Cambridgeshire Highways will be resurfacing Long Road between the Hills Road Junction and Long Road VI Form College from Tuesday 9th August 2011 to Friday 12th August. The work will be carried out during the daytime from 09:30hrs to 15:30hrs. Traffic will be controlled by temporary traffic lights.

If you have any queries regarding the work please contact Jonathan Clarke, Area Maintenance Engineer for this area either on email (Jonathan.Clarke@cambridgeshire.gov.uk) or telephone Cambridgeshire Highways on 0345 045 5212.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.