Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

I am very grateful again this year, for the Royal British Legion Whittlesey Branch, who are ‘flying’ The Red Duster’ (The Red Ensign of the British Merchant Navy).
The Merchant Navy lost more men and some women at sea than the Royal Navy during both world wars and other conflicts.
This is me in 1973, I was the Communications and Electronics Engineer seconded to the British Red Cross and from late 1971 to 1973 supported a Red Cross ship taking aid to Vietnam.
I was seconded on many occasions by the Red Cross, the final ‘mission’ was the Bosnia conflict 1992/1993
I spent a total of 28 years at sea and my ‘Log-Book’
informs me I covered over 1 Million Nautical Miles and visited over 100 countries.
I am also very pleased that Fenland District Council celebrate this day in honour of those who perished at sea.

Intended to raise public awareness of the UK’s ongoing dependence on seafarers, this campaign invited selected local authorities to fly the Red Ensign – the official flag of the UK Merchant Navy – atop public buildings and on prominent flagpoles on 3 September.

In 2016 the Red Ensign was flown on Merchant Navy Day at more than 400 locations ashore, with flag-hoisting ceremonies arranged by many local councils and other organisations – see www.merchantnavyday.uk.

This year every community, parish and town council was asked to take part, in addition to all borough, county and district councils plus unitary authorities throughout the UK. Members of the Nautilus International union were encouraged to lobby their home local authorities.

Owners and custodians of historic and landmark buildings with flagpoles were also invited to get involved, including English Heritage, Historic Scotland, Historic Houses Association, National Trust and Welsh Government Cadw.

As a result the Red Ensign will this year be flown ashore at more than 600 locations – see Roll of Honour.

After a very peaceful and good weather break in Suffolk (Off the grid) –

Besides visiting some very good National Trust properties, the serenity around ‘Snape Maltings’ was so, so good – although no time to take in a concert.
Came back and found that actually ‘some’ readers had actually missed my missives – surely not withdrawal symptoms!!!
Besides having 6 continuous days of sunshine and no rain, kicked off yesterday with a visit to the St Andrews Fete – Nice crowd with an hour or two for families + a bar from ‘The Falcon….
   

Well, one bit of news I picked up from a pretty reliable source, when asked the latest on the ‘Kings Dyke Crossing’ – not really a hold up as such!!!! – but there is apparently a short fall in funding the project, with Network Rail putting in a derisory amount for their ‘share’ –
Lets face it – Network Rail, couldn’t be bothered one way or another about a bridge.
So where is the short-fall money to come from – well Cambs CC who are overseeing the project – could borrow the money, then again the funding could come from another budget within the Council (someone else goes short) – How much the shortfall is I don’t know, but my suspicions are that there could well be a further few weeks delay, whilst this is sorted out. The Bridge is on its way I have no doubts – remember the ‘bemoaners’ on the now defunked ‘Whittlesey StreetLife’ for-ever posting negativity about this subject – where are they now – I know…!

Still lots of events coming up in the next few weeks, and for those who get our ‘Two’ excellent free monthly magazines – all events are well advertised .

Where do you leave ‘Keys’ – we’re probably all guilty, in respect of leaving keys too handy to be lifted. Key Hook, Key Basket, Keys in Jacket, Keys in Jeans and even Keys in drawers are ALL the obvious place a thief can pretty quickly find your pride and joy.

Between 24/08/2017 21:30 – 25/08/2017 08:00, A burglary occurred at Eastfield Drive, Whittlesey.
Offender(s) have entered property and have taken vehicle keys.
The Victims Mercedes vehicle was then stolen from the driveway.
The vehicle is described as a Silver Mercedes C220 saloon vehicle, registration LL11TWP.

If anyone has any information on this crime, please call the Police Non-Emergency number on 101 and quote crime reference CF0487760817.
Kind Regards PCSO GREEN

Find somewhere not so obvious or a decent ‘Key Safe’ hidden away…

Some very useful information that applies to us all involved in Web-Blogs and Social Media – wonder how many people actually adhere to these standards – I try my best.

Unfortunately I am unable to attend, this is a public meeting which I have posted before, however if no one turns up, decisions are made without public participation.

Wednesday 23rd August 18:30 -21:00 March Library, City Road, March PE15 9LT

The Garden Waste service is new and we are keen to gather customer feedback on the performance of the service.

