At the South Cambridge Area meeting this week (7th November), police agreed two new priorities:

• attending the Morley and Queen Edith’s Primary Schools and Homerton Children’s Centre to crack down on illegal or dangerous driving and parking
• cycle theft in Trumpington, as there has been a big increase in the last few months, mainly in Hills Road

They will continue with these objectives from the last quarter, slightly adapted to take account of offenders moving from one area to another:

• moped misuse in Queen Edith’s and Cherry Hinton
• anti-social behaviour and drug misuse in Cherry Hinton

Thanks to Mrs Ann Winter from Queen Edith’s, who addressed the meeting about the problems experienced with bad driving and parking in Godwin Way (the road where Queen Edith’s Primary School is). The petition for yellow lines on the Godwin Way/ Close corner now has nearly 50 signatures: do sign it if you haven’t already. Thanks to Layla Vandenbergh, who has put it on line on the County Council’s website: http://epetition.cambridgeshire.public-i.tv/epetition_core/view/GodwinParking. I have paper copies to sign if anyone would like one.

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

books

The Save Cambridgeshire  Libraries petition was presented to Tory county councillors at Shire Hall yesterday (28th September). It is the Conservative administration at the County Council that we need to persuade to keep our libraries in their current form. Professor Jane Elliott, the chair of the Friends of Rock Road Library, spoke eloquently of the need for a professional service rooted in the local community.

The 8,000+ names calling for Cambridgeshire County Council to keep libraries open with professional librarians were presented to Cambridgeshire County Council’s Cabinet at Shire Hall and the Cabinet  heard from campaigners from various Cambridge libraries. There was a strong contingent from Rock Road Library to ‘welcome’ the councillors – you may have seen us on the news. If not, you may still catch it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rpwxj.

Thank you to all the people who signed the petition, emailed friends, stood around in school playgrounds, as well as everyone still involved with the campaign.

Here is the wording of the petition, which garnered 2,500 electronic signatures and 5,500 on paper. Stupendous.

We the undersigned call upon Cambridgeshire County Council to reject proposals to close libraries or to replace the existing professional service with a reduced service run by volunteers. We believe that libraries are a vital part of the community.

The Council has now dropped its plan to set up a Trust to manage the library service but is still looking at the use of volunteers. While we know there are many people who value their libraries and are willing to spend some of their own time helping to work in the library and raise funds, there is still a need for the experience and expertise of professional librarians.

Co-location, putting public services together is an interesting idea if it can work without too much compromise. Books and bookcases however, do not move easily, so it may be more practical for other services to come to the library rather than for the library to move elsewhere.

The Friends of Rock Road Library ran a bookstall at the Morley Memorial summer fête recently.

There are some good books left over, which are touring a few Friends’ houses in the hope they’ll find good homes locally. A few boxes will be outside my house in Holbrook Road as soon as the weather looks safe enough. Do pop by and take a look – money through the letterbox please.

School books

The Friends of Rock Road Library got together with Morley Memorial Primary School this afternoon to run a bookstall together at the Morley summer fête – with profits shared between library and school. As a Morley Mum as well as a Friend, I enjoyed taking part. (Certainly safer than going in the stocks at the opposite end of the playground). Thanks to Jo de Pledge for running this.

Some of the books had come from the last community event, the St John’s Church Summer Fair and the leftovers from today are going on to OXFAM. Nothing is wasted round here!

As well as buying books, visitors were invited to sign a petition to the Conservative County Council about maintaining the library, and to fill in a survey on what they could offer personally to help keep the library open.

Rock Road Library is holding a story session next Saturday. The theme is ‘Sea Stories’ and it starts at 10.30 am. Everyone welcome, no need to book and it’s free!

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.

Paper people

Homerton Children’s Centre, Holbrook Road, is running a series of free parenting courses:

• First Aid, safety in the home
• Back to work course
• 123 Magic; parenting course

All of the courses are free. To book, contact Carly Bareham at the Centre

There’s also a Careers Fair coming up, plus a range of half-term activities for children.

Cambridgeshire library managers will be visiting the South Area meeting at the Queen Edith Chapel in Wulfstan Way this Wednesday. They’ll be doing a presentation on the Conservative administration’s library review and seeking the views of the public on the planned changes as well as ideas on the library service and its future viability. The Conservative councillor in charge of the library service has been invited but at this stage we are not certain if he is intending to come. As many local people will know, our own branch library, Rock Road Library, is under threat of closure or downgrade, so please come and speak up.

There’ll also be a presentation on the City Council’s new recycling services (batteries, other plastics, small electrical goods) as described in my previous post ‘Cambridge recycling just gets better and better‘.

and three planning applications:

65 Cavendish Avenue (11/0262/FUL)

37 Monkswell (11/0242FUL)

1 Mowbray Road (11/0535FUL)

You can read the full agenda here: http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/democracy/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=122&MId=374&Ver=4.

The Queen Edith’s Community Forum is planning a fun and informative environmental family day in May in conjunction with the City Council.

Paper peopleThere will be loads to do:

• An arts & crafts marquée
• Face painting from T J Kids 10.30-12.30
• Take it or Leave It (swap your old stuff for new stuff)
• Seed sowing with Transition Cambridge
• Cambridge Carbon Footprint – measure your carbon footprint
• Cambridge Woodworks craft stall
• Free Lunch from Cambridge Foodcycle (they recycle unwanted but still edible food donated by supermarkets)
• Nature walk round Nightingale Ave. Recreation Ground 2.00 – 3.00

It’s 10.30 a.m. till 2.00 p.m. at St James’s Church and outside the Wulfstan Way shops. Hope to see you there!

School books

has been christened!

This will be a sister school to the Queen Edith Primary School in Godwin Way, opening next September. Building has begun and is scheduled to finish in July.

The school takes children from the combined catchment areas of Ridgefield, Queen Edith and Morley Primary Schools.

Here is a update from the Federation’s website.