After a lovely mild autumn, it is now  feeling appropriately wintry for December!

Which calls to mind an idea first put to me last summer when the temperature was a balmy 82 degrees. It is a creative scheme to help the vulnerable elderly.

The people who came up with it are the creative folk at Cambridgeshire Community Foundation (CCF), a charity that matches grant givers to groups or individuals in need of funds.

Here’s how it works:

Most people over 60 receive a Winter Fuel Payment of between £100-300. It’s what is called a universal state benefit, so everyone eligible for a pension gets it. I know it is much appreciated by many older people, who need the extra money to heat their homes properly, yet I hear some people say they are comfortably off and can manage perfectly well without state benefits.

Here is an answer for them. If they prefer to give the money to help someone less fortunate, they can donate their Winter Fuel Payments to the CCF’s Winter Fuel Fund. The Fund will go to charitable projects for older people – for example, it might pay for an old lady to go and have lunch at a day centre one day a week, or for an outing. People can register their interest on line at http://www.cambscf.org.uk/the-winter-fuel-fund.html; or email Sam Weller at sam@cambscf.org.uk.

18 years of dropped kerbs!

Could I have a dropped kerb on Blinco Grove, please?

That was the very first thing I was asked to do as a new councillor back in 1994 when I was first elected. The request came from a lady who used a wheelchair and needed a dropped kerb near her home, (‘mobility crossing’) in order to cross the road. I am sorry to say that I had a forest of bureaucracy to fight through before we got the dropped kerb. Nevertheless, it is a request that comes up time and time again.

I was pleased to help, but it was only when I tried to cross East Road wheeling a friend’s toddler in a pushchair that it really came home to me how difficult it is to do a simple thing like crossing the road if the varying levels of kerb and road mean your wheels don’t work. At the time, I drew a deep breath and heaved up the pushchair  – and thought about how much harder this would be for someone in a wheelchair.

Over the years I’ve been a councillor there have been many new dropped kerbs in Queen Edith’s. Although the public highways are really the responsibility of the County Council, the City Council has funded many dropped kerbs through its environmental improvements programmes. I think the most recent one round here is on Hills Road, to allow easier access from the hospital to Nightingale Avenue.

I am pleased to see that the City Council is running a mobility survey asking where people would most like to see new dropped kerbs in the city centre. You have until Friday to comment: go to http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/consultations/mobility-survey.en. If you have ideas for new ones in Queen Edith’s, please tell me or one of the other ward councillors.

Would you like to see a Farmers’ Market in Queen Edith’s? Possibly outside the Wulfstan Way shops, or in the Hills Road area?

A farmers’ market is a market in which farmers, growers or producers from a defined local area are present in person to sell their own produce, direct to the public. All products sold should have been grown, reared, caught, brewed, pickled, baked, smoked or processed by the stallholder. For more information, see http://www.farmersmarkets.net/

Farmers’ markets are a great way of bringing producers and customers from the same area together. Not only do they support the local economy, but they gives you fresh and healthy food and they reduce food miles – helping the environment as well as making life easier for those who cannot get into town easily.

If you’d like to be involved, please contact me.

Cold!

The temperature today is 82 degrees and it seems a bit bizarre to be writing about keeping warm this winter! However, I’ve just heard about a really creative idea for helping people in need — the vulnerable elderly, to be precise.  I found out about it recently when I visited the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation (CCF), a charity that matches grant givers to groups or individuals in need of funds.

Most people over 60 receive a Winter Fuel Payment of between £100-300. It’s what is called a universal state benefit, so everyone eligible for a pension gets it. I know it is much appreciated by many older people, who need the extra money to heat their homes properly, yet I hear some people say they are comfortably off and can manage perfectly well without state benefits.

Here is an answer for them. If they prefer to give the money to help someone less fortunate, they can donate their Winter Fuel Payments to the CCF’s Winter Fuel Fund. The Fund will go to charitable projects for older people – for example, it might pay for an old lady to go and have lunch at a day centre one day a week, or for an outing. People can register their interest on line at http://www.cambscf.org.uk/the-winter-fuel-fund.html; or email Sam Weller at sam@cambscf.org.uk.

DID YOU KNOW that approximately 2,500 bikes are stolen in Cambridge every year? So welcome to a helpful initiative to safeguard Cambridge bikes.

ParkThatBike is a social enterprise specialising in cycle parking. In their own words, they’re a ‘specialist consultancy working with UK local authorities to improve the nation’s cycle parking’. They are offering free cycle stands to local voluntary sector groups, charities, social enterprises and small businesses. Each stand holds two bikes neatly and securely.

SO: if you visit any small businesses, community groups, shops, pubs, offices, surgeries or churches and worry that your bike might disappear while you’re inside because there’s no cycle rack to attach it to, get in touch with the Bikerack Benefactors at www.parkthatbike.com, or phone 01594 for an application form.

The Cambridge offer is valid until March 2012.

Cherry Hinton Hall

City councillors have decided not to go ahead with a city farm at Cherry Hinton Hall, but to go ahead with the masterplan for redeveloping it, which includes a walled garden, theatre and café. I believe this is a sensible approach, as a farm would have meant restrictions on the annual Folk Festival as well as encroached on existing uses of the park.

I am looking forward to the other changes, particularly the theatre and café. There are many times when I’d have stayed a little longer if there had been refreshments available. A café would enhance users’ enjoyment and make a bit of money to spend on other leisure services.

The toilets are due to be replaced too. This cannot come too soon: the ones there now leave much to be desired – just four, in a dilapidated state, a long way from anywhere , and with no concession to disability or youth, such as lower sinks or baby changing. Last Sunday (that very hot Sunday), they  were in a particularly poor state, with the Ladies’ closed because of vandalism, leaving just an overused Gents’ with no toilet paper and a flooded floor.

I reported this to the Council and can report that there are plans to up the cleaning and checking of the toilets here. I am promised improvements by the end of July.

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.

Monkey not listening

Following a health debate at the April meeting of Cambridge City Council, Council Leader Sian Reid issued an invitation to attend a public debate on the government’s health ‘reforms’ to both the city’s MPs, Julian Huppert and Andrew Lansley.

Cambridge City MP, Julian Huppert accepted the invitation very quickly, but nearly two months later, we still await a response from the Rt Hon Andrew Lansley, MP for South Cambridgeshire (into which Queen Edith’s falls) but better known as Secretary of State for Health and the architect of the government’s planned changes to health service commissioning.

This is disappointing since here in Queen Edith’s, we have Addenbrooke’s Hospital. The Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust employs some 7,000 staff, many of whom live in the city. The proximity of the hospital also means we have a high proportion of residents with long-term illness.

During the election campaign and since, I fielded questions about the future of the health service from staff concerned about service provision and of course their own jobs. It would be good to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

Following the concerns at his plans voiced at the Lib Dem conference in Birmingham, Mr Lansley declared that he would listen.He said that government will “take the opportunity of a natural break in the passage of the bill to pause, to listen and to engage with all those who want the NHS to succeed”.

What better place to listen and engage with the public and those working in the health service than Cambridge? In fact, what better area than Queen Edith’s?

We look forward to hearing from our M.P.

I am pleased to report that the noisy Virgin junction box on Holbrook Road that had been emitting a loud hum was silenced on Monday morning.

Yesterday, I received a message from Virgin Media, which they’ve asked me to pass on:

Thank you for highlighting the issue with the junction box in the Holbrook Road area of Cambridge. We have visited the junction box and have now silenced the noise caused by the power supply within the cabinet. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to residents in the area.

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.