The next South Area meeting on 7th November will include a discussion on police priorities. The meeting’s at the Cherry Hinton Village Centre and open to everyone. It starts at 7.30 and we anticipate the policing discussion will begin by 8 p.m. You can view an agenda  for this meeting on the City Council website, as well as the police crime statistics and reports on the last few months.

The police come to the South Area meetings once every two months to put forward priorities for the next period and hear views from the public, including suggestions for new priorities.At the last meeting, we asked them to prioritise mini-moto anti-social behaviour, and it will be interesting to see what the police have to say about that.

One priority I intend to suggest is driving behaviour near schools. I regularly receive complaints about motorists parking on corners, on yellow zigzags, or blocking the road outside schools – creating a very hazardous environment for everyone, especially children.

If you are concerned about a particular type of crime or nuisance, or have something you would like to propose as a priority, come along to the meeting if you can. It starts at 7.30 p.m. and the police priority setting is the first major item after public questions. If you can’t make it, please pass your idea to me or one of the other councillors for Queen Edith’s, Cherry Hinton or Trumpington and we can put it forward on your behalf, with your permission.

The meeting will also be discussing where to put new CAB advice hubs (see previous post). After that it will determine three planning applications:

11/0900/FUL Hills Road Sixth Form College Sports Ground, Sedley Taylor Road (a new pavilion)

11/0873/FUL 12a Drayton Close (annexe to existing residence

11/0202/FUL 31 Beaumont Road (change of use from private dwelling house in multiple occupation)

Advice hub

Cambridge Citizens Advice Bureau and has 16 touch screen kiosks giving advice on a range of issues, including housing, employment, debt and benefits. The kiosks make it easier for people to get advice, by providing it where people are, and in a variety of languages. Nine of them are earmarked for Cambridge City, funded by Cambridge City Council.

There are kiosks at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the City Council’s Mandela House amongst other locations, and the CAB is looking for some more places in the city to put kiosks. They are visiting the City Council’s South Area meeting on 7th November to gather feedback. The meeting, open to all, starts at 7 p.m. and this item will be taken after public questions and the police report. If you cannot attend the meeting, do send any thoughts to me or one of the other councillors for Queen Edith’s, Trumpington or Cherry Hinton.

Download an agenda: http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/democracy/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=882&x=1

The next meeting of the South Area Committee, on 7th November, will determine a planning application for a new sports pavilion at Hills Road VI Form College. You can see details of the application here:

11/0900/FUL Hills Road Sixth Form College Sports Ground, Sedley Taylor Road

There are two other planning applications: one in Drayton Close and one in Beaumont Road. You can see a full agenda on the Cambridge City Council website.

Queen Edith’s Liberal Democrats are organizing a family games afternoon on 29th October, at Morley Memorial Primary School on Blinco Grove (5-8 p.m.).

Come and enjoy a traditional game – bring your own or play Monopoly/ Cleudo/ Scrabble with us.

Tickets £7 adults, £1.50 children, to include slices of pizza and drink. Available from me: amanda@ajtmail.co.uk or phone 249787.

Proceeds go towards producing our regular FOCUS newsletter.

CHYPPS (Children’s and Young People’s Participation Service) is running a series of play activities this half term. They take place all over the city the ones closest to here are on Tuesday at Accordia (off Brooklands Avenue) and Wednesday at Cherry Hinton Hall. Here is the full programme:

Monday 24 October

• Artz Mania at Bramblefields, 1-3pm
• Spooky Art and Games at Newton, 2-4pm

Tuesday 25 October

• Spooky Reccy on the Pulley, 5-7pm
• Spooky Reccy on Accordia Green, 5-7pm
• Pop in at Newton Q (11yrs plus), 7-9pm

Wednesday 26 October

• Joy of Elder at Cherry Hinton Hall, 11am-1pm
• Twilight Reccy at Trumpington, 5-7pm

Thursday 27 October

• The Dec at Kingfisher Way, 1-3pm
• Family Fun at Trumpington, 1-3pm
• Spooky Reccy at Ditton Fields, 4-5.30pm

Friday 28 October

• Spooky Reccy at St Albans Rec, 12-2pm
• Picnic Reccy at Jack Warren Green, 12-2pm
• Reccy at Jesus Green, 3-5pm

For more information about any of the ChYpPS projects, email chypps@cambridge.gov.uk or telephone 01223 457873.

I attended a hearing of Cambridge City Council‘s Licensing Panel, which granted a premises licence to Sainsbury’s for its new store on the Cambridge Leisure Park. The store is not trading yet, but is likely to open early next year, underneath the budget hotel — and opposite Tesco’s.

As explained in my previous post, the Leisure Park was designated a cumulative impact zone.because of high levels of booze-fuelled crime in the Hills Road/ Cherry Hinton Road area and a high number of places selling alcohol – 17 on the Leisure Park alone, plus wine shops and off-licences nearby. This means that new drinks licences are only issued if the applicant can demonstrate that their operation will not make existing alcohol-related crime worse.

Premises licence applications are not well publicised, and they go through automatically if there are no objections. When I first heard about this one, there were no objections on file, so I put in my own. I did this because first: I cannot see how a new store selling alcohol can avoid making the alcohol-related crime worse, and secondly: because I thought the proposed finish time of 11 p.m. was too late. I asked that if the committee were minded to approve the application, that the drinks sales should stop at 9 p.m., as does the Sainsbury’s in St Andrew’s Street.

There have been three other objections: one from the manager of the Essentialz shop on the Hills Road Bridge, one from the chair of the Rustat Road Residents’ Association, and one from the police. The objections performed a function, as they enhanced the dialogue between the police and the supermarket, so that by the time of the meeting yesterday, the application had been amended for the better, including an earlier closing time of 10 p.m. (for the drinks sales, not the store). There was also an undertaking to provide security guards on Friday and Saturday nights, and to have the alcohol area locked with shutters outside licence hours. There will be no strong beer or cider on sale and Sainsbury’s will operate a policy of asking anyone  looking under 25 to show ID. They will join CAMBAC, (Cambridge Businesses Against Crime).

The police and the residents’ association were satisfied with the changes and withdrew their objections, but the hearing still went ahead, as there were still two objections sustained.

I am impressed with the provisions that have been put in place and I hope they work. Sainsbury’s assured us that they have a national pricing policy and are not likely to get into a price war with Tesco’s (also on the Leisure Park) – but there are other outlets nearby and I hope they behave responsibly too.

We shall wait and see.

Residents on Godwin Way and Godwin Close are concerned about poor parking by motorists, particularly on the corner of Godwin Close. This blocks the view for motorists and pedestrians and is particularly dangerous because there is a primary school on Godwin Way, the Queen Edith Primary School, taking children as young as three.

At a resident’s request, I have prepared a petition calling on the County Council to introduce parking controls, probably yellow lines on this corner – corners should of course not be parked on according to the Highway Code.

If you would like to sign, you can download the petition here: Parking_Godwin. The survey is also on line at the Cambridgeshire County Council website:
http://epetition.cambridgeshire.public-i.tv/epetition_core/community/petition/1645