Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

As stated previously – what success for a community website – I am humbled by the numbers that visit this site – some on a very regular basis.

Not a great deal trending this week – it is Christmas and New Year and hopefully everyone has had an enjoyable time.
Many personal highlight this year…..one being my ‘official retirement’ at 65 from the PCC office as a ‘Independent Custody Visitor’ something I have been very proud to have been associated with….giving both confidence to the public and police accountability.
Ensuring all those in Custody are treaded fairly when being processed – I remain part of an Appropriate Adult Scheme

Among many other ‘milestones – being the 50th anniversary of the Opening of Whittlesey Swimming Pool – I being the 1st member of the public to access the pool and then re-enact the history this year in May.

Many holidays with my wife Connie, many weekends away in the UK and a fantastic 5 weeks in Alaska and Canada in July/August. My 65th birthday in Madeira.
Our recent 40th Wedding Anniversary – celebrated with friends and family at the wonderful colonial hotel – The Majestic’ in Kuala Lumpur.
My ongoing ‘Community Activist’ campaign – remains ‘Independent’ of political influence…I have attended and reported to the public and electorate on many Whittlesey and Fenland meetings that I have attended, some reports given by friends have kept the public informed in a timely way of what is happening at these meetings.
Many Councillors are uncomfortable with my presence and reporting – why – as usual ‘some are afraid of being held accountable.
One of my disappointments are that ‘Elected Councillors’ do not attend that many meetings outside of their ‘official meetings’ – all of course are entitled to holidays and may be unwell, but some do not even send their apologies for their absence, I find this rather insulting to electorate and public.

So what will 2017 bring to our town and villages…. maybe the start of the much awaited ‘Kings Dyke Crossing’  we all hope so.
Will there be any progress in the building of a Supermarket – don’t hold your breath.
Will the country park ever be built – don’t know but again don’t hold your breath.
Improved transport service -which some Councillors have been trying to get for some time – seems to have gone off the radar!
The moving forward of the Whittlesey Neighbourhood Plan – is happening but no one has actually put a ‘Cost’ of it – and it will be sometime before it becomes a reality.

Meanwhile our town continues to expand in the numbers of people living here.
There are good plans in place for schooling, but that is always subject to getting the projected numbers correct – something that went vasting wrong in Peterborough.
Our Health services are ‘just’ about coping – will that be the case in 12 or 24 months time.

The closure of our Police Station and the town ‘loosing’ its Neighbourhood Policing Team.
The conflicting information being sent from the Police & Crime Commissioner and the Fenland Policing team leaves a lot to be desired!
Many other emotive subjects I am sure will all rear up again during the year…..

Our town has many attributes, one outstanding being the numbers of Volunteers who help make our town what it is – all these people do so by ‘giving’ a lot of time and effort and trying to maintain, improve, make good and make safe our community – I applaud them all and thank every one of them – because without these people our town would not be what it is today – I and many others are passionate about our town – and we are all proud to be part of it.

Certain things are going to happen like it or not –  Local Rates will go up – The Brown Bin Tax will come into effect and I note that ‘Tesco’s planning application for land behind the New Queen Street Surgery – took NO NOTICE what-so-ever of WTC members concerns of all housing and not bungalows – FDC see nothing wrong with this – so the usual No one
taking notice – it sometime makes me think – is it really worth the effort!

         
From this                                         To This – Just one of many successes

I wish all and everyone a Healthy, Prosperous and Happy 2017 where ever you are.

Firstly – since Anti-Social Media – does not – Let me congratulate and thank Whittlesey Town Council and Cllr Ray Whitwell for the installation of ‘Gating’ along Cycle Rout 63.
There has been a long ongoing ‘dispute’ over ‘access’ to this ‘Cycle-way’.
Along with several individuals and other organizations – hopefully a ‘reasonable’ conclusion has been reached.
We now wait and see – if wanton vandalism will re-occur on this site.
The ‘Boat Owners’ have good access from Funthams Lane, Cyclists, Horse riders and Dog Walkers can access easily from Stonald Road – My only concern now is that of course it can not be 100% fool proof – Motorbikes, Quad Bikes are also know to use the route – which they shouldn’t.
A great deal of negotiation, time, effort and Council money has been put into this project and I again congratulate the Councillors for this project.

