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.

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.

Cllrs Zoe Moghadas, Gail Marchant-Daisley, Tim Ward, Sheila Stuart and Ian-Nimmo-Smith, Mayor's Cadet Daniel Pereira.

The great thing about being a councillor is the tremendous variety of things you do. In the past ten days, I’ve taken in part in council meetings, enjoyed the Mayor’s Dinner, done a councillor’s advice surgery, written oodles of emails and letters, read council papers, written press releases, carried out a residents’ survey,  attended the inaugural meeting of the Cambridge Muslim Council – and helped to open an 800 year-old fair! Never a dull moment.

As a City Bailiff, it’s my job to dress up in a Cambridge blue robe and accompany the Mayor on official engagements. In older times, we had to protect the Mayor’s person by fending off insurgents, and remove furniture from tax-dodgers. You can see the snazzy uniform on my fellow Bailiff Sheila in this picture. There are four of us altogether: this year there are two Labour ones and two Lib Dems.

Midsummer Fair is one of my ‘duties’ – and a very pleasant one it is too. Instituted by King John by Royal Charter in 1211, the fair is proclaimed on the fourth Wednesday in June, followed by the throwing of newly minted pennies to the children in the crowd. This year was the big year, as the fair is 800 years old this year, and we were joined by a glittering pantheon of mayors from all over the county as well as our own councillors and honorary councillors.

We toured the fair with the mayor, starting with the dodgems and taking in the carousel and the ghost train, pictured here. I don’t know if they had the ghost train in King John’s day – that could explain a lot! Many thanks to Ridgeons, who sponsored the event.

County Council Highways officers are coming to the next South Cambridge Area meeting on 11th July to hear what we think of the 20mph speed limit trial in the Wulfstan Way area. Officers would like to make it permanent. The scheme has been running for just over a year and covers Wulfstan Way, Gunhild Way and Godwin Way, and the three cul-de-sacs in that area.

The Wulfstan Way area was chosen because it has a lot of of pedestrians and cyclists, and several community facilities – churches, schools, doctors’ surgeries and shops.

The police will be at the meeting too, so there will be a good opportunity to evaluate the trial – and to ask for more support from them in terms of enforcement. I have also had suggestions that the lower speed limit should be more clearly signed, a very valid point. Clearly those two things need to work together.

The meeting takes place on Monday 11th July at the Cherry Hinton Village Centre, starting at 7.30 p.m. Or if you cannot attend, please comment here or on the Queen Edith’s Facebook page.

I would also welcome views on other streets which would benefit from 20mph zones, as the Government has just relaxed the rules, meaning local people can get 20mph speed limits put in with much less bureaucracy and at lower cost.

St John the Evangelist Church will be holding a graden party this Saturday, 18th June, 2.30 – 4.30 p.m.

There will be musical entertainment, cream teas, books to browse, tombola, and fair trade goods to browse.

There’s also a raffle with unusually good prizes, including a voucher for Don Pasquale.

I’ll be on the book stall – see you there!

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.

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.