Next Thursday’s South Area meeting has some important issues, including crime and disorder problems on Hills Road and near the Cambridge Leisure Park. It will also be setting policing priorities and hearing about a city council policy on licensing lap-dancing clubs, after which planning applications will be determined.

The meeting’s at Homerton College and starts at 7.30pm. It is open to everyone, but will be focussing on issues relevant to the south of Cambridge, Queen Edith’s, Cherry Hint0n and Trumpington. You can view an agenda on the City Council website.

Extending the cumulative impact areas on Hills Road and at Cambridge Leisure

Hills Road has 17 licensed premises – restaurants, cafés, off-licences, pubs and hotels plus one club. It now has more alcohol-related crime per hectare than Mill Road. 94% of it takes place on the stretch of Hills Road between the Catholic Church and the Hills Rd VI Form College.

The Cambridge Leisure Park has 17 licensed premises all close together – The Junction, 6 bars, 8 restaurants and the Tesco Express’s off-licence. It is the only area in Cambridge where violent crime is on the rise, much of it alcohol-related. The Leisure Park is designated as a ‘cumulative impact area’ –this means that if anyone wants to get a licence they have to demonstrate that it will not add to the crime and disorder/ public nuisance of a concentration of licensed premises.

The Chief Superintendent, Rob Needle, wants to extend the cumulative impact area to take in the bit of Cherry Hinton Road opposite the Leisure Park (running from Hills Rd to Clifton Rd), and to make the stretch of Hills Road running from town to Purbeck Road a new cumulative impact area.

As this would be a change to Cambridge’s Statement of Licensing Policy (read more about this here) the Council is inviting public comment. The consultation runs until 31st March 2011.

Please write to:

The Licensing Team, Refuse & Environment Service, Cambridge City Council, Cambridge CB1 0JH

or email licensing@cambridge.gov.uk.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary

Next Thursday’s South Area meeting will be discussing some important issues, including how the police spend their time.  The meeting’s at Homerton College 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 on the City Council website.

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. They are proposing to continue with their patrols in  Cherry Hinton High Street in response to complaints about anti-social behaviour. The police have in the past two months been able to move on troublemakers and address other breaches of the law. Although incidents have gone down, the police want to carry on with the patrols as they anticipate more anti-social behaviour as the weather improves. If you have suggestions for areas that need police action, come along and tell the police or, if you can’t get to the meeting, please let us know your views.

The meeting will also be discussing an extension to the cumulative impact zones at Cambridge Leisure and Hills Road and grants. After that it will determine three planning applications.

Cambridge Leisure
Many of us enjoy a drink, a trip to the cinema, or a meal out – and the facilities at Cambridge Leisure have provided much more to do ‘on the doorstep’
However, it is a sad fact that where there are additional licensed premises, there tends to be more noise and disorder – undesirable for anyone walking through the area, even more so for those living close by.

Cambridge Leisure on Clifton Road is legally a ‘cumulative impact area’, meaning new drinks licences will only be granted if it can be proved there will not be a harmful effect on residents of the area. Police are consulting on whether the area should be extended to take in the bits of Cherry Hinton Road joining Hills Road to Clifton Road and Purbeck Road.

Read the rest of this entry.

Gritter in Cambridge

Conservative county councillors have been holding a Gritting Review.  Here is a summary of changes we have heard about to date:

Cycleways: good news and bad news:

A quad-bike will be gritting cycleways in the city centre.  This is the good news, but the bad news is that major out-of-town cycleways will remain untreated. Lib Dem councillors are demanding that they are included.

Another positive result is that the Lib Dem campaign to have Mill Road gritted has been successful.

All in all, there is more bad news than good news.  In total, only a few roads (Mill Road, roads inside Addenbrooke’s  and part of Whitehill Road) have been added to the gritting list in Cambridge, and 19 have been removed. In Queen Edith’s, Spalding Way, Gunhild Way and Tillyard Way have come off the list.  This is disappointing. When the Conservatives asked for our views, we hoped for more gritting, not less.

The Lib Dem City Council is doing its part to help in the icy conditions, and has agreed that its staff will do some gritting of roads and pavements when necessary.  I should point out that the City Council’s scope to help is limited.  The county council receives all the government funding for winter gritting, and has specialist equipment and staff.  The City Council has neither, so its team will have do the gritting by hand.