I see on another ‘social media site’ that the impending planning application for ‘The Monastery’ has brought a lot of debate – and why not – except of course that many commentators – either do no research and very little effort before making ‘silly comments’
still on reading in the national press that a vast number of people get ‘depressed’ after being on ‘Facebook’® or other sites, maybe the same happens with our own Whittlesey Social Media Sites!- Going by the amount of negativity they post up.

Moving on – I see a good spat of debate again between ‘Daniel C’  and Cllr M Curtis….the last time these two had a good twang at each other I commented the score was 0-0 this time I would say it was 0-4 to Cllr Curtis….. it is very easy to get carried away – loose the plot and worst of all get facts -wrong…..been there and done it….!!!

Finally on my favourite subject of ‘Anti-Social’ Media –
I take great exception to someone called Dan Gliballs on SL® who on a post quote.

“Councillors will take a back hander and it will get approved”

I personally invite Mr Gliballs to contact me with ‘proof’ of his accusations.
I being an Ex councillor have been only accused of such only ‘once’ – when I threatened legal action the accuser withdrew their statement.

I have never been offered any inducement for anything in my personal or professional life.
May I suggest that unless the current councillors bring Mr Gliballs to account these’stupid accusations’ will continue.

There was a WTC Planning Meeting on the 21st December – Nothing overly contentious?
panning-21st-december-2016panning-21st-december-2016
Next planning meeting 04th January 2017

Finally what I call a very successful year on my website – most days 300+ a day and over the weekend up to 2,000 hits – speaks for itself – No other individual or Councillor keeps a personal update on such a regular basis as I have done and hope to do so in the future.
I can not do this by myself and my thanks to many friends who keep me and the public ‘informed’

                       Very Happy Christmas, A Healthy, Prosperous, and Happy New Year –

Roy & Connie Gerstner

Picture published with permission….. More News at the Weekend….

Letter from Ferringhi Beach – Penang Island Malaysia.
Not much news then regarding the Kings Dyke Bridge – although a small amount to celebrate that there will not be a CPO for the land.

See Part 1 in respect of a planning application for Market Street.

Fantastic if that’s what we can call it that ‘Street Lighting’ is to be re-instated back to ‘normal (Cambs CC)

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.

I am very grateful – as I am sure our readers are to our correspondent….

Police Matters.
Among the matters brought to the attention of the police officers attending were: thefts from vehicles in and near to Stonald Road and anti-social behaviour at Station Road recreation ground.

Kings Dyke Bridge.
It appears that a Compulsory Purchase Order will not be necessary to gain access to the land. Councillor Butcher estimated that the bridge will be completed by “late 2017”.

Street Lighting and Gritting.
County Council has informed  WTC that schedules for gritting and lighting will be restored to last year’s levels.  There is no date set for either.

Planning.
There were no major planning applications though one private application in Park Lane was discussed at very great length.

Neighbourhood Plan.
A revised questionnaire will be delivered to all addresses in Whittlesey and villages in February. The questionnaire will also be available on line. There will also be public exhibitions later next year.

Route 63 Cycleway.
Installation of the new gate will be completed this Saturday 17th December.  It is an “elephant gate”. It will have a central gap for pedestrians and horses.  Council also voted to pay for the installation of speed cushions on the lane to the Field of Dreams.

Tour of Cambridgeshire Cycle Race.
This will not come through Whittlesey town centre but it will use Benwick Road. The race is attracting some elite riders and will be the largest yet.  It is anticipated that it will be a very exciting and attractive event.

