Independents Day

Next Monday, join the Independents Day campaign and strike a blow for individuality by buying at least one thing from a local, independent shop.

There’s a great selection in the Queen Edith’s ward alone – everything from soy sauce at the Chinese supermarket on Wulfstan Way to koi fish at the tropical fish shop on Blinco Grove.

I gave my campaign poster away to Mr Abdulali at the friendly Bun Shop on Cherry Hinton Road, but you can download one for your window or noticeboard here.

Cambridge City Council and Love Cambridge, the City Centre partnership, are backing a campaign to help the High Street by Skillsmart Retail and the National Skills Academy for Retail. They have got together with independent retailers and trade associations to encourage people to celebrate diversity on the High Street and support their local, independent retailers on 4th July.

Retailers can download the ‘Your high street needs you!’ poster online, ‘like’ the campaign on Facebook and follow it on Twitter, and download a campaign toolkit at: www.skillsmartretail.com/IndependentsDay.

To keep up with the campaign, follow it: twitter @Retail_IndieDay or via facebook.com/independentsday.

Cllrs Zoe Moghadas, Gail Marchant-Daisley, Tim Ward, Sheila Stuart and Ian-Nimmo-Smith, Mayor's Cadet Daniel Pereira.

The great thing about being a councillor is the tremendous variety of things you do. In the past ten days, I’ve taken in part in council meetings, enjoyed the Mayor’s Dinner, done a councillor’s advice surgery, written oodles of emails and letters, read council papers, written press releases, carried out a residents’ survey,  attended the inaugural meeting of the Cambridge Muslim Council – and helped to open an 800 year-old fair! Never a dull moment.

As a City Bailiff, it’s my job to dress up in a Cambridge blue robe and accompany the Mayor on official engagements. In older times, we had to protect the Mayor’s person by fending off insurgents, and remove furniture from tax-dodgers. You can see the snazzy uniform on my fellow Bailiff Sheila in this picture. There are four of us altogether: this year there are two Labour ones and two Lib Dems.

Midsummer Fair is one of my ‘duties’ – and a very pleasant one it is too. Instituted by King John by Royal Charter in 1211, the fair is proclaimed on the fourth Wednesday in June, followed by the throwing of newly minted pennies to the children in the crowd. This year was the big year, as the fair is 800 years old this year, and we were joined by a glittering pantheon of mayors from all over the county as well as our own councillors and honorary councillors.

We toured the fair with the mayor, starting with the dodgems and taking in the carousel and the ghost train, pictured here. I don’t know if they had the ghost train in King John’s day – that could explain a lot! Many thanks to Ridgeons, who sponsored the event.

Last Thursday, Jean, George and I and our respective husbands and wife went to Corpus Christi College for the annual Cambridge City Council Mayor’s Dinner – to celebrate the mayoral year of the outgoing mayor, Cllr Sheila Stuart. After a civilized aperitif in the college gardens, we filed into the dining hall for a feast, with the learned men of bygone ages looking down on us.

On my own table were councillors old and new, with their partners – on the other two tables were people who have contributed to the city in various ways, including Marshalls and Addenbrooke’s.

Sheila had asked one of our local celebrities, Allan Brigham, to propose a toast to her year of office. Allan is probably the City Council’s best-known employee. During the day he works as a street-sweeper, but in his spare time, he is a Blue Badge Guide and local historian who shares his in-depth knowledge of the city’s history by conducting tours.  A couple of years ago, he was awarded an honorary M.A. by the University of Cambridge ‘for services to the community as an historian’.

Allan shared some of this with us on Thursday, reminding us that the college we were sitting in, although the only Oxbridge college to have been founded by the people of the town, despite being stormed by the mayor and townspeople 30 years later, demanding lower rents! The 19th-century architect, William Wilkins, had also designed Downing College and worked at Trinity.

Allan went on to pay tribute to Sheila, saying she had given us ‘a sense of place’ and praising her qualities of ‘showing interest, making time and having the energy’.

He highlighted some of Sheila’s ‘firsts’ in her year as mayor: walking the full 5 miles in the Bridge the Gap walk, cycling all the way to Reach Fair. Some scary ones too, such as abseiling down the side of the Guildhall for charity! He also spoke of the ordinary events such as showing schoolchildren round the Guildhall, chatting to the market traders. (In Queen Edith’s we welcomed Sheila last year both to our Party in the Park at Nightingale Avenue Recreation Ground (pictured) and to the Christmas Carols event outside the Wulfstan Way shops.

