy state of the home will not last very long as it will soon be time to clean up again for the village feast.

Herts and Cambs Reporter and Royston Crow April 18 1947