Civic Day.
This national event will commemorate the introduction of urban conservation areas 50 years ago. Groups and individuals will be invited to take part.  Dates to be arranged.

Ward Matters,
The Flood gates on the Thorney Road have still not been repaired since they were damaged nine months ago.  Tank-trap style concrete blocks will be used instead, if necessary.

Double Parking on Crescent Road.  (This was not, however,  mentioned at “Police Matters”) Potholes on Bellmans Grove need urgent attention.
This has been reported to FDC.

Very interesting planning application submitted F/YR16/1143
Erection of a first floor and second floor rear extension and erection of a front boundary wall and railings with 2.3m high (max height) piers (involving the demolition of existing wall) to enable the change of use of from a 3-bed dwelling, offices and music studio to C1 use (hotel with 6 x self-contained hotel suites) and A1 retail  7A – 9 Market Street Whittlesey Cambridgeshire.
This historic building has previously had planning permission, for a different configuration. In 2007 FDC refused the application but the applicant won on appeal at the Planning Inspectorate in 2008 – that application has time expired.
Whilst the plans ‘look’ very impressive and a promise of tidying up a Graded listed building – unfortunately ‘we’ ar back to the usual issue of ‘Parking’  – 6 self contained hotel rooms and NO Parking – my understanding is that ‘Town Centre’ applications do not need to provide parking spaces….So where will the clients park? – I see a ‘small’ entrance from Market Street. I see no provision for getting rid of ‘6’ lots of rubbish – where will the bins go – on the path I suspect. So although very impressive – I hope FDC is able to reach a compromise on this application.
Note : On the plans it states ‘The Monastery’ / someone else called it ‘The Nunnery’ I wonder if anyone knows if this building was indeed used for this purpose in the past.

Acknowledgements:
Fenland District Council
Images of England©
Peter Tree©

Welcome to the latest newsletter from Police and Crime Commissioner, Jason Ablewhite.
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Lloyds customers should be on the lookout for a new sophisticated fraud that involves fraudsters sending fake bank letters.
The convincing letters being sent are a replica template from Lloyds and include their logo, address and signature from a customer service representative.   The letter tells recipients that there have been some “unusual transactions” on their personal account and asks them to call a number highlighted in bold to confirm they are genuine.  When victims call the number, an automated welcome message is played and the caller is asked to enter their card number, account number and sort code followed by their date of birth.Victims are then instructed to enter the first and last digit of their security number. The fraud was spotted by the Daily Telegraph who was alerted to it by a reader who had three identical letters sent to an office address. On separate occasions the Daily Telegraph ran some tests using fake details and were passed to fraudsters who claimed to be from a Lloyds contact centre. The bank has confirmed that the phone number and letters are fake.  The letters are essentially a sophisticated phishing attempt and serves as a warning to consumers to question written correspondence from their banks.  If you are ever suspicious about correspondence from your bank you should call the customer serviced number on the back of their card.  To report a fraud and cyber crime, call us on 0300 123 2040 or visit
Action  Fraud
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Visit Whittlesey NHW Website an excellent place to find information.
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I am extremely pleased to be informed that Cambs CC have decided to re-instate full street lighting once more…. I wonder what has brought this about – certainly not the ‘spin’ of the publics concerns….more likely this very unpopular decision would have caused issues at the next elections…

Continuing our 40th Wedding Anniversary celebrations – we have moved to the very ‘Colonial’ Eastern & Oriental in Penang Malaysia a wonderful hotel the General Manager Mr Richard Evans has been very engaging with us and we’ve had a wonderful time back here in Penang after a 4 year gap.
   

