Fen Ditton Parish Council
e.mail: clerk@fenditton-pc.gov.uk
All members of the Council are summoned to attend the Parish Council Meeting of Fen Ditton Parish Council on Tuesday, 1st September 2026 at 7.00 p.m. The Hangar Marleigh Office for the purposes of considering and resolving the business to be transacted at the meeting as set out in the agenda below. Councillors may observe proceedings remotely and speak at the chair’s discretion, but remote attendance shall not be counted as attendance for the purposes of quorum or voting.
Members of the public are invited to address the meeting between 7.00 p.m. and 7.15 p.m.
Maximilian Huber
Clerk & RFO
1st Floor, The Hangar Building,
2 Jubilee Sq, Cambridge CB5 8UW
AGENDA – PDF Sept 2026 Agenda
LGA 1972 s12 10(2)(b) states that business must be specified on the agenda; therefore the Council cannot lawfully agree any matter that is not on the agenda. * indicates an agenda item for reporting only
| 2026/151 | To receive apologies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026/152 | Open forum for members of the public. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026/153 | To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on 4 August 2026. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026/154 | To receive declarations from Councillors as to the disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in relation to any items on the agenda. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026/155 | Clerk’s report and matters arising from the Minutes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026/156 | To consider following planning applications and tree works applications
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| 2026/157 | To receive reports from and questions to:
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| 2026/158 | Review correspondence received and note any actions arising. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026/159 | To approve payments made during the month, accounts for payment, and authorise forthcoming payments:
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| 2026/160 | To approve payments made during July and August from the Equal’s money pre-loaded card:
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| 2026/161 | To note money received:
None. |
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| 2026/162 | Proposal to prepare a submission for double yellow lines on High Street and Church Street. See Appendix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026/163 | Proposal for project governance and delegated authority for Pavilion Refurbishment and repairs. See Appendix
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| 2026/164 | Proposal to accept offer of a Christmas Tree and decided on suitable date. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026/165 | Proposal to consider playground repair quotes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026/166 | Proposal to consider renewal of electricity contract – Utility Aid Quote was emailed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026/167 | Parish Councillors Committee report(s), (For Information Only)
Newsletter/Website Cemetery Crime & Welfare Highways & Transport Strategic Planning Chairman Report |
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| 2026/168 | To accept notices and matters for the next agenda. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Appendix
PROPOSALS
High Street / Church Street double yellow lines, parking, access and event-related obstruction.
Prepared: 17 August 2026
Status: Draft for consideration by Full Council
Decision sought: Authority and resources to prepare a full submission to Cambridgeshire County Council
Aim: To introduce double yellow lines only where parking causes an obstruction or safety problem—for example, by significantly reducing the usable width of the road; parking partly or wholly on the pavement and obstructing pedestrians, including people using baby buggies, wheelchairs or mobility aids; restricting visibility; or preventing emergency, refuse, delivery and other vehicles from passing or manoeuvring safely. Any restrictions should be limited to the minimum length reasonably necessary. The proposal is not intended to remove safe, normal on-street parking where it does not interfere with pedestrian access, vehicle access or highway safety.
| RECOMMENDATION: Approve a structured evidence, consultation and option-appraisal project, with preparatory expenditure capped at £3,000. The project would produce a council-approved submission seeking both permanent highway measures and stronger event-day traffic management. No physical works, Traffic Regulation Order costs or future match funding are authorised by this proposal. |
1. Background and problem
There are long-standing parking and access difficulties on High Street, particularly around its junction with Church Street and the surrounding narrow sections of highway. At busy times, parked vehicles can leave insufficient space for larger vehicles to pass and can reduce visibility and manoeuvring space at the junction.
The problem becomes significantly worse when events take place in or near the village, including services and events at the church, rowing and riverside events, and events at local public houses. The number and frequency of events have increased. On some occasions the cumulative parking demand is now severe enough to risk blocking the route or making access unreliable.
The reported consequences include difficulty for emergency-service vehicles, refuse vehicles, delivery lorries and other large vehicles, as well as congestion, reversing movements and conflict between vehicles and pedestrians. A full submission should distinguish verified incidents from reasonable access risks, so the County Council receives an objective and defensible evidence base.
This proposal is not intended to oppose community, church, rowing or hospitality events. Its purpose is to secure proportionate arrangements that allow events to continue without compromising highway safety, essential access or the day-to-day functioning of the village.
2. Proposed objective
The project objective should be:
| OBJECTIVE: To maintain a safe and reliably passable route through the High Street / Church Street junction and its immediate approaches, including during events, while taking proper account of residents, businesses, visitors, the conservation-area street scene and the risk of displacing parking into neighbouring streets. |
3. Why a full evidence-led submission is needed
Cambridgeshire County Council is the highway and traffic authority. The Parish Council can identify the problem, evidence it, consult locally and seek a scheme, but it cannot itself introduce or enforce yellow lines, place unauthorised traffic-management equipment on the highway, or require event organisers to operate particular highway controls.
