Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

No smiling faces to photograph here! – No one happy in respect of our Police Station scheduled to close in October….. We’ve made our representations and like the ‘Brown Bin’
issue – NO ONE IS LISTENING…. Consultation near nil, Council noise near nil – so what to do….
We will carry on the best we can and we did help an elderly resident who had been ‘sold’ some suspect equipment and signed an equally suspect agreement for on-going payments of £100 a time – today resolved with her bank – a good result.
Only 1 new member through which again is somewhat discouraging – again we can only promote the best way we can…..

      
To find a great deal of information of what is happening in/around Whittlesey – Crime – Law & Order visit Whittlesey NHW

A very good turn out this morning at the Manor Leisure Centre – lots of Cake & Coffee….

Fly Tipping today (21st) Found & Reported – Guildenburgh area

Luckily for ‘us’ this latest ‘dumping’ was near ‘Horsey Toll’ and to be fair with P’Boro City Council, someone had removed it within a day or so….But I am hearing again that ‘we’ in Whittlesey are still getting our fair share of ‘illegal’ dumping.
FDC have an excellent Rapid Response team working over the whole area – If they are informed where the ‘dumping’ is – they will normally go and remove it – there are exceptions – that being on private land – the landowner is responsible for its removal.
There was an excellent article on the BBC Website a couple of days ago about ‘Fly-Tipping’

Click Here for BBC Story

There is now an out of sync Planning Meeting of Whittlesey Town Council scheduled for
Friday 23rd September at 14:00 (WTC Grosvenor Road)
On the agenda is a presentation from Taylor Wimpy on land to the South of Eastrea Road Whittlesey – this land has for many years had various owners with planning permission, then of course, Tesco’s ® wanted to build there and now we have the most recent applicants, as far as I am aware and I maybe wrong, but I thought they had planning permission for this land…. (It has been ‘Land Banked’ for development for some considerable time).
Then another interesting application is that of F/YR16/0746/O along Coates Road – another piece of ‘Green Field’ wanted to be built on – plus with the proposed 16 houses, access onto an already busy A605?
I am hoping to attend……
 
Click on Picture to enlarge.

For more information go to FDC/HCRP Web page Click Here
Manea & Whittlesea Railway Stations Feasibility Study Report 2015 Click Here

As advertised – There was at tonights meeting an exceptionally good turn out of Whittlesey Councillors, but no so the Whittlesey Public – just myself and Andrew O.
Yes you read correctly just 2 members of the Public from Whittlesey…..

Lead Councillor Mrs K Mayor along with Cllrs Mason, Dorling, Laws and Wicks.

As with previous meetings, Cambs, FDC & Wisbech Cllr Simon King brought the meeting up to date – unfortunately, there had not been a great deal of progress since last year.
Abillio have won the franchise to run trains in our area. They are committed to spending a great deal of money on Rolling Stock, however the ‘minor’ frustrations ‘we’ have brought up are yet to be addressed, these include better lighting on the approach/departure of Whittlesey Station and that of the ‘Locked Gate’ and the vast amount of ‘bracken’

There was a very impressive display of what the HRCP ‘Wish List’ would look like, but as Cllr King informed the group – they are the ‘partnership’  they can not dictate to the Franchisee.
Some Whittlesey Councillors questioned Cllr King on several issues, the main one being – Housing and increase in population without a coherent infrastructure plan in place.
The importance of the ‘Neighbourhood Plan’ being part of future transport planning.
Cllr King and the HRCP will be meeting with Abillio in early October (Not a public meeting) and will hope to report back at the next scheduled partnership meeting –
(March 2017)
Unfortunately I came away feeling again a bit deflated – with the lack of any great progress.
Now that Abillio have their franchise and are supposedly investing a vast amount of money in Rolling Stock – it would have been nice to hear that a ‘little bit’ was coming Whittlesey way – as I’ve quoted before it’s called the ‘Whittlesey Effect’ –

The ‘Travellers’ who had parked up in FDC’s Car Park along Syers Lane – have gone
(20:00 tonight) – They have left a small amount of rubbish and about 7 bags – which in the big scheme isn’t too bad.

Click on Picture to enlarge.
For Sale FIAT MEREA 115 ELX 4 Door Saloon (1747cc) Petrol – Colour/Grey
Owned for last 10 years – Mileage 65,400 – MOT to 04th May 2017
(Not driven out of Whittlesey for 5 Years!!!!)

Runs OK and 4 good tyres with 7 months MOT

Owner recently passed away – Any sensible offer considered.
Contact RG on 07923 244935

There will be a NHW Meeting this Tuesday 20th September 7:00pm (19:00) at:
Whittlesey Town Council Office – Grosvenor Road
(Opposite the Bus Stop) – Side entrance – up the stairs.

Items for discussion will include the closure of Whittlesey Police Station, Local Crime Statistics.
Issues and on-going problems which will be sent to our Police.

This is a public meeting and anyone can attend – NHW is the largest voluntary organisation in England.
Whittlesey NHW has been operating in its current form for 7 years.

If you would like more information  about NHW either contact me – Roy Gerstner
or go to our excellent website http://www.whittleseynhw.org.uk/

Traffic slow and held up after 15:30 this afternoon, White Van on the right had so ‘Heavy’ damage in its rear end, along Peterborough Road – Public swept up and was Public directing the traffic

Cllr Kay Mayor is the lead Councillor representing Whittlesey, I and a very ‘few’ others have attended these meetings in the past and plan to do so on Monday Evening.
At the last meeting Abellio Greater Anglia, made all sorts of ‘promises’ in regards to Whittlesey Railway Station (If they were given the franchise) which they now have – I will be there to see if there are any updates and see if Abellio are going to deliver on their promises?
Maybe, just maybe – there will be some positive news for those who use the Railway Station

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 thought (incorrectly) there would be a ‘Big’ attendance at this months Town Council Meeting, especially with the Kings Dyke Crossing on the agenda? – Wrong – the ‘usual’ 7 or so ‘regulars’ turned up.
Mrs Deborah Slater gave a talk on progress of Defibrillators for All – It is going – really well, with 32 units installed around our area, including Turves, Coates and Eastrea. #33 is about to be installed on Abbey Way – Well done Deb – and her team –
The next project will be to have a Bus Screening program for younger people to screen Hearts – over 2 days at £5000 per day – 100 people a day screened but as Deborah quoted if that saves just one life it is well worth it. Lots of money raised by volunteers.

Mrs Cheryl Brook, The Interim Locality Manager gave a talk on Children Services within Cambs/Fenland, unfortunately we heard the usual – significant savings to be made by the organisation.

Whittlesey Post Office Modernisation – Has been delayed.

Financial allocations for various projects included £15,000 for professional services for supporting the ‘Neighbourhood Plan’ this money ‘could possibly’ be recovered at a later time if a grant was obtained.
Election costs (Last Years Election) were somewhat higher than previous elections, and some forward financial allocation may be required.
As previously reported ‘allegedly’ some vandalism on the Picnic Benches in the Manor Field.
The quoted repair for this is £130 – so thanks to the ‘Alleged’ Yobs who did this damage –
Cllr Alan Bristow informed the meeting that there had been some ‘miss information’ (That’s something new?) about children having to be bussed to Peterborough as there are not enough places here at our Primary Schools. Cllr Bristow informed that there was capacity at our Primary Schools and that New Road School was making plans to enhance their intake. No children need to be bussed to Peterborough, in actual fact, several children from outside Whittlesey attend Sir Harry Smiths

FDC Environmental & CCTV Reports…
      
      
As usual – click on pictures to enlarge.

A meeting about Hereward Community Rail Partnership will be posted up next item.