The City Council can also distribute grit around the city for everyone to use: community groups who wish to assist with the gritting of county council highway areas can arrange delivery of small amounts of grit by calling 01223 458204 or via the following mail addresses:

bob.carter@cambridge.gov.uk
don.blair@cambridge.gov.uk
richard.cole@cambridge.gov.uk

Central government has recently published guidelines for residents about gritting the area around their homes, accessible here.

There are also major problems with the Gritting Review that need to be looked at before the coldest months are upon us.

The whole city centre has been excluded from the “reduced gritting network”.  This means that if there is a shortage of rock salt stockpiles, as happened last year, the county council’s gritting vehicles will completely stop treating the area inside the inner ring road.  This would be enormously harmful to business, and cut off access to goods and services people need even in the worst conditions.  If the county council had followed government guidelines and consulted with the business community — it has publicly admitted it did not — this would never have been allowed to happen.

It is also a problem that school bus routes have not been considered for gritting.  Again, central government consultation guidelines to consult — this time with education service providers — were completely ignored.  This policy needs urgent reconsideration.

Cambridgeshire Lib Dem councillor’s alternative budget last year would have allowed a lot more money for gritting. If accepted, it would have kept the city centre in the reduced network, funded more extensive gritting of cycleways outside the city core, including Riverside; and made provision for gritting of pavements and school bus routes.

Do you travel down Cherry Hinton Road?

A pedestrian was hit by a red BMW at about 17:30 on Monday 8th November as she was crossing Cherry Hinton Road, and very seriously injured. The woman concerned is in her sixties, about 5′ 3″ tall , with short brown hair.  She was wearing a blue and black jacket and jeans on the day of the accident.

If you witnessed this accident or were in the area (near the Cherry Hinton Road/ Wulfstan Way junction) on the 18th November, please get in touch with the police.

Police would also like to talk to the driver of a white Ford Escort van with a skirt kit that was in the vicinity at the time. The van was not involved in the collision but the driver’s recollections may be helpful.

There is to be a consultation on extending the Cambridge Leisure Park cumulative impact zone to include Hills Road to Purbeck Road and Cherry Hinton Road to Clifton Road. Designating an area a CIZ recognizes the effect of alcohol-related disorder  arising from a concentration of licensed premises in one place and makes it unlikely any more will be allowed.

I know some Queen Edith’s residents will be interested in this so watch out for the consultation.

Liberal Democrat Cambridge City Council has devolved some functions to local ‘area committees’, each covering a geographical quarter of the city. Queen Edith’s is part of the South Area, which also includes Cherry Hinton and Trumpington. The committee comprises the councillors for the three wards.

Last Thursday it met at Homerton College for the first time – a handy venue on the mainbus routes, but swelteringly hot last week. Fortunately chilled water and fans were close at hand.

For my sins, I have been elected to chair it for the coming municipal year, taking over from Trumpington councillor Andy Blackhurst who is chairing the Council’s Housing Management Board this year. Fortunately he is staying as vice-chair.

The first item of business was ‘Safer Neighbourhoods‘, a report by the local police on their activities and recommendations for priorities for the coming quarter. The meeting agreed to carry on with tackling anti-social behaviour in Paget and Foster Roads in Trumpington and in Tenby Close, Cherry Hinton. Following a request from Cllr Sheila Stuart, drug abuse in Hanover and Princess Courts (council flats in the northern part of Hills Road) were added.

We received a report about the Council’s revision of its Statement of Licensing Policy, which has to be renewed every three years, and a consultation on the same. The meeting did not give much detail about any changes, but was more a means of bringing the renewal to people’s attention. If you would like to see what is proposed, and comment, you can view the policy on the City Council’s website — any time up to 5th September.

More wonders of the web were presented by the Council’s planning officers in a Powerpoint presentation on a new virtual facility for viewing and tracking planning applications: Planning Public Access. You can view plans on line, comment on them, see what others have said about them,  and set up an email alert so you know when something changes. Use it at home, or if you prefer, at the Council’s Customer Service Centre on Rewgent Street, where planning officers are there to help form 10.30 till 3 p.m.

