Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

So since my posting of ‘our’ very poor Grassed Area in Ashline Grove – No one has sent me a picture of an area worse than ours – I am pleased for you all – considering there has been 750 views of that article of 2 days ago.
Whilst I have ‘some ‘sympathy’ for our overworked/underpaid Council employees (FDC) and other than excuses have no other way of addressing people like myself or on Social Media – here is a better challenge……I’ll make it interesting then….I will donate £100:00 to your given charity if you can tell me where these Pot Holes are…..a nice conundrum for you all.
I’ll give you a clue – The Plants were found by Bathing Bridge earlier this week.

My waist size proves my qualifications! (Not proud of my waist), today our regular Sunday Buffet at the Guyhirn ‘Mama Tree’ which I have posted on many occasions –
however Mr Wah has introduced a ‘New Buffet Menu’ as of last week – Fantastic over 30 choices of food and 8 choice of desserts including Strawberries and a Chocolate Fountain. A new display and food heating system.
ONLY ON SUNDAYS….. all for £14:50  eat as much as you like – quality and choice the best for miles and miles  – and beats anything in Peterborough…..

I am a big supporter of ALL Businesses in and around our area, just recently Maria and Pepe at Vesuvio’s won their 5th consecutive award for 5 Star Food Hygiene- they missed out on the award presentation, as FDC forgot to invite them!!!!!

Well done Team Maria & Pepe – Keep it Up…..

Finally today, many people will have received their free copy of The Fens’ a new monthly (hopefully) magazine, published & edited by Natasha Shiels (Ex Discovering Whittlesea)
The new magazine looks fantastic and the format re advertising v articles looks good.
No disrespect to DW but many including myself think ‘they have lost direction’ recently.

I hope there is enough revenue to sustain (2) free monthly magazines…. we shall see?

Well done Team Natasha – Keep it Up…..

29th/16:00 Update:
I and my neighbours are very grateful to Cllr Mrs Kay Mayor, who has taken up our issues of very poor maintenance of our grassed area direct with FDC… we shall wait and see….

No one has yet sent me any photos of a worse area – which I am pleased about at present.

I and hopefully ALL residents are extremely grateful to Whittlesey In Bloom and other Volunteer Groups who work extremely hard to maintain our Town & Villages looking good throughout the year. Hundreds of hours by the volunteers time.
I and a few others are very active Litter Pickers.

FDC employ contractors to maintain Parks and Public spaces, are responsible and should be accountable for the current issues with the state of ‘some’ of our Public Spaces.
‘Some’ are kept in a very high standard and ‘Some’ are almost neglected….
I am lobbying on behalf of my neighbours, many elderly and not internet connected.
My challenge is:
Can you find and send me a photo of a worse area than our own in Ashline Grove.
As said before this is nothing new, it happens year on year…What do I get – Excuses,
well I am just about fed up with excuses….
Looking at my photo taken yesterday (28th), when The Contractors – eventually find Ashline Grove – it will be a complete mess even after cutting it – as it is so long to start with, in some places over 12/14 inches tall.
It is a great shame that like with many other issues, our PAID employees at FDC are very experienced at making excuses…..maybe it is time the Leader of FDC starts to be a bit more pro-active for ALL the residents of Fenland and not just March or Wisbech.
The Challenge is there – find worse and I will publish….

    

Ashline Grove 12/14 Inch Grass & Weeds         Another area a ‘bit’ better but still not Good

I think some thanks are in order to Cllr Dee Laws for her rapid action and communication in getting the Fly-Tipping Issues at Bathing Bridge/West Delph dealt with.
Luckily I did not have to get involved too much, but I did have a plan ‘B’ ready to go, if the various agencies did not respond.

As I’ve said on so many occasions, YOUR elected Councillors should be YOUR first point of contact should you have any issues –

                                             
Curator Jen Barback (4th from left) with some of the Volunteers this morning.
Another group of Volunteers who spend a lot of their time at the Museum on Market Street.
Supported by the Whittlesey Charities – You can spend many hours browsing though History of Whittlesey and surrounding areas – all for £1

As advertised as Chairman of Neighbourhood Watch I went along with FDC Sophie Wilkinson to promote Scam Awareness on the Internet – The Purple Bus unfortunately had a flat battery – so we set up shop on the Market Place. A worthwhile event even though a nice day – not so many people around, maybe because of the Bank Holidays.
PCSO Moll was about, and yes I asked him about the recent Fly-Tipping issues and the Police were aware – however they work on ‘priorities’ – Yes they have been down there – Yes they have seen the dead swan and No the Farmer has NOT reported his gates missing as in my previous post. If crime is not reported it is not recorded and the Police are unaware of incidents.

At last weeks WTC meeting the ‘issue’ of High Causeway was brought up – that a lot of vehicles are using this ‘Pedestrian Area’ when they shouldn’t be. PCSO Moll was on the case again today. Sometime later I did a count between 12:00 – 13:00 at total of 8 vehicles accessed High Causeway including 4 White Van Man. When I explained the Traffic Regulation and Law, well as you can imagine all I got was ‘Abuse’ this included a persson who makes deliveries for the Salvation Army Shop on High Causeway – still did I expect anything different.
One White Van Man decided he would stop for 15 minutes, whilst going in the ‘VAPE Shop’ to have ‘smoke’ of whatever.
I understand that ‘Maybe’ FDC are looking at enforcing the area differently – sorry NOT good enough.
There have already been ‘incidents’ – which in some cases involve ‘people’ just too lazy to park in the car park whilst collecting shopping or take-ways.

