A Councillor's Comments - June 2001

It will be a long report this time as it was not only the monthly Council meeting on 14th May, but also Soham Town Council’s Annual Meeting for 2001, to be held at 8.00pm.
Firstly, the May monthly meeting, which included the election of Councillors for the positions of Chairman, Vice-Chair and members appointed to committees and their chairmen. Lionel Hart was elected for his second year as Chairman and myself Vice-Chair. Copy of proceedings at Council Office.
Matters arising from the April meeting - we had in attendance PC Bob Rouse, we now have two community officers and as their rotas are different Soham is covered sixteen hours a day, which is great news. The Community Liaison Office has been in situ for three weeks and the police now have a sergeant in charge of the community officers. This extra cover should show a drop in our crime problems.
Soham Town Council now have a replacement tractor, which will enable our workforce to carry out their increased workload efficiently.
The next item on the Agenda was the Periodic Electoral Review. The Local Government Commission for England is asking all local principal authorities to review electoral divisions and make recommendations that will achieve electoral equality. In layman’s terms this means that the number of electors represented by each councillor is as nearly as possible the same. In the original recommendations by the PER Working Party Wicken was not included with Soham, but all their ties are with us - schooling, doctors and other amenities. Wicken and Soham made strong representations to stay in one area, so the revised option includes Wicken with Soham South ward having three members and Soham North two. For the District Council Soham Town Council reluctantly accepted recommendations, but stressed that for Town Council elections warding was not an option.
The next item concerned CCTV following the Home Office offering of only half the funding application for £634,000 - nevertheless a substantial award. East Cambridgeshire District Council is looking at reductions in the scheme. Soham Town Council fully supports in principle the proposed scheme for implementing CCTV, which will enable ECDC to take up the Home Office funding. As it was then time for the Annual Town Council meeting we all moved into the large hail. It was proposed to continue the monthly meeting later.
There was a disappointing turnout of parishioners. The Chairman made his Annual Report on the activities of the Council during the past year. Millennium walks, pavilion chairs, commons tracks, churchyard trees and wall, continual remedial work on footpaths and roadworks and making Soham safe to name a few. Clerk of the Council John Wignall made some financial observations, which showed the Town Council has a healthy balance. Next came observations from County Councillor John Powley, who distributed a report covering work he had been involved in. Soham issues included speed limits, Military Road road safety measures, Paddock Street and College Road.
A copy of Councillor Powley’s full report can be obtained from STC Offices. I put on my District Council hat and explained a little about Best Value which I have been involved in, requiring Disctrict Councils to review all their services. I also pointed out Soham’s grant allocations from ECDC from Business Incentive Grants, sports, historic buildings etc. Contrary to some beliefs Soham has had almost double what Littleport has had from ECDC. District Councillor Cyril Hempstead spoke on CCTV, raising concerns on the funding Soham Town Council had to find. There were no other reports.
On the last item, to deal with any other business Chris Scurrah of Soham-On-Line reported that since last year the figure of 350 callers a week had grown to 3,500 from all over the world, so we are definitely on the map.
Councillors then went back to continue the monthly meeting. It was a long, long night..

Anne Tuite
Soham Town Council Vice- Chairman