Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

Cambs Fire Service – Orincess Royal Opens New Huntingdon Fire Station

TODAY, over 100 colleagues, contractors and local civic dignitaries warmly welcomed Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal to the new Huntingdon Fire Station and Service training centre for a tour and to officially open the building with the unveiling of a plaque.

The Princess Royal was greeted by the Lord Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire, Mrs Julie Spence OBE QPM, and introduced to Fire Authority Chair Edna Murphy, Deputy Chief Executive for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) Matthew Warren and Assistant Chief Fire Officer Jon Anderson, among other civic representatives, before commencing a tour of the new fire station and CFRS’s training centre which is on the same site.

Cambs Fire Service – Orincess Royal Opens New Huntingdon Fire Station

I have been a member of the Rural CAB for some 12 years, I have attended 9 AGM’s.

Today’s meeting in Chatteris was attended by around 40 or so Councillors, Supporters and Staff Members.
Along with myself, Cllr Kay Mayor attended, along with FDC Cllr Miscandlon and Ex Cllr David Mason.

Surprising that the newly elected Whittlesey Town Council representative was not present?.
Newly elected Neil McKittrick presented an excellent overview of the achievements and challenges ongoing on delivering the service.

Here in Whittlesey our Town Council support the CAB by making an annual donation, they in turn carry out Face-to-Face interviews here in Whittlesey (most) Fridays.
The best way is to go through the triage system to get an appointment.
(Ways to contact the CAB in Part 2)

On occasions there maybe a walk in on demand but this is rare.
Last year our CAB obtained ten’s of thousands of ££££ in various benifits to our local residents.

You have to live within the Whittlesey catchment area to be eligible to use the service.

Bigger and better….the Volunteer Extravagaza Group have raised the bar – having applied for various funding from many organisations have allowed for a late afternoon/early evening of attractions for children to enjoy.

At last nights meeting, the final arrangements were put in place.

      
A fun family few friendly hours – organised by Volunteers from the
Whittlesey Extravaganza Group.

Anglian Water were ‘questioned’ on a number of concerns and issues, especially with the planned new reservoir being planned.
Myself had some ‘accountability’ questioning and when it came to AW Pollution recorded the representatives answered and apologised about their recent historical records, and seemed a little rattled and comfortable.

My questions were :-

What do you consider to be termed as Water Pollution?
Where does Water Pollution come from?
Who is responsible for dealing with Water Pollution?

Anglian Water pleaded guilty and was hit with a fine of £2.65 million after allowing untreated sewage to overflow into the North Sea following a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency. What are Anglian Water doing to prevent ongoing discharges in to our rivers and sea.

The report highlighted three main reasons Anglian Water remained a two-star company:  Thirty-three sewerage pollution incidents per 10,000 km.
Anglian Water caused 255 incidents in 2022. This included 11 serious incidents. More than half of all of the serious pollution incidents nationally were from Anglian Water and Thames Water assets.
Anglian Water was the worst-performing water company for self-reporting of all pollution incidents.  

The Environment Agency revealed in its annual report on the environmental performance of England’s nine water and sewerage companies today (July 12) that Anglian Water has been rated two stars.

 Is Anglian Water irrespective of its investment putting profit before pollution?

WTC & FDC Cllr Sennitt Clough asked :-

Please can Anglian Water address the question of why sewerage was dumped into the Nene in Peterborough and what are they doing about the impact that is having on neighbouring towns such as Whittlesey?

You can read an article in Tuesdays Peterborough Telegraph by Clicking Here

You can watch the Panel on FDC’s YouTube Channel Click Here to FDC YouTube

At todays meeting (can view on FDC’s Youtube Channel) at 14:30 the panel will asking questions from Anglian Water.
I will be attending and my questions primarily will be the NOT very good way AW have been with dealing with pollution in our rivers and seas. Recently they (AW) were fined over £2 million for discharging sewage into the sea.

FDC Agenda frontsheet 28112023 1430 O&S Panel

In attendance was Dr. Garrett and 12 members of the New Queen Street Patients Participation Group. The agenda listed below.

‘We’ always raise the question of Patients being seen by Doctor(s) Face-to-Face. Over the past 12 months we are consistently informed the NQS are seeing more F2F appointments and seeing above ‘The National Average’

Here are details of next Saturday’s movie eve – always good to see U3A members and guests with us!

Please be aware that, due to low attendances at the last two screenings, we will be monitoring numbers at this and the 16th Dec screenings and will make a decision as to whether these evenings can continue into the new year. We do not wish to change our procedures so screenings will always be free of charge with donations welcomed to defray expenses, however, it is simply not viable to continue with few persons coming along.
We look forward to your continued support.

Whittlesey Movie Evenings
At Queen St Church – Saturdays, fortnightly.
THE WINTER SEASON CONTINUES!!
Doors open 6.30 for 7pm start.
Sat. 2nd December
“The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry”   Cert 12A – Drama
Stars Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton