Michael Williamson

It looks as though this project might never happen because of difficulties in securing the land. I’ll keep you in touch.

Meanwhile, click here to take a survey to let me know what you think.

Following LibDem pressure (see my earlier post) the County Council proposed trial 20mph schemes in villages in Cambridgeshire. In South Cambridgeshire the first village suggested was Girton, the second Melbourn and the third Milton.

Girton Parish Council turned it down so Melbourn was next offered the chance. Initially the Parish Council accepted, but following a very vociferous local campaign by local residents, they were forced to change their minds. However, this process took so long that it is likely that Milton will not be considered.

In principle, I am in favour of slowing down traffic in residential areas. One way of doing this is by reducing speed limits, and it seems that where this has happened (for example, Portsmouth), speeds have reduced and the severity of accidents has also been reduced. However, I should like to know what you think so please comment on this posting or let me know your views by emailing me.

Stagecoach are introducing a new timetable with effect from February 14th, 2010. The effect is to halve the number of buses along the A10 during the day, but it isn’t as bad as it seems.

 The X9 (which is the service that remains) will now provide an hourly service through Milton, Landbeach and Waterbeach up to Ely and March. For those who caught their buses in Waterbeach or Landbeach this is effectively no change, and the bus will now stop at the Waggon and Horses in Milton. What has changed is that there will be no buses that go directly along the A10 on the other half-hour.

We local Councillors have little control over Stagecoach’s operations since they are a commmercial company who have to make a profit. However, they can be sensitive to local views, so please let me know (or contact Stagecoach direct) if you have any comments.

There is clearly considerable local interest in Milton about this proposal. A large number of people turned up at Milton Parish Council on Monday to voice their views and Milton Parish Council have decided to write to the County Council.

As far as I can judge, a number of people are in favour of the idea of the cycle track along Butt Lane, but there is also considerable concern about the implication that this may lead to the withdrawal of the free bus for pupils travelling from Milton to Impington.

At present, although Milton is less than 3 miles from Impington Village College, a free bus is provided because the route is deemed unsafe for children. If the cycle track were to be built, then the County Council Education transport, would re-assess the route and, if it were deemed safe and if that decision was upheld by an appeal panel of Councillors, then the free bus would be withdrawn.

Many people have pointed out that this could well have a significant effect on traffic, since many parents would choose to drive their children to school rather than let them walk or cycle the 1.8 miles or so along Butt Lane to IVC. However, the County Council does not take this into account when making decisions about free bus transport, such decisions being made solely on the perceived safety of the route.

I am very anxious to have comments on these proposals, so please do contact me and let me know what you think. I keep a close watch on milton-chat and so pick up the views of those of you who subscribe to that, but direct contact is very helpful. Click here to see the full County Council policy on education transport. The criteria upon which a route is judged can be found in the Appendix on page 26.

I have had a note from the County Council saying that they “propose to undertake a consultation into providing a foot/cycle way from Milton to Impington as part of the Cycle Cambridge programme”.

While any steps to encourage cycling and get people out of their cars are to be encouraged, the sting in the tail comes later in the email. I quote “The building of the path is likely to mean the withdrawal of free bus passes for IVC under current County policy”.

Please let me know what you think. Of course the free bus may not get withdrawn - local pressure retained the buses from Oakington to Impington despite the building of a new cycleway. However, the risk is there and we need to keep a close watch on what may happen.

There was yet another accident at the Slap Up junction a week or so ago. Here is the information from the police:

Two vehicles involved - both cars. Driver 2 had slight injuries - whiplash.

Vehicle 1 turned right across the A10 into path of vehicle 2. Unknown if vehicle 1 was leaving or entering main road.

We need action and I have contacted the County Council Cabinet member for Highways to try to arrange a meeting. So far I have had no reply.

I’ll keep you informed of progress.

Here is the text of a press release sent out on Monday, June 8th when the result of the vote on the South Cambridgeshire District Council housing transfer process was known.

For further information on this sorry affair, click here. See also my earlier post on the subject.