Permanent waiting restrictions and junction protection normally require design work, consultation and a Traffic Regulation Order. The County Council’s Local Highway Improvement process treats parking restrictions such as single or double yellow lines as non-complex schemes, expects a clear objective, local-member support and informal consultation with people directly affected, and normally requires a local contribution. Event-related measures may instead or additionally need engagement with the Highway Events Team and event-specific traffic-management plans or temporary orders.
The best outcome may therefore be a combined package: targeted permanent restrictions at the most critical points, supported by improved event planning, off-site or alternative parking information, stewarding and temporary controls for larger events. A professional and neutral appraisal is more likely to secure County Council action than a request for a predetermined length of yellow line.
4. Scope of the preparatory project
4.1 Define the study area and operating requirement
- Prepare a clear location plan covering the High Street / Church Street junction, the narrow approaches and any immediately connected locations where displaced parking may arise.
- Record the carriageway geometry, existing restrictions, signs, accesses, bus or service requirements and the critical turning and passing movements.
- Where justified, obtain proportionate professional advice on the width or swept path needed for fire appliances, refuse vehicles and typical delivery vehicles. Emergency-service requirements should be sought through official channels rather than assumed.
4.2 Build an evidence base
- Maintain a dated obstruction and access log, distinguishing direct observations from reports received from third parties.
- Undertake observations and timestamped photographs on ordinary weekdays and at a representative range of church, rowing, riverside and public-house events.
- Record parking occupancy, pinch points, junction visibility, pedestrian effects, vehicle queuing or reversing, and whether essential or large vehicles were delayed, diverted or unable to pass.
- Seek factual records where available, including missed or delayed refuse collections, reports to the police or County Council, parking-enforcement visits, event dates and attendance estimates. Personal data should be minimised and redacted from the published submission where necessary.
- Prepare a concise chronology demonstrating the long-term nature of the issue and the recent increase in frequency or severity.
4.3 Consult affected parties
- Affected residents and property occupiers, including people whose normal parking or access may be altered by a scheme.
- The church, local public houses, rowing and riverside event organisers, and other regular event organisers or venues.
- The County Councillor, County Council Local Highways Officer, Policy and Regulation Team and Highway Events Team.
- Waste-collection and relevant operational services, local businesses and delivery operators where they can provide factual evidence.
- Cambridgeshire Constabulary, emergency services and the district Safety Advisory Group through the appropriate official or County Council-led process.
Consultation should ask about the problem, practical requirements and effects of options. It should not ask respondents merely to endorse a preselected design. Responses should be summarised fairly, including objections and alternative suggestions.
4.4 Appraise a proportionate range of options
- Targeted permanent waiting restrictions or junction protection on the junction and critical approaches, including whether restrictions are needed on one or both sides.
- Restrictions limited to the shortest length needed to maintain visibility, turning space and a passable route, with loading and access needs considered explicitly.
- Event-day temporary waiting or loading restrictions, temporary traffic-management orders where appropriate, advance signs, stewarding, drop-off arrangements and signed alternative parking.
- Event-management requirements or a common traffic-management protocol for organisers whose events materially affect the highway.
- Physical or signing measures to discourage footway or verge parking where that causes obstruction, subject to highway and conservation constraints.
- Enforcement practicality, displacement into neighbouring roads, effect on residents and businesses, cost, visual impact and deliverability.
- A minimum-intervention or no-change option, so that the need and proportionality of the recommended package are demonstrated.
5. Required outputs
- A mapped statement of the problem and the route that must remain passable.
- An evidence annex containing observation records, photographs, verified service-access incidents and the event chronology.
- A stakeholder consultation report showing who was consulted, the questions asked, principal responses and how objections were considered.
- An option appraisal setting out benefits, disadvantages, displacement risks, enforcement implications, indicative costs and the relevant delivery route.
- A preferred package, which may combine permanent restrictions with event-day management measures.
- A draft submission to Cambridgeshire County Council, suitable for the appropriate route: Local Highway Improvement funding, a privately funded highway/TRO request, Highway Events intervention, or a coordinated combination of these.
- A proposed communications and monitoring plan for any trial, consultation or implemented scheme.
6. Resources and expenditure
A maximum preparatory budget of £3,000 is recommended. This may be used for limited independent highways or traffic advice, proportionate parking or access observations, plan preparation, consultation materials and other directly related costs. Councillor and resident evidence gathering should be used where appropriate, but professional input should be available where technical credibility is needed.
