Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

Resurgence of the New Queen Street Surgery – Patients Participation Group is going well.
Excellent engagement with Practice Manger Paul Crosby was refreshing.
Some 12 or so members attended on the ‘Teams’ platform.
It has potential to get better – we all are aware of the bad publicity that NQS has had in the past 12/18 months.
I asked how many doctors we now had at NQS and the answer was 8 (Not sure whether full or part time) they are actively trying to recruit another 3 GP’s along with support staff.
The refurb of Stanground is now complete.

If you would like to know more of what is happening at NQS, why not join the PPG – contact me and I’ll pass on your details.

Some confusion on Saturday morning….several people turned up without an appointment.

It has been well advertised that all Council Surguries would be appointments.
I covered the Council Offices several times last week, and no one booked an appointment.
We created a ‘book’ for this purpose and no other Councillor covering the office received any booking.

I advertised it on this web-blog on the 1st November and appreciate not everyone passes by here, but it was on the noticeboard outside of the building !

The next planned surgury will be on Saturday 04th December 2021
Councillors Kay Mayor and Gary Munns will be in attendance.

My days of digging are well over, so instead Connie and I support and sponsor around 5  large trees and about 100 small trees every year, we up these numbers by minimising the amount of christmas cards we send out.
This year we are doing even more, as we are supporting through our membership of The National Trust™ and The Woodland Trust™ both have large scale tree planting going on.

Although Fenland District Council are doing a small bit, I and many believe it is nowhere enough.
Free trees are fairly easy to obtain, planting and finding suitable land is somewhat more difficult.

I’ll follow up to see if this initiative below came to be…

Some success today, a friend our ours who has dementia and had missed her Booster Jab, we took her to the Walk-In-Jabs at Orton Wistow and the staff very helpful she got her Booster and a bonus Flu jab as well.

GREEN LIGHT FOR BUS SERVICES FUNDING BID

Members of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority Board, at their meeting on the 27th October, gave approval for the submission of a Bus Services Improvement Plan to the Department of Transport at the end of this month.

As part of the National Bus Strategy for England (announced in March 2021), which involved a major change in the way that the bus industry operates, all Local Transport Authorities, outside of London, are required to publish a Bus Service Improvement Plan. The plan sets out how a Local Transport Authority, which in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area is the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority, proposes to deliver their ambitious vision for bus travel in the future.

Read The Mayors Statement Here

COMBINED AUTHORITY TAKES A LEAD ON ADDRESSING FUTURE WATER SUPPLY ISSUES.

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority is to take a leading role as the region attempts to counteract the impact Climate Change and a growing population is having on water resources.

The Combined Authority has accepted an invitation to join two significant initiatives which are focused on planning for future water needs across the area. The Combined Authority will join the Water Resources East (WRE) Ltd board and will look to play an active part as the independent body, working under the National Framework for Water Resources, develops a long-term water plan for Eastern England. This will influence the future investment decisions of the water companies.

Read The Mayors Statement Here

CAMBRIDGE GETS GREEN TICKET FOR ZEBRAS

Cambridge residents will soon start to see the benefits of 30 new zero emission buses to be rolled out across the city. The announcement was made by Chancellor Rishi Sunak as part of the Budget and Spending Review in Parliament.

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority and the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) received the news that their business case to help fund 30 new electric double-decker buses for the Cambridge area has been given the green light as part of the Zero Emission Buses Regional Area (ZEBRA) scheme initiative for 2021-22.

Read The Mayors Statement Here

£20 MILLION GOVERNMENT FUNDING BOOST FOR CITY

A joint bid, submitted by Peterborough City Council, will receive £20million from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund, providing a huge boost to the development of ARU Peterborough, a project that will improve skills and opportunities in a city known as a higher education “cold spot”.

The money will be invested in combining additional teaching facilities at the campus with the development of new cultural facilities. At the centre of the development is a new landmark cultural asset called The Living Lab, which will be located within a second ARU Peterborough teaching building.

The new teaching building will provide STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education to thousands of students, helping to produce a higher-skilled workforce for the city to help generate high quality economic growth and attract cutting-edge industry.

Read The Mayors Statement Here