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Category Archives: PC meetings

Environment Committee News

A meeting of the Environment Committee was held in October.

Items worthy of note include:

  • Daffodil bulbs are being purchased, and the enviro.vols have offered to plant them around the villages. If you are interested in helping the volunteers with their work, please contact Pene Nudds at enviro@hisimp.net
  • A call from Cambs County Council for Winter Gritting Volunteers. Any interested resident is encouraged to contact the Parish Council for details on how to volunteer for this important role in gritting key footpaths in the event of snow or frost predictions. Unfortunately Histon & Impington have lost their 2 volunteers from the last couple of years who are no longer able to commit fully to the scheme. Phone 01223 235906 for details, or mail clerk@hisimp.net
  • Work continues on the Action Plan for 2016-17, with the proposals set to be reviewed by the Finance Committee in December. Ambitions include:
  • Enhancement of the Brook
  • Fencing and improvements project for Doctors Close Play Area
  • Cultural development for Homefield Park and the Crossing Keeper’s Hut
  • “Keep Our Village Clean” campaign

Draft minutes are available on the website. The next meeting is due to take place 8 December and all meetings of the Council are open to the public

 

October Full Council

Full Council was held 19th October, the third Monday monthly as usual.

We were joined by 2 residents wishing to be considered for co-option to vacancies on the Council and were able to fill one of them.   Andy Butcher of Nun’s Orchard, Histon was duly co-opted to serve until the next elections in May 2016. The second and final vacancy will be filled as soon as the procedure for co-option allows

Other items worthy of note include:

  • The Public Art Working Group is to meet to discuss new ideas coming forward , including a project to site a “Flexible Open Space” a Murano glass inspired pavilion (see illustration) which has been offered to the Council following a successful application. Existing ideas for a BT Phone kiosk adoption and an organised Graffiti Scheme are also on the agenda
  • The Council resolved to apply for the Foundation Award under the Council Awards Scheme, which involves a high level of transparency of the Council’s work, with specific items kept up to date and available on the website
  • The Sustainability Working Party has been successful in obtaining a £500 grant from GlaxoSmithKline towards their work. This will be earmarked for spend on the allotment work
  • A draft Emergency Plan for the villages was accepted in principle and will be improved and taken forward

Draft minutes are available on the website. The next meeting is due to take place Monday 16th November, and then not until 18th January 2016. All meetings of the Council are open to the public

 

A14 & 20mph: October’s Highways Committee Meeting

Histon & Impington Parish Council’s Highways Committee met last week.

Pleasingly a number of residents came along to discuss and raise a number of different issues, including:

  • The A14, including proposals to reduce noise
  • The 20mph for Histon & Impington project

There was also discussion on the ‘Local Highways Improvements’ (LHI ) (1) program run by the County Council.

The A14

The Parish Council have been part of the Planning Inspectorate’s examination formal consultation over the summer. One issue, and about the closest to our heart, is the problem of noise in the Lone Tree Avenue and Cambridge Road area of the villages.

In our submissions we have strongly argued for a noise-reducing surface and extensive sound barriers to reduce these problems. Highways England’s (formerly Highways Agency) have now proposed to use a ‘Very Low Noise Surface’ (VLNS) on the upgraded A14 between Girton and Milton; however, this appears to be at the expense of more extensive Sound Barriers.

There was a in depth discussion, involving some of the residents most affected and the committee, on how to respond to the proposal.

20mph for Histon & Impington

Two residents attended having read in the last newsletter about the proposal, still being developed, for 20mph speed limits in the villages. Having listened to their concerns, they were reassured that were the scheme to be taken further a full consultation would happen across the villages before a decision was made.

The Parish Council has been publicising the idea and asking for comments for sometime, and had a Keynote speaker at its Annual Parish Meeting on the subject. Further newsletter articles and a set of FAQs will be published during the meantime.

It was clarified that a straw-poll of about 200 residents conducted at the Feast Market was useful to gauge opinion and support (or not) but informative only, and was seen in the context of being unscientific.

Comments, for or against, can be sent to 20mph@hisimp.net

Local Highways Improvement

This is almost the only way for the Parish Council to get changes to the road network done by the County Council. This is currently an annual opportunity to submit ideas for improvements in the villages. The St Andrews Centre scheme is an example from previous years. Successful bids win a small amount of funding and must be complete by the end of the following financial year.

