Time for a short break….

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Street Priders – Good Work – Again

SP 160213-01

Fifteen of us plus two friends turned out on a cold but dry Saturday morning February 13th
We were requested by Friends of the Cemetery to remove fallen leaves dead twigs and rubbish from the perimeter of the Cemetery

The group collected thirty-one bags of re-cyclable material from the perimeter and eight bags of rubbish from the area surrounding the Cemetery.
Once again a superb turnout. A big thank you to all who attended what turned out to be an unusual experience kind regards Fred

Next Event; – 17th February Bi-Monthly Meeting.

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Whittlesey Business Forum Meeting 17th February

WBF LogoAt Whittlesey Town Council Offices on Grosvenor Road 18:00 (6:00pm)

Letter for Meeting 170216

Picture W&D BF©

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Whittlesey Neighbourhood Policing Report

Much more to see at:
http://www.whittleseynhw.org.uk/

From Whittlesey Police Team.
There was also a burglary reported on New Road (12th).

Since the last report there have been a few changes at Whittlesey.  Some of the reactive Police officers from Whittlesey now book on at March or Wisbech. The local Policing team remains at 1 Sgt 1 Pc and 2 PCSOs along with our Special Constable. Sgt Di-Meo has and is covering for another Sergeant at the moment so his time is spread between here and the other Fenland towns.
We no longer cover Wimblington and Doddington.
We have had 43 crimes this month. Recorded crime is down though compared to the 57 for this period last.  Half of these crimes are assaults and a large proportion at one address.  As a local team we are investing a lot of time at this address to try to ensure every ones safety.
I’m sorry but as you can appreciate I can’t say where.
 

Straw Bear did result in an arrest, Sgt Di-Meo was assaulted. The person was arrested and charged.

There have been a number of reports about loose horses on North Bank. This area is not part of our beat but as we are nearest frequently get sent. We have been speaking with the RSPCA and other agencies to try to get a resolution but ultimately  this is something that needs to be carried on by Peterborough officers and Peterborough council. The problem we have as a Police service is what to do if we catch the horse, and chasing it to try and catch it usually scares the horse so the safest thing we can do, and what we do do, is  to be patient and wait until said horse returns to a field either itself or with the help of the public. I would stress that we do not know who these horses belong to.
Pc Kajzer has checked the rubbish bin on Yarwells Headland several times as requested, no sign of any drugs.

Two burglaries have been reported, one last night (Thursday 4th) , neither of which have been to residential properties. We have dedicated patrols in place to deter and catch offenders.

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Land ownership issues

Reader sends Land ownership issues, which could have further ramifications.
See Stories Page.

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Land ownership concerns

From Whittlesey residents – received 11th February 2016

We also wanted you to know of a matter of land ownership locally that you may already be aware of but has just come to our attention.
G.R. owns the field at the bottom of Love Lane off Park Lane. With the field he also gained access rights and grazing rights to the drove. We always assumed the lady of the Manor Nancy Bowker owned the drove but we have recently found out from Whittlesea Charities this is not the case.  Apparently nobody owns the drove and now a gentleman at the top of Boyce Close has claimed approx 200 sq yards of the drove and enclosed the spare land into his garden.  We have contacted land registry and apparently it is quite legal to do this.
Phil Gray of whittlesea charities has told me that there are droves all over Whittlesey that have not been claimed and are open to this kind of abuse. Surely if this gentleman wanted the land he should have paid for it and if to whittlesea charities at least some of the money would be going back into the community.
On another note I regularly read town council minutes and have often wondered why they appear late on line.
Thank you.
L.D. & G.R.

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WTC Meeting 10th February 2016

Our correspondent was one of only 4 members of the public in attendance.
There was 2 councillors who gave apologies for none attendance.
This is not a full report of the meeting:

I did make the meeting but did not absorb much of the information being talked about. It’s only my third council meeting I’ve ever attended and am not yet up to speed on understanding what they are talking about. Consequently I’m a little concerned that I’d give you a misguided report on what was said at the meeting.
However, I can report on the presentation by Cllr. Mark Buckton who gave a very good presentation on Cambridgeshire Fenland Tourism
www.cambridgeshire.org
You probably know all about this but the intention is to promote tourism across Cambridgeshire by getting an input from all towns, villages etc. into this website to promote their towns i.e. such as accommodation, things of interest. For example for Whittlesey we have, accommodation, Straw Bear, local history, Flag Fen, course fishing etc. ‘Must Farm’ was mentioned by one of our councillors and then a short discussion on would it be possible to get some items from ‘Must Farm’ to be displayed in Whittlesey.
The six wooden boats which were found at ‘Must Farm’ will be displayed at various locations
but not in Whittlesey.

KC

Two Councillors were missing from the meeting for reasons which were explained and accepted. Four members of the public attended.

I am planning to attend in person for the March meeting which will be on March 09th and when the agenda is available this will be posted up beforehand.
RG

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Newsletter from the Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner

RG & PCCLatest update from the PCC

Increase in funding goes up by 0:99% on council tax/rates.
PCC promotes Speed Watch + much more…..
Short link here

Sir Graham Bright being ‘Lobbied’ by Roy Gerstner.