Expenditure should follow the Council’s Financial Regulations and normal quotation, invoice-checking, banking and dual-authorisation controls. Before expenditure is committed, the Clerk/RFO should identify and record the applicable statutory power and confirm the budget source, proposed as the existing highways budget or General Reserves if no earmarked budget is available.
| EXCLUDED FROM THIS AUTHORITY: Construction or lining works; permanent or temporary Traffic Regulation Order and advertising fees; enforcement costs; an LHI or other match-funding contribution; and any ongoing event-management commitment by the Parish Council. Each requires a later decision once the preferred option, full cost and responsibilities are known. |
7. Governance and delegation
The Clerk/RFO should remain the responsible officer and budget controller. A small member working group should assist with observations, stakeholder engagement and review of drafts. The working group would not be a committee and would have no independent power to spend, contract, determine policy or submit the final case.
Under section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972, the Council may delegate operational implementation of its resolution to the Clerk/RFO. The delegation should be exercised in consultation with the Chair, Vice-Chair and up to two other appointed councillors, while leaving the formal decision with the Clerk/RFO and preserving the Council’s Financial Regulations.
A short progress report should be made to each ordinary Council meeting, recording work completed, consultations undertaken, expenditure committed and paid, forecast final cost, significant risks and any change in scope. Material policy choices, requests for more money and the completed submission should return to Full Council.
Pavilion Refurbishment project
Proposal for project governance and delegated authority
To: Fen Ditton Parish Council
Prepared: 10 August 2026
Decision: Approve delegated arrangements
Recommendation. Approve the resolutions in sections 4 and 5. The total project budget, the two Working Group members and the maximum Trust contribution should be stated in the minute adopting the resolutions.
1. Purpose
To put in place a clear and practical delegation that allows the pavilion refurbishment to proceed without routine operational and financial decisions returning to the full Council. The authority covers the main refurbishment, necessary maintenance and major repairs to the roof, and the subsequent installation of solar panels and other carbon-reduction measures supported by the District Council grant.
2. Background
Fen Ditton Parish Council owns the pavilion. The Fen Ditton Recreation Ground Trust operates the pavilion, and the Parish Council is the Trust’s sole corporate trustee. The Trust’s constitution has been amended to permit Trust funds to contribute towards the refurbishment where doing so furthers the Trust’s charitable purposes.
South Cambridgeshire District Council has provided a grant for the installation of solar panels and other carbon-reduction or energy-efficiency measures. The grant has its own terms and conditions and must be accounted for separately.
The roof requires maintenance and major repair work before solar panels can be installed. The roof work is therefore an essential enabling part of the project, but it must not be charged to the District Council grant unless the written grant terms, or written approval from the District Council, expressly permit this.
3. Recommended governance arrangement
Only two councillors are to oversee the project. A two-member formal committee would be vulnerable to quorum and continuity problems and may not be consistent with the Council’s committee provisions. The recommended arrangement is therefore a two-councillor Pavilion Refurbishment Working Group, with formal decision-making authority delegated to the Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer under section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972.
The Working Group will provide councillor oversight and advice. It will not itself exercise the Council’s statutory or financial powers. The Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer will be the formal decision-maker after consultation with the Working Group and will remain responsible for ensuring that decisions comply with the law, the Council’s governance documents and the relevant grant conditions.
The Council’s corporate decisions and its decisions as sole trustee must be separately recorded and accounted for, even when considered at the same meeting.
Proposed resolution – Parish Council
It is proposed that Fen Ditton Parish Council, acting in its corporate capacity as owner of the pavilion, RESOLVES as follows:
- Approves the pavilion refurbishment project and authorises expenditure up to the total project budget expressly recorded in the minute adopting this resolution, or subsequently varied by a further Council resolution. The approved budget may comprise Council funds, external grants and the Trust contribution authorised separately and in line with the Charitable Trust Constitution as amended 13th November 2025.
- Establishes a Pavilion Refurbishment Working Group comprising the two councillors named in the minute. The Working Group shall continue until the refurbishment, roof works, carbon-reduction measures and final project account have been completed, unless the Council resolves otherwise.
- Delegates to the Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer, under section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972 and after consultation with the Working Group, full authority to manage, determine and deliver all aspects of the project within the approved project budget.
