A Councillor's Comments - March 2000

The first item on the agenda at the last Council Meeting was to appoint a Chairman. I was appointed to the post so I am no longer in charge of the sins of the town (Vice­ Chairman!). However, seriously, we then needed a new Vice Chairman and Mrs Anne Tuite was appointed to this post. We then needed to act on the filling of the vacancy on the Council. Public notice of this vacancy has to be given and applications made. The current council will then consider any received and will make a choice unless ten voters ask for a public election. By the time these notes are read we should know what the position is.
We had a visit from representatives of Royal Mail to talk about the postal service in the town. The point was made that though at the moment we rate as rural service, the population of Soham merited it being rated as a town. Certain fairly immediate steps will be taken to improve those parts of the town where the service is not good, and indeed the area manager will come back in May to review the situation.
The point was also made that as Soham is pretty well central to East Anglia it has a higher than average proportion of reps who need to cover the area and so need their post as early as possible.
We discussed the proposed housing planned to the northeast of the town and whilst accepting the outline plan in principle we made various points. The plan is in three stages and the third of these was the relief road from the A142 to Mereside. We felt this should be the first stage to minimise the inconvenience from contractors vehicles which otherwise could and would cause inconvenience to Julius Martin Lane and Cloverfield Drive, both residential areas which might suffer from traffic hazards. We also drew attention to the effect of such a large development on local schools, health services and indeed postal services!
We heard the results of the traffic survey on Brook Street and Tanners Lane. On the bright side the number of speeding vehicles was only about one in twenty but considering the number of vehicles which used this route during the week and the comparative width of these roads this still represented a considerable traffic problem. To end with we decided to simplify our financial accounts to make it easier for the clerk and his assistant (and us) to run.
We also hope to extend the hanging basket scheme this year to take in Churchgate Street as we felt that the hanging baskets had added something to the town during the summer.

Lionel Hart
Soham Town Council - Chairman