      
Yes I did attempt some carols on the Edwardian piano, a swimming pool just for me! and another night of drink and make merry with the resident ’50’ Trio’

Letter from Penang:
Stay Safe, Lock Up, Look after your Neighbours

 

Room with a view                                                   View from Penang Hill

Well not being in the UK at present I am unable to attend the council meeting (To the delight of ‘some’ councillors I understand!) – However the downside – No one sends any information over to me – those who may have attended… so sorry….
This is what is on the agenda.
fc-agenda-7th-dec-2016

Two other items that caused me some concern being:
1/ The attempted break-in of vehicles along/around Snoots Road, however as in previous similar instances – the vehicles concerned were left unlocked – this is a big temptation for someone to rummage around to see if they can find anything – Lock It or Loose It….
2/ The second concern that being of I ‘quote’ from anti-social media, that the usual faceless person complains about the toilets being ‘filthy’, this raises several issues.
Since I can not confirm the state of the toilets, if the person who found them in such a state – why did ‘they’ not take a picture of the ‘filthy’ state and why did they not report it immediately to either WTC of FDC
Whenever I have met the Street Cleaners and actually seen them ‘perform’ their cleaning of the toilets – it has always been to a very high standard – now what happens after they have left is no their fault. The toilets were refurbished a couple of years ago and other than some vandalism I would consider normally fit for purpose – Show me the evidence please and I am sure our councillors will be very quick off the mark.

Well I ‘quote’ the usual rants and raves on our anti-social media sites, with an almost 100% negativity about the ‘usual items that has been circulating for months if not years.
In fact ‘they’ ran out of ‘rants’ so decided to move and whinge about the traffic around the ‘Amazon’ area…. having not enough to complain about locally.

One or two controversial planning applications was on this weeks agenda….

For Connie and I – well we are away…. celebrating our 40th Wedding (Ruby) Anniversary, here at ‘The Majestic’ in Kuala Lumpur – we came earlier in the year and checked it out.
Joined by most of our Malaysia Family along with good friends Andrew and Sue from Whittlesey.

    
   
The fantastic ‘Orchid Room’ with over 400 orchid plants – Afternoon Tea for two

    
A marvellous buffet that lasted 4 hours – with multi cultural food for everyone.

My letter from K.L. (As the well educated readers may know -Alistair Cooks letter from America on the BBC for over 40 years – ended on a note).

Wishing our very good friend Jeanne Beaumont ‘A Very Happy Birthday’ – Jeanne is a very spritely octogenarian – may there be many more Happy Days….

Unless there is anything pressing/urgent – for the time being there will be a weekly update.

Maybe not everyone has the ‘Fens’ magazine delivered so I’ll copy it here.

Whittlesey Police Station 1857 – 2016

The opening of the Queen Street Police Station on the 3^rd October 1968 by Alderman T.W Anthony, (J.P. and Chairman of Cambridgeshire & Isle of Ely County Council) was a day to celebrate. The total cost of the building which included demolition of the old one was £30,560. The first Station which included a lock up and a house was built on the present site and completed in 1857, just prior to a riot which took place in the town after an election. The police force at the time was inadequate to cope with the disturbance and assistance had to be brought in. Retired sergeant Dennis Ellingham spent most of his career within Whittlesey and during that time, no murders occurred, there were 2 sergeants and 6 constables. There was 1 cell but has no toilet. The sergeant had the use of the ‘Ford Anglia’

      
Police Station 1930                             (l) Dennis Ellingham

The current Police & Crime Commissioner Mr Jason Ablewhite has decided in conjunction with Cambridgeshire Police that the Whittlesey Police Station is no longer required for operational purposes. The Police Station has been only been opened for limited periods for some time and has now been officially closed at the end of October. In liaison with other interested groups, Fenland Policing have said that there will be coverage of Policing in and around Whittlesey and district. Unfortunately our town has also lost our long standing PCSO Ian Moll – who has moved to be based in Peterborough.

Written and researched by Roy Gerstner Chairman Whittlesey Neighbourhood Watch My thanks to Whittlesey Museum. Would you like to become a better neighbour, why not join Whittlesey Neighbourhood Watch

Please  contact. Roy Gerstner @ roy.gerstner@ntlworld.com

 
See agenda above – Click on picture to enlarge – click a 2nd time to further enlarge.