Allan concluded by wishing Sheila and Bruce well as they went back to leading a normal life, with the hope that they could ‘have a holiday without having to shake hands all the time’.

Well done to Sheila and Bruce from me. And to Allan. You’ve all done us proud!

County Council Highways officers are coming to the next South Cambridge Area meeting on 11th July to hear what we think of the 20mph speed limit trial in the Wulfstan Way area. Officers would like to make it permanent. The scheme has been running for just over a year and covers Wulfstan Way, Gunhild Way and Godwin Way, and the three cul-de-sacs in that area.

The Wulfstan Way area was chosen because it has a lot of of pedestrians and cyclists, and several community facilities – churches, schools, doctors’ surgeries and shops.

The police will be at the meeting too, so there will be a good opportunity to evaluate the trial – and to ask for more support from them in terms of enforcement. I have also had suggestions that the lower speed limit should be more clearly signed, a very valid point. Clearly those two things need to work together.

The meeting takes place on Monday 11th July at the Cherry Hinton Village Centre, starting at 7.30 p.m. Or if you cannot attend, please comment here or on the Queen Edith’s Facebook page.

I would also welcome views on other streets which would benefit from 20mph zones, as the Government has just relaxed the rules, meaning local people can get 20mph speed limits put in with much less bureaucracy and at lower cost.

St John the Evangelist Church will be holding a graden party this Saturday, 18th June, 2.30 – 4.30 p.m.

There will be musical entertainment, cream teas, books to browse, tombola, and fair trade goods to browse.

There’s also a raffle with unusually good prizes, including a voucher for Don Pasquale.

I’ll be on the book stall – see you there!

George, Amanda and Jean at Rock Rd Library

It is looking increasingly likely that the Conservative-run Cambridgeshire County Council will close Rock Road Library unless the community can offer a solid proposal to keep it going. The Friends of Rock Road Library estimate that we need to raise £6,000 a year and 40+ volunteers. They are conducting a questionnaire to establish what practical and financial support members of the community may be able to offer to keep the library open.

As the chair of the Friends, Jane Elliott, puts it, ‘We are not just looking for opinions now; we are looking for your help!’

Please respond to the Friends’ questionnaire here if you can commit either time or money on a regular basis.

The County Council is already preparing to make cuts in opening hours and they are conducting their own survey on this. Rock Road is set to lose its evening opening. There is nowhere on the questionnaire to object to that – regrettable, since it will leave only Saturday morning for many working people to visit the library. They are asking our views on which days/ half days the library should be open. The questionnaire runs until 18th June and you can complete it on line, pick up a printed copy at the library, or download a copy here. Rock Road Questionaire PR

On a more cheerful note – and boy, do we need one! – the Friends are putting on a talk on 23rd June on Gardening with Wildlife. The speaker is Neil Renwick from Fen Drayton Lakes, the bird-watchers’ paradise near Swavesey. Thursday 23rd June, 7.30 – 9.00 p.m. at the library. It’s free to attend, but donations to the RSPB are requested.

From time to time I am asked whether bonfires are allowed in private gardens. While they are a useful way to get rid of garden waste, the smoke can be annoying for neighbours.

There is no specific law banning garden bonfires or the times you can light them. The Council can only take action if the bonfire is causing a statutory nuisance. According to the Environmental Protection Act of 1990 this would be ‘smoke, fumes or gases emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance’

Contact the City Council by ringing 457890 or emailing env.health@cambridge.gov.uk if the bonfires are:

• frequent
• emitting black smoke
• burning rubber, plastic, foam or paint

Contact the police if the smoke is drifting across the road so as to endanger traffic, as the bonfire burner could face a fine under the Highways Act of 1980.

Diggers

Work has begun on the improvement scheme for the Wulfstan Way shops (see previous posts) and if you have visited the area recently you’ll know that the excavators have arrived! Workers and council officers were there too when I was shopping this afternoon.

The scheme will provide more attractive paving and pathways better linking the shops on one side of the street to the other, and there will also be a community noticeboard, extra parking, seating and lighting. Some money has been allocated to public art, and we are hoping to work with local schoolchildren to come up with ideas and designs.

There will be some minor disruption while the works take place, but I am assured there will be pedestrian access at all times. I hope all will go smoothly, but if you have any questions or comments, please contact me and I will liaise with the site foreman or the Council.