It was decided that a scheme to improve the Baptist Church/War Memorial junction should be our submission for this year. It is a complex, poorly laid out set of junctions with little provision for pedestrians, heavily used by children and is the source of many complaints by residents.

 

(1) http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/lhi

 

Vacancies on the Parish Council

There are currently two vacancies on the Council caused by resignations. We hope to fill both roles by co-option at the next Full Council meeting to be held on Monday 19th October

If you would be interested in this co-option opportunity, which will be for a 6 month period until the election date next May, please email a few details about yourself and your interests and reasons for wishing to join the Parish Council in order that the existing members can consider the applicants on Monday. Send your details to clerk@hisimp.net or , if you prefer, drop off any letter at the Parish Office before 4 p.m. on Monday.

You would be required to attend the meeting at the Community Room at the Recreation Ground, which will start at 7.30p.m., see agenda here. Refreshments are available from 7p.m.

 

September Parish Council meeting

Following a break for August the the Parish Council met on Monday 21st September. Ten members of the public attended for part of the meeting.

The Chairman of the Council is Cllr David Jenkins and the Clerk is Angela Young. The Council normally meets monthly on the third Monday.

Items worthy of note from this month’s agenda include:

  • A group of architects shared with the meeting a model (pictured above) of the Station Gateway proposals and display units. These will be used for the public open session to be held from 5pm to 7.30 p.m. on Thursday 24th September at the community room at the Recreation Ground. The information will be displayed locally after the event;
  • Capital expenditure was agreed for replacement cricket nets and for the completion of fencing work at the Recreation Ground;
  • Funding was agreed for a trial senior youth club for young people aged 15+ at and in partnership with Histon Football Club starting 4 November for 7 weeks. All information on this exciting opportunity available from youth.worker@hisimp.net;
  • Council agreed to request that street lights along footpath areas in Histon are dimmed from midnight and not switched off as proposed by County Council;
  • Council has agreed to convene a meeting of potential funding partners for drainage work identified by Hyder regarding surface water management. £300,000 is required to be raised locally to enable a scheme to proceed which should benefit houses at severe risk of flooding in future; and
  • Cllr Josephine Teague has agreed to attend a meeting regarding Modern Day Slavery and report back to our community on issues via our website or newsletter

Draft minutes will be available on the website shortly. The next meeting will take place Monday 19 October at 1930. All meetings of the Council are open to the public

 

Parish council meeting 20 Jul 15

There was a good turnout from the public for this month’s parish council meeting with about 30 people attending. It must have meant something important on the agenda and there was.

The headline items were firstly the attendance of the Leader of the County Council and officers to outline the school capacity issues in the Community and to explain why the Council had reneged on its offer to lease Bypass Farm to the Parish Council for public open space. And secondly a motion to accept an offer from CCC to work together on a master plan for public open space and schools in the Community.

The public session was spirited and during the formal Council debate of the motion the Leader was left in no doubt that local councillors felt betrayed. It was agreed that the motion ‘be not put’ and any such discussion will now not take place until all the options for schools are available early in the new academic year.

But they were not the only items of interest:

• the Council agreed to make a grant of £500 to the scouts to repair and paint the roof at their scout hut;
• it confirmed the implementation of its policy to pay its employees at or above the Living Wage (that’s according to the Living Wage Foundation and not the one espoused by George Osborne);
• it noted the activity on the Council’s stand at the Feast where people voted roughly 6:1 in favour of a community wide 20mph scheme; and
• it committed to the standards of transparency and governance required to be accredited at the Foundation Level of the Local Council Award scheme.

There will be no council meeting in August. The next meeting will be on Monday 21 Sep 15.

 

Views wanted on future of district elections

South Cambridgeshire District Council are running a ten-week consultation to ask how often elections should be held to appoint councillors to South Cambridgeshire District Council.

Local residents, businesses and other organisations are being asked whether there should be a move to ‘all-out’ elections of the whole Council once every four years, or preservation of the current ‘by thirds’ system of electing one-third of Council seats each year for three successive years out of four.

The change is being considered ahead of a scheduled boundary review later this year by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE). The review will see wards – the geographical area councillors cover – adjusted to ensure that all district councillors represent approximately the same number of electors.