Community development grants were approved for  the following groups:

• Little Bunniers Mothers/ Carers Playgroup
• Trumpington Residents Association
• 2nd Cherry Hinton Guides
• Hanover and Princess Court Residents’ Association
• Trumpington Elderly Action Group
• Denis Wilson Court Social Club

There were two environmental improvement bids:

A topographical survey was agreed for the Wulfstan Way shopping parade, to take forward improvements (see my previous post on this).

The other bid was for traffic calming in the form of road humps in Clarendon Road and Shaftesbury Road, to stop speeding, alleged to be coming from the Government offices and Cambridge University Press. I am sorry to report that police checks demonstrated that there is indeed speeding taking place, 15% of the vehicles driving not just over 30 mph but over 40 mph, though it’s not proven who is speeding. Two cats were killed in one of the streets last year.

The chair of the Brooklands Avenue residents’ association, spoke in support of traffic calming. E-mails expressing opposition to traffic calming had been sent to councillors by C.U.P. and one of the residents of the street.

The committee considered that while they viewed the speeding with concern, other measures than speed humps should be considere, possibly a 20mph limit, flashing lights warning people of the speed limit or chicanes. Officers will report back at the next meeting.

Two planning applications were approved: a retrospective application for a tall fence at 54 Kelsey Crescent and two new houses at 102 Glebe Road (with conditions for new landscaping on the boundaries with neighbouring properties and for a ban on deliveries to the site during construction during the school rush hour).

Cambridge City Council has four area committees, which take decisions on grants and other local matters, s well as planning applications.

Next Thursday (8^th July), the South Area Committee meets at Homerton College, and will be discussing safer neighbourhoods (that’s council-speak for community
policing), licensing policy, a presentation on how people can view planning applications at the Council’s Customer Service Centre in Regent Street, grants and planning applications.

The police will be presenting crime figures and reporting on their activities over the past quarter, and recommending priorities for the next. The public and councillors should be asking questions and commenting on those priorities. See the policing report here.The big change for planning is that people can visit Cambridge City Council’s new Customer Service Centre in Regent Street to view applications on line, or speak to a planning officer if they wish. The Council’s new online facility can be used to view plans and applications, leave comments and set up an alert about new
applications where you live.We will be looking at community development grants for playgroups (a trip), residents’ associations (Christmas fun and a trip to St Ives)  and youth groups (camping kit). Although the committee covers Queen Edith’s, Cherry Hinton and Trumpington, there are no bids from groups in Queen Edith’s this time. If you are involved in a community group hat could use extra funds, please contact one of your councillors and we can explain the sorts of things that can be funded and to whom.

The other decision to take is on environmental improvements. One is a survey for the Wulfstan Way shopping area to progress the already agreed works (see previous post on Wulfstan Way shops); the other is for a traffic calming scheme in Clarendon Road and Shaftesbury Avenue, subject to its getting the thumbs-up from public consultation. See teh details here.

There are two planning applications: a retrospective application for a 2m fence round a house, the other for two new houses on Glebe Road.

Here is the agenda. I look forward to seeing you there!

If you can’t come along but would like me to raise an issue on your behalf, please let me know.

The police covering Queen Edith’s will be holding a community surgery at the Cherry Hinton Village Centre on Saturday 17th July from 4-5 p.m. They will be happy to give advice on crime prevention and discuss any concerns about the community.

If you would like to receive regular updates of police activity in the area, sign up for the Cambridgeshire Constabulary E Cops newsletter by visiting http://www.cambs-police.co.uk/myneighbourhood/ecops/

Police Community Support Officer David Jackson will be at the Cherry Hinton Village Centre on Wednesday 3rd March between 6 and 7pm to listen to people’s concerns or comments about the neighbourhood. He will have information about making your property secure, and how to register your property using a computer data base. Please do go along and let him know what your concerns are, and also let him know if you think the Force is succeeding in its pledge on responding to your call.

If you would like to receive regular updates of police activity in the area, sign up for the Cambridgeshire Constabulary E Cops newsletter by visiting http://www.cambs-police.co.uk/myneighbourhood/ecops/