- Confirms that the delegated authority includes power to:
- develop, amend and approve the detailed design, specification, phasing and programme;
- commission surveys, investigations and reports, including structural, condition, roof, electrical, asbestos and energy assessments where relevant;
- appoint and instruct surveyors, architects, engineers, energy advisers, principal designers, contract administrators and other professional advisers;
- obtain planning permission, prior approval, building regulation approval, Distribution Network Operator approval and any other statutory or technical consent;
- undertake procurement exercises, obtain quotations or tenders, evaluate submissions, negotiate terms and select contractors and suppliers;
- enter into and sign contracts, professional appointments, purchase orders and other project documents on behalf of the Council, excluding deeds and land transactions;
- approve expenditure, valuations, invoices, contract payments, variations, extensions of time, changes to the specification and use of the project contingency;
- coordinate contractors, building users, the Trust, funders, statutory bodies and utility providers;
- make arrangements necessary to meet health and safety, construction design and management, insurance and safeguarding requirements;
- resolve routine contractual, technical, programme and operational matters; and
- take any other decision or action reasonably necessary for the proper and timely completion of the project.
- Specifically authorises the Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer, after consultation with the Working Group, to commission, approve and undertake all roof maintenance and repair work reasonably necessary before the solar panels are installed. This includes, where professionally recommended:
- opening-up works, surveys and structural investigations;
- repair or replacement of roof coverings, membranes, flashings, drainage and associated weatherproofing;
- major repair or replacement of defective roof components;
- repair or strengthening of the roof structure and any other work necessary to carry the proposed solar installation safely;
- associated insulation, ventilation and making-good works; and
- scaffolding, access, temporary protection and professional supervision.
- Requires the roof works to be designed and programmed so that the roof is structurally suitable, weatherproof and expected to have an appropriate remaining service life before the solar panels are fitted. The Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer may procure the roof work as a separate contract or as part of the main refurbishment contract, according to professional advice and best value.
- Specifically authorises the Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer, after consultation with the Working Group, to progress and complete the solar installation and any other carbon-reduction, renewable-energy or energy-efficiency measures funded wholly or partly by the grant received from South Cambridgeshire District Council. This includes authority to:
- finalise the design, specification, location, capacity and programme for the measures;
- appoint suitably qualified consultants, installers and suppliers;
- enter into contracts and approve expenditure within the grant award and approved project budget;
- make reasonable technical, planning or value-for-money changes to the proposed measures;
- submit claims, completion reports, monitoring information and other evidence required by the District Council; and
- take any other action reasonably necessary to comply with the grant conditions and secure the intended carbon and energy-saving benefits.
- Requires the District Council grant to be separately identified within the project accounts and used only for expenditure permitted by its terms and conditions. The general project delegation does not authorise any action contrary to the grant conditions.
- Confirms that roof repairs and other enabling works shall be charged to the Council’s approved project budget.
- Requires the Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer to consult both Working Group members where reasonably practicable. The Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer remains the formal decision-maker. Consultation does not require the two councillors to reach agreement and does not transfer the decision to them. A material disagreement may be referred to the full Council where the Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer considers this appropriate.
- Requires all delegated decisions to comply with applicable legislation, the Council’s Standing Orders, Financial Regulations, procurement requirements, insurance arrangements, professional advice, grant conditions and the approved project budget.
- Requires all payments to remain subject to the Council’s normal invoice checking, banking and dual-authorisation controls. The power to approve project expenditure does not remove those controls.
- Confirms that the delegation does not authorise:
- expenditure exceeding the overall approved project budget;
- borrowing;
- the sale, lease or other disposal of the pavilion or any land;
- a material change to the approved purpose of the refurbishment;
- expenditure contrary to an external grant condition; or
- any decision which legislation requires the full Council to make.
- Requires a short written report at each ordinary Council meeting recording:
- progress since the previous report;
- expenditure committed, expenditure paid and the forecast final cost;
- significant decisions, including professional appointments, contract awards, major roof decisions, material variations, use of contingency and significant programme or specification changes;
- solar and carbon-reduction progress, District Council grant expenditure and the remaining grant balance; and
- any significant risk, delay, dispute or grant-compliance issue.
- Confirms that reports are for information and accountability. Decisions properly made under this delegation take effect when made and do not require subsequent ratification.
- Authorises the Clerk/Responsible Financial Officer to refer any matter to the full Council where there is uncertainty about legality or the extent of the delegation, an unmanageable conflict of interest, a proposed expenditure above the approved budget, or a substantial financial or reputational risk.
- Confirms that the Council may exercise any delegated function itself and may amend or revoke this delegation at any time, without affecting action lawfully taken before the amendment or revocation.
Following adoption, the Clerk should record this authority in the Council’s Scheme of Delegation and retain a simple project decision log. Decisions that are required to be recorded under the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 should record the date, decision, reasons, alternatives considered and any declared conflict of interest.
The corporate resolution and the trustee resolution should appear under separate headings in the agenda and minutes. The Trust’s decision record and financial records should be retained separately from the Council’s corporate records.
Governance references
- Local Government Act 1972, section 101 – delegation to a committee, sub-committee or officer.
- Charity Commission guidance: Local authorities (or councils) as trustees of charities.
- Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 – recording certain delegated officer decisions.