18:00 It has been reported that the rubbish has now been taken – well done everyone.
The remains of the Swan are still there…

Yes I have been there today with Mr Pete Moore (10:30am)
At that time there was still a good deal of ‘Black Plastic Bin Liners’ – one which we open and had a look – appeared to be of a Cannabis growing project.
There were around 10 Bags to the North in the river and about 15 Bags to the South in the river. Cllr Mrs Dee Laws is on the case.
The photos do not show fully the problem and/or issue. This is not the first occasion for this to happen.
Whilst at the site, the Farm Tender informed us that he was (2) gates missing on Tuesday..

The poor dead swan, who’s mate is swimming up and down passing.

Picture Pete Moore

Visit Whittlesey NHW

Yesterday 25^th We had a very good event at the FDC Golden Age Fair held at the Eastrea Village Centre. Assisted by my wife Connie, and good to see Robert Boddington from Eastrea who is going to be the Eastrea Co-ordinator also at the event.
It was an excellent networking and Public Relations exercise for us at NHW.

                            
Connie G 60+++                         RG 60+++                              Mrs Fulcher 85+++
Whittlesey                                     Whittlesey                              Eastrea

      
 Chapman 90+  Mr Frank Hallam 90+      Mrs Jeanne B 85+++      Who’s a naughty PCSO
Coates                 Whittlesey                            Whittlesey                         Ian Moll…..35

Remember is was a ‘Golden Age Event’ good to see it well attended, I knew everyone in these photographs….small world isn’t it!

Tomorrow Friday 27^th May we will support the Fenland Community Safety Partnership between 10:00 – 13:00 either on the Market Place or opposite the Police Station, again anyone who can come along would be very welcomed (Free Tea & Coffee).

(The previous Crimebusters Bus)

Remember to remain vigilant and aware, Lock it or Loose it – People who steal are very mobile and will travel vast distances to do their dirty business.
http://www.whittleseynhw.org.uk/

© All RG

Disclaimer: These observations are not the ‘offical’ minutes of the meeting, these are supplied by Whittlesey Town Council, normally (1) month following the meeting and can be viewed on their official website.

My information last month was correct…. a bit premature!!!

At last nights WTC Planning meeting on the agenda item P41/16 was a presentation by
Mr Justin Mills from Contour Planning http://contourplanning.com/
Who are Independent Planning Consultants.
Mr Mills gave about a 20 minute presentation and gave out a ‘proposed plan’ (See below).
A few questions from the Councillors attending, revolved around the type and number of proposed housing, access for vehicles and dustbin storage.
From my observations, it appeared to me that Contour Planning are very well advanced in their Pre-Planning application with FDC, and are almost ready to submit a Full Application!!!! – this very much seemed to me to  be ‘Lip Service’ to WTC as consultees.

The site is where Tesco’s planned to build a Supermarket off Cemetery Road – which was refused planning permission – they then moved their application to Station Road (All well documented here and elsewhere)
The land itself has been subject to approved planning for housing before, there have been at least 3 approved and one refusal (Applications).
Tesco have owned the land for around 10 years.
After hearing Mr Mills short presentation, my concerns are the number of Houses they are proposing to put on the site 20, as before the previous applicants applied for 13 Bungalows….this seems to be maxing out to the limit the amount of housing.
Since ‘most’ of the surrounding area are Bungalows – by putting Houses there is not in keeping with the surrounding area.
All traffic will be coming out onto Cemetery Road – opposite – The Cemetery…. this is the only place the developer can use – this could and will cause problems.
Our Cambs CC Highway, appear to have no issues with the above.

So now we await the full application and see if any of our own Whittlesey (FDC) Councillors can get Contour/Tesco to put in a better plan….
Watch this space…..

 
Click on Picture to enlarge © Contour Planning
Content © Roy Gerstner

I am very grateful to Cllr Dee Laws for getting on the case very rapidly re fly-tipping West Delph area. As stated in my previous posts YOUR elected Councillors should be YOUR first place to contact, I am a member of the Public – Yes with knowledge and experience, but I do not have the same resources as YOUR Councillors – that’s why they are elected to represent you.
I can lobby and help where I can and have my own friends and resources to drawn upon.
Back to the West Delph Fly-Tipping Issue. – the following was sent (with permission) from Cllr Laws yesterday and explains to all how to report this type of issue.

“As Ward Councillors we have all direct dial numbers and e-mail address for our local authorities and organisations.
I have contacted the Fenland District Council, Environment Agency North Level IDB and RSPB, all are involved with this dreadful fly tipping incident.
The first contact for any dumping of waste material in our watercourses must be reported to the Environmental Incident hotline 0800 807 060
or https://www.gov.uk/report-an-environmental-incident.
Details posted on Whittlesey Town Council Website – whittleseytc.com follow the link from ‘about your council’ and open Flood Warden Group tab.
Fenland District Council Street Scene Officer and automatically Rapid Response Team despatched.
North Level Internal Drainage Board alerted and our local Environment Agency office.
I will post a full report later.”

Last Nights update;

“I can confirm Fenland District Council Rapid Response Team attended on Monday 23rd May and took away what they could from Morton’s Leam bank, 20 X bags of organic waste.
North Level Internal Drainage clearing the remaining bags (approximately ten) from in and around the watercourse tomorrow – Thursday 26th May.
I am waiting for an update/report from the Environment Agency but understand they have been experiencing problems having gone live this week with a new telephone system and links.
It’s been a team effort as all of the authorities having been working together.”
DL

        In memory of my Dad 12-04-25 / 25-05-13