The Liberal Democrat Group Leader on South Cambridgeshire District Council has today called on Cllr Simon Edwards – up to recently in charge of the Housing Futures project – and Cllr Ray Manning (Leader of the Council) to resign following the massive rejection of the Conservative Housing Futures project by South Cambridgeshire tenants.

Cllr Sebastian Kindersley was speaking after the results of the Ballot were made public on Thursday June 4th. Cllr Kindersley commented:

 “From the very start of this misguided and mismanaged project Cllr Edwards and Cllr Manning rode roughshod over the legitimate concerns raised by others. They were determined to blindly implement Conservative party policy without a concern for the financial realities for the South Cambridgeshire taxpayer. South Cambridgeshire citizens – whether tenants or not – have now lost a considerable amount of money.

Repeatedly we asked for the case presented to Tenants to be a balanced one; with proper information provided and all sides of the case put for public consideration. Our concerns were derided and the Conservatives actually went as far as to vote against this.

Repeatedly we asked for a delay in the consultation process as so many different mistakes and misjudgements were being made in the rush to ditch our Council housing. This was also refused.

Housing Futures was the single major issue for the Conservative administration and it has backfired on a massive scale – they completely misjudged the mood of our citizens. What is worse is that it has wasted nearly £800,000 of our money on a project that was doomed from the start due to Cllr Manning and Cllr Edward’s refusal to make a balanced and transparent presentation of information to tenants. 

This so-called consultation exercise patronized tenants and was a flagrant waste of precious financial resource, spent on forcefully promoting a simplistic message. 

Is this arrogant, high-handed and willful negligence what South Cambridgeshire citizens want from their Leaders? The answer is no – and today we call on Cllrs Manning and Edwards to resign. The integrity of the democratic process and of the political leadership of South Cambridgeshire District Council have been badly damaged.

I intend to ask Councillors to support a Motion of No Confidence in the Leader and Cabinet at an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council. The Council already has a meeting planned for June 18^th”and that would seem a timely and appropriate occasion to take this matter to conclusion.  

Thanks to all those who voted for me at the County Council elections yesterday and elected me to be your councillor for the next four years.

The full results were:

It was a good day for Liberal Democrats in South Cambridgeshire. Susan van de Ven was elected in Melbourn over the sitting Conservative member and we gained the second seat in Cottenham, Histon and Impington, where Sue Gymer pushed the sitting Conservative member, Matt Bradney, into third place and took her place alongside David Jenkins in this two member division.

 For full details of the election results in the whole of Cambridgeshire, click here.

The East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) has recently called for proposals for new towns in Cambrigeshire (see my earlier post on the topic).

On April 7th, I went along to a meeting of a committee called the Joint Cambridgeshire Regional Spatial Strategy Review Panel. This is producing recommendations to EERA about options for development and I was concerned that Waterbeach was in a list of sites labelled ‘worthy of consideration’. I was able to ask some questions at the meeting, and I am very pleased that the County Council Cabinet has now come pretty firmly down against all new settlements (apart from those already agreed or supported by District Councils), and Waterbeach is in the group of sites labelled ‘Serious difficulies identified ..’. Incidentally, Mereham, the site up at Haddenham-Wilburton, was ruled out as ‘No longer worthy of consideration’.

The saga goes on, and the developers will continue to press their case, but hopefully we shall be spared large scale development for some years.

The County Council has recently confirmed that the resurfacing of the Back Stile footpath is to be included in the capital works programme for this year. This is after several years of campaigning by Michael and others who see the current state of this path as a disgrace.

Back Stile (more formally known as Footpath Number 1) runs from Waterbeach Green to the A10. It was surfaced many years ago, but the edges of the path have fallen away over the years and, although it can still be used by walkers, it cannot be used by any sort of wheeled transport, including buggies and wheelchairs.

The path also has a junction with Footpath Number 2 which runs from the end of Glebe Road and has recently been resurfaced.

‘Repair of Footpath Number 1 will provide a much needed new route within Waterbeach’, says Michael. ‘In particular, I believe that it will provided a much-needed link between the Mill Road - Glebe Road area and the Green as well as improving access from the Green to the A10. It took us a long time to get there, but persistence clearly pays off.’