A Councillor's Comments - March 2005

The development at Townsend took up a lot of time at your Council's February meeting. The Environment Agency, the Internal Drainage Board and Anglian Water have insisted that the builders make sure that the storm water comes off the area at the same rate as if there were no buildings. The developers have designed an impressive scheme of drains and reservoirs to do this. At the north side improving the IDB drains has helped and there will be no problems. Unfortunately at the south side, that is Mereside the system uses the existing drains and ditches. When it rains heavily, there are floods along Mereside because the existing drainage is not maintained properly. It is the duty of the landowner to do this maintenance and it is not being done. Even the drain culverts under the road, owned by Cambridgeshire County Council, have become blocked. Town Council understands that East Cambridgeshire District Council has the duty to ensure drains are cleared by the landowners, but they do not do this. They do not even, unlike most other district councils in Cambridgeshire, have a drainage engineer.

In my January/February 2005 notes I mentioned your Town Council's concern about the affordable housing in the Townsend development not being integrated. East Cambridgeshire District Council sent Jane Hollingworth, a housing officer, to the February 2005 meeting to explain to us what integration means to them and why we cannot have real integration in this, or any other development. It would seem that East Cambridgeshire District Council are not prepared to make the developers do what both Soham Town Council and East Cambridgeshire District Council housing department want, because the developers might decide not to build. I am sure the people of Soham would not mind if this development had not been given planning approval.

Recently Andrezieux-Boutheon, a small town near St. Etienne in France, has suggested that they might like to "twin" with Soham. A small group of councillors have been investigating this and reported to your Town Council. The report was about the practicality and costs of twinning and concluded that, providing there was enough support in the community it could be a good idea. Your Town Council agreed and resolved to support the ongoing investigation but to encourage the formation of a twinning association as soon as possible to take the matter forward. If you would like to become involved please contact your Town Council's office for details.

More bureaucracy has been imposed on us; the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has now told us how to deal with requests under the Freedom of Information Act. Four pages of bumpf. However you can still stroll over to the Pavilion and ask the Clerk or Gloria what you want to know.

I have not found any subject, this month, on to which I can graft the MAGPAS Soham Community First Responders Scheme; your support is needed both in money and time. First Responders attend patients, as requested by the Ambulance Service, 3 - 4 times a week. We need more people. If you are interested contact MAGPAS 01480 371060

Kindest Regards

Tony Hinsley
Soham Town Councilor