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No seriously – Bill W asks – Cllr Dorling -‘What’s a Short time’

I am trying to keep my postings serious, occasionally need to lighten up, however I am trying to promote a serious debate most of the time – I get the ‘implication’  – however I wish to be ‘family friendly’ and don’t want to be offensive to anyone.
Good manners cost nothing, and this applies to internet etiquette.
I suggest the writer contact Cllr E Dorling and ask him the question – What is a Short time!.

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WTC – Minutes of Meetings – Cllr Eamonn Dorling.

ED @ WTCWith respect Cllr Dorling your ‘post’ on StreetLife© is a tad misleading to say the least.

“If it helps, the Clerk will provide full minutes within a fairly short time after the meeting – these will be displayed on the whittleseyTC.com web site. “

Council minutes of meetings, do not ‘normally’ get placed into the public domain until they have been signed off, this ‘normally’ happens at the next full council meeting, which is one month from the previous meeting. To say ‘within a fairly short time’ is rather a disingenuous to us who have been keeping the public who can not make council meetings well informed of what has been happening at council for many years!
I appreciate your comment on SL© however it would have been more appropriate to have told the group the actual time scale, instead of them daily waiting for the minutes to arrive.
One month it will take, to get the factual minutes.
Here I/we report within a day or two…..that’s the difference.

ps there is NO council meeting in August, so the minutes from July will not appear until mid-September at the earliest, that is unless WTC have changed their governance.

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Sir Harry Smith – Cost of School Uniforms

SHS logo-APlease see latest correspondence in respect of the cost of Sir Harry Smith – School Uniforms, as sent in by correspondent BC – Go to Stories Page, or
click on link.

©SHS

https://roygerstner.co.uk/2016/02/09/sir-harry-smith-cost-of-school-uniforms/

 

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Sir Harry Smith – Cost of School Uniforms.

SHS logo-APlease see correspondence below (09th February 2016) as received from BC…Is there any other parents/grandparents who have similar issues, if so I can put you in contact with BC.

©SHS

Hi Roy,
I just thought you might be interested in the following.
My grandson needed a new school sweatshirt as the ones he has have shrunk. I thought I would help mum and dad out by buying him a couple. I was astonished to find out there are only two retailers where the school sweat shirts can be purchased as they have to have the school logo on them. I thought that’s a bit restrictive but I went ahead and started to place my order until I saw the price.

For two school sweatshirts with the school logo £24 in his size I thought that was expensive in comparison to what I’ve seen in supermarkets, I have often commented to my wife that I wish uniforms at that price were available to our children.
So I did a little research both companies mentioned sell the same item for the same price so being able to shop around wasn’t an option.

I then checked the other retailers in the area supermarkets big stores etc. I was amazed at the price variations . Below is a short list of just some price comparisons.
Sir Harry smith with logo     £  24.00
John Lewis                                £  16.00
Next.                                           £  18.00
Matalan.                                    £  10.00
M&S                                            £  16.00
Tesco.                                         £   10.00
Asda                                            £    8.00

I won’t bore you with any more but the list is countless , the above prices are for two sweat shirts of the same colour and size. The only difference is that sir Harry smith sweat shirts have the school logo . Tesco do have uniforms with logo but sir Harry smith isn’t listed even so a Tesco sweat shirt with logo is only one pound fifty dearer. So I dug a little deeper polo shirts are just as expensive in fact in some cases you can get five for less than the cost of one from the school suppliers.

I have contacted the school they have so far just informed me that I have two retailers I can buy from and that my grandson has to have the school logo on his tops.
I asked do they get any remuneration from the companies I am forced to buy from no reply as yet.

I asked for the price of sweat shirt with and without the logo no reply as yet.

I contacted both suppliers and asked the same questions only one would give me any information and that was we supply good quality uniform at a fair price. They also stated they can’t compete with the larger retailers as they cant buy in such large quantities.

Since doing a little more research I found the following .

The CMA has cautioned schools about this practice because of the monopoly laws etc look it up it’s interesting. Another interesting document is the department of educations guide lines on school uniforms. Basically what Sir Harry smith school is doing with this policy , in my opinion is not really following government guide lines on uniform read it as I did and come to your own conclusion.

As for the CMA I have sent them the details of what I think might be against competition law and am waiting for a reply as you know with gov departments that could take some time..To sum up parents and grandparents are being forced to buy school uniform because of the logo rule with only two suppliers both of which charge the same.

The most expensive retailers of school uniform available in the area are still six pounds cheaper all be it without a logo. And the most affordable sixteen pounds cheaper.

I don’t know as neither the school or the companies will tell me if the school has any kick backs either financial or in kind equipment stationary text books etc. But seeing as I’m forced to pay into this scheme I think I have aright to know.

So that’s about it Roy I just thought it might be of interest to you as a local campaigner ,I think that the parents who are less well off are being forced into an impossible situation where they have to purchase expensive school uniform just for a logo. The school did inform me that if I was having difficulty in purchasing uniform because of cost , that there are grants available, my feelings are that if the school had a sensible fair policy on uniforms as per department guidelines and didn’t have to have these expensive logos parents wouldn’t need grants saving embarrassment and cost to the tax payer.

Why not have sew on badges that would reduce costs greatly or even better pin on badges or iron on badges. I could go on, I would be interested in your views on this subject.
I find your blog very interesting and informative keep up the good work.
B C.

SHS Uniform Costings Uniform Policy September 2013
Uniform Policy September 2013

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