Please can you take time to answer a short series of questions about your experience of the service this year.

Please click on this link to access the survey 

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/gardenwaste

The survey takes less than 5 minutes to complete – worth doing if you’re a customer/

Chair of Fenland District Council Mrs Kay Mayor will be hosting a coffee (cakes!) morning at Fenland Hall, March. The event will be held on the:
28th September – 10:00am to 11:30
A very worthwhile charity, which several Chairs have supported in the past.

Photo shows a previous event when Cllr Ken Mayor was Chairman of FDC and to his right Cllr Mrs Kay Mayor this years Chair.

The final & 4th event held on the Market Square, organised by Whittlesey Town Council.
Regulars know what to bring with them, and there was a very well behaved crowd.

All the events this year have pulled in between 200/300 people and very family orientated event for all to enjoy. The weather remained dry and not too hot.

The next event will be ‘The Lions’ Centenary Celebrations – again with Music on the Square.

Accountability – seems a bit thin on the ground once again… for example when ‘Mayor’ James Palmer was canvassing in Whittlesey, I met him on the market place for all of 5 minutes, he assured me that there was no duplicity in what he was going to do, there was no overlapping of strategy, and he would be running an organisation on minimal budget – well not going on what’s hit the pan this week….Money on his running costs. Let us see if the Scrutiny committee has any teeth and may I be bold enough to suggest that ‘Mayor’ Palmer buy himself a decent Razor – talk about looking scruffy…

Five councillors forced the issued on the agenda of the scrutiny committee to ensure a review of the £1.8 million wage bill – nearly 25 per cent higher than the original budget- to staff the new authority.
From an earlier projected cost of £1.3 million a year authority members felt enough was enough when they looked at the latest budget figure of £1.8 million.
Chief executive Martin Whiteley thought the final staffing level of 15 would be smaller than other devolved authorities.
He said: “I don’t envisage us creating a big shiny office. We’ll be looking to work flexibly across council offices.”
This week we revealed how Mayor James Palmer has bagged himself his own parking space at his new HQ – inside East Cambs offices The Grange in Ely – but only two of his team will also be able to park there. Details of arrangements for accommodating the newly elected £75,000 mayor have been revealed in a Freedom of Information put to the district council by a local resident.
The council has rented out three spaces in total to the combined authority.

On the national news which I do not normally comment on, there is of course more negativity on the scrapping of the London Garden Bridge….accountability – where has £37 million gone so far – a vast amount of money in anyone’s terms.

How much has the project cost to date?

The Garden Bridge Trust needed to raise an estimated £200m to complete the project – but there is a shortfall of £70m.
So far £37.4m of public money was spent on planning for the bridge and this money will effectively have been lost.
A further £9m is at risk.

So all quiet in Whittlesey – I think not…. More windows broken, Station Road, Broad Street and Victory Ave and another car vandalised.

Fancy something different well not far away is the Ramsey 1940’s Weekend

More information on their dedicated website.
http://www.ramsey1940s.co.uk/

Website taking a break for a few days…

Below is a link to the latest newsletter from Police and Crime Commissioner, Jason Ablewhite.

In this edition, you can read about funding to help prevent and address violence against women and girls  and find out what the Constabulary is doing to help combat Rural Crime.

To read Click Here – PCC Report

FARMERS across the county are being urged to ‘paint it pink’ as part of a crackdown on battery thefts.

Between March and May there were 108 battery thefts across the county damaging their livelihood and costing them hundreds of pounds.

Thieves cut the cables from farmer’s irrigation pumps and machinery or find scrap batteries from yards and attempt to sell them at scrap yards or recycling centres for their lead content.

Officers from Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s Rural Crime Action Team hope that painting the batteries bright pink and marking them with postcodes will stop thieves in their tracks.

PC Sam Thompson said: “We’re asking farmers to paint their batteries pink and etch each one with their postcode. Meanwhile officers have been visiting scrap yards and recycling centres advising staff not to accept pink or marked batteries without a driving licence or similar photo identification with an address linking them to the battery.

“Battery thefts not only cost our farmers hundreds of pounds to replace they disrupt their work and cost their livelihood.”

Members of the public are urged to be the eyes and ears of the rural community and report any suspicious behaviour to police on 101, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111