County Councillor Report for Parishes – February 2023 – Cllr Anna Bradnam
Budget and Council Tax Along with three quarters of the other councils in the country, Cambridgeshire County Council has needed to increase its portion of the council tax by 4.99 per cent, the maximum permitted. Following years with no increases which have left us poorly resourced and a government promise of a fair funding formula which has not been delivered, the joint administration has faced up to the financial challenge and increased Council Tax by £73 a year for a Band D property, which is an additional a £1.41 per week.
Cambridgeshire currently receives a poor deal from the government compared to other councils and we joined forces with county councils across the UK to ask our MPs to revise the fair funding formula to reflect more accurately the needs of the county. If Cambridgeshire was brought up to the current county council average settlement we would receive around £23 million more funding per year. In the absence of this government funding we have taken a responsible attitude; rather than keep council tax unrealistically low and plug the gap from reserves, we have made savings – but carefully, so as not to impact our services.
Embarrassingly, the Council Tax letters were originally issued containing a typographical error in the breakdown, although the total amounts were correct. This was spotted quickly, is being corrected and the letters are being re-issued.
Following a by-election in February, the St Neots and The Eatons Division was won by Geoff Seeff (Lib Dem). The composition of the County Council is now Conservative 27, Liberal Democrat 22, Labour 9, Independent, 3. The next full County Council meeting will be on 21 March 2023.
Highways and Transport
20 mph schemes
Parishes can apply now for 20 mph schemes. The application window opened on 27 February 2023.
The indicative timeline for the 2023/24 application window is
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- Application window closes – at 5pm on Sunday 30 April 2023
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- Prioritisation undertaken – May to July 2023
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- Report to Committee including prioritised list for approval – July 2023
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- Programming, design and consultation with applicants – Sept 2023 to March 2024
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- Pricing and construction – March to July 2024
Milton PC is currently conducting a resident consultation to seek support to convert the 30 mph zone to 20 mph, which I support. Have your say.
LHI bids being presented to councillors for recommendation to the Highways & Transport Committee will be considered at a panel meeting on Friday 12 May.
Waterbeach
Denny End Road junction – the temporary traffic lights from Car Dyke Road have now moved up to Denny End Road to control traffic at the junction with the A10, which I believe is now open.
Dimmock Road and Mason Road – a resident has requested installation of ‘Dead End’ signs to deter drivers from using the grassed area between their eastern ends, a grassed play area, as a cut-through. I have contacted Waterbeach Parish Council to consider if installing bollards might be more effective.
Fen Ditton – High Ditch Road railway bridge – we await a quote from CCC’s contractor to paint white lines at the road edges, on the approaches to the railway bridge. Under current regulations the road is too narrow to have a centre line over the bridge.
Pavement outside 25 High Ditch Road – I have asked for the path to be resurfaced
Downpipes at Francis Court and other properties on High Ditch Road – ongoing
Centre white line on Ditton Lane south of the crossroads – I have requested re-painting
East West Rail
East West Rail are preparing an application for a Development Consent Order (DCO) for a rail line between Oxford and Cambridge. In order to conduct appropriate non-statutory (i.e. ‘pre’) consultation, EWR set up a number of geographic groups representing councils and parishes along the proposed route. Some have merged so now there are 15 geographic groups in total. Ours is “Cambridge and surrounding villages.” The previous meeting had been on 11 October 2022 at which the business case was presented in rather a lot of detail. Following questions from attendees it was explained that although the non-statutory consultation had included the northern approach into Cambridge, EWR had since decided that the southern approach was their preferred option. The group requested an independent facilitator and some time has been lost while terms have been agreed and a facilitator appointed.