As part of the review, LGBCE will consider how many councillors are needed to effectively represent South Cambridgeshire residents. If the Council continues to elect ‘by thirds’, the Commission will look to introduce three-councillor wards across the district. An ‘all-out’ election cycle – which would begin in 2018 at the earliest – would see a mixed ward pattern, favouring single-councillor wards where possible.

Currently, 57 councillors serve four-year terms representing 34 wards across South Cambridgeshire. Depending on their size, some wards have one councillor while others have two or three, meaning that some residents are eligible to vote in district council elections more frequently than others.

Cllr Sue Ellington, Chair of South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Civic Affairs Committee, said: “There are pros and cons to both options for running our elections in the future. We’d like as many residents, partners and other organisations as possible to give us their views, and all feedback will be considered ahead of a vote on the matter by all Councillors later this year.”

The consultation closes on 18 September 2015. More background information and an online survey form can be found at www.scambs.gov.uk/local-elections-consultation

Paper surveys are also available from richard.may@scambs.gov.uk or by calling 01954 713366.

 

June 2015 Council meeting

It was a full and varied Council meeting this month.  Several significant decisions were made.  Council:

  • agreed to a donation of £200 towards the summer reading challenge at the library;
  • noted receipt of a letter from the new MP, Lucy Frazer, and agreed to invite her to meet the Council and the community in August;
  • decided to purchase a Piaggio Ape 50 3-wheeler pick-up for the ground staff;
  • authorised the installation of new fencing at Homefield Park and at Manor Field/St Audrey’s Close; and
  • agreed in principle to pay the premium necessary to ensure that all new lights on The Green will be of ‘heritage’ design.

Council reviewed the County Council’s planning application for the temporary class rooms at the Junior School to address the capacity problem at the Infants School.  It proposed a number of conditions to ensure that road safety issues would be addressed.

It also noted the County Council’s open consultation on its ‘local flood risk management strategy’ end date is 14 Jul 15 and Council will be responding.  Residents are also encouraged to respond directly if they wish. There’s more information at http://bit.ly/1GKonIo.

And finally Council was given a heads up regarding a biodiversity project which will see several grass verges in the community developed as wild flower havens.

 

Annual Parish Meeting for Histon and Impington Parishes

The Chairman of the Parish Council, David Jenkins, has called the APMs for the 2 parishes. They are to run concurrently on Monday 18th May from 7 p.m. at the Recreation Centre, Histon & Impington Recreation Ground, New Road, Impington. This is an opportunity to ask questions that concern you about life in our villages. Please come – all electors welcome!
So what is a Parish Meeting?
• Every English parish must have a parish meeting

• The meeting consists of local government electors registered for the area. If the Chairman of the Parish Council for the area is present he/she MUST preside

• The meeting must assemble between 1 March and 1 June and may be convened by the Parish Council Chairman or by 6 electors for the area for which it is held

• A minimum of 7 days notice of agenda must be given

• The quorum of a Parish meeting is 2

• Decisions are taken in the first instance by a majority of those present and voting. The Chairman, if an elector, has an original and casting vote, if not an elector, only a casting vote – voting does not need to be counted but can be based on overwhelming majority

• In all but a very few cases, any decision reached as a resolution is “persuasive” only and may not subsequently be passed by the Council

• The right of the parish meeting to discuss parish affairs extends to any public matter of a parochial nature and is NOT confined to the exercise of the statutory functions of the Parish Council

• The press and public have the same rights of admission to parish meetings as they have to a meeting of the Parish Council. It is therefore advisable to set aside clearly marked places for electors and non-residents to avoid confusion when a vote is taken
The agenda for the meeting can be found here. There will be a Speaker from Cambridge City Council on the City’s experience of implementing 20 mph controls in Cambridge. There will be a chance to consider whether the approach would be appropriate in a village setting.

 

Full Council 16 March 2015

The monthly meeting will be held on Monday 16 March at the Recreation Ground Centre, with refreshments available from 7pm. The meeting will commence at 7.30pm and we have an interesting presentation planned at the start of the meeting from Margaret Roberts who is a Dementia Friend and hopes to become a Dementia Champion for Histon and Impington. Margaret will be presenting on the growing problem of understanding and supporting people within our community. All are welcome to attend, see here for link to agenda

 

New website

INCREASING BIODIVERSITY IN THE VILLAGES

Tree across footpath behind Manor Park

Storm Eunice

Christmas Tree Chipping event Saturday 8th January 2021