Disclaimer: These observations are not the ‘official’ minutes of the meeting, these are supplied by Whittlesey Town Council, normally (1) month following the meeting and can be viewed on their website.
My observations will come in several parts:
5 Members of the public present, all councillors except Cllr Bristow in attendance.
Following the agenda (See a previous post 03rd November), the subject of CCTV and Police report was briefly covered.
Policing & CCTV
The Chairman Cllr Miscandlon stated that he had been informed that Whittlesey would be allocated 2 PCSO’s but this had not yet been confirmed.
There has been vandalism carried out at ‘Vinpenta House’ on the corner of High Causeway, this is a Grade II listed building (c1740) and it appears that there has been ‘youths’ gathering and breaking of windows on several occasions.
When reported to the Police – the reply was they were ‘busy’ elsewhere.
When asked whether the CCTV had captured anything, there was no commitment.
There was then a short discussion as the whether CCTV was ‘value’ for money…..
This has been asked on many occasions..?
Read history/heritage of Vinpenta House by Clicking Here
Kings Dyke Crossing.
Next was a presentation by Mr Tim Watkins of Cambs Country Council. I was again somewhat disappointed in that ‘we’ the public and probably most of the Councillors did not actually know ‘who or what’ position Mr Watkins holds – I have since established that he is The Project Manager Major Infrastructure Delivery’
So now we know who he is, he informed the Council that there are hold ups again in getting access for the completion of a Ground Assessment Report, some 50+% has been done, but there is a landowner who is will not allow access at this time.
There are several options available to Cambs CC including challenging the access at a magistrate court and ultimately compulsory purchasing the land.
If the ‘hold up’ becomes an issue, they will ask the 6 contractors who are interested in the development to proceed with only the 50+% of the Ground survey available to them.
Mr Watkins said that the latest delay could result in a further 2 months before the ground works may begin – hopefully sometime in 2017.
A councillor asked which landowner was the cause of the access issues – Mr Watkins was non committal.