On 1 March there were 14 attendees, of which 8 of us (including Hazel Smith and I) were from parishes around Cambridge. Following more queries from attendees it was again explained that following the pre-statutory consultations EWR had identified that their preferred route was the southern route but they will not be able to confirm the final route until their analysis of the consultation feedback has been reviewed by government. They expect the report to be “in the first half of 2023”. Meanwhile whilst other groups are considering freight and traction options, reps on this group have asked to revisit the “north versus south route” again in terms of carbon footprint. Since the meetings are quarterly, the next meeting will be early June 2023.
I submitted a strong objection to the northern route – and resubmitted it recently, which has been acknowledged.
Greater Cambridge Partnership – Waterbeach to Cambridge – Quality Transport route
Public exhibitions were held on 27 and 28 March in Landbeach and Waterbeach.
The GCP are undertaking the public consultations required in order to prepare the Transport and Works Act Order. Deadline for comment is 24 March 2023. The purpose of the consultation is to understand local circumstances and how it might benefit or negatively impact local residents.
Water
Cambridge Water has published its Water Resources Management Plan
Our Water Resources Plan | Cambridge Water (cambridge-water.co.uk)
Anglian Water has withdrawn its recently-submitted application to move the wastewater treatment plant from Northeast Cambridge to Horningsea. It is expected that they will revise and re-submit.
Waste The County Council’s long-term waste disposal PFI contract with Thalia at Waterbeach continues to be a major preoccupation of the Council. Work is continuing on options for the odour emission abatement required by the Environment Agency, and Government changes to food waste collection arrangements are proving challenging.
London Luton Airport approach corridor – and aircraft noise
In February 2022 the aircraft stacking routes and approach corridors for London Stansted and London Luton Airports were separated and re-routed. The change, known as Air Deployment 6 (AD6) has caused aircraft to be re-routed on a westward route between Milton and Waterbeach as well as stacking, noise and disturbance for a number of other South Cambridgeshire villages to the west towards Luton. The prior consultation for this change was conducted between Feb 2020 and Feb 2021, during Covid lock-downs, so public awareness and engagement was minimal. Stage 7 (since February 2022) has been the post-implementation consultation, which was due to end in June 2023 but has been extended to September 2023. I attended a resident meeting held in Little Gransden on 23 February with residents from Milton who object to the noise. Since February 2022, AD6 has been a trial period but if this route is made permanent the flight numbers on the route will increase. I have noticed the noise of air-braking (the muffled moan of fast deceleration) regularly, both early in the morning and from midday but again in the evening. Pilots consider air-braking to be poor practice but I understand pilots are having to air-brake in order to comply with the new flight corridors and approach altitudes. If flight number increase on this very narrow corridor, as they are expected to do, it will mean aircraft noise of this type will be audible for around 21 hours of the day. You can track planes on LLA’s website here:
TraVis – London Luton Airport (topsonic.aero) Click on ‘Search address’ and you can type in your address to track what aircraft are flying nearby or over your house. Luton will only record complaints if you quote specific aircraft and flights, which this website allows you to identify.
Some residents will not even be aware of the noise but for others it is a source of real disturbance. This relates to the orientation of your house, bedroom window/patio and the presence of other buildings and the presence or absence of other ambient noise (if you are in a quiet area). If you want to complain, identify the aircraft and email, saying when and how it affected you
Cc: public.enquiries@nats.co.uk (National Air Traffic Service),
complaints@caa.co.uk (Civil Aviation Authority),
info@relas.uk ((the RELAS Facebook group – the group who organised the meeting)
lucy.frazer.mp@parliament.uk (our MP) and
anna.bradnam@cambridgeshire.gov.uk (me – your County Councillor)
Include your name, postal address and email address – or they will not register your complaint.
Trees – A14 improvement route – tree replanting
Following a complaint and motion at County Council, National Highways have conducted tree and soil survey to establish why so many trees failed in 2021 and 2022. They have now published the “A14 C2H (Cambridge to Huntingdon) Replanting Strategy February 2023” and will commence managed re-planting in due course.
You can contact me at anna.bradnam@cambridgeshire.gov.uk 01223 862364