Cllr Roy Gerstner – Community Activist

Tomorrow evening – Tuesday 15th July at 7pm at Grosvenor House (The Town Council Offices) Side door upstairs.
Another ‘Voluntary Group’ still (just about) doing Okay. Keep an eye on our/your area, our/your neighbours.
Unfortunately there will be NO Police in attendance. After listening to our ‘New’ sector Inspector last week (See previous posting) We shall all being seeing less Police at Community engagements, they do have more important issues to deal with, but whilst groups like NHW exsist we will do our best to keep everyone as safe as possible.
Remember – report anything you may see unusual, take a note, better still get a Photo…. Everyone is invited….

Having supported and worked with the ‘Police’ over many years, I am very aware that ‘they’ can only do so much – and that ‘they’ have more urgent priorities to deal with, but again today we have the ‘idiot’ parker who has no respect for other road users and are potentially risking others. I just wish our ‘Police’ would have a ‘go’ at these very inconsiderate ‘idiots’

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Here we are today with the ‘Bin Men’ trying to do their job, the ‘idiot’ on the left causes
mayhem – pandemonium for over an hour.

 Deborah Gale and her team are carrying out a fantastic job of raising money and installing De-Fib machines though-out the area. What started as a small ‘project’ has evolved enormously. Not only could this save your life, but also your families, neighbours or friends. If they only ever saved one life – proves they are so vital to our community.
Thank you Deborah…..and your team.

    
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Here are the present locations..
Childers
Letter B Public House
311 Eastrea Road
Eastrea Village Hall
Carpenters Arms Public House – Coates
Coates Primary School
Town Council Offices – Grosvenor Road
Whittlesey Museum – Market Street
Ivy Leaf
Chippy Sues
Whittlesey Museum
Westfield Nursey – Station Road
The Railway Inn Public House
The Three Horseshoes – Public House Turves
Esso Garage – Peterborough Road
Park Lane School                  (School Hours only)
New Road School                  (School Hours only)
Alderman Jacobs School     (School Hours only)
Whittlesey Bowls Club         (When Club open)
Decoy Lakes                           (When Club open)
Nisa Shop – Victory Avenue (Awaiting installation)
Yarwell Headland – Hadmans Wall
Pondersbridge Village Hall

ps…Trivia…..I was a well known ‘paperboy’ in Eastrea ’50’ years ago, and delivered papers to ‘Gothic House 311 Eastrea Road’ Deborah wasn’t there then?

Two unfortunate vehicles parked legally on Whitmore Street had their drivers side mirrors smashed.
     

Peterborough Road – This week work on-going cleaning drains, however we suffer the usual blight of discarded road signs, I have forgotten how many times I have raised this issue, at present there are 7 such signs ‘dumped’ along the hedging along Peterborough Road from the crossing to the water tower…. over the years I/we have collected in excess of a hundred road signs, asked to return them to the contractor who left them, only to find no one has come back to us to collect them – they end up at the Recycling Centre (They are none to happy to receive them either)… This is at some cost to someone – probably us as if the contractor is short of signage – they ultimately will charge within their contract… and we ratepayers will eventually end up paying….. Time someone go a ‘grip’ of this….

Here we have a ‘Stupid fast food’ delivery driver, too lazy to park properly on the left of the picture. Blocks road, and unknowing, a serious accident just happened in this spot a few years ago, when friend and neighbour Stuart Rippon was knocked off his bike and just about survived…

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There is a ‘lot’ of activity around the crossing area by men surveying….a number of residents just prior to the crossing have received a letter from CCC….I have not seen the letter. A CCC councillor mentioned there is a ‘bit’ of a delay? in respect that there is parcels of land in dispute of ownership, and therefor compulsory purchase of said land can not take place until legal ownership has been established….
My understanding is this may take weeks, months, or even longer, we have again another waiting game….

Continuing Kings Dyke, the Police/ANPR/Camera van was there yesterday, it is a regular visitor to this site, it therefor must be one of their favourite sites – Business must be good for them to return on such a regular basis.
No problem to we abiding citizens….

A ‘Full House’ – every councillor present and correct. A long busy agenda, with 6 members of the public present.
Our ‘newish’ Police – Sector Inspector Will Davies brought the council up to speed with developments…. he ‘said’ it was NOT all doom and gloom – however from where I was sitting, there certainly wasn’t a great deal to be ‘Happy’ about….cut backs, cut backs and even more cut backs….I’ll cover this in a later ‘post’
Sally Mitchell, the resident Street Scene Officer for Whittlesey gave her report, I have to say, I and many others are very impressed with Sally (Not necessary the Street Scene Group) She is on the ball – out and about – walks the walk and has had ‘some’ results.
6 Penalty notices given in the whole of Fenland for Littering (1 in Whittlesey) (1 Dog Fowling) – 3 people taken to court in respect of Fly-Tipping. (This latest along Funthams Lane)

The rest of the meeting was ‘normal’ business, there was one interesting part, during the public forum, a member of the public asked about ‘The Letter’ (See previous post) about a councillor objecting re the ‘new’ Sainsburys application, lots of shaking heads? by councillors! – No one ‘appears to have knowledge of said ‘letter’. When Cllr Garratt questioned the issue he was somewhat curtly chopped/cut off….is the something sinister going on here, I am not the only member of the public who picked this up – 3 others did so.
We will have to wait until the minutes of the Planning meeting become available!!!!
Then of course there is the now recording of every meeting – surely this should tell us – who/what was said!…I eagerly await.
I wonder if there is any mention of the ‘letter’…
There was a lot of ground covered, and to be fair to Alex Miscandlon the chairman, he did on this occasion ‘try’ and keep to the agenda and not let councillors wander off too much, 3 hours for them is long enough and 3 hours for us is also long enough.

The extra-ordinary meeting of WTC regarding the Planning of the Showfields site was an excellent meeting – all (about 70) agreed that WTC deserved appreciation in holding the meeting. All WTC councillors attended with the exception with apologies from Cllrs Windle and Garratt. The meeting was well structured (agenda) with clear and precise explanation to the attendee’s, around 10 people spoke, including myself, and corrected (thanks) about the reasoning about the previous appeal. Yes the Planning inspector took the ‘Flood Risk’ as the main reasoning, but did not discount the other material reasoning, ie Traffic and Infrastructure.

After the public forum, two excellent presentations by Cllrs Cris Boden and Martin Curtis explained the way forward.
Cllr Boden explained the risk factors of either a Judicial review (including the cost risks) and/or ‘A call-in of the decision by the Secretary of State.
or both, he explained the route is not clear cut but believes there are several grounds which need exploring. Cllr Curtis, gave more details into the Planning issues surrounding this application.

The motion to set up a Working Group, Cllrs Boden, Curtis, Jolley and Mason to explore and report back to WTC at full council at the October meeting was passed unanimous – (One abstention) to decided which route to take.

Tuesday 08th September 7pm The Christian Church – Broad Street Whittlesey.
Discussion on the ‘Showfields Planning application ?

News on the troposphere! – is that One Whittlesey Town councillor has put in an objection to FDC in regards to the Sainsburys amended application which I understand concerns their ability to be able to deliver 24/7 from the store – Why? – whether this councillor has objected as a private individual or in his councillor capacity I do not know….

What a difference a bit of sunshine makes…..yes it ‘appears’ that everyone was very pleased and happy with yesterdays event. (Whittlesey Summer Festival).
What perhaps the SL-ers don’t quite realise that the event has evolved over many years, the event organisers spend most of the year getting everything sorted, the only thing they can not guarantee of course is the weather, and that came good in the early morning.
I spent most of the day litter picking and sorry to say found it very rewarding (Sad)….

A fair amount of rubbish – luvely jubbly I like – Street Pride Boys relaxing and all the fun in and around our Town Square/Market Place….

Like many others – thanks and congratulations to ALL the organisers and event staff.

Showfields Promo

There is an extraordinary meeting of Whittlesey Town Council on
Tuesday 8th September @ 7pm – The Christian Church Broad Street.

Discuss what can be done to challenge the already approved (FDC) planning of the Showfields development ….

I will be attending.

Yesterday I was invited and attended a ‘Fenland Round Table’ event in Wisbech, put on by CCVS (Cambs Community Voluntary Services) – I was the ONLY attendee from Whittlesey – NO Councillors or other community Group from Whittlesey.
Part of the round table talk was ‘Wisbech Community Lead Development’ Yes WISBECH is getting £1,000,000 (That’s a Million) to spend from EU Funding, this is because ‘they’ have ‘statistical’ evidence that they have a higher proportion of ‘people’ in need or areas of social deprivation (The Waterlees area).
For Whittlesey residents – Waterlees has had a ‘vast’ amount of money going into the area.
There could be funding for ‘other’ rural areas under Cambridgeshire Fens LEADER Program… I wonder if ANY of our elected representatives will be there/part of/fight the case for Whittlesey to get some of this Lovely money.
ps…I am not sure if this is ‘Another Million’ that Wisbech !!!! is getting!!

There was some 25 attendees, mainly from Wisbech, & Chatteris – and ME (Whittlesey).

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Unfortunately I am unable to attend the LEADER event, and in any case I am NOT an elected representative – If YOU think Whittlesey should be represented – I suggest you contact your councillor and ask